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J Ulni ijitoptnjcJv nlfo idibEn(liOi into Tea -la Connor, purfuiaf rhra j Oft tyur lull d ia the purluir. .... Uiitm, Umti it. Oo tSe idncc bmujfit ise KJn J tmttl.rt urUrwil ('m, bciaf 00 lb' GcuQ 4a kom wu the Km af Sauj ; he erderrd WhutTio beoiule from hu Pitice to ibe Warrr. Ue, te vrerUid it wilb CJoub of Scukt, tad t tnViii Btrfeoa botri to receive bia, returned end tlx Kjo Xifti c his right kind i. ho4Vu rt-cdeed rt-cdeed ilh all itrujiiublcDemaeiftraiioni rjor,by dXchinfilofGunvrmiiof BUi,borjm,i5lumi.' nniooa, Tirooria, or. and for a Formijbt no. i thmf but TcaAiAC. -Three dijri ere the K. of ifum J Amvrd (he PrinwG fDrurHrrT of iht K. of rVr ) f dciucd to be hit Qpreq, UJti , and lbt( lofl like Itk ' nude up by hrr Stutr Jbme nro yean younger-Scrcn Crasdra of ffmim (bcfidci ilinfj he brouihi idi him ) came to Dim upoa hir Arrrril, rbo mformrdl bimrharallrlacnwould (ubtailtohimaflooaai b apprarrd. The EngJiHi axd Dutcb Forcet rrt a bout ia rSoufiiMl. The Kini of bad tf. i i ihoufiod, and daily Leaning of New Force) : Upoei -t-hii Arrrril he (cot the Fortci tolbe Fnntem, - re. (crruia'ifcvCompanica (orfuird of bit mm Per. ?a foa to the Aroy,biibT be diipxi to March dtuljl Waa,ibCapU'a o9t avay of (hes dnOJr foe Umil. UpoatherTeeaArriTal tfltiaW 10011117 ' mi of about a Sail of Men of War, and ibour loJF" TtaafijonSbipi: A Dutch Prirueerbrbif eUJefTl0 bj SU st Mat oiWkr, bme4 AdairJ AM 4 By ELMO SCOTT WATSON W0 nuNDRED AND TWENTY-ff" TWENTY-ff" FIVE years ago there took place f I in Boston a Listory-mnking event f which gets but scant If any men- tlon at all In owr school-book hls-rtTT5?! hls-rtTT5?! torles, yet It marked the beginning gjjy i ot an Institution which for the rS- next two centuries was to exert a fe II vIla Influence In shaping our na-tVt na-tVt U tlon. For on April 24, 1704, John Campbell, postmaster of Boston, Issued the first number of the Boston News-Letter, the first successful American newspaper. .It -was only a little single sheet, six and one-fourth by ten and one-half Inches in size, with two col-timns col-timns of news matter on each page and printed on both sides. There was not a single advertisement advertise-ment or Illustration of any kind in it The news which It contained was taken from London newspapers news-papers of more than four months past and the small quantity of local news was of slightly less ancient vintage. Not a very Impressive beginning begin-ning for American Journalism was this little handbill, hand-bill, yet from It there has grown a profession employing em-ploying hundreds of thousands of workers, an industry which ranks high up among all the other oth-er Industries In the country In point of capital Investment In-vestment and annual earnings and a commodity which has become to the average American as . much a necessity of his dally life as the food he cats or the clothes he wears. In calling the Boston News-Letter the "first American newspaper," that adjective must be somewhat Qualified. As a matter of fact the first newspaper Issued in the United States also appeared In . Boston Borne fourteen years earlier. On'September 25, 1G90, Benjamin Harris, an exiled ex-iled newspaper publisher who had settled In Eos-ton Eos-ton as a book seller and proprietor of a coffee ; aliouse, brought forth a 'four-page newspaper (only ,' . three of which, however,' bore any "printing, tha fourth being blank) which he called PubllckOc-; 'currences Both Forrelgn and Domestick. Hls(pa-,. perr4iowever,,wOT-Tromptly' nuppressed by 'the ' governor of Massachusetts Bay, Colony and the I coutjcli because It "contained Reflections of a very high nature" and "sundry doubtful and Un certain reports." Accustomed as we are to the "freedom of the press" which has been in existence exist-ence since this nation was founded, it may seem strange that a. newspaper could be thus sum--marlly disposed of by the authorities. But K must be remembered ' that these were the days when human liberty, as we now think of It, was practically nonexistent, when there was a system . of licensing for nearly