Show THE FIRST NEWSPAPER it Is remarkable that a means of instruction and amusement so BO apparent as a newspaper should not have been established until nearly two hundred years after the discovery of 0 printing 11 the first newspaper was issued toward the close ot of the reign ot of james the first and was published in london by a man finan named butter this man had been a hired writer in the employ ot numerous country gentlemen his business was to pick up the news of london and send a written sheet of it weekly to his employ irs the thought struck him that he might servo serve his customers more quickly abild enlarge his business indefinitely by printing instead ot of writing his sheets preferred preter rd buttels paper was waa laughed at first he met with little encouragement the Engli english share are not a people fond of innovations and the old oil manuscript letter sheets were generally preferred butters paper was laughed at by the wise be ben n johnson mado made it a butt of his ridicule in his comedy the staple ot news after some time the invention became better appreciated precia ted and newspapers increased in size merit and numbers more than one editor had been severely punished tor for printing news about the government so late as 1710 a lad of nineteen had been hung bung for publishing an article against here her dietary right i before butter put his paper on the I 1 market several gazettes had bad been published in different countries in europe these were not newspapers they were occasional broadsheets broad sheets published only after some important imp 0 s vent they were not at ill all permanent neither were they periodical in their nature these two elements are important for a real newspaper the newspaper did not talie take ita rosi position tion in tile tho world unta tho th time of addison Add lson steele and swift these men began fo ao write for it they were follows by Bolling broke and in a later age by junius then the public press took a lofty position one which it has since maintained and increased norwood massachusetts messenger |