Page:History of Delaware County (1856).djvu/417

 APPENDIX. DELAWARE GAZETTE. The following extract, is from the first number of the " Auto- biography of the Delaware Gazette At this period of my exist- ence — a period in the age of newspapers when a prescriptive right to he garrulous has been fairly earned, I am disposed to sit down and have a little gossip of the ^ good old times/ with my readers. I have attained to a greater age than is usually granted to newspapers, — in fact I am a kind of a paper Methusaleh ) and no candid person will deny that my gray hairs entitle me to a respectful hearing. Delaware county and its villages have changed vastly for the better, since my birth ; so have I changed vastly for the better in my size and per- sonal appearance, during the same period. I am to-day, (1854,) just twice as large as when I was first wrapped in swaddling clothes; and the miserable whity-brown complexion, and uncouth toggery I wore when I made my first weekly call at your doors, have given place to a clear, healthy-looking face, and a dress really genteel, — in fact, I am a kind of Beau Brum- mel among the hebdomadals of this region. It brings sadness to my heart to sit down with you and conjure up the memories of the past, from 1819, when I made my first appearance, down to the present time ! Most of the friends whose kind hands were extended to guide my first faltering steps, went to sleep long ago in the quiet countiy church-yards ; the few left are old folks, going about with frosty