Except in libraries and special collections one seldom sees a newspaper\u00a0that was printed before the Revolution, but Mr. Johnson Parks of Western\u00a0Avenue, Waterville, has at least one copy of such a paper. It is the Boston\u00a0Evening Post, dated December 18, 1769, more than 180 years ago. Even earlier\u00a0copies doubtless exist somewhere, for this particular issue is Number 1786.<\/p>\n
The paper has no mast-head, so it is impossible to tell how often it was published,\u00a0who was its editor, or what was the subscription rate. As was the custom in those days, long term credit was given to subscribers, and apparently\u00a0the publisher of the Post was getting somewhat annoyed by the practice, for\u00a0in the lower right hand corner of the first page appears the notice: “All\u00a0persons indebted for this paper, whose accounts have been above 12 months\u00a0standing,are requested to make immediate payment.”<\/p>\n
The paper is a four-page sheet, 16 inches by 10, three columns to a page.<\/p>\n
The leading article under the heading “Journal of the Times” is devoted to\u00a0the pressing question of treatment of the American colonies by the British\u00a0crown and parliament. Among other things the article says: “Americans (note\u00a0the word American was already being used in 1769) are too enlightened a people\u00a0to be imposed upon by the arts and unfair practices of a British minister\u00a0who appears lost both to a sense of his own dignity and to true national interest.<\/p>\n
The effect of Lord Hillsborough’s letter to the Governor of Rhode Island,\u00a0warning that no measures can be taken to question the authority of Britain\u00a0over the colonies, has been treated with due contempt. His Lordship’s\u00a0promise to take off certain duties is not to be trusted, as past experience\u00a0bears witness. The merchants of Massachusetts as well as those of Rhode Island\u00a0will not be thus shaken from their pledged agreement not to import foreign\u00a0goods until the revenue acts are repealed.”<\/p>\n
Thus in a single newspaper, printed 180 years ago, we see a contemporary\u00a0account of the seeds of the American Revolution. Exactly five years and four\u00a0months were to elapse before Master Paul Revere would wait on the Charlestown\u00a0shore to note whether one or two lanterns shed their gleam from the steeple\u00a0of Old North Church and start on his ride to alarm the countryside to\u00a0fire the shots heard round the world.<\/p>\n
The third page of this paper is almost wholly devoted to advertisements,\u00a0most of them public notices or auction sales. Among the former are two adjacent\u00a0notices supporting what I said on this program several weeks ago; namely,\u00a0that there were two competing grand lodges of Masons in Boston before the Revolution.<\/p>\n
One notice reads: “The brethren of the ancient and honorable society of\u00a0free and accepted masons are hereby notified that the Right Worshipful John\u00a0Rowe, Esq., Grand Master of Masons in North America, designs to celebrate the\u00a0festival of St. John the Evangelist on Wednesday the 27th instant, at the\u00a0Bunch of Grapes Tavern in King Street, where the brethren are desired to attend\u00a0at one o’clock on the said day. By order of the Grand Master, Abraham\u00a0Savage, Grand Secretary. N. B. Dinner precisely at two o’clock.”<\/p>\n
The other notice says: “Notice is hereby given by the most ancient and\u00a0honorable fraternity of free and accepted masons that the feast of st. John\u00a0the Evangelist will be celebrated by the Right Worshipful Master and brethren\u00a0of the Lodge of St. Andrew in Boston, on Wednesday the 27th instant, at\u00a0their hall. Tickets to be had of Brother James Carter and at said hall. N. B.\u00a0The brethren are desired to attend precisely at 11 o’clock A.M. Dinner will be\u00a0on the table by two.”<\/p>\n
Thus at the December festival of Masonry in old Boston in 1769 the brothers of the Scottish Rite got a two hour start on their brothers of the York\u00a0Rite, who did not convene until one o’clock, though both parties sat down to\u00a0one of those huge colonial dinners at the same hour of two o’clock.<\/p>\n
In another column is the obituary of Samuel Kneeland, Boston’s famous\u00a0printer, who had died at the age of 73. It had been exactly fifty years\u00a0earlier that an even more famous printer, Benjamin Franklin, then only 13 years\u00a0old, had put out his brother’s paper in Ben’s name in order not to violate\u00a0the Governor’s edict that James Franklin should no longer publish the New\u00a0England Courant.<\/p>\n
In another item we learn that Captain Nixon, in a brig belonging to Rhode\u00a0Island was to sail from London to Portsmouth in New Hampshire some time in November, full freighted with gOOds for that place. We also learn that New\u00a0Jersey men are not to be outdone by those in New England in so virtuous an\u00a0act as the killing of those ‘destructive vermin called squirrels, for a whole\u00a0New Jersey town had assembled and killed 1,600 of the creatures.<\/p>\n
In those days duels, instead of being outlawed, were faithfully reported\u00a0in the press. We read: “On the 31st of October last, Lieut. Goodacre of the\u00a09th Regiment was shot through the body at st. Augustine in a duel with a gentleman\u00a0from Pensacola, and died a short time after.”<\/p>\n