everything. Including printing. print-ing. Every colonial governor tynt to. America-' to . rule the English colonies here between the years 1CS0 and 1730 was given the right to regulate the press. So this first newspaper venture In wtiat ; is now the United States died a-bornlng because Benjamin Harris neglected to secure a Hcenso and because in this paper he made a reference to the French king nnd the Maquas (Mohawk Indians) In-dians) which the authorities believed might cause trouble between France and England. Tostmaster Campbell was more careful not to run afoul of the powers that be. By "waiting on bis Excellency or Secretary for approbation for what la Collected," Le. news, he was able to print in a conspicuous place under the heading of his paper, "Published by" Authority," and thus feel no fear ot interference from the law. As a matter mat-ter of ffict, he seerns to have been a timid soU who was never much In danger of getting Inti-trouble Inti-trouble on that account For as Bleyer says in his "Main Currents in American Journalism": Campbell edited his paper In a painstaking but conservative and uninspired manner. He was scrupulously accurate even to the extent of point-ins: point-ins: out in one Issue that a comma bad been misplaced mis-placed In a preceding: Issue. On another occasion be explained that, in an account of a fire at Plymouth In the preceding Issue, "whereas it Is said Flame covering the Barn, It should be said Smoak." Occasionally he would point the moral of a piece of news. When, for example, a woman bad committed suicide, be expressed the hope that "the Inserting; of such an awful Providence here may not be offensive, but rather a Warning to al) others to wotch against the Wiles of our Grand Adversary." Again, when- a man was punished with a severe whipping for selling tar mixed with dirt, he explains that the account "Is hero only Inserted to be a rnveat to others, of doing the like. lagt a worse thing befal them." Sucbbrlef " Yts weie the only editorial utterances in ' vs-Letter . . y meticulous cars Campbell undertook In tbo ! I J2 I f m J- fi fX I Join, fir n? p II a aaaaaaaaar F jTI 1 Z ft r - ' vVj'rf f, llti0eQ Newspaper facsimiles from - .S3.nri "Ma,n Cur-ents In The History ' Tnm HoTl -i' OllVCIff of American Journalism" by WJI- " m v Ptcmb'p''''--'- iitV 'ard Grosvenor Bleyer, courtesy "" ' TTc " Houghton Mifflin company J I m i i . S'' inV'0. ".i wif,'?"iii),.rw Ave years he wan compelled to I Im n6rX,,Mwf1Mr". !&tWht'V&l,,i' suspend it for eltfht months "for IM JWaWK;"' Aff.'t: want of any Tollerable encour- fSJrfiV or eement to support it." On Jan- fVWW1 uarv . 1710' U "wa9 Reain Bet l&xMh& '' on Foot at the de8tre of nev"al l'rL'or n this and the Neighbouring tSn&''h! fcwfrb Provinces, particularly of the rSjZ Town of Boston, in hopes of S?A' i&ritt" meeting of a far better reception tefeS p&l'' &$.F as f or ,ts prcsent supprt-ttnd ZLfrttL ' future continuance, which hlth- T' vB M'lir;. spite the fact that for the first XffSV aT e""ti2 flfen years of Its existence It 'WtaiW1'- ttoW.jr-j.i?S.fc. was the .only paper In the col- onles. it never received adequate Nfe'i- F'52 A i&'W 'fC support. In 1719 Campbell points wfor out, in one of his periodic com- . limited space of his paper, "to carry on the thread of occurrences" abroad by reprinting In chronological chrono-logical order news gleaned from English newspapers. newspa-pers. By this method he was at times from nine to thirteen months behind In publishing foreign news. Ills difficulties, particularly in winter, be explained In bis clumsy style thus'. Having In our Numb. 207 Given you a Summary Sum-mary of the Pubiick Occurences of Europe for five months time, viz. from the middle of August Aug-ust to the middle of December; And in our five last and In this, a more particular Account of tbo most Remarkable Occurrences of Europe for six months and an halfs time, viz. from the . middle of August to the llrst of March, in our - Numb. '208,209, 210, 211.212A And In regard we have not Weekly and Monthly racquets as they . . .have in Europe and the West Indies, whereby to carry on the