Nebraska Newspapers

    American Press Founded at Boston
April* 1704* Spans Two Hundred Years.
Two hundred years ago, with the
appearance of the Boston News-Let
ter in the week of April 17-24, the
American press was founded.
Before that time but one paper had
appeared in the colonies, and that
but once. The News-Letter “came to
stay,” and for fifteen years was the
only newspaper on this side of the
Atlantic. Philadelphia was the sec
ond American city to establish a
paper, in 1719, and New York was
third, in 1725.
The American newspaper press for
the first three-quarters of a century
after the appearance of the News-Let
ter developed only slowly.
In 1783 there were but forty-three
newspapers in the United States; in
1801 there wete 200 weekly and seven
7x11 inches, printed on three pages,
with the fourth blank, entitled “Pub
lick Occurrences, both Foreign and
Domestick.’’
In the week of April 17-24, 1704,
there appeared Boston’s first perma
nent paper. The Boston Newsletter. It
was printed by Bartholomew Green
and edited by John Campbell, post
master, being modeled on the news
letters that the postmaster of Boston
had been in the habit of preparing and
sending to the governors of the other
New England colonies.
In 1719 Editor Campbell lost the
Boston postoffice, and his successor,
following the custom of the time,
founded a newspaper organ of his
own,’ the first Boston Gazette, the
new postmaster and new editor, Will
crease Mather, in which the Courant
was denounced as “a wicked libel,”
and the wrath of God wras called down
upon the head of its editor.
About this time James Franklin in
timated in his paper that the Massa
chusetts government was dilatory in
sending an armed vessel in search of
pirates who were then infesting the
coast, and for this he wras put in jail,
where he remained about four weeks.
On the imprisonment of James
Franklin the editorial management of
the Courant fell to Benjamin Frank
lin, who, since the paper’s first issue,
had been “devil’’ in the offloe, and had
distributed the edition to subscribers
on publication days. He had been
fired with a desire to write, and his
communications to the editor, written
Q\ Xoyalcfoi/.o/Masj.u/Aen
Zts U/-Guj peuSj-letierie/ajpublicrhecL.
L ^he youth Fr&nklin
/ <3t the printing pre&r
teen daily journals. In 1530, 85? news
papers were published (50 dailies);
in 1840,1.631; in 1850, 2.526; in 1860,
4.051; in 1870, 5.871; in 1900, 9S0
daily. 9,71 S weekly and 1,075 other
newspapers and periodicals; in 1903
the number of newspapers published
in the United.and Canada was 21,451.
In the early days of the press in
Boston the printer and the editor
were often the same. There were
few editors for the first fifty years
tjf American newspapers who were not
able to set type and work a press.
The development of newspapers and
the means of printing them has been
one of the most interesting and re
markable phases of the advancement
of civilization in America in the 200
years that has passed since the
American newspaper press was estab
iisned in Boston, in the month of
April, 17G4.
The Worcester antiquarian society,
which possesses the most nearly com
plete file of American newspapers,
iam Brooker. making his editorial bow
Dec. 21, 1719.
Dining the twenty-two years that
this original Boston Gazette existed
Boston had five postmosters, and each
one in succession was the Gazette's
editor.
In 1741 the Gazette went, into a
••merger"—The Boston Gazette and
New England Weekly Journal. This
disappeared from mortal vision in
1752.
The News-I.etter survived for 72
years, the longest life of any Boston
newspaper save two on record.
In 1721 James Franklin, the broth
er of the philosopher, who had been
printing the Gazette at his office on
Court street, losing the job. began the
publication of Boston's third newspa
per, or fourth, as we may regard it,
the New England Courant. The Cour
ant made its first appearance Aug. 7.
and began its career by attacking the
News-Letter, calling it “a dull ve
hicle.”
secretly and put under the office door
at night, had been unsuspectingly
printed by his brother.
