USA > Vermont > Chittenden County > History of Chittenden County, Vermont, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 33
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to its friends, Editor Clarke says : "Those . . who are firm disciples of progress, and who recognize in the rapid march of improvement a necessity for the multiplication of the vehicles by means of which intelligence and knowledge are more universally disseminated, will be likely to welcome our enterprise ; while those more prudent and wary navigators who understand the practical wisdom of 'keeping near the shore' until they have learned to swim, will be apt to see an appropriateness in the coincidence of the birth of our little sheet and the first of April. To both classes we have only to say that it will be our aim to demonstrate the convenience and usefulness, if we fail to establish the necessity, of the step we have taken ; its success, we hardly need to add, depends very greatly upon them."
Time has proven, in this instance at least, that the first of April is not a bad day upon which to establish a newspaper.
Following the editorials there is a telegraphic account of about a third of a column, and a few small items of local and vicinity news. The third and fourth pages are completely taken up with advertisements ; which shows both the business and journalistic enterprise of Burlington in 1848.
Previous to this important point in its history, the Free Press had under- gone some changes in its ownership and management. Mr. Foote had con- ducted the paper alone until February, 1828, when he associated with him Henry B. Stacy, who had managed the business and superintended the me- chanical production of the paper since its establishment. Messrs. Foote and Stacy edited and published the Free Press in partnership until January, 1833, when Mr. Foote retired, and Mr. Stacy became sole editor and proprietor. In July, 1846, Mr. Stacy in turn closed his connection with the paper, selling it to De Witt C. Clarke, a " born journalist " and a man of remarkable capacity and talents. It was shortly after Mr. Clarke became the owner and editor of the Free Press that the telegraphic connection between Troy and Burlington, to which we have referred, was formed. Perceiving the opportunity which this event afforded for the publication of a daily bulletin of intelligence in the rap- idly growing town of Burlington, Mr. Clarke, as has been shown, supplemented the weekly edition of the Free Press - which still retained its large circulation in the county outside of Burlington - with a daily edition.
Mr. Clarke successfully conducted the daily and weekly editions of the Free Press until April, 1853, when he sold both to Messrs. George W. and George G. Benedict, of Burlington. Under their management the Free Press rapidly extended its circulation and influence, and became well known throughout northern New England as one of the most reliable and ably conducted of the Re- publican newspapers of that section. Both the weekly and daily editions were enlarged, and the publication matter was increased in quantity and improved in quality. In 1868 the growing prosperity and large business interests of the Free Press seemed to call for the organization of a stock company, thus afford-
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ing a broader basis for the future development of the paper. Accordingly, in 1868, the paper was transferred to a company of stockholders known as the Free Press Association, the Messrs. Benedict, however, retaining a large pro- portion of the stock. In 1869 the publishers began to issue the daily Free Press in both morning and evening editions.
In July, 1869, the daily Free Press absorbed the daily Times of Burling- ton, and has since been published as the daily Free Press and Times-the only daily newspaper issued in Burlington or in Chittenden county. The evening edition of the Free Press and Times was discontinued in July, 1882. The daily and weekly are now edited by Hon. G. G. Benedict, of Burlington. The Free Press is acknowledged to be one of the most influential Republican news- papers in New England.
The Iris and Burlington Literary Gazette was one of the ventures in the field of purely literary journalism to which reference has been made. It was an octavo sheet, published semi-monthly. Its contents never represented a startling degree of literary talent, and, though it was quite well patronized by its contributors, the general public allowed it to die in about twenty months. It was published by Worth & Foster, and edited by them at first; subsequently by Zadock Thompson, of Burlington, the author of Thompson's Vermont.
The Green Mountain Repository was another literary publication, smaller in size than the Iris, and comparatively shorter-lived. This magazine was also edited by Zadock Thompson, and was published by Chauncey Goodrich, of Burlington. It existed one year.
The Green Mountain Boy was a small, comet-like publication, which ap- peared in December, 1834, and disappeared in March, 1835. It was published by Richards & Co.
A journal in the interests of the French-Canadian population of Chittenden county was started at Burlington in 1839, but only survived a few issues. was called La Canadien Patriot.
