Page:History of American Journalism.djvu/23



desire to hear or to know the new thing is as old as man. It was an instinct even of the most primitive people. Before the men of the Stone Age traded in the products of the soil or of the hand, they exchanged news. But the historian of journalism is interested primarily not in the news which is spoken, but in that which is written. He finds little to attract his attention until he reaches the invention of the written language. Triangular figures chiseled in stone and strange characters pricked on goatskin may give history, but not news. When the first written newspaper—for letters giving the news were sold and circulated long before the invention of the printing-press—appeared is not known. Some say it was in Rome; others assert it was in Venice. Recent investigators of the question have given the honor to China.

On one matter there has been no difference of opinion: in every country the printed has grown out of the written newspaper. Even after the invention of printing it was a comparatively long time before the printing-press was called upon to aid in the dissemination of news. A little thought on the subject will give the reason. Not until printed sheets could be produced cheaper or quicker—in actual practice both—than the written ones did the gatherer and seller of news forsake the latter for the former. Even then, the complete change was not made suddenly. Libraries and museums have in their archives combination sheets, half printed and half written. It was the custom at one time to leave one page free from printing in order that the latest news or freshest advices might be written in by hand.