me time being
a debtor. At various times, as already mentioned, it borrowed
sums until its total indebtedness amounted to $52,975. To jus-
tify this position The Courtier and Enquirer published a state-
ment as to its financial condition. Whether the condition of the
paper was sufficient to warrant such a loan is open to discussion.
The statement, however, did show a number of interesting facts
about publishing a blanket sheet. According to the memoran-
dum compiled by Colonel Webb, there were 3300 daily sub-
scribers who paid an annual subscription price of $10; 2300
hundred weekly or semi-weekly subscribers whose average sub-
scriptions amounted to $4.50; 275 yearly advertisers at the
flat rate of $30. The annual gross income amounted to $60,750,
from which the annual expenses of $35,000, when subtracted,
showed a profit at least on the books of $25,750. Accord-
ing to Colonel Webb, The Courier and Enquirer was worth fully
$150,000. If it were, it steadily lost in value, for at a later
period it found itself unable to meet expenses and was finally
absorbed by The World.
BULLETIN BOARDS THEN AND NOW
Bulletin boards on which a re'sume' of the news was posted first appeared during the second decade of the eighteenth cen- tury. By 1815 The New York Mercantile Advertiser and The New York Gazette were posting on boards nailed to their front doors brief statements of the more important items which came to their offices. Other papers in distant cities soon followed the example set by the New York papers and the bulletin board be- came an established adjunct of American journalism. The Mexican War and the War of the States increased their useful- ness. At one time most of the provincial press got its news of outside happenings from correspondents who visited these bulletin boards and then forwarded the contents to their re- spective papers first by letter and then later by wire. Not until the close of the nineteenth century did these pony reports for the smaller dailies completely disappear. The bulletin board has possibly reached its highest development in reporting ath- letic events. Because of the great interest taken by the Ameri- can public in baseball, the bulletin board has frequently blocked