It
Almost the only journal published outside of Burlington at this time was the Milton Herald, which was commenced in Milton in 1848 and lived a little over four years.
A Democratic sheet, called The True Democrat, was started in 1848 by Nathan Haswell, but soon ceased to enunciate the lofty principles upon which it was founded. It lived less than one year.
The Liberty Gazette first appeared in July, 1846, under the editorship and control of C. C. Briggs. It was bought by L. E. Chittenden and E. A. Stans- bury in 1848, and published by them under the name of the Free Soil Courier and Liberty Gazette until 1852, when it was suspended for lack of support. Its name indicates the nature of the doctrines which it advocated.
The Liberty Herald, a paper of the same general character as the Liberty Gazette, was commenced in 1846, but existed only a portion of that year.
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.
The Burlington Courier was a journal of some ability which had a fair cir- culation in Burlington for the six years of its existence. It was started by E. A. Stansbury in June, 1848, and conducted by him until the summer of 1852, when it was bought by Guy C. Sampson. Soon after the Courier was pur- chased by C. C. Briggs, by whom it was edited and published until its discon- tinuance in 1854.
The first strictly agricultural paper published in the county was the Vermont Agriculturist, commenced at Burlington in 1848 by De Witt C. Clarke and Caspar T. Hopkins. It never had a large patronage and lived only two years.
The Commercial Register was a monthly business record, published by Nichols & Warren. It was started in 1851 and suspended at the close of its second volume.
A temperance paper called The Crystal Fount was started by James Frame in 1852, but only one issue was printed.
When De Witt C. Clarke sold his interest in the Burlington Free Press, in 1853, he by no means withdrew from the field of journalism in Chittenden county. A few years later, in May, 1858, we find his name at the head of a fresh newspaper enterprise in Burlington - the Burlington Times, a daily and weekly Republican newspaper, started in friendly rivalry to the Free Press, the daily edition of the latter being an evening issue, while the daily Times was a morning paper. The Times was from the first an able paper, but lacked the necessary funds to enable it to compete successfully with the Free Press. Mr. Clarke, after editing the paper for two years, sold it to Messrs. Bigelow and Ward. In 1861 Mr. Ward retired from the partnership, and George H. Bige- low assumed the business control of the Times, associating with him in editorial control his brother Lucius. The fortunes of the Times, however, were on the decline, and in 1869 the paper was bought by the Free Press Association and united with the Free Press.
In 1868 a weekly newspaper called the Vermont Watchman was started in Burlington by Captain John Lonergan, but became involved in debt, and was discontinued after three issues.
In 1871 A. N. Merchant came to Burlington from Champlain, N. Y., and began his brief but brilliant career in the field of Chittenden county journal- ism by publishing as his first venture a weekly newspaper, Democratic in poli- tics, called the Independent. This paper proving unsuccessful, Mr. Merchant purchased the Sentinel, changed its name to the Burlington Democrat, and after publishing it for a short time from the old rickety building which used to stand on the corner of Main and Church streets, Burlington, removed the paper to Providence, R. I., as previously stated.
A monthly literary and family journal called Home Hours was started in Burlington by Benedict & Co., in 1872, but was published only a short time. It was succeeded, in 1873, by a similar venture on the part of A. N. Mer- chant, which, however, was equally short-lived.
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Two scientific journals were established at Burlington about this time by J. M. Courier : The Vermont Medical Journal, a bi-monthly, which was issued only a short time in 1873, and the Archives of Science, a quarterly, established in 1874, and soon discontinued.
The Burlington Clipper, one of the most wide-awake and readable of Ver- mont weeklies, was established in Burlington March 26, 1874, by C. S. Kins- ley. It was conducted by Mr. Kinsley alone until the latter part of the year 1885, when J. S. Harris, of St. Johnsbury (formerly editor of the St. Johns- bury Index), became associated with him in the ownership and editorial control of the paper. The Clipper has recently been removed to new and attractive quarters in the old Times building, and is increasing in prosperity under the enterprising management of Messrs. Kinsley & Harris.
