&|)C farmer's ittg ntl)lij llisitor. 



87 



impossible to print the Dumber of papers he 

 daily throws abroad to the world in any method 

 of printing known twenty-five years ago. Daily 

 are spread abroad some twenty thousand copies, 

 and the whole passes the press in from three to 

 five hours. In the city of New York the price 

 of this paper by the boys in the street is two and 

 three cents a copy. Of no settled opinions in 

 politics — with correspondents and writers— some 

 ol" them able— of all sides, and varying their 

 opinions as often as the kaleidoscope changes- 

 Bennett's Herald, the first to bring the news, is 

 Bought for and read in all onr cities and towns 

 where the mail daily arrives. The expenses ol 

 bis establishment are enormous : during the past 

 winter it was stated to ns by the President of the 

 Telegraph office at Washington, thai in the re- 

 ports sent through that medium, the Herald ex- 

 pense amounted frequently to one thousand dol- 

 lars a week : this telegraphic news often gives a 

 detail of the eve ts in the morning of all that 

 has taken place in Congress the previous day al 

 the distance of more than two hundred miles:— 

 in the same hour that an important even! occurs 

 hundreds of miles off, the information is often 

 circulating in print through the columns of the 

 Herald. A little army is employed in the Herald 

 by day and by night. Its reporters and wri- 

 ters are found at the scene of every interesting 

 event: two and three correspondents all the 

 time, and sometimes more, are employed at the 

 seat of government. Some ten or a dozen wri- 

 ters and collectors of news are also all the lime 

 at work in the city of publication. If a great 

 meeting of any kind takes place of an evening, 

 reports of the speeches and proceedings, often 

 at length, appear in the Herald next morning.— 

 Without method and arrangement, a newspaper 

 with so much reading matter could not be so 

 soon made up and so rapidly put in circulation. 

 The Herald has given more copious details of 

 the recent interesting events and movements in 

 Europe than any other paper of the country, ll 

 not only gives articles long ami short taken from 

 the European journals, hut Mr. Bennett has ob- 

 servers of events at the seats of most of the gov- 

 ernments, who write out very full accounts and 

 speculations upon every thing that is going on: 

 for nearly ever) day during the last winter the 

 reading of the Herald has been sufficient to con- 

 sume all the leisure of a rapid reader. In a 

 smaller sheet the Herald appears every chy ; hut 

 in quite a large double sheet the reading matter 

 is given weekly. The quantity of paper used 

 daily is forty-four reams, worth, at three dollars 

 a ream, one hundred ami thirty-two dollars. The 

 expenses of such an establishment as that of the 

 Herald must he enormous— without a steady 

 stream id" daily income, they would be ruinous. 

 The office realizes probably nut over a cent and 

 a half a sheet for the daily publication: for 

 twenty thousand, this would amount to three 

 hundred dollars. The Herald has recently adop- 

 ted the method of advertising only once, or if 

 renewed, the same expense charged for each 

 subsequent insertion: without taking the room 

 of more than three columns, this advertising will 

 give a hundred dollars a day. The gross income 

 of the establishment, if it he four hundred dol- 

 lars per day, would amount to one hundred and 

 forty-six thousand dollars for three hundred and 

 sixty-five days: it is believed, after paying all 

 expenses, the income of the Herald establish- 

 ment in clear profits may he §20,000 or *2r>,000 

 per annum. 



We inquired lately of Mr. Bennett irj relation 



to the writers of the financial articles in the 

 Herald, knowing thai Mr. Keltell had left the 

 tslablishmcnt. The Herald manager replied to 

 us that bis writers were generally a trained band 

 of young men who had- learnt almost every thing 

 in his school. Each had his separate depart- 

 ment, and each was a gatherer of facts. The 

 facts collected by one, not applicable to his own, 

 were regularly handed over to the department 

 where they appropriately belonged ; and all mai- 

 lers of public interest were in due time made 

 use of. 



There are other papers in the country with 

 daily editions perhaps even more numerous than 

 the Herald— these are still cheaper, but dearer 

 for their amount of information, than the Herald. 

 Of the penny papers of Boston, the Times is 

 said to circulate daily twenty thousand copies: 

 these are sold in the city and the towns around 

 after the arrival of the railroad cars at one cent a 

 copy. The reading of all interesting matter in 

 these last penny papers is generally the labor ol 

 only a few minutes: they are too light and 

 evanescent for re-perusal. 



The Loan and Government Finances.— A 

 letter from Washington to the N. Y. Commercial 

 Advertiser gives the following information re- 

 specting the financial wants of the govern- 

 ment :— 



"The Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Walker, 

 has to-day siaied that this is certainly the lasi 

 loan he should require to meet all the present 

 and prospective demands upon the Treasury, 

 anil that no more than ihe current revenues will 

 hereafter be required. He has recently made a 

 careful examination of the subject, and, after 

 making due allowance for the amount to he paid 

 m Mexico, and for ibe transportation of supplies 

 and pay of the troops, &c, he feels confident 

 that no more loans will he needed. 



