OLD NEWSPAPERS

Evening Star, Issue 19665, 19 September 1927, Page 14

OLD NEWSPAPERS

SOME RECORDS On October 17 next tho 'Age,' Melbourne, will roach its seventy-third birthday. Although London had its hist daily newspaper as far back as 1702, only three of the fifteen daily papers in London to-day have been in existence longer than the ‘Age.’ These three arc the ‘Morning Post,’ ‘Times/ and ‘Daily News/ Tho ‘ Daily Telegraph ’ and ‘ Daily Chronicle will both celebrate their sevemy-thirdhirth-day next year. All of the other morning and evening dailies published in London, w ith tho exception of the ‘ Evening Standard,’ havo been in existence for less than fifty years. The list of London dailies that have disappeared during the past 200 years is a long ono, and includes several that had long careers. Tho ‘ Globe,’ an evening paper, whiolu was absorbed by tho ‘Pail Mall Gazette' in 1921, had been published for 118 years, and tho ‘ Pall Mall Gazette/ which was itself absorbed by tho. Evening Standard’ in 1922, has been in existence for sixty-five years. Tho 'Standard ’ (whose off-shoot, tho ‘Evening Standard/,,is now such a healthy plant) <Jicd in 1913 after having been a morning paper for fifty-six years; it had a previous record of thirty years an an evening paper. LONDON’S OLDEST PAPER. The 'Morning Post,' which was started 155 years ago, is tho oldest of London’s newspapers. The founder and editor was a clergyman named Henry Date, who afterwards became Sir Henry Bate Dudley. Ho was only twenty-seven years old when ho began his career as tho proprietor of a newspaper destined to outlast all its rivals of that generation, and many of those of succeeding generations. Bate became known as the “Fighting Parson” after an affray at Vauxhall, where ho thrashed a professional pugilist who had been employed by a coxcomb named Fitzgerald to 1 assault him. The quarrel between Bate and Fitzgerald arose out of Fitzgerald’s insulting attentions to Mrs Hartley, an actress, whose sister Bate had married. Tho ‘ Morning Post ’ employed as a “paragraph writer” a man named Barlow. whom Bate thought did not display sufficient energy and enterprise in his work. Bale told him to go out and about tho town in order to glean paragraphs, instead of loitering about tho office. Barlow was greatly incensed at such a rebuke, and on answering his chief impertinently ho was dismissed. He retaliated by inserting an advertisement in the ‘ Post ’ challenging the editor to fight him with any weapons —except fists. This was after tho “Fighting Parson ” had established a fistic reputation by vanquishing a pugilist. Bate, however, was not of a pugnacious disposition, and he became reconciled to tho insubordinate Barlow.

After eight years of editorship Bale retired and settled down as a country parson. Two years later tho paper was sold, together with tho premises and printing material, to two brothers, Peter,and Daniel Stuart, for the modest aura of £6OO. Bate had served a sentence of twelve months’ imprisonment for being too outspoken in his paper, and a subsequent editor, Nicholas Byrne, was assaulted and murdered in his office by a man who had a grievance against the paper. FAMOUS CONTRIBUTORS.

There have been some famous literary men on the staff of the ‘ Morning Rost ’ during its long career. These include Coleridge, Southey, Wordsworth, Charles Lamb, and George Meredith. When in 1803 Daniel Stuart, the editor and proprietor, sold tho paper, ' Charles Lamb, who was employed at tho India House, but had ample leisure for writing, transferred Ris services from tho ‘ Post 1 to tho ‘ Albion,’ which was owned by a man who had been in the pillory for libelling the Princo of Wales. Lamb soon regretted tho change, for he wrote: “ Wo sighed for our more gentlemanlike occupation under Stuart. What a transition. Prom a handsome apartment, from rosewood desks and silver inkstands, to an office—-no office, but a den rather—from a centre of _ loyalty and fashion, to a focus of vulgarity and sedition 1”