A monthly paper called The Witness was published for about two years at Winooski, the first number appearing in 1875. The Witness was strongly tem- perance in its principles and utterances, and by some worthy people was con- sidered "cranky." It was edited by Rev. Mr. Atwater, and published by Wilson Bros.
The Vermont National was an ill-starred venture, published by the "Na- tional Publishing Company," at Burlington. It was started in 1875, and only a few issues were printed.
The Burlington Review, a weekly, was started by H. W. Love at Burling- ton, in 1878. "Mr. Love soon after started a branch paper at Rutland, and the tail speedily wagged the dog to death.
Another ephemeral publication was the Sunday Crucible, the first and only Sunday paper ever published in Chittenden county. It was established at Burlington by R. E. Chase & Co. in May 1879, and was in rather unsavory re- pute from the outset. After a fitful existence of not quite a year, during which time its name was changed to The National, it joined the great ma- jority of Chittenden county newspaper ventures, which had been-in somewhat ghastly phrase-"run into the ground."
The Chittenden Reporter, a weekly newspaper, was started at Jericho in 1882, by A. D. Bradford. It has been enlarged and improved since its estab- lishment, and has now a growing circulation in the section of the county where it is published.
The Burlington Independent, the local organ of the Democratic party in Burlington, was started in 1885 by C. J. Alger, a Burlington lawyer, who is sole editor and proprietor. The Independent is edited with ability, especially in respect to comment upon local events, and is coming to take its place as one of the leading Democratic papers of the State. It is published weekly in Bur- lington, and circulates in that city, and quite extensively among the Demo- cratic party in the county.
In some respects the most remarkable publication in Chittenden county re-
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mains yet to be noticed. Although The Vermont Autograph and Remarker never saw type or press, it was, nevertheless, a publication of no small im- portance and interest. A limited number of copies, printed with pen and ink, were issued and circulated from time to time by James Johns, of Huntington. This curious, half-public, half-private record of men and events, is filled with valuable historical and biographical matter, and such copies of it as now exist are naturally held in great esteem by their fortunate possessors. An extract or two will show that Mr. Johns was a man of opinions, and also that he knew how to express them.
The editor of the Autograph and Remarker thus delivers himself upon the subject of conventionality in dress: "There are certain matters concerning which a man ought to be considered as having a right to choose and act for himself independent of others. Among these is custom and fashion in what we wear about us. It is not necessary to our safety or our comfort that a man should conform himself to a prevailing fashion or custom worn or ob- served on certain occasions, and he ought not to be proscribed or ridiculed for differing in these things from the common run of things in those matters. All that the community need require of us in this matter is neatness, order and cleanliness."
Mr. Johns evidently had a strong undercurrent of Tory sympathy in his heart, for all his living under a Republican form of government ; for he says, in another place : " It is true that in a republican government founded on the will of the will of the people, a majority of votes cast is made to decide in elec- tions held, and on the adoption of a measure proposed where the question is put in a legislative body. The reason of which is, as we know, that men differ so much in their opinions and interests that they can scarcely ever be brought unanimously to agree on what is proper to be done, or who ought to be chosen to office ; and government is too important a matter to be set aside for want of unanimous assent. In all general matters of course where society is interested in its safety and protection from common danger and unnecessary wanton an- noyance, it is just and right that the popular will should rule and have proper weight, though, at the same time, the multitude are too apt sometimes to be actuated by foolish, unjust prejudice against things more obnoxious to their local or chance interests than really harmful to them on the whole, which is the case with the mobs and riots that sometimes arise in the cities. Further than this consideration of common safety and order, I do not think that popular drift ought to be allowed so much influence."
