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CHAPTER III.

THE FIRST PAPER IN NEW YORK.

THE NEW YORK GAZETTE.-ITS COMMENCEMENT BY WILLIAM BRADFORD.PREMIUMS FOR SUBSCRIBERS. - ANOTHER NEWSPAPER IN BOSTON. THE NEW ENGLAND WEEKLY JOURNAL. -THE DIFFICULTIES IN CIRCULATING NEWSPAPERS.-THE WANT OF MAIL FACILITIES.

ALTHOUGH Governor Fletcher, in having a copy of the London Gazette reprinted in New York in 1696, must have infused a little journalistic spirit in that city, the first newspaper there did not make its appearance till 1725.

William Bradford, a printer in Philadelphia, in consequence of litigations with the authorities there, growing out of his polemical publications, or a difference or two perhaps with the Society of Friends, was induced by Governor Fletcher to leave that city in 1690, and open a printing-office in New York. He there became the official printer, and after publishing Almanacs, the laws, the English Prayer-book, and official proclamations, and erecting the first paper-mill, he issued in October, 1725, the New York Gazette, which was, like the other papers then in existence, published weekly. The contents of the first number embraced the news from October 16 to October 23. Bradford believed that a man was never too old to work, for he was seventy years of age when he started the Gazette. The paper, for some time, was under the influence and control of William Cosby, the governor of that province.

William Bradford was the fourth printer in America, having been preceded by Stephen Daye, our Caxton, at Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1638, Samuel Green in the same town in 1640, and by John Foster in Boston in 1675. Bradford established a printing-press in Philadelphia in 1687, and published a sheet Almanac in that year, and made preparations to print the first Bible in the English language in America somewhere about 1688. The inducements held forth in his proposals for printing the Holy Scriptures, one would imagine, have been the basis for most of the modern appeals to the public for the support of newspapers, magazines, and books. Our Pennsylvania Caxton thus announced:

Propofals for the Printing of a large BIBLE, by William Bradford. Hefe are to give Notice, that it is proposed for a large house-Bible to be Printed by way of Subscriptions [a method usual in England for the print

TH

William Bradford's New York Gazette.

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ing of large Volumns, because Printing is very chargeable] therefore to all that are willing to forward fo good (and great) a Work, as the Printing of the holy Bible, are offered these Proposals, viz.

1. That it fhall be printed in a fair Character, on good Paper, and well bound. 2. That it fhall contain the Old and New Testament, with the Apocraphy, and all to have useful Marginal Notes.

3. That it fhall be allowed (to them that fubfcribe) for Twenty Shillings per Bible: [A Price which one of the fame volumn in England would coft.]

4. That the pay fhall be half Silver Money, and half Country Produce at Money price. One half down now, and the other half on the delivery of the Bibles.

5. That thofe who do subscribe for fix, fhall have the Seventh gratis, and have them delivered one month before any above that number fhall be fold to others. 6. To those which do not fubfcribe, the said Bibles will not be allowed under 26 s. a piece.

7. Those who are minded to have the Common-Prayer, fhall have the whole bound up for 22 s. and those that do not subscribe 28 s. and 6 d. per Book.

8. That as encouragement is given by Peoples subscribing and paying down one half, the said Work will be put forward with what Expedition may be.

9. That the Subscribers may enter their Subscriptions and time of Payment, at Phencas Pemberton's and Robert Halls in the County of Bucks. At Malen Stacy's Mill at the Falls. At Thomas Budds House in Burlington. At John Hafling's in the County of Chefter. At Edward Blake's in New-Cafle. At Thomas VVoodrooffs in Salem. And at William Bradford's in Philadelphia, Printer & Undertaker of the faid Work. At which places the Subfcribers fhall have a Re ceipt for fo much of their Subfcriptions as paid, and an obligation for the delivery of the number of Bibles (fo Printed and Bound as aforefaid) as the respective Subfcribers fhall depofit one half for.

Alfo this may further give notice, that Samuell Richardfon and Samuell Carpenter of Philadelphia, are appointed to take care and be affiftant in the laying out of the Subfcription Money, and to see that it be imploy'd to the ufe intended, and confequently that the whole Work be expedited. Which is promised by William Bradford.

Philadelphia, the 14th of

the ift Month, 1688.

