Page:History of Oregon Newspapers.pdf/120

Rh to keep oil the political note. An editorial, for instance, on the failure of the first Atlantic cable concluded:

"The failure of this miracle of ingenuity has no parallel in the history of human disasters, except the failure of the fusion movement in New York. The one prevented telegraphic connection with Europe; the other, democratic connection with the presidency."

News technique was not far advanced. For example, here is a murder story:

"Mr. Newell, brother of the editor of the Mountaineer, was murdered in San Francisco a few weeks ago. The murderer says it was done to avenge slanderous words in regard to his wife, made by Mr. Newell. The trial of the murderer will disclose the facts. Col. Farrar, of this city, has been retained for the prosecution. The trial was to take place about the first of the present month."

And here was a local police story:

"There is a good deal of petty thieving going on at this time in Portland. Clothes should not be left out on the drying lines at night. Attempts have lately been made to break into houses."

Some more of the news:

"Pile Driving.—We learn that the object of the pile driving at the foot of Taylor street is to construct a wharf for the use of the new warehouse erected on the land claimed by J. P. O. Lownsdale. The improvements now going on there appear to be calculated to attract business to that portion of town."

A brief society notice:

"Married—On the 27th inst., at the residence of Judge Olds, in Yamhill county, Mr. John Wilson and Miss Elizabeth Parker, both of this city."

The advertising still was mostly of the card, label type, all in dull, formal phrasing.

Medicines of various sorts were prominently advertised, including Mrs. Winslow's Soothing Syrup for children; Old Sachem Bitters, with a woodcut of an Indian, "unequalled" in all cases of dypepsia, debility, loss of appetite, or any irregularity of the stomach; Ayer's Pills and Cherry Pectoral; Sanford's Liver Regulator; Brown's Bronchial Troches.