When the editorial toga fell on the
shoulders of Benjamin Franklin, his
ambition for the moment was real
ized. He ably edited the paper while
his brother was in jail. and. owing to
the irresponsible character of James,
the name of Benjamin Franklin in
February, 1723, was given as the Cou
rant’s publisher. „
One Boston weekly above all others
deserves to be especially mentioned,
the oftentimes unfortunate and al
ways misunderstood Liberator of Wil
liam Lloyd Garrison, which, from its
very inception down almost to its
death, manfully stemmed the current
of a strong and prejudiced public opin
ion. Sometimes its office was aemol
ished. Once its editor was dragged
through the streets of Boston with the
rope ready for execution about hi?
neck. He was subjected at all times
to the ridicule and denunciations of
THE [ N® 80
New-England Courant
Frofti M o n o a v February 4. to M o r d a r February n..z 7 2
ZL Contemporary 0/ttie //eutrZetter in/JZ/. Fir/tftnfitiJfiect Zy zJamea
_Fran ft tin, Benjamin Fran ft tin u/aa /ora time its editor.
Nums. 944*
the
Bofion Gazette,
Weekly JOURNAL
TUESDAY November 3. t 7 4 1
flnother Contemporary of th*ffeu&r-Z.etter. from <9 copyou/nedByBestoniancrociety
gives a list, in its catalogue, of 156
Boston publications, monthlies, week
lies. semi-weeklies and dailies, living
and dead, which at one time and an
other since the appearance of the
News-Letter, April 24, 1794, have
been set adrift upon the uncertain
seas of popular approval.
The first English newspaper printed
In America was issued from a Boston
press in 1690. It was a little sheet,
Then Benjamin Franklin’s big
brother began to pitch into the gov
ernment and criticise the clergy. His
differences with the clergy had to do
with vaccination, a practice which
Franklin opposed by argument and by
ridicule. The Mathers, father and
son, were lampooned with a virulence
seldom, witnessed in the press of the
present day, and the result was an
“Address to the Publick’’ by Dr. In
%
his professional contemporaries, to
strong words from the leading pulpits
of New England, and to satire and
venom alike from speakers upon the
public forums. But Garrison’s “I will
be heard” prevailed, and the Libera
tor’s editor had the satisfaction of see
ing the principles for which he so
stoutly contended through long years
of persecution and suffering become
incorporated in the law of the land.
IGNITION OF PILES OF COAL.
How Danger of Spontaneous Combus
tion May Be Reduced to Minimum.
The tendency to spontaneous com
bustion of coal when stored in bulk
id masses of, say, 1,000 tons or there
abouts—may appear to be a some
what unusual point to make in favor
of the gas engine as a large-size pow
er unit for central station work. It
was, however, made as such recently
by ar central station engineer, whose
contention was that the nearly al
ways present danger of spontaneous
ignition in the large reserve stock of
coal expedient for a power station of
any considerable size to carry, to tide
over possible temporary interruptions
in the supply, from strikes or other
causes, was entirely eliminated by
the use of gas engines which took
their gas from central gas plants.
Curiously, however, the fact ap
pears here to have been overlooked
that with the large gas engine plant
will come, as an almost inseparable
adjunct, the gas producer, taking the
place of the steam boiler now ac
cesao'v to the steam engine instalia
tion, so that the large coal pile will
remain in evidence, as before, and
the spontaneous ignition troubles as
well, even with certain precautions
against them, in the way of selecting
and storing the coal. Experience in
some cases has dictated the safe
height to which coal of certain sul
phur percentage may be banked, but
this height will vary with some oth
er governing conditions easily enough
imagined. The gas engine, therefore,
will, after all. have to depend for
favorable consideration upon its sev
eral ether well-known good points
rather than upon the one mentioned
in the opening lines of this para
graph.
Gigantic Boring Scheme.
The Chamber of Commerce, at Den
ver., Colo., is considering a proposi
tion to bore one and an eighth miles
into the earth at a point fourteen
miles east of the city, in search of nat
ural gas, oil and coal. The cost is es
timated at $30,000, but the plan is con
sidered feasible by experts who have
investigated the geological forma
tions.