There has been some improvement, in the shape of premiums, on this prospectus of 1688, but William Bradford is entitled to the credit of introducing this system of newspaper and book subscriptions. Some of our modern periodicals, religious as well as secular, run far ahead of Bradford in inducements to subscribe for their publications, but there were no sewing-machines, melodeons, or life-insurance companies in the amiable Bradford's time. The New York Express of December 12, 1868, for instance, contained the following immensely comprehensive advertisement:

TH

THE CHURCH UNION.

HIS PAPER HAS BEEN RECENTLY ENLARGED TO MAMmoth proportions. IT IS THE largest reliGIOUS PAPER IN THE WORLD. Is the leading organ of the Union Movement, and opposes ritualism, close communion, exclusiveness and church caste. It is the only paper that publishes HENRY WARD BEECHER'S Sermons, which it does every week, just as delivered,without qualification or correction by him. It advocates universal suffrage; a union of Christians at the polls; and the rights of labor. It has the best Agricultural Department of any paper in the world; publishes stories for the family, and for the destruction of social evils. Its editorial management is impersonal; its writers and editors are from every branch of the Church and from every grade of society. It has been aptly termed the freest organ of thought in the world. Such a paper, offering premiums of Sewing Machines, Dictionaries, Appleton's

Cyclopedia, Pianos, Organs for Churches, etc., makes one of the best papers for canvassers in the world.

Every Congregation may obtain a Communion Service, an Organ, a Melodeon, a Bible, or a Life Insurance Policy for its Pastor, or almost any other needful thing, by a club of subscribers.

This system of drumming for patrons has become so wide-spread that scarcely a paper is started that does not offer some premium more attractive than the preceding one. Some one published a parody on all these advertisements which covers the whole ground. It is given as a

MODEL FOR "PREMIUMS TO SUBSCRIBERS."

Subscribers for one copy of the

will be presented with a box of Patent PeIt blacks boots or stoves,

troleum Paste Blacking. This is a superior article. and may be used as a hair dye.

Subscribers for two copies will receive a box of sardines. Subscribers for five copies will be presented with a pair of iron-clad spectacles, with glass eyes, warranted to suit one age as well as another.

Subscribers for ten copies will be entitled to a patent adjustable bootjack, which can also be used as a corkscrew, a coffee-mill, or inkstand.

• Subscribers for twenty-five copies will receive a marble bureau with a mahogany top.

Subscribers for fifty copies will receive a seven-octave sewing-machine with the Agraff attachment.

Subscribers for seventy-five copies will receive a basswood parlor suit of furni

ture.

Subscribers for one hundred copies will receive a burial plot, with an order for tombstones delivered when required.

Subscribers for five hundred copies will receive a nomination for Congress. Subscribers for a thousand copies will be presented with a farm in New Jersey, fenced and mortgaged.

The French are as peculiar and as characteristic in their premiums. The Gaulois offered two bottles of Champagne for every new subscriber for six months. Four bottles of the Widow Cliquot for sending the Gaulois for one year! Sparkling inducement! The Figaro, not to be outdone, offered a small pocket revolver at half price for every new subscriber. Thus every reader of that paper would have a six-shooter at half cock for reading its brilliant articles for twelve months.

But this is anticipating. William Bradford emigrated from England to Pennsylvania before Philadelphia was laid out. For half a century he was printer to the colonial government. Notwithstanding his controversy with the Weekly Journal, Bradford was a champion of the freedom of the press. Members of his family, for four generations, distinguished themselves in various ways. The senior Bradford died in New York in 1752, at the age of 92, and was buried in Trinity Church-yard under the following epitaph:

Here lies the Body of Mr. William Bradford-Printer who departed this Life May 23 1752 aged 92 Years He was born in Leicester Shire in Old England in 1660 and came over to America in 1680 before Philadelphia was laid out. He was Printer to the Government for upward of 50 years and being quite worn out

Early Newspaper Enterprise.

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with Old age and labor he left this mortal state in the lively hopes of a blessed Immortality.

Reader reflect how soon you'll quit this stage
You'll find but few atain to such an Age
Life's full of Pain Lo here's a Place of Rest
Prepare to meet your GOD then you are blest

The New York Historical Society and Trinity Church, with the municipal authorities of the metropolis, united, in May, 1863, on the two hundredth anniversary of the birth of William Bradford, to do honor to his name and services as the first printer and first editor of New York; and a commemorative address was delivered on that occasion by John William Wallace, the President of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. The latter society, at its annual meeting in February, 1869, paid similar honors-not on his natal day, however-to Andrew Bradford, as the founder of the Newspaper Press of the Middle States of America, Horatio Gates Jones delivering an excellent and appropriate address. We are not aware that the Massachusetts Historical Society has taken any notice of either Benjamin Harris or John Campbell, the first editors of New England.

