Origin of Newspapers

"The Bohemian Brigade."

Long before the invention of printing, there were newssheets regularly prepared and circulated in China, Rome, and Venice. China lays claim to having printed them from wooden blocks several centuries before the discovery of printing in Europe. Be that as it may, we have sure evidence that the earliest news-sheets circulated in Europe were manuscript papers. It was the custom in those early times to place on the first page of the paper the four cardinal points of the compass, thus: w E, N S, indicating that the paper contained intelligence from the four quarters of the globe. They finally placed the letters in a straight line, N. E. W. S., and the sheets were then called "news-papers." According to tradition, the first printed newspaper appeared in Nuremberg in 1457, but not periodically till 1498, and was called the "Gazette." The first daily paper published in the world was established by Egenolf Emmel, and Frankfort claims him as the Father of Journalism. Germany was followed by England. Nathaniel Butters is mentioned in 1611 as being a "news-gatherer" in the employment of the nobility and gentry, and despatching the news in written communication to his patrons; the manuscripts were called "news-letters." It was not until 1622 that he resorted to the printing press. He issued the first regularly printed newspaper, the "Weekly News," in the English language. France followed England, and established her first newspaper in 1631, the "Gazette de France." The Gazette, with occasional interruptions, has been published from 1631 to the present time, and is one of the four oldest papers in the world. Renaudot, the pioneer of this paper, was a remarkable man, and through his journalism became one of the best informed men of his day. Like Butters, of England, he issued his first paper in manuscript, and sold his papers on the streets by news-boys and news-women, called "Hawkers" and "Mercury-women." Newspapers multiplied in Europe after these early publications had opened the way. The London Times is probably the most remarkable paper now issued. It has celebrated its centennial, the first number having been issued January 1st, 1788, and it has been owned and managed during all this time by three generations of the same family, named Walter. In 1803, it became the property of John Walter, father of the present proprietor. He managed it with great ability, and in order to be entirely independent of the government he ran his own expresses during the wars of Napoleon I., often anticipating the government couriers in his accounts of the battles. The Times was also the first paper printed by steam-power, which was introduced into the press-room in 1814.

The first newspaper on this side of the Atlantic, "The Colonial Press," intended as a monthly, appeared in Boston in 1690. It was soon suppressed, and the only copy extant is on file in the State Paper Office, London. In 1704, John Campbell of Boston commenced the publication of the "News-Letter," and it has been incorrectly stated that this was the first newspaper published in America. The Rev. John Andrews established, in Chillicothe, Ohio, the first religious newspaper of America (1814-1816); it was called "The Recorder." In the year 1725 Boston and Philadelphia were the only towns possessing a newspaper in America. It is stated upon good authority that the newspaper press of the United States has now reached as great a degree of perfection as that of any other nation, and that in enterprise it surpasses them all. "There is no danger too great, no expedition too remote, costly, or too expensive, no undertaking too vast, for the American journalist." One of the best proofs of this assertion is the great outlay (and the responsibility for a much greater) assumed by the New York Herald in sending Stanley into the heart of Africa, on what seemed a foolhardy search for Dr. Livingstone.

It has been asked why the army of newspaper reporters is called the Bohemian Brigade. Some one has answered that the Gypsies of Bohemia roam from place to place, and live by their wits,--that newspaper reporters do the same!