228 THE ISLAND OF NANTUCKET. 



work as well as public appreciation of newspapers had 

 made great strides since the old Gazette days; and the 

 old Inquirer soon found other new rivals in the field. 

 Two young aspirants for journalistic honors, A. B. 

 Robinson and W. Bradford, started up the Telegraph 

 upon the ruins of the Islander, and for a time suc- 

 ceeded in maintaining a daily issue. 



This was the first daily newspaper in Nantucket, and 

 for a brief period another dairy was issued from the 

 Inquirer office. But other changes about this time 

 followed in rapid succession. Mr. Jenks, having been 

 appointed postmaster under the Whig administration, 

 sold out his newspaper to Hiram Dennis, and he not 

 long after transferred it to Edward W. Cobb, who, hav- 

 ing also bought the little Telegraph, had for a brief 

 season the monopoly of the local newspaper business. 

 But in 1845 the Nantucket Weekly Mirror made its 

 debut, edited and published by John Morrissey (now of 

 Plymouth, Mass.), who was then a very young man, 

 and had been an employe in the Inquirer office. 



The Mirror took no partisan stand in politics, pro- 

 fessing to be neutral, or rather independent, upon all 

 questions of the day; and being a sprightly, well-con- 

 ducted paper, soon established itself, and became a 

 formidable rival to the time-honored Inquirer. But 

 this was not enough, for about the same time a third 

 claimant for popular support made its appearance. 

 At that time our people were much divided upon the 

 antislavery question, and especially upon the sub- 

 ject of admitting colored children into the same 

 schools with the whites; and party spirit waxed warm 

 upon this local issue The conservatives who opposed 