Newspapers began to increase in the colonies. In 1727, on the 20th of March, the fourth paper appeared in Boston, named the New England Weekly Journal, "Containing the most Remarkable Occurrences Foreign and Domestick." It was published by Samuel Kneeland, who succeeded James Franklin as printer of the Gazette. The famous Whitefield, and the equally celebrated Edwards, exercised great influence over this establishment. Kneeland, in his prospec

tus, promised a number of new features in journalism; proposed the organization of a corps of correspondents of "the most knowing and ingenious gentlemen in several noted towns" to send news; made arrangements for the regular weekly publication of "the Number of Persons Buried and Baptized in the town of Boston;" the prospectus closing thus:

This may serve as a Notification, that a Select number of Gentlemen, who have had the happiness of a liberal Education, and some of them considerably improv'd by their Travels into distant Countries; are now concerting some regular Schemes for the Entertainment of the ingenious Reader, and the Encouragement of Wit and Politeness; and may in a very short time, open upon the Public in a variety of pleasing and profitable Speculations.

On the 8th of April, 1728, the publisher held out the following inducements for subscribers:

There are Meafures concerting for rendring this Paper yet more univerfally efteemed, and useful, in which 'tis hop'd the Publick will be gratifi'd, and by which thofe Gentlemen who defire to be improv'd in Hiftory, Philofophy, Poetry, &c. will be greatly advantaged. We will take the liberty at this time to infert the following paffage of History.

Then followed a very curious and quaint account of the invention of the stocking-loom.

Quite a number of essays were published by Kneeland, after the

style of the Tattler, Spectator, and Freeholder. Indeed, the style of the newspaper writers of those days imitated that of Addison, Steele, Swift, and Bolingbroke. Mather Byles, Judge Danforth, Governor Burnet, and the Rev. Thomas Prince, of the Old South Church, were contributors to the Journal. It was, in 1741, united with the Gazette, and published till 1752, when it was discontinued.

It seems to have been one of the objects of John Campbell, if we rely upon his appeals to the public, in publishing the NewsLetter, "to prevent the spreading of false reports." Other publishers, no doubt, were governed by the same laudable motive. But this was evidently slow work. Circulating the paper outside of the city limits was then any thing but a speedy or certain process. Mails were mostly monthly and half monthly in going from point to point. Bulk was a matter of importance in the time of post-horses, and stage-coaches, and imperfect roads. Those who live along the banks of the Hudson, or on the line of any railroad running out of Boston, or New York, or Chicago, within one hundred miles of these news centres, and receiving at their own doors their morning city. journals as regularly and as early as subscribers living in the upper wards of these cities receiv、 their papers, scarcely realize the advantages they enjoy over their ancestors. Some idea of this may

be obtained from the following official notice:

By Order of the Post Master General of North-America.

These are to give Notice, that on Monday Night the Sixth of this Instant December, The Western Post between Boston and New-York sets out once a Fortnight the Three Winter Months of December, January and February, and to go Alternately from Boston to Saybrook and Hartford, to Exchange the Mayle of Letters with the New-York Ryder, the first Turn for Say-Brook, to meet the NewYork Ryder on Saturday Night the 11th Currant. And the Second Turn he sets out at Boston, on Monday Night the 20th Currant to meet the New-York Ryder at Hartford on Saturday Night the 25th Currant, to Exchange Mayles.

And all Persons that sends Letters from Boston to Connecticut, from and after the 13th Instant, are hereby Notified, first to pay the Portage on the same.

What a contrast with the numerous railroad trains, with their splendid family cars, and three or four steam-boats, floating palaces in fact, running daily, morning and evening, between New York and Boston, in addition to the fifteen or twenty telegraph wires which now connect these two important cities! All the wonders of Aladdin pale before these realities. There could be no extended circulation of newspapers with such facilities of transportation as Campbell and the Bradfords had. But as the colonies grew in population and wealth, there was an improvement in the mails and in the roads, and an increased desire for more news, and other journals came into existence.

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