Occurences regularly; We shall now return back where we left off In our Numb. 207 to carry on the Tbreed of Occurrences Occur-rences as methodically . as It will admit of . . . until Vessels from Great Britain or . from the West Indies do arrive in any part of our Continent, when the Undertaker shall give you as he usually did a Summary and Abridgment Abridg-ment of the most Remarkable Occurrences of . Europe, for the succeeding Months., 1 The end of the first year found this pioneer publisher somewhat discouraged with his Job. . He took his readers Into bis confidence as follows : This Publlclc ' Printed News-Letter was undertaken under-taken to be Published for a Pubiick Good,- to give a true Account of all Foreign , and Domestick Occurrences, Oc-currences, and to prevent a great many false reports re-ports of the same, and was propounded to be Printed for one year for a Tryal viz. from the 14th, of April last to the first of May next, to see If the Income by the Sale thereof at a moderate price would be sufficient encouragement to defrav the necessary Charge expended In the procuring and Printing of the same, which Charge Is considerable con-siderable beyond what moBt people conceive It to be, besides the trouble and fatigue attending It; all which would be too long here to enumerate, yet for some satisfaction, we will venture to set down some of the Charges and trouble that arise? thereby & leave other-some to rational persons to ..conceive of. 1. The Undertaker has several setts of the Bevcral" Prints from England, & sent hm In several Vessels that being time of War might ' . have. one. Sett, if .the rest should be taken, which, are ordered to come by all Vessels coming to bur Continent where the Post Is settled almost five hundred miles from E. to W. from N. Hampshlt to Pensllvanla, 2. Correspondents settled In several sev-eral Ports & places our Shipping goes to, for sending send-ing Intelligence. 3. Waiting on Masters, Mer-chants Mer-chants and others when Ship & Vessels arrive to have from them what Intelligence they can give. i. Waiting on His Excellency or Secretary for approbation of what Is Collected. 5. Paper & Printing & c. And when so done as we said before, be-fore, we set the half Sheet at a more moderate price than It was set at In Exeter In England where they began to print much about the same time that we began here, here it was set at 2d and there it was at 2d and that sterling money, & when sent out to any house In Town Inclosed, they were to. have Twenty Shillings per Annum, and it was propounded here to be sent out for Twelve Shillings per Annum, tho" the paper and labor & other Charges here is four times at least dearer than It is at Exeter. And tho It was proposed at such moderate Rates for both Town & Country having had 11 months experience of tho Income A trouble & charge in procuring & Printing if tho Undertaker is money out of Pocket, a has not sufficient to defray the necessary Charge; and unless some better encouragement be given for tho future, it must drop- & therefore several being be-ing desirous it should not drop but be continued we thought fit to insert this Advertisement. That either the price for the half Sheet a week and the Quarterly and Yearly Customers must be augmented. aug-mented. Or else there must be more of them Sold and more Qualterly & Yearly Customers than was last year. Concerning this first editor's troubles, Bleyei continues as follows: Campbell struggled along, making frequent appeals ap-peals for support, and twice during 1706 receiving ?r?nl? fr.om th0 eovernnient. Finally, in March. 