The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1916-01-17
PENSACOLA PAPER
Of 1924 TELLS OF
STIRRING EVENTS
PENSACOLA GAZETTE IN AR
CHIvEs OF FLORIDA con-
TAINS NUMEROUS INTEREST
ING ARTICLES.

The Tallahassee Daily Democrat
says:
A Daily Democrat reporter yegter-
day spent some time In examining and
reading with a great deal of interest
portions of file of what was one of
the first newspapers ever published in
the South. 1t is the file of the Pen
sacola Gazette and West Florida Ad
vertiser, beginning with Vol. and No.
1, Saturday, March Is, 1924 and con-
tinuing without a break in the file
until and including Friday, March 2,
1927. The file which is at the office
of the Secretary of State is in good
condition, bound and well preserved
from light stains. This paper, how
ever, was not the first Pensacola pub
location because it is plain from the
editors prospectus that two former
papers had been consolidated to form
this one. w. Hasell Hunt had just
taken charge as editor and had start
ed new volume and changed the
name of the paper. His writings
show that he was a scholarly man,
that he was conservative but the pos
SCISSOR of a keen sense of humor, and
that the newspaper style has changed
but little since that time, long, long
before the Civil War. He charged a
dollar for what they then called a
square" equivalent to an inch in
paper of today, and five dollars a
year was the subscription price for
his paper, which was printed every
Friday, only once week.
Florida then was a territory, there
were no railroads entering Pensacola,
the capitol was located in The Deep
Water City, people travelled in armed
coaches over rough rv-ds and the
woods were full of Indians, but men
ton of "Cantonement," "Chata-
whachee Bay" Santa Rosa Sound"
abbreviated est. Sound") may be
found frequently in this old file. One
of the sensational stories was the
marriage of a sixteen-year-old white
girl of cultured patronage and So
cial position" to "brawny savage of
the fields" against the will of her
father, but at the suggestion of her
mother. The Indian eloped with his
'Epale-face" bride to the wilds of Mo
bile county, Alabama. There was an
other story of love at first sight, an
other about gambling in an inn sa-
loon, and an article headed, GA Dan
gerous Woman Here" showing that
Pensacola even then was establishing
itself as Give burg and lidless."
The editor in his first issue stated
that the political parties of the coun-
try, the Wings and Tories and So
forth had become so mixed up and
intermingled that it might not be
amiss for him to state at the start
that he was not going to affiliate with
any of them but would be independ-
ent and run his paper on true ere
publican principals"
Secretary of State Fl. Clay Craw-
ford states that he found this file to-
gether with two othsv old newspaper
files in the office when he came there,
but that some one stole one of them
years ago. It disappeared. He has
recently placed the one examined by
the Democrat on display on table in
the reception room of his office at
the SLaLe mousse. 30 many Calls ola
he have from persons wishing to look
at the old book that he removed it
from one of the vaults in the Capitol
basement where it had been stored.
1t is curiosity Of great value, and
many persons are enjoying its read
able old stories and advertisements
of slaves for sale and wanted In
those days they abbreviated doctor
with "Doct." instead of ''Dr." The
editors favorite exchange to clip
from was the London Commercial.
Mr.. Crawford states that Hon. P.
X. Yonge, of Pensacola, has in his
possession duplicate files Of those in
the secretary's office together with
the file of a Pensacola newspaper
antidating even those.