Page:History of Oregon Newspapers.pdf/35

28 were as yet still struggling to take form. Like most pioneer papers, the Spectator made no real effort to gather news; apparently it had neither the will nor the way; and whenever any item carried more than an irreducible minimum of detail, you can be sure either that the item was an editorial, loaded with the writer's opinion, or that someone, probably the secretary of some meeting, had been instructed to cover the news for the Spectator and had carried out his instructions.

It was several weeks before the city government of Oregon City was recognized in a single real news item. Meanwhile, a city government, headed by a mayor, was more or less functioning, for in the first issue the third editorial paragraph, under the heading "City Government," informs the readers that

"The time has come for a thorough and complete organization of our City Corporation. Our mayor ant trustees are doing business in the right way. Our advice to them is, first: 'Be sure you are right, then go ahead. Gentlemen,dig up the stumps, grade the streets, tax dogs, prohibit hogs—and advertise in the Spectator.'"

The first bit of real information dealing with the affairs of the city government, appearing in the third issue of the paper, apparently resulted from the advice to the officials to advertise in the Spectator, for a city ordinance appeared as a paid city notice. The ordinance itself is of peculiar interest. Contrary to the present-day city ordinance, the instrument contained seven distinct provisions, or enough for seven city ordinances today. It was signed by A. Lawrence Lovejoy, mayor, attested by Fred Prigg, city recorder, later secretary of the territory. Among the provisions of this omnibus ordinance were a prohibition of swine running at large in the city, a ban on hauling logs or timber along the streets unless attached to or slung on wheels, a ban on riding or driving furiously along the streets, and a provision for arrest and fine of any person found intoxicated, acting in a disorderly manner, or otherwise offending public decency.

More than the papers of today, the Spectator and its contemporaries and early successors sought to be "organs" and mouthpieces for the ideas, both news and editorial, of those who would take the trouble to send them in. Repeated appeals for contributions occur in the early numbers. For instance,

"Will some of the old settlers in Oregon be kind enough to prepare an article for the Spectator, giving an account of the climate, soil and production of Oregon, particularly describing the location of the country, its extent and all other particulars that would be of interest to the citizens of the United States?"