HARP OF UNHAPPY QUEEN.
Musical Instrument of Mary of Scot
land Recently Sold.
The harp of Mary, Queen of Scots,
was sold by auction in Edinburgh the
other day. It fetched 850 guineas,
and passed into the possession of the
Scottish Antiquarian society. Anoth
er harp, too, was sold—that of a wan
dering minstrel. The minstrel was
probably a little better musician than
Mary, but his harp fetched only 500
guineas. It wanted the queenly
touch. At the same sale there was
knocked down a lock of hair from
the pate of Bonnie Prince Charlie,
together with the broadsword that he
swung at Culloden. An enthusiast
gave 32 guineas for the hair and 75
for the blade.
It seems that a Scottish laird’s
estate had gone to pieces. Last rep
resentative of an old family, his
death dispersed his large collection.
But the spirited Scottish Antiquarian
society is keeping them all on Scot
tish soil.—Boston Evening Transcript
Tact is deceit in its dress suit
REAL OCEAN MONSTER
NO YARN OF IMAGINARY SEA
SERPENT IS THIS.
Authorities of the British Museum
Can Testify to Existence of Vam
pire of the Deep—Can Drag Vessels
from Moorings.
With the possible exception of the
basking shark, the “Sea Devil" or
‘Ocean Vampire” is the largest of all
the monsters of the deep. An unborn
ocean vampire, taken from the moth
er, preserved at the British Museum,
is five feet broad, and before mount
ing weighed twenty pounds. The
mother measured some fifteen feet in
length and quite as much in breadth.
It is at all times a dangerous under
taking to attempt to capture one of
these monsters, says the Sunday
Magazine, but particularly so in the
case of a mother accompanied by her
offspring. She is quite capable of re
versing the role of hunter and hunted,
attacking and capsizing the boat con
taining her would-be captors, ar.d of
seeing that none of them escapes
alive.
“Imagine,” writes the Hon. William
Elliot, in describing the exciting sport
he had in hunting ocean vampires, “a
monster from sixteen to twenty feet
across the back, full three feet deep,
possessed of powerful, yet flexible
flaps or wings with which he drives
himself furiously in the water or
vaults high in the air, through which
he skims like some enormous bird;
his feelers (commonly called horns)
projecting several feet beyond his
mouth, and paddling all the small fry
that constitutes his food into that ca
pacious receptacle—and you will have
an idea, though an imperfect one, of
this extraordinary fish.”
The so-called ‘"horns,” to which allu
sion is made are a singular feature in
this animal. The pectoral or breast
fins, much elongated, pointed, arched
in front, concave behind, stop short
at the head, to reappear as frontal ap
pendages projected on each side of
the head. These appendages take the
form and character of limbs, being
flexible and capable of grasping prey
and carrying it to the mouth. The
‘"feelers,” as they are called, are
sometimes three feet or more in
fcmgth, and are curiously articulated
ft the ends so as to resemble the fin
ders of the human hand when clench
ed.
In this way fishing boats and ves
sels of a much larger size have been
dragged from their moorings, and in
some cases capsized by the ocean
vampire’s having laid hold of the an
chor. An instance of this kind occur
red in the harbor of Charleston. A
schooner lying at anchor, suddenly
and seemingly of Us own volition, to
tne a:, azement and alarm of those on
board, started at a furious rate across
the harbor. Upcn nearing the oppo
site shore its course changed so ab
ruptly as to almost capsize the vessel,
and it recrossed the harbor to its
former moorings.
These mysterious flights across the
harbor were repeated a number of
times in the presence of hundreds of
astonished spectators, who were utter
ly at a loss to account for the phe
nomenon. The migrations ceased as
suddenly as they began. Not till then
did the back and undulating flukes of
an immense ocean vampire, appearing
above the water of the harbor, dis
close the motive power that caused it
all.
Chinese Smuggle Opium.