Now let’s take a look at one of the auction sales of 1769. The notice\u00a0says: “On Thursday, December 21, at 11 o’clock forenoo~, will be sold by public\u00a0auction at the auction block opposite the west end of Faneuil Hall Market,\u00a0several genteel suits of wearing apparel, plain and trimmed with lace,\u00a0Holland jackets, nankeen and silk breeches, a silver-hilted sword and shield,\u00a0a pair of silver mounted pistols, a silver watch and other articles.”<\/p>\n
William Jones, at his shop opposite the Town House, advertised finest\u00a0Florence oil in honest flasks, choice new currants, cinnamon, nutmegs, turkey\u00a0figs, all recently imported in the ship Betsy from London. Jones also\u00a0sold the conventional drugs of the day: balsam of honey, Jesuit’s drops, female\u00a0elixir, and the inevitable castor oil.<\/p>\n
Four merchants advertised spermacetti candles, and Barnabas Clarke had\u00a0just put in a big supply of choice Jamaica \u00b7sugars to be sold by barrel or\u00a0hogshead, both Jamaica and Grandes rum, pepper by the bag, rare ginger, Durham\u00a0mustard by the box, and the very best of Bohea tea, concerning which\u00a0Clarke’s ad carefully stated that it was imported before the merchants’\u00a0agreement not to import dutiable goods.<\/p>\n
Learning was never neglected in Boston. In 1769 Harvard was already 133\u00a0years old, about the same age that Colby is now. So it is not unexpected to\u00a0find in this old newspaper the announcement of a new and accurate spelling\u00a0dictionary, lately published in London, neatly bound in red, at a price of\u00a0one shilling six pence, boasting to teach the parts of speech and pronunciation\u00a0of every word and syllable in the English tongue. It was for sale by\u00a0all booksellers in Boston who had made proper arrangements with the man who\u00a0held the London sales rights, Isaac Fell of Pater Norter Row, the very man\u00a0who was the origin of the famous ditty that begins, “I do not like thee, Dr.\u00a0Fell”.<\/p>\n
An expression still familiar in rural areas and among older people is\u00a0“Not worth a continental”. When folks of my grandfather’s generation wanted\u00a0to denounce anything as flagrantly worthless they declared it “not worth a\u00a0continental”. As I am sure most of you know, the expression originated out\u00a0of the comparative worthlessness of the American continental currency at the\u00a0time of the Revolution and during the early years of the Republic.<\/p>\n
The story goes that a steamboat going down the Mississippi loaded with\u00a0cordwood in the early days of steamboating on the big river tied up at a town\u00a0wharf. A merchant hailed the captain, shouting: “Want to sell your wood?”<\/p>\n
“Sure”, replied the captain. “Will you pay specie or paper?” “Paper”, yelled\u00a0the merchant, “good Ohio paper. How’ 11 you trade?” “Well, seeing’s you want\u00a0to pay in paper, I’ll trade cord for cord.”<\/p>\n
In the collections, even the small collections, of the numismatists,\u00a0there is <\/em>usually at least one example of old-time paper money, but many of\u00a0these are not strictly continentals~that is, <\/em>they were not issued before the\u00a0signing of the American Constitution. Mr. Johnson Parks has shown me a fine\u00a0example of true Continental currency — one item that preceded not only the\u00a0Constitution, but the Declaration of Independence as well. It is <\/em>a half dollar\u00a0bill issued by the Provincial Convention of Maryland at Annapolis on December\u00a07, 1775. On the face of the bill is <\/em>the usual statement of promise to\u00a0pay in gold or silver, at the rate of four shillings six pence to the dollar.<\/p>\n On the back is the seal of Maryland, the name of the printer, and the words,\u00a0“equal to two shillings three pence sterling”.<\/p>\n If the present policies of government spending are not soon checked, some\u00a0of our currency may come to be “not worth a continental”.<\/p>\n It now looks as if the present Congress intends to do nothing about the cuts in excise <\/em>taxes already agreed to by the Ways and Means Committee of the\u00a0House of Representatives. Those cuts would mean lower prices and real savings\u00a0to the consumer. The Committee proposed to wipe out altogether the 20% tax on\u00a0admissions to concerts, charity shows, county fairs, and high school sports,\u00a0as well as the 20% tax on baby powder and baby lotions, on handbags and purses,\u00a0and on light bulbs and tubes. They agreed to cut from 20% to 10% the taxes on\u00a0general admissions, on trunks and suitcases, and cosmetics; from 25% to 10% the\u00a0tax on telegraph \u00b16lls; and from 15% to 10% the taxes on household phone bills\u00a0and on travel tickets. Something seems now to have snagged this program, but\u00a0there is <\/em>still a chance to revive it, if interested citizens will urge their\u00a0Congressmen to action.<\/p>\n Year: 1950<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Read the script for “Little Talks” program #68, broadcast on May 14, 1950<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":405,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1153,35296],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7130"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/405"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7130\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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