St. Landry clarion. (Opelousas, La.) 1890-1921, 1916-02-05
DIR FAIR
FRANCE

- ittA Avs l1IoI G |
UNIQUE in American history be-
cause its beginning wa not Amer
lean at all, but wholly foreign. It's
early newspapers were published
when Louisiana was a French pos
session and its newspapers Were as
remote from American newspapers
in language, ideals and editorial
nolieies as if thy had been printed
at the mouth Of the Rhone in
stead Of at the mouth of the Mlssls-
sippi.
For a good many years after the
Purchase, and after American edl-
tors were planted there firmly, the
city of the delta remained farther
away in everything from the
United States than Alaska is now.
This foreign beginning had no i'll
effect but rather added a width OF
Nationalism and a richness of opIn-
ion to American journalism that
played an important part in the
development Of newspaper ideas
throughout the Union.
Between the period of the Pur-
chase and that of the Civil War,
New Orleans was the fighting ia
lent of North America. All the
news of the Spanish Americas
came to it naturally, and no city
could have passed it on to the
United States with O under
standing, for the newspaper men of
the city were in close touch with
our unquiet neighbors. It was a
connection that was both peaceful
and the reverse, for besides COM
mercial dealings and extensions Of
buoyant Inequalities to Spanish
American visitors New Orleans had
a romantic fondness for filibuster-
ing expeditions.
Thus when the Mexican War ar
rived, it was not only geographical
contiguity but the New Orleans
state Of mind that made it the news
center Of the campaign. Being a
!. city that had always laid much
stress on the gentle social art of the
duello, it had plenty Of fighting COR
respondents to send forth. Appar-
emily its journalism has not lost its
fighting blood in modern times.
When The Bulletin in 1874 made
j such hot attacks on the reconstruc-
ton government that the citizens
took arms and fought a battle on
Canal street, with scores Of dead
and wounded, The Bulletin had to
apologize to its readers for being
unable to give an account of it. The
reason was that its whole staff was
too busily engaged in the fight to
do any reporting.
More recently, when the Spanish
American war approached, a large
part of the Times-Democrat staff
acted so literally in line with its
patriotic editorials that they went
, to war as 'Times-Democrat Rifles
Company A, First Louisiana Volun-
teers.
, The earliest newspaper publish
r ed in New Orleans was the Mont
I teur, and was Of course entirely
French. When English first was
used following the Purchase, it wa:
used only in connection with French
and this general practice lasted IN
til the early '70's. Thus the, famou;
New Orleans Bee which appeared
t in 1926, had half of each sheet
printed IN French and the Other
half in English until 1872, carry
ing its bilingual practice SO far a.
to appear under two names, one be
ing its name Bee in English AMI
Q the other being the French for it
) L'Abeille de la Nouvelle Orleans
f This French Bee is living still a
AbeilIe, appearing every mornin,
v except Mondays.
1t was an easy matter to fOun'
! newspapers in those days, 10 far a
Z the financial end was concerned
A A man who pined to teach ia
young New Orleans idea how t
shoot needed only a few hundre
dollars-and his duelling pistols
The shooting followed almost al
ways, and (if the editor survived
he almost always found ways an
means for keeping the journt
afloat for a while at least.
While the change in this respet
g That has come over American jour
: nalism through the demand fe
B. growing investments in neWspapt
ID plants is national, the history (
+ New Orleans shows it most grapF
IT icalIy. The records show that
1877 the city had nine daily new
q. papers: Bee, Bulletin, Gourie
Is Crescent, Delta, Jeffersonian, Me.
curry, Picayune and Tropic. In IS
to though the city had vastly il
al creased in population and the il
crease in education must ha'
n more than doubled the number
er potential newspaper readers, T
ne number of daily newspapers h
ne fallen to five: Bee, Bulletin, Pic
y, yune. Republican and Times.
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