"Chinese seamen are the only people
I ever heard of who repeatedly defy
United States customs officers and
make good,” said an officer of the
Sikh, a British steamship that has ar
rived in port with a cargo from the
Orient. “We tell the officers that
we believe they have opium, they
search the ship, but find nothing. 1
may call one of them to do something
and find him so ‘dopey’ that he is use
less. I know he has used it within
five minutes, but when I make a
search the result is nothing.
“Where they hide it is the mystery
to all of us; we, who knowr every bolt,
plate and link in the ship, have never
yet uncovered their supply, and this
crew has been with us nearly a year.
The entire crew, except the officers
and engineers, are Chinamen, and I
never saw a better crew. Opium is
the only trouble.—New York Globe.
Reforming Colorado Boys.
Hundreds of boys from the Denver
Juvenile Court will be sent into the
sugar beet fields near Longmont,
Colo., to work. The boys will be sent
out in parties of twenty-five each, in
charge of a probation officer, and will
be equipped with tents and camping
outfits. They can earn from $1.20 to
&2 a day each.
Mineworkers’ Wages.
Five hundred and fifty thousand dol
Jars were distributed to the men who
work in and around the mines of the
Cripple Creek district, in Colorado,
?n a recent pay day. These men re
ceive an average ot $3.44 a day. a very
aigh average compared with the
wages paid in the East.
Train Up the Parents.
The child’s salvation must be won
from within out and not from without
in. All the laws and restrictions in
the world cannot make a good man
or woman cut of the individual that is
determined to seek the disreputable
and the vile. What must save the boy
or the girl is the principle instilled
from earliest years by faithful love
and authority, line upon line, precept
upon precept. We must reach the
wayward and reckless parent some
how before we can make much im
pression on the character of children
that live at home. How this can be
done is a problem that almost baf&es
solution.—Portland Oregonian.
Work of the Indians.
Samples of basket work made
by the pupils of Indian schools and
interesting relics of the red men, have
be3n sent to the world’s fair from
the Indian Territory.
Eyes of British Queen.
Queen Alexandra’s eyes are deep
blue, and retain the mingled softness
and fire of youth.
_ — J
Old Bay state TownsWh^se CUUens^ ^ Revolutlon
“Tell your children of it, and let
your children tell their children, and
their children another generation,” is
an injunction honored by age, but
which every true New Englander is
prompted to obey on each anniversary
of the memorable battle of the open
ing of the revolution.
A glimpse at the battle map gives
the reader some intimation of the ter
ritory stirred to action and from
which came the embattled farmers,
and suggests the spirit of gratitude
shown in bronze and granite set up
by those who now consider that sig
nificant uprising in connection with
its consequences to the entire world.
Although years have passed, evidence
of the yeomen’s determination con
tinue to accumulate. Of all the towns
that responded to the Lexington
alarm, none has a grander record than
the town of Acton, and from the old
Robbins garret in that territory has
come this very spring a yellow manu
script which reads as follows:
“We, the subscribers, do solemnly
agree and promise that we will ob
serve and conform to the association
of the continental congress, and do
hereby make it our own particular act
and convenant until we obtain an
ample redress of our grievances, as is
specified in the said association, as
witness our hand this fifth day of
December, 1774.”
Of the twenty-seven signatures to
this paper, one autograph most im
pressive is that of Isaac Davis, who
fell at Old North bridge on the 9th of
April.
The alarm sounded by Paul Revere
was carried on by courier to the bor
ders of the county and beyond, while
Ebenezer Dow, who left Boston about
the same hour, disguised as a country
man on a marketing trip, gave the
alarm to the towns in other directions.
wounded wh.Ie pursuing the enemy,
and at Fisk’s hill James Hayward was
mortally wounded.
The heaviest fighting of the day
was on Lincoln soil in the afternoon
when on the retreat. Here companies
from more distant towns met the en
emy and gave fight. Ten of the Brit
ish fell and several of the Americans
were engaged near Fish’s hill.
