Page:Notes by the Way.djvu/268

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198

��NOTES BY THE WAY.

��J. M. Levy

purchases

The Daily

Telegraph and

The Morning

Chronicle.

��Early contri- butors to 'Ihe Daily Telegraph.

��Supports

Gladstone's

repeal of the

paper duties.

Sends George Smith to Nineveh.

Joins Nerv

York Herald

in sending

Stanley to

Africa.

��rise in the newspaper world, especially in the provinces. But London was not to be behind, and on the 29th of June, 1856, when England and France were looking forward to the fall of Sebastopol, the first number of The Daily Telegraph and Courier appeared, the price being twopence.

On the 17th of September of the same year, the paper having passed into the hands of Mr. J. M. Levy, the price was reduced to one penny. Each issue consisted of four pages, and the title of Courier was allowed to fall into the background. Mr. Levy also purchased The Morning Chronicle, and thus extinguished that venerable paper. What a curious and interesting contribution to the history of English newspapers a record of that paper would be \ The Westminster Gazette recalls the fact that Nelson privately com- municated to The Morning Chronicle the death of Sir William Hamilton. There still hangs over the publishing office of The Daily Telegraph the original clock of the older paper. This reminds me of our old clock at The Athenceum, which has indicated the time for publishing, without intermission, since the days when it was placed in the office in Catherine Street, in the house rented from the notorious Molloy Westmacott.

The Daily Telegraph article on its Jubilee tells us the names of some of those who contributed to its success in the past, the list including Thornton Hunt, Geoffrey Prowse, George Hooper, the Hon. Frank Lawley, Edward Dicey, H. D. Traill, Sir Edwin Arnold, and George Augustus Sala. Among those of the present day may be named Mr. W. L. Courtney and Mr. J. M. Le Sage. The article also records with just pride the opportunities taken by it for the public good. Among the first was its strong support of Mr. Glad- stone in the repeal of the Paper Duties, Lord Burnham (then Mr. Lawson) being an active member of the Association founded by my father for freeing literature and the press from taxation. In June, 1873, The Daily Telegraph sent Mr. George Smith to Nineveh, where he discovered the missing fragments of the cuneiform account of the Deluge. In 1875 Stanley's expedition to Africa was organized by The Daily Telegraph hi conjunction with The New York Herald. The results of that journey are described in ' Through the Dark Continent.' Other geographical feats with which the paper is associated are the exploration of Kilimanjaro by Sir Harry Johnston in 18845, and Mr. Lionel Decle's march from the Cape to Cairo in 1899-1900.

Reference is also made in the article to the increased use of telegraphic communication by war correspondents. " The old idea was that a carefully written account of any incident abroad was better in itself, and more appreciated by the general body of readers, than a more or less brief telegraphic summary." But the War of 1870 altered this state of things, and Sir John Robinson of The Daily News, when he sent out Archibald Forbes, instructed

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