Gazetteer

“ The mention of the term Gazette recalls the popularity of this word as a title for a newspaper. In nine of the thirteen colonies the first paper was a Gazette: these colonies were Connecticut, Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Virginia. In the four remaining colonies where the first newspaper had another name, the second paper to be established had the word Gazette in its title. The second favorite as a title for a newspaper during the colonial days was The Journal. ”

“ The Courrier de l'Europe has the most extensive circulation of any gazette, although supposed to be rather too much under the influence of the British Ministry sometimes; the Gazette de France is published by authority here, and has a great reputation for integrity; in the Gazette de la Hague the English find means to publish many false reports. These papers and pamphlets, together with one or two English papers, for which I shall subscribe as soon as possible, I shall do myself the honor to transmit to Congress constantly as they come out. ”

“ When the Gazette was first published, the Patriot took to squabling, and getting the worst of it, wound up a crushing leader, with a flourish something like this—The editor of the Patriot regrets that he, 'a gentleman by birth, rank, manners, and education,' should have condescended to notice any remarks published in the columns of such a dirty rag as the Gazette. ”

“ It is a paper for the people it represents, and can be relied upon as a friend of every colored man, though his face may be of ebony hue. The Gazette is a practical demonstration of what can be done by the young men of our race. ”

“ James’s Chronicle—Illustrated Account of a Strange Wild Beast seen in France—The Gentleman’s Journal of Anthony Motteux—The Gentleman’s Magazine of Edward Cave—The London Magazine—The Scot’s Magazine.
In glancing at the early newspapers it is apparent that the idea, in some shape, of illustrating the news of the day was never quite absent from the minds of newspaper conductors. Sometimes it took the form of a rude map of the country where some war was going on, or the plan of some city which was being besieged. ”

“ The material of the sheet attracts our scorn. It is a fair specimen of rebel manufacture, thick and coarse, like wrapping-paper, all overspread with little knobs; and of such a deep, dingy blue color, that we wipe our spectacles thrice before we can distinguish a letter of the wretched print. Thus, in all points, the newspaper is a type of the times, far more fit for the rough hands of a democratic mob, than for our own delicate, though bony fingers. ”

“ I am heartily glad to see such a paper as the ‘Pall Mall Gazette’ established; for the power of the press in the hands of highly educated men, in independent position, and of honest purpose, may indeed become all that it has been hitherto vainly vaunted to be. ”

“ Sometimes, indeed, when the government was disposed to gratify the public curiosity respecting an important transaction, a broadside was put forth giving fuller details than could be found in the Gazette: but neither the Gazette nor any supplementary broadside printed by authority ever contained any intelligence which it did not suit the purposes of the Court to publish. The most important parliamentary debates, the most important state trials recorded in our history, were passed over in profound silence. 164 In the capital the coffee houses supplied in some measure the place of a journal. ”

“ Una, like most people of Panama, had believed that there was something artistic about the office of any publication. One would see editors—wonderful men like grand dukes, prone to lunch with the President. But there was nothing artistic about the editorial office of the Gazette—several young men in shirt-sleeves and green celluloid eye-shades, very slangy and pipe-smelly, and an older man with unpressed trousers and ragged mustache. ”

“ Conducting a Local Column.—When conducting a column giving the news of a particular locality or neighborhood, the one thing not to write is that there is little news in the community this week or to-day. The readers of a column should not be allowed to suspect that one has little information to present. All about one are unnumbered sources of news if the correspondent can only find them—humorous incidents, reminiscences of old pioneers, stories of previous extremely wet, dry, hot, or cold seasons, recollections of Civil, Spanish American, and European War battles, etc. ”

“ His gazette probably brought the same earnest inquirer to the library for history as well as for geography. A daily paper, which is the history of the world for one day, leads backward, as a stream carries our thoughts to its fountain. Whoever repairs to a library with one historical query will be likely to repeat his visit, since newspapers, in the light of history, will become more significant as the last chapter in a novel is more interesting to those who have read the previous chapters, and so often leads one back to them. ”

“ Yet, even with this precaution, to the chagrin of the authorities, the morning papers had accurate accounts of the proceedings. The invisible reporters were never looked for in the proper place, for they stationed themselves by one of the open windows of the underground kitchens which looked into the Post-Office yard; and through these windows every word of the speakers floated upward to be deftly caught by the eager reporter in waiting. ”

“ James’s Gazette (1880) , it more or less repeats the function of a morning paper, as being chiefly devoted to news, with comment, as a subordinate feature. The Pall Mall Gazette is the spoilt child of journalism. Founded in 1865 under the editorship of Frederick Greenwood, it sprang at once to the position of being the darling favourite of intellectual London, which it has never entirely lost in spite of alternate periods of hideous sensationalism and considered dulness, in spite of a complete reversal of politics and of every imaginable transformation of “make-up” and journalistic devices. ”

“ The whole aspect of the humbler press has changed within these few years. Unquestionably the people have changed. Visit, if you can, the interior of that marvellous human machine, the General Post-Office, on a Friday evening, from half-past five to six o'clock. Look with awe upon the tons of newspapers that are crowding in to be distributed through the habitable globe. Think silently how potent a power is this for good or for evil. ”

“ We have always regarded a newspaper as a mirror in which all may look and see the events of the day as they pass, and as a journal in which are to be re corded for future reference the public acts and deeds of men ”