The king’s forces were so hotly pur
sued that their dead lay unburied un
til the next day, when the bodies of
the enemy were given Christian burial
by the people of Lincoln. Three found
graves by the side of the king’s high
way, and two in a field near where
they died. Five were taken up and
carried in an ox cart to the burial
yard of the town and given a common
grave. Lincoin has erected a memo
rial stone over the resting place of the
unknown foet.
Chelmsford, a mother town, was in
with supplies on Its way to join
The British at Lexington.
This was the first concerted action
on the part of the Cambridge men and
by those who were too old to do full
duty. They were headed by Rev. Mr.
Pason, of Chelsea, It is thought, and
David Lamson, of Cambridge, took a
leading part. The fight was about 5
in the afternoon. The Cambridge men.
with others from a distance who had
arrived, entered a walled inclosure
and piled up bundles of shingles for
a breastwork, but it proved to be
their pen of slaughter. The retreat
ing enemy came down the main road
and the watchers were surprised by
a flanking party of irritated British,
who wreaked their vengeance on the
provincials.
Not less than 22 Americans fell on
that April afternoon in Monotomy
(Cambridge), and fully twice as many
of the enemy perished. Many of th>>
dead were carried back to tbe towns
whence they came in the early morn
ing. So urgent were their country's
needs that the villagers had no tirm
for funeral rites and the carpenters
were too busy to make the coffins, so
that these martyrs were committed to
a common grave with their clothes for
shrouds.
Charlestown, although only across
the river Charles, saw none of the
fighting until the return of the enemy,
yet her men were out in pursuit of
the British, with whom they were fa
miliar. James Miller was killed an l
a son of Capt. William Barber, 11
years old, lost his life. It was at
Phipps’ farm, Cambridge, that the en
emy landed in the morning when
starting on their excursion, and there
by the house of correction is the tab
let that tells of the fact.
There were four companies from the
towns of Groton and Pepperell. Thy
THE TOWNS SHADED WERE THE CONTRIBUTORS TO THE FORCES OF 19th OF APRIL, 1775.
Hence it is that more than thirty
towns are found represented on the
roll of honor of April 19, 1775.
Lexington was on the line of march
of the king’s army, hence here oc
curred the first clash of arms. Here,
too, were peacefully sleeping in the
parsonage John Hancock and Samuel
Adams, whose capture was greatly de
sired by the enemy, and whose doom
was fixed. Other guests at Parson
Clark’s that night were Mme. Lydia
Hancock, aunt of the patriot,, and
Dorothy Quincy, his betrothed.
The alarm brought to Concord by
Dr. Samuel Prescott, who had been
at Lexington paying court to his loved
one, was quickly passed along to Ac
ton. A horseman galloped to the
home of Capt. Joseph Robbins and
without dismounting at the house,
cried out: “Capt. Robbins! Capt.
Robbins; the regulars are coming.”
The Acton companies were not long
in assembling and were soon on the
road to Old North Bridge, leaving the
women to prepare food which the
boys were to bring on when ready.
The minute men took up the line of
march to the stirring notes of the
“White Cockade.” Luther Blanchard
was flfer, and Francis Barker drum
mer.
Both companies from Acton were
at the bridge and had a prominent
place in the engagement. Capt. Davis
had said in the hasty discussion that
took place before the engagement: “I
haven’t a man that’s afraid to go,”
and the Acton minute men were in the
front in the opening fight.
Capt. Davis and Abner Hosmer
were killed and Ezekiel Davis ' was
eorporated in 1655, and at the time the
provinces shook off the yoke of op
pression included the present city of
Lowell, then East Chelmsford. There
were brave, determined men here from
the days of King Philip's war, and
there was bold action here in 1775.
They agreed upon a great stone wear
the center of the town as the rallying
point, and when the news from Con
cord reached them they made haste to
the place of duty.
The Westford men were among the
first at the bridge. The company
reached Concord just as the firing be
gan, and joined in the pursuit. Capt.
Bates was mortally wounded.
