Page:The Afro-American Press.djvu/136

128 But, for all this, it is our pleasure to record some efforts in this line which have met, and now seem to be meeting, with success, though attended with many difficulties.

The first attempt made to establish a daily publication was at Cairo, Ill., where Hon. W. S, Scott, then publishing a weekly, started a daily in connection with it. It was known as The Cairo Gazette, Mr. Scott being owner and editor. He bought a complete outfit, at a cost of $2000, which enabled him very successfully to put his paper into operation. Vol. 1, No. 1, of the daily issue, came out April 23, 1882, as an independent publication, in the interest of the race. Mr. Scott was a prominent man, and as popular with the whites as with the blacks; a proof of the fact being that his job office did all the city's printing. Four-fifths of the circulation of his paper was among the whites. It was a readable sheet, all original matter, and had a good force of reporters. Mr. Scott's politics do not meet the approval of many; but his ability is never questioned. The Daily Gazette was issued six months, when it was destroyed by fire,

The next effort at a daily issue was The Columbus Messenger, at Columbus, Ga. It was started June 20, 1887, as a weekly paper, and published for a year and a half as such, when it became a semi-weekly, and finally a daily. It was edited with much spirit and fitness by Mr. B. T. Harvey, a