original issues of newspapers on the anniversary of some note worthy events. These have often been circulated by enterpris ing business firms through a desire to attract attention to their products, but the publicity desired for the articles to be sold prevents deception as to the means used.
Another reprint with deliberate intent to deceive was an issue of Punch put on the market in October, 1914, through German influence. It purported to be the current issue, but its cover reproduced a cartoon of the Civil War that at the time had justly given great offense to the North. The evident intention was to revive old animosities between America and England and thus prevent America from supporting the cause of the Allies.
It is difficult to class with any of the illustrations given the Ulster County Gazette of January 4, 1800, containing an account of the funeral of George Washington,—" Without doubt the most widely known literary relic in this country."[1] The Ulster County Gazette was established at Kingston, New York, in 1798, the only known original issue of the year 1800 is that of May 10, and "in the thousands of copies issued of this interesting paper, a copy of the original issue has never come to light." The first so-called reprints were made in Kingston in 1846 or 1847, at the time of a local celebration; "since then there have been published no less than twenty-one differing reprints of that issue." The Library of Congress has listed all these reprints and checked the variations in them . It has also published a circular of information, giving a brief history of them and suggesting some of the evidences of spuriousness that characterize them all. But in spite of all the careful study given the paper, the object of the reprint is yet to be explained; a still further explanation is needed of the large number of successive and varying reprints.[2]{{smallrefs{{
- ↑ A. J. Wohlhagen, "The Spurious Ulster County Gazette of January 4, 1800," The New York Historical Society, Quarterly Bulletin, April, 1917, I, 15 - 17.
- ↑ These facts have been largely taken from the article of A. J. Wohlhagen, cited above. He adds the following interesting list of other old newspapers that have been reproduced: New England Currant, February 4 - 11, 1723; New York Gazette, March 28, 1726; New England Weekly Journal, April 8, 1728; Boston Gazette and Country Journal, March 12, 1770; New Morning Post, November 7, 1783; The Sun, September 3, 1833.