The old town of Billerica had a
score to settle against the king’s
troops, for during the winter of 1774-5
one of the men of the town had been
seized in Boston and treated to a coat
of tar and feathers. Hence they had
sharpened their bayonets and loaded
their muskets to be ready at a mo
ment’s notice. They received word by
way of Woburn and the Minute men
were at Lexington ready to balance
accounts with the regulars as they
retreated. The militia company inter
cepted the enemy at Merriam’s corner,
under Col. William Thompson. Na
thaniel Wyman was killed. Although
claimed by Billerica he is recorded in
Lexington. John Nicklen and Timo
thy Blanchard of Billerica were
wounded.
In Arlington, once Cambridge,
stands a stone on which is the follow
ing:
At this spot. April 19. 1773.
The old men of Menotomy
Captured a convoy of eighteen soldiers
WORSHIP IMAGES OF STONE.
How Chinese Show Belief in Doctrine
of Reincarnation.
Francis H. Nichols in his journey
through the Chinese province of Shen
si saw a temple where stone animals
were worshiped. He says: "In rows
of heavily barred brick cages are
stone images of animals. They are all
life-size and are remarkably well exe
cuted. Among them are elephants,
tigers and monkeys, whose sculptors
must have secured their models a long
distance from Shensi, where the
originals are not found. The stone
animals stand for the Buddhist idea
of reincarnation. They are worshiped
as sacred and are supposed, in a
vague way to be endowed with life. It
is to prevent them from escaping and
running away from their worshipers
that the cages have wooden bars in
front of them. Between the two tem
ples was a pond where fish were
fonged, or set at liberty. In its work
ings the system of fonging animals
has very much the effect of a humane
society on the western side of thp
world. On the theory that any of the
brute creation may be the dwelling
place of the soul of a former human
being, lame and sick animals become
the care of the priests; in some of the
larger temples special provision is
made for caring for sick cats and
dogs. To fong an animal of any kind
is considered an act of supreme vir
tue. To obtain good luck a pious
Chinaman will sometimes purchase a
live fish and have a priest fong it.
This is done by placing it in the pond
reserved for the purpose near the
temple.”
Cannot Speak English.
In Wales there are about 508,000
people who cannot speak English,
Welsh being their only language; in
Scotland there are 43,000 persons who
can speak nothing but Gaelic; and in
Ireland there are 32,000 who can ex
press themselves only in the Irish
tongue.
Theater Fire Tests.
Theater fires are to be studied ex
perimentally in Austria by building a
theater one-fifth the normal size and
subjecting it to various tests.
women were on duty at home, under
command of Mrs. David Wright. They
captured Capt. Leonard Whiting, of
Hollis, a friend of the enemy, who was
bearing treasonable dispatches from
Canada to Boston.
The men of Shirley were equally
determined. Old “Will, the Miller.”
who was bowed and crippled from
age, declared he would go when the
. --
ii Monument <9t
i Che. £sn <sSoret
1
company started off for Concord, say
ing: “True, I cannot handle a musket,
but I will fight the redcoats with my
two canes,” which he brandished in
the air.
Appendicitis Is Contagious.
Dr. C. C. Sheldon, one of the lead
ing physicians of Wisconsin, main
tains that appendicitis is contagious
Good Reason for Popularity.
Robert B. Roosevelt, an uncle of the
president, who has announced that he
is to give a dinner to some of his* \
friends, at which he will open wine
bottled in 1813, is the most populat
man in New York. Old friends of
whom he had lost trace years ago are
hunting him up, while the new ones
are so thick that he cannot under
stand how he ever came to knowr
them all.
-1____
Has Long Family Tree.
Samuel Bowne, a well known farm
er of Bedford township, Calhoun
county, Mich., has a remarkable fami
ly record. It is an unbroken genea
logical record reaching back for 300
years to his ancestry in England
From that time to this every member
of the Bowne family has been \
Quaker. Every family has had a s. r
named Samuel. 0
Names Indicate Nothing
The Turks never delight in the lux.
ury of the Turkish bath, while wax
is not a constituent of sealing wax
and catgut is sheepgut.