George Meredith did not distinguish himself os a journalist on the ‘Morning Post.’ Ho went as war correspondent to Italy in 1866, but as ho possessed no military knowledge, his despatches consisted of hearsay reports and tho results of his own observation. He left the ‘ Post ’ in 1868 and four years later William Hardman, with whom Meredith had been on terms of friendship, became its editor. Hardman is tho original of Blackburn Tuckham in Meredith’s novel, ‘ Beauchamp’s Career,’ -where tho complacent Toryism of the original is a mark for Meredith's irony “ As_ for a man of sense and education being a Radical,” wrote Meredith in delineating Tuckham’s political views, “ho scouted tho notion with a pooh sufficient to awaken a vessel in the doldrums.” A HUNDRED YEARS AGO. Tho only other London daily winch is more than 100 year's old is ‘ The Times.’ Tho next oldest, the ‘ Daily News,’ which has the distinction of having had Charles Dickons as its first editor, is in its eightieth year. Tho first issue of ‘ The Times ’ was published in 1785, under the name of tho ' Daily Universal Register,’ but on January 1, 1788, it appeared as the ‘ Times or Daily Universal Register,’ tho change in name being duo, according to an announcement which occupied a column of that issue, to the desire to escape the confusion caused by readers having curtailed its name to tho ‘Register.’ There were other registers in existence, which, how-cver, were not newspapers, but directories. There was the ‘Court and City Register,’ the ‘ Old Annua! Register,’ and the ‘New Annual Register,’ When a customer entered a coffee house and asked for the ‘Register’ ho was often offered one of these "olumcs instead of tho newspaper. One hundred years ago there were eight morning papers (of which two survive) and six evening papers in London; today there are ten morning papers (excluding financial papers), and only tlireo evening papers. The aggregate circulation of London papers to-day is many times greater than what it was 100 years ago. Nevertheless, English journalists looked with pride 100 years ago on tho growth of the newspaper habit among the public, as the following extract from tho ‘ Sunday Observer,’ of November 21, 1824, shows “It is not an extreme calculation to statu that there are upon tho eight morning papers and six evening papers published in London at least 120 literary gentlemen, receiving weekly salaries to the amount of £6OO, exclusive of those who are paid for their communications. If to tho daily papers wo ada about forty Sunday papers, and papers published twice or thrice during tho week, we shall make a weekly sum total for literary services upon the establishments, exclusive of what is paid for in another way, of about £I,OOO. Tho compositors have, upon morning papers, each £2 8s weekly, and upon evening papers £2 3s 6d, and the pressmen are paid equally well, although their labor has been much diminished by the introduction of printing machines, instead of presses.” “ Wo now come to the circulation of the newspapers,” continues this account. “The daily morning and evening papers, those published two or three times in the week, amount to at least 40,000 daily or 240,000 weekly, and the Sunday papers to between 50.000 and 60,000, making altogether about 300.000 weekly. If to this wo add the circulation of the provincial Press we shall have a striking proof of tho state of the intellect of this country. Many of the country newspapers publish 2,000 or 3,000 copies, but others not more than 400 or 500. Considering however, that several appear more than once a week, we do not think wo can bo charged with exaggeration if we say that they throw off weekly 200,000 copies, making altogether 500.000 copies. Let this number bo compared with our population, and then say whether England is not an intellectual country.” DEAR PAPERS.

In those days there was a stamp duly of 4d on every newspaper sold, and the general price of a newspaper was 7d. _ As the value of money was two or three times what it is to-day, only people of means could afford to take in a daily paper. It was a common practice for several householders to club together to buy a newspaper and to read it in turn. To meet the demand for cheap newspapers, many half-sheets (two pages of four columns) were issued at Id and some at a Id. They evaded the payment of the stamp duty, but each of them had only a brief existence, for prosecutions , for evasion of the duty wore instituted against printers and publishers. In 1835 the stamp duty was reduced to Id, and in 1855 it was abolished. These newspapers of 100 years ago contained very little news as wo understand nows to-day. It was not until 1836 that the telegraph was invented,'and in its early days the telegraph was an expensive luxury. Newspapers used it only for the purpose of obtaining brief announcements of sensational events, fuller reports being sent

of tho telegraph tho foreigns news published in the London papers consisted of several columns of extracts from Continental newspapers received by mail. The usual size of the London dailies was four pages, of four columns each. ’ LENGTHY REPORTS. But despite tho small size of the papers they gave lengthy accounts of sensational matters, because there was generally a dearth of I’.teresting new-. The ‘ Sunday Observer’ (which is (he oldest Sunday paper in England, having been in existence for 136 years i gave nineteen of the twenty columns of its issue of November 10, 1823, to the VVearo murder at Radlott, including woodcuts of the scene of tho crime. This murder excited a great deal of public interest, and for weeks the Ixnidon papers gave prominence to_ it. The ‘ Observer’s ’ account of tho trial of the murderer covered thirty-nine columns. That issue of tho paper was double tho ordinary sizo (and double tly usual price of 7d), but tho trial filled all but one column. The ‘ Times ’ of December 22, 1824, gave fifteen columns to tho report of a breach of promise case, in which Miss Foot, an actress, sued Mr Hay no, “ a man of fashion and the world.” A sympathetic jury gave the lady a verdict for £3,000 damages. Long before the court opened a largo crowd, including some ladies, had assembled outside tho doors, seeking admission. “It was no sooner opened, than filled to repletion, amidst a_ scene of confusion, which baffles description,” wrote the representative of tho ‘Times.’ “The constables were busily employed—first in calling out lustily, ‘Clear (he road!’ and afterwards in laying lustily with their staffs on the heads of those who refused to obey their mandates. Although tho Lord Chief Justice, who presided, threatened to commit to Newgato Prison any person brought before him by the constable for making a noise, this threat produced only a momentary calm, and the disappointed feelings of those who could not obtain admission again vented themselves in angry shouts and attempts to burst into the court.” Human nature 100 years ago seems to have been very much like what it is to-day.-—The ‘Ago.’