Page:History of Oregon Newspapers.pdf/471

462 of the United States arsenal at that place, last Sunday evening, and held it against the forces of Maryland and Virginia, until Tuesday morning, when it was stormed by United States marines.

The second section of the headline had read: "Old John Brown Shot." This important and interesting part of the story is not mentioned in the first thousand words. Instead the reporter goes on to sketch in the whole background before telling the news of the day.

This is how Horace Greeley's Tribune was telling murder stories in 1859, as indicated by an example from the issue of January 6 of that year:

Under the heading, which occupied an inch of space, the lead started out thus:

"This (Thursday) morning, about 2½ o'clock, a deliberate and cold-blooded murder was committed in the rear of premises No. 154 Sullivan street, Harmon Curnon, a colored man, being stabbed to death by Felix Sanchez, his son-in-law. Some seven weeks ago, Sanchez, who is a good-looking young Spaniard, married Mary Jane Curnon, a sprightly colored girl, and latterly the newly-married couple boarded with Mr. and Mrs. Curnon at the above number. Sanchez, who is represented as an extremely vicious fellow, without cause became jealous of his wife, and a day or two since threatened to take her life."

Then follows the account of the actual killing, and the article ends:

"Then . . . Captain Turnbull subsequently deputed Officers Baldwin and Wisebury to search for Sanchez, and the officials searched his old haunts, but without success. . . . It is believed the murderer will soon be taken. . . . Mr. Curnon was a very respectable and industrious man."

The following article, published in the Oregon Statesman June 1, 1852, is apparently a fair average of the Oregon newswriting of that day:

A murder was committed at Jacksonville, a small mining