APPENDIX. 401 than it is in the social and the intellectual intercourse of human beings. The proud statesman, whose voice exer- cises a controlling influence upon a nation's destiny, forgets not the rude school-room where he imbibed the first pure draughts, from that fountain, from which he has since drunk so deeply. It is with such reflections as these, that we come to con- gratulate our friend S. B. Champion, upon the success of his novel enterprise. The first number of the Bloomville Mirror" was issued May 28th, 1851. It contained but one hundred and one words, printed on a sheet five by seven inches. Some six numbers were issued at intervals of two weeks. Up to July, '51, no price of subscription had been fixed. The copies which had been previously printed, had been gratuitously dis- tributed, and everywhere met with favor. The new postage law, which provided for the free circulation of newspapers in the county in which they were published, induced him to fix the price of the Mirror at twenty-five cents a year, and to publish it as often as sufiicient local news accumulated, to make it interesting. Up to July 1st, about sixty names had been handed in, with a request to be furnished with the ^' Mirror," and they would pay for the same when the price should be fixed. The publisher declined taking pay, stating 'Hhat he only printed them to while away his leisure moments." The capital invested in the paper, at this point in its history, was extremely limited. He had only ten pounds of old cast- ofi" type, that had been given to him by a brother printer in Schoharie. He had no printing press, and performed his press- work with a square block covered with cloth, upon which he struck with a mallet, as printers in some of&ces frequently ob- tain their proof sheets. After the issue of the paper containing the announcement that it would be sent to subscribers for twenty-five cents per 34*
