NEWSPAPERS A HUNDRED YEARS AGO 157 extremely wholesome, and fit for use in very long In the same old book occur the following words: "There are not less than 159 hotels and coffee-houses in this Metropolis, besides seventyeight principal inns, and upwards of 5000 alehouses." The following statement is made with reference to the circulation of newspapers, which appears to have varied "from 750 to 6000 each per day": "Of the morning papers there are sold together about 15,000 daily"; and so on, giving the grand total of morning, evening, Sunday, and other papers as, “in all, the enormous number of 240,000 copies per week." "What a wonderful idea is afforded of the agency and influence of the Press in this Empire, and how easily it is explained that we are the most free and the most intelligent, although the most abused, people on the face of the earth!" Then follows a list of the "Daily Morning Papers" : British Press, No. 157 Strand. Day, corner of Essex Street, Strand. Morning Post, No. 335 Strand. Morning Chronicle, No. 143 Strand. Morning Advertiser, No. 125 Fleet Street. Morning Herald, No. 18 Catherine Street, Strand. 158 FAMILIAR LONDON Every Third Week. Hue and Cry (Police Gazette), No. 240 Strand. Tenth of each Month. Literary Advertiser, Paternoster Row. "The newspapers are franked into the country by newsmen, and in Black Horse Alley, Fleet Street, is held the News-Hall, where exchanges take place, and where the newsmen assemble before the posthour every evening, and exhibit an extraordinary bustle of business." How small was this "enormous circulation of papers compared with the issues of the journals of the present day! The newspaper boy in the street was probably non-existent in those days, and our forefathers were free from the terrible infliction that we have to bear in the husky shouting of "Spa-shul," "Orl the Winners,"" Frightful Slorter," etc. They are a curious race-these street lads. I was walking through the City the other day, and watched a ragged urchin standing by a crafty-looking newsboy, and surreptitiously trying to read the latest news from the bundle of papers under the newsboy's arm. He was suddenly detected by the lad, and retired crushed by the observation, "Now, then, Billy, out with yer wealth! This 'ere ain't a free library." |