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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1906 Excerpt: ... of a continental officer with drawn sword appeared on one side of the first page and a scroll "Independence" on the other. In colonial days the premises of the printer, whence issued his sheet, served as a sort of intelligence office and headquarters for such as might advertise in his paper or come to answer the wants. Servants and laborers in search of a situation, the respondent for things lost or found, met often here promiscuously; and "apply to the printer" was the tail phrase of many a paid insertion in his columns, with more than a formal meaning. We read in one paper of 1772 that a lady had lost her "black double satin cardinal, almost new," which she suspects was "stolen by one of the various nurses wanting a situation whom she found at the house of the printer when she called there to engage one for herself." Among the general news which our press afforded in those days were those relating to politics, announcements of local marriages or deaths, with a passing compliment or obituary tribute; the weather phenomena, shipping or business intelligence, gained chiefly from posters at the custom-house, and items of accident and sudden death, or of the conviction or punishment for crime. The Pennsylvania Gazette gave little, comparatively, of local information, except for shipping news and the leading prices-current, though promoting various local reforms. Most items furnished to the public were set forth by the editor in sober earnest; and the general tone of our press in colonial days was that of honest and downright sincerity, as from a publisher who honored the powers ordained of God and meant to keep clear of prosecution. London clippings yielded most of the jokes or rumors afloat in high society; a well-prep...