'•The three millions to be paid to Mexico have 

 already been forwarded there by our govern- 

 ment ; and most of that sum has already been 

 met here by the Treasury. These facts are cer- 

 tainly very important, and show that the govern- 

 ment finances are much easier than has been 

 generally supposed." 



An autograph manuscript of Washington. 



During the last month spent mainly at the seat 

 of the national government, we have had ihe 

 gratification of a hasty perusal of the unpub- 

 lished manuscript diary or journal kept by Gen. 

 Washington for about seven months of the year 

 1787, including the period of between four and 

 five months in which he left Mount Vernon lo 

 proceed to Philadelphia as a delegate from Vir- 

 ginia for the formation of the Constitution of the 

 United Slates. The manuscript simply details 

 from day to day, not the proceedings of ihe Con- 

 vention or ihe part he took in its discussions, but 

 merely notes his social visits at ihe several 

 houses to which he was invited— his rides into 

 ihe country with other great men of the lime, on 

 hunting and fishing excursions— the entertain- 

 ments given him at the coutilry seats as well as 

 the city residences ol his friends. The great 

 man imisl have had a taste for convivial and so- 

 cial enjoyment erpial to that of Other men of thai 

 day who* came home from tne army to enjoy the 

 recompense of that liberty ami independence 

 which their valor had procured. Several limes 

 during the long silling of the Convention at 

 Philadelphia, do we find Washington noting the 

 time as attending theatrical and oiher eiilertain- 

 menls then not deemed lo be irrational or of 

 dangerous tendency: it might not then be thought 

 derogatory lo the first man of the coimlr lo 

 note "in his journal an occasional attendance up- 



on a public ball where the sexes came together 

 for the enjoyment of innocent pastime, for mutual 

 congratulations and interchange of the civilities 

 which give to life ils better polish. 



This journal of Washington, never we believe 

 yet published, lalely came* into the possession of 

 Peter Force, Esq., who in ihe compilation of bis 

 Documentary History, patronized by a law of 

 Congress, has already brought together probably 

 the rarest and largest collection of manuscripts 

 and early printed books to be found in this coun- 

 try. It is in the shape of a common duodecimo 

 volume or pamphlet sewed, filling out entirely 

 about seventy-five pages. As ihe autograph 

 of the illustrious man who wrote daily in it, the 

 journal is a curiosity f but as shewing the minute 

 attention of Washington to all the minor mailers 

 of ihe day, deeming no subject too trifling lo be 

 noted for the memory, it is an example of indus- 

 try and diligence worthy of being imitated even 

 by those who may feel that they have no other 

 particular employment than to kill time. 



The latter part of the journal manuscript kept 

 about two months after his return to Mount Ver- 

 non shows how laborious Washington made his 

 private life when retired from the cares of the 

 army and the State. Although Mount Vernon 

 was then of difficult access, even more so than 

 at present, yet was the mansion of the great man 

 seldom destitute of visitors from all parts of the 

 country : foreigners intermingled wilh Ameri- 

 cans in corning and going, and in tarrying by day 

 and by night under the roof which presented 

 one act of hospitality as the signal for others to 

 succeed it. Every thing must have beet) there 

 free and easy to the stranger, else there could 

 not have been an increase of visitors at Mount 

 Vernon to the last days of Washington's life. — 

 Every fair day, when not kept at home by com- 

 pany, it was the. practice of Washington to visit 

 his four plantations, containing several thousand 

 acres, Tilling on horse-back a circuit of several 

 miles. Having asked of Mr. Force the liberty, 

 we made a few hasty extracts from this unique 

 manuscript of Washingten, which will be found 

 below with memoranda of our own : 



extracts from Washington's journal. 



Wednesday,. May 9, 1787. Crossed the river to 

 Mr. Digges' a liule alier sunrise, and Inking ihe 

 road by way of Baltimore, lodged at Mr. Ricb'd 

 llanilerson's, where I was hospitably entertained, 

 but exceedingly indisposed at night with a head- 

 ache and sick stomach. 



[The next move was from Mr. Harrison's, near 

 Bladensburg to Elk ridge Landing, about ten 

 miles out of Baltimore. Here ihe attention of 

 the father of his country, at thai early day alive 

 io agricultural improvement, was drawn to a 

 " Patent Plough," there manufactured, one of 

 which the proprietor engaged to forward him 

 for his farm at Mount Vernon. The Mount Ver- 

 non estates under the shiftless management of 

 slave-labor, it is evident from this journal, des- 

 p.ile of all the vigilance of their owner, produced 

 at that lime scarcely sufficient in crops of corn, 

 wheat and potatoes tor the sustenance of his own 

 families of colored dependants. The tobacco 

 cultivation there as elsewhere in ibis originally 

 fine region of country, had extracted all the first 

 surface fertility of this land. The rude ploughs 

 then used stirred and disturbed the ground to 

 very little purpose : Washington was anxious to 

 remedy the great defect by improved methods of 

 ploughing. But to this day in that region, as in 

 most other portions of the country, if the value 