Mr. Johns discourses thus warmly of " Single Blessedness " in reply to cer- tain disparaging remarks of the editor of the Free Press in connection with a " bachelors' levee " held in Burlington :
" We must confess it does try our patience and our feelings, entirely aside from the circumstances of our being one of the number implicated, to hear and read the sweeping, ungenerous and unjust slants against that class of men who are pursuing the even tenor of their lives, free from the entangle-
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ments of matrimony, and lavishing on them that pity which is much more dne to married men in many cases. It is mean as it is absurd for any one to indulge in such ribaldry, just as if there were not and could not be only good reasons why a man is not, and ought not to be married, as everyone possessed of common sense knows there is, and since this fact cannot but be apparent to every one, among others to publishers of newspapers like him of the Burlington Free Press, who in introducing a notice of the Bachelors' Levee took occasion to dnb them a ' miserable set.' We would like to know what honor either their papers, or matrimony itself can derive from an imputation that every man, fit or not, ought to have a wife, just for the name of it? We advise him and the matrimonial champions of Burlington to hold a meeting of the husbands and wives there (the last bringing broomsticks with them) and see how many may wear the breeches."
The early history of journalism in Chittenden county, as probably in every community at that time, is in itself a curious and interesting study. The news- paper of that day differed, as may well be supposed, most materially from the newspaper of to-day. All the factors which then entered into the make-up of a newspaper were unlike what they are at the present time. The news was not the paramount feature of journalism ; nor was the absolute freshness of in- telligence its most desirable feature, as now. News was still news until it be- came so old that the community ceased to be interested in it. As a circulator of local intelligence, the early newspaper could not for an instant compare with even the least voluble gossip of an age little given to gossiping. Its chief ob- ject seems to have been to mould opinion and cultivate a taste for useful read- ing. And, when we look at it critically, is not this a higher and better stand- ard than that of the modern newspaper ?
One of the most interesting peculiarities of the early newspaper was the way in which it gathered its news. Before the day of the telegraph, of course, everything but local intelligence had to come " by post " or messenger. Thus we frequently find the editor rejoicing in the opportune arrival of a copy of some foreign or metropolitan journal, dated from a week to a month previous, and received always, it may be observed, "at the moment of going to press." Or, possibly, he gets a newsy letter from some correspondent or friend, which he proceeds to print in full with all its obscure privacies and exuberant com- ment.
The editor of the Burlington Sentinel was once at this critical juncture of "going to press," when there arrived, as he says, "a New York paper dated the 3Ist ult.," from which he gleaned considerable interesting and timely mat- ter, including some foreign news which had been thirty-four days crossing the ocean !
Even after the telegraph had united Burlington, and with it Chittenden county, with the world's life-current of thought and events, the newspaper of the day seems to have been still hampered by the slow conveyance of news. When the revolutionary movement in France deposed Louis Philippe, and all Europe stood aghast at the tremendous power of a great people rising in their might, the peaceful serenity of Chittenden county was not stirred for more than a fortnight after the event. The first intelligence of it was conveyed by a small extra, issued from the Free Press office, whichi introduced the news by stating
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that " The Cambria arrived this morning, sailed from Liverpool on the 27th ult., bringing two weeks' later intelligence from Europe."
Sometimes, too, even the telegraph failed to bring anything which satisfied the Burlington journalist's high idea of what a " well-magnetized " community should enjoy. "The news by telegraph this morning," says the Free Press, shortly after telegraphic communication had been made with Troy, " is of no sort of importance-embracing nothing but the Troy market and a few miscel- laneous items of no general interest."
In the collecting of local news the editors of thirty and forty years ago seem to have exercised a policy of rigid exclusiveness, besides a disposition to admit to their columns only that which time had thoroughly tested and en- dorsed. Small talk, which is so agreeable to the newspaper reader of to-day, was utterly beneath the contempt of the editor of the dignified local weekly which moulded the opinions of our fathers. As to matters of actual and even startling importance in the community - fires, robberies, celebrations, wed- dings and the like - the editors of our local papers in those days seem to have pursued the original and unrevised policy of Mohammed with a superior con- sistency. They amiably allowed mountains to come to them, when their space permitted, but displayed no anxiety about going in search of mountains them- selves. This policy, unfortunately, renders the newspaper of forty years ago a very imperfect chronicler of local events, and hardly a thorough and impartial guide to the historian.
It is rather amusing (as well as vexatious sometimes) to secure the date of some important local event, and then turn to the columns of the newspaper and find it embalmed in a few sententious sentences, which state at enormous length the fact that such an event occurred, but stop there with the tacit admis- sion that the editor was too lazy or too indifferent to look up the particulars. In compensation, however, the investigator will find the rest of the column filled with valuable editorial matter.