1709, bavlog published the paper continuously for ' Vr JV, plaints of lacK or patronage, "" '-'7 "ho cannot vend 300 at an Impression, Im-pression, Tho' some Ignorantly concludes he Sells upwards of a Thousand." Obviously, Ob-viously, with so Bmall a circulation to show for fifteen years of struggle, ho must have carried on the publication more out of a sense of duty to the community than from any hope of profit. In 171U Campbell lost his job as postmaster but refused to .turn over the News-Letter to William Brooker, the new postal ollicial. Whereupon Brooker started a rival paper, the Boston Gazette. Ga-zette. Campbell continued the News-Letler for three years, finally retiring in 1722 and leaving it In charge of Bartholomew Green, who for many years had been the printer who got out the paper. The appearance of the Gazette, which was llrst published on December 21, 1711), was of more significance sig-nificance than the fact that it was the second newspaper in the colonies. For the printer who set the type for it and laboriously printed the little sheets was a young man named James Franklin. Thus there came Into American Journalism Jour-nalism a nime which was to add luster to the profession for all time to come. Two years later James Franklin set up a printing press of his own and on August 7, 1721, there came from that press the first Issue of the New England Courant Bleyer has well said that Us appearance marked "a new stage In the development of American Journalism. The Courant was the first newspaper established In any colony in avowed opposition to Its recognized leaders, as well as the first to pub-' pub-' lish essays, letters and verse. . . . When on a, March night In 1722 Benjamin Franklin, a sixteen-year-old apprentice In his brother's print shop, slipped under the door of the Courant office, his first contribution, a letter signed 'Silence Do-good' Do-good' the paper secured a valuable contributor who was destined to become one of the ablest of colonial editors." .lames ir(inKiin was enconragea to scan nia paper In opposition to the Gazette, the official organ of the postmaster who succeeded Brooker, and the News-Letter, still published by Campbell, by a group of men who were not at all In sympathy sym-pathy with the Puritanical Ideas of the leaders in Boston. They could not have secured a better man for the Job, especially In view of the ability of his young brother, for the new paper immediately-began stirring things up in the colony. It Is interesting to note that the first act In the stirring up process was to oppose the practice of Inoculating for smallpox, a method of combating combat-ing the disease which wus. supported by Be v. Increase Mather and other Puritan leaders. In fact they succeeded In stirring up such a row in this matter and In other criticisms of the author-r author-r illes . which appeared in the Courant that the council finally decided to curb Jame3 Franklin's activities. - This wae done In January, 1723, but James Franklin outwitted the authorities by substituting substitut-ing the name of his brother Benjamin for his own as printer and publisher of the Courant and for a short time the seventeen-year-old boy continued con-tinued in that position. Finally he quarreled with James and left Boston, going first to New Vork and then to Philadelphia where later as editor and publisher of the Pennsylvania Gazette he aiade his mark as the most brilliant editor of colonial times and one ' of the greatest In all American Journalism. If to John Campbell nnd the Boston News-Letter belongs the credit of publishing the first Illustration Il-lustration In an American newspaper, to Benjamin Benja-min Franklin and the Pennsylvania Gazette be longs the credit for printing the first editorial cartoon and one of the most powerful cartoons that has ever appeared In our newspapers. Campbell's Camp-bell's Illustration was a wood cut reproduction of a new Hag which the United Kingdom of England and Scotland was to use hereafter and It appeared ap-peared In the News-Letter of January 19-20, 1707. Franklin's famous Snake Cartoon was printed In the Pennsylvania Gazette for May 9, 17G1. just before a congress of representatives for the English Eng-lish colonics was called to meet at Alluniy tc prepare for tie coming French and Indian war Showing the disjointed segments of the snake each one representing one of the colonies, it warning "Join or Die" came to be regarded as a syrnbtil for united action by the colonists not only In resisting the encroachments of Hie French and Indians but also during the opposilun to the Stauip Act In 1705 and again at the outbreak of the devolution. - ' |