Under New Management

The first newspaper in America came out in Boston Sept. 25, 1690, and was slapped down the same day. It was banned by Governor Simon Bradstreet for want of a license, and for an unseemly leer at Louis XIV of France ("If reports be true," gossiped Editor Ben Harris, "[he] used to sleep with the Sons Wife").

Last week, after a mere 256 years of suspended animation, the name, of the first paper had life again. Publick Occurrences, Both Forreign and Domestick, got safely past Vol. I, No. 2. Under its new management, it saw no need to change its aims with the times: it would continue to expose any "malicious Raiser of a False Report," would work "towards the Curing, or at least the Charming of that Spirit of Lying, which prevails amongst us. . . ."

The second editor was Dr. Frank Monaghan, a tweedy historian and onetime Yale professor who got the idea of reviving Publick Occurrences while doing a biography of its founder 15 years ago. He thought about it during long months in the Pentagon as an Army P.R.O., later talked a well-to-do Manhattan friend, , William Henry Walling, into printing it without charge. Actress Peggy Wood, wife to Publisher Walling, became "Dramaticks Editor" on the same basis--no pay; Thurman (Folklore of Capitalism) Arnold was signed on as Washington stringer; Novelist H. M. Tomlinson was to report from London.

Where Are They Now? From a photostat of the only copy of the first issue (in London's Public Record Office) Editor Monaghan carefully copies the writing style (including its heavy use of italics for emphasis) and does his best to get the printers to imitate typography. The first four-page number had its share of antiquarian whimsy (the Publisher regrets "his Inability to satisfy the Complaints of several of the original Subscribers . . . who say that they have not yet received their Copies. . . . The previous Editor . . . did not leave us a complete list of Subscribers"). But Monaghan was more interested in sounding off on such contemporary matters as Drew Pearson's accuracy, War Department red tape.

Publick Occurrences was also "now full weary of the strange Fulminations of both Henry Wallace and Harold ('The Terrible') Ickes and their Ranting about . . . 'MILITARY FASCISM.' . . ." It snickered over a typo in "our youngish but esteemed Contemporary, the New York Times." It needled The Lone Ranger for brazenly stating from coast to coast "that nowhere in the pages of History can you find a greater champion of justice, etc."

Most of the 1,000 friends and fellow publishers who got Monaghan's first issue offered to pay, but wondered what Monaghan was trying to sell. Nothing at all, Editor Monaghan told them; he just wanted to have some fun and pay "a simple little tribute to freedom of the press." As for pay, he referred them to his prospectus : "We publish no pictures, the last refuge of the Illiterate. . . . We accept no paid Advertisements. . . . You cannot buy a copy of PUBLICK OCCURRENCES. It is not exposed on the Public Marts, nor is it hawked about by street urchins . . . but we might be inveigled into a bit of Honest Barter. ., . . If you produce a joint of Ham, a shaving Lotion, a good Bourbon, a jug of maple syrup or any other good and honest item then we are sometimes in the mood to have it. . . ."

When would his next issue be? In the words of Publick Occurrences' first editor, whenever "any Glut of OCCURRENCES happen." There would probably be six or eight gluts a year, Monaghan guessed.

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