“ The columns of the Gazette, or at all events its supplements, offer to government officials whose opinion has been asked upon questions on which they possess valuable knowledge, or in which the people of their district are concerned, an opportunity of attacking the acts or laws of the government itself—a chance of which they are not slow to take advantage. ”

“ A newspaper is a living organism, threaded through with the nerves of men and women, inspired by their spirit, animated by their ideals and thought, the living vehicle of their own adventure of life. So The Tribune seemed to us then, in that last [Pg 108] hour, when we looked back on our labor and comradeship, our laughter, our good times together on “the rag,” as we had called it. ”

“ And all these touches of nature make us wondrous kind. It is the country newspaper, bringing together daily the threads of the town's life, weaving them into something rich and strange, and setting the pattern as it weaves, directing the loom, and giving the cloth its color by mixing the lives of all the people in its color-pot—it is this country newspaper that reveals us to ourselves, that keeps our country hearts quick and our country minds open and our country faith strong. ”

“ If you would obtain a correct idea of the universal in- fluence of the press, go among the people at large and be- hold the thirst for newspaper reading. As you pass along the road in hot summer weather, when the, farmer has re- turned from his work and the doors are thrown open to invite the precious breeze, on the porch or just within you will see the man of the house with his paper, swallowing down the editorial as a more delicious morsel than the viands preparing for his dinner. ”

“ Now the monthly Geographical Journal, the chief organ of the society, is an invaluable publication, but the only person who, in all probability, reads it through is its own editor, and that is as it should be. ”

“ The volumes may be had from most booksellers of England, Scotland, or Ireland."
The Collection, which the editor will carry on as usual, refers to the single sheet. The Gazette must have been the London Gazette. In what sort of way the editor could suppose that advertisements could be useful for ages to come, we, in this age of enlightenment and knowledge, are at a loss to conceive. ”

“ During the Period of the Early Repub- lic, when papers were founded chiefly for political purposes, the editor came into his own. He was either a printer seeking an office or he was a politician who hired a printer to run his paper. In the Colonial Period the pamphlet was the medium for editorial expression, but with the change just mentioned, to use the newspaper for political purposes, the pamphlet dis- appeared and its contents were printed in the newspaper. To- ward the close of the period men of real ability were hired to edit newspapers in which they had no financial interest. ”

“ Nevertheless, it was in this gazette, then under the control of Lang and McLean, that General Hamilton first gave to the public his numbers of The Federalist. There is often to be found in one daily issue of the Post, the Courier and Enquirer, the Journal of Commerce, the Herald, the Tribune, or the Times of these days, more thought, nice disquisition, and real knowledge which awakens the contemplation of the statesman and politician, than the New-York Gazette contained during a twelvemonth ”

“ Of late years, too, criticism proper, that is to say, of letters and art, has played a larger and larger part in daily newspapers, some of which attempt a complete review of books as they appear, while others give reviews of selected works as full as those of the weeklies. If any distinct setting of example is necessary to be attributed in this case, the credit is perhaps mainly due to the original Pall Mall Gazette, an evening newspaper started in 1864 with one of the most brilliant staffs ever known, including many of the original Saturday writers and others. ”

“ During the war in Herzegovina in 1876 the newspaper correspondents had to rough it pretty considerably. Sometimes, when the special artist got to a resting-place for the night, he would have to work up his sketches by the light of a single candle, which he kept in an upright position by holding it between his feet as he sat on the ground, while the correspondent of a London 341 ‘daily’ scribbled his notes beside him. ”

“ Though our loathed but esteemed contemporary, the Statesman, speaks of our town as "this city," and calls the marshal "chief of police," we are none the less a country town. Like hundreds of its kind, our little daily newspaper is equipped with typesetting machines and is printed from a web perfecting press, yet it is only a country newspaper, and knowing this we refuse to put on city airs. ”

“ The artist had an idea.
“Write a fine article for the Gazette,” he said: “you know how to write well. Tell the wonderful things which the little clown does, and I will draw his portrait for you. Everybody reads the Gazette, and people will flock to see the circus.” ”

“ Smaller papers often print stories on the new city directory; the increase or decrease in population is treated as news and a very interesting story may be written on a comparison of the names in the directory. In university towns the appearance of a new university catalog or bulletin of any sort is the occasion for a story which points out the new features or compares the new bulletin with a previous one. ”

“ We shall endeavor to make the Chronicle a reliable newspaper, advocating the interest of the farmer, stock raiser, and business man, and to aid in developing the resources of this magnificent country. We shall pay special attention to gathering local, territorial and general news, and make the Chronicle interesting as a home paper. Printing our own outside we shall have room for numerous correspondents. ”

“ A young man who has gained an entry into the journalistic world can sometimes get through a prodigious amount of work, and at the time I am speaking of it often happened that within the week, besides my morning duties upon the Globe, I would furnish one, and sometimes two, articles to the Saturday Review, an article to the Examiner, another to the World, and, in addition, three or four columns of art criticism to the Pall Mall Gazette, apart from regular work in the same department for the Manchester Guardian, and occasional articles in other daily or weekly journals. ”

“ Pick up an average copy of the Bee- Nugget and what do you find? A 12- or 16-page 6-column paper, in two sections, with the leading news of the state or county attractively displayed on the front page, with the usual run of local news, social and personal items from the county seat, publicity stuff, editorial, country correspondence, boiler plate and advertising. With this important difference, that scarcely an issue goes on the press without at least one good front-page story of prime interest to farmers, often occupying the right-hand column or under a two-column head in the center ”