The diffuse style of editorial, to which allusion has been made, and which was " all the fashion " in those days, answered admirably well for certain sub- jects, particularly those of a light and general character, allowing play to the fancy, and giving opportunity for a happy and felicitous use of words. A glance at the early files of the Sentinel and the Free Press, for instance, shows some examples of this description of writing - more essays than editorials - which are really models in their way. For instance, here is a charming edito- rial on
VALENTINE'S DAY. - Charles Lamb had serious doubts, so he says, whether old Bishop Valen- tine, the patron of the fourteenth day of the shortest month in the year, and "the venerable archflamen of Hymen," was a mortal who was accustomed to wear a tippet and rochet, apron and decent lawn sleeves. At any rate, if he were actually a mitred father in the calendar, his spirit, he maintained with great force, on each returning festival, " came attended with thousands and ten thousands of little loves," and the air was
" Brush'd with the kiss of nestling wings."
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" Singing cupids," quoth the gentle Elia, " are thy choristers and precentors, oh Bishop, and instead of the crozier, the mystical arrow is borne before thee ! ! "
We are very gently reminded that this is the day when those delicate missives usually called val- entines, which are written, engraved, printed or painted in the most fanciful and suggestive manner, and nicely enclosed in curiously wrought envelopes, equally tender and tasteful in their devices, are slyly deposited in the all-swallowing and capacious orifice of every village Post-office, to the advantage at least of such government officials as expect such deposits to be followed by valuable considerations, and to the amusement of all who read or write matters so purely ephemeral.
This year the Editor was not forgotten ! Our own sensibility has been called into active requisition by the receipt of the following beautiful original Valentine, which we opened in the privacy of our sanc- tum with careful finger, so as not to break or mar its emblematic seal, and read while nothing was au- dible save the beating of the editorial heart.1
The paper on which the kindness of the writer was made manifest, is, on its color, as snowy as the fingers that wrote it. The writing was neatly executed with a quill that was plucked from the wing of Jove's favorite bird, that in his soarings never stops until he reaches the sun ! The perfume of the Valentine, if we mistake not, was a very late importation from Araby the Blest !
On a day when universal Yankeedom is commemorating this festival by paying homage to the di- vinity whose irreversible throne rests on the fancy and affections, we trust we may be pardoned for re- turning, in a suitable manner, our acknowledgement for the ray of literary sunshine which unexpect- edly gleamed upon us.
" With these apologistic remarks," as the lawyers say, " we submit " the following
VALENTINE. To * * *
Thon'rt like a star ; for when my way was cheerless and forlorn,
And all was blackness like the sky before a coming storm,
Thy beaming smile and words of love, thy heart of kindness free, Illum'd my path, then cheered my soul, and bade its sorrows flee.
Thou'rt like a star - when sad and lone I wander forth to view The lamps of night, beneath their rays my spirit's nerved anew, And thus I love to gaze on thee, and then I think thon'st power To mix the cup of joy for me, ev'n in life's darkest hour.
Thou'rt like a star - when my eye is upward turned to gaze Upon those orbs, I mark with awe their clear celestial blaze, And then thou seem'st so good, so high, so beautifully bright, I almost feel as if it were an angel met my sight.
Thou'rt like a star - perchance the proud and haughty pass me by, And curl the lip; - but not to them is bowed my spirit high ; No, not to them, e'en should they wear earth's proudest diadem, But I would bow before thee now, and kiss thy garment's hem.
And here is one with the piscatorial art for its subject - a theme which, curiously enough, editors of every day have found particularly congenial :
Our friends of the Brattleboro Eagle have gone into " convulsions " of piscatorial delight over a " sockdolager" of a Pike, caught by Mr. Pettis of that town, in West River a few days ago, and " served up" (and we underwrite for its having been well served up) by Captain Lord, last Saturday. If the Captain did crimp that fish, as he knows how, it furnished one of the coena divum spoken of in the Koran !
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