Page:History of Oregon Newspapers.pdf/473

464 The Statesman, however, supplies us with examples of both the good and the bad. For example, the following (February 9, 1858):

"The jail here was set on fire Friday night, and was with much difficulty saved from destruction."

Also, the following week, in the same paper:

"A revival of religion is in progress at the M. E. church. Meetings are held day and evening."

These represent no advance whatever over what the little Spectator had been doing twelve years before at the very birth of newsgathering in the West.

Describing a new bridge at Lafayette, the Statesman (October 9, 1852) said, in a news-editorial:

"We are gratified to learn that the bridge across the Yamhill river, at Lafayette, is completed, and in use. It is a noble structure and a much needed convenience to the public. The public-spirited citizens of Yamhill deserve great credit for the energy and determination with which they commenced and carried on the enterprise in the face of misfortunes and embarrassments. They had it nearly completed last winter, when the freshet carried off one of their large abutments; but nothing daunted they commenced the work of reconstruction, and now have it finished, and, as they say, and as we trust, beyond the reach of floods."

The date does not seem to make much difference in the quality of the newsgathering and newswriting in the Statesman of those earlier times. This excerpt from the issue of January 18, 1870, might well have come from the first issue, 19 years earlier:

"Recovering.—We learn that the little boy who was so severely hurt by a horse last Sunday week, is so much better as to be considered out of danger. Mr. Farrens thinks that he was not kicked but struck by the forefoot of the animal a gentle mare. The dog was barking at the time, and it is supposed that the mare struck at him. The little fellow had a loud call, and we suppose the physicians attending him feel rather proud of their success. We hear it is more than they expected at first."

Good examples of the practice of combining news with editorial are found in the Oregonian in 1857, at the same time giving a line on the state of public order in Portland at that time.

"California rowdies" are blamed for disorderly conditions in Portland by Mr. Dryer in the course of a 200-word item telling of the shooting of a rioter by Marshal Holcomb in self-defense. The article concluded: