g space. Verily, in a certain
and large sense, the vast publishing interests rest upon drops of
water and grains of sand. Under right conditions no kind of business
or property is more valuable, and yet no basis of values is more
intangible. Nothing in all trade or commerce is so difficult to
establish or more environed by competitions, and yet, once
established, almost nothing save interior dry rot can pull it down. It
depends upon the judgment and favor of the million, yet instances are
few where any external force has seriously and permanently impaired
it.

About two hundred years have gone since the publication of the first
number of the first American newspaper. It was a monthly, called
_Publick Occurrences, both Foreign and Domestic_, first printed
September 25, 1690, by Richard Pierce, and founded by Benjamin Harris.
At that time public favor did seem to control newspaper interests, for
that first paper aroused antagonism, and it was almost immediately
suppressed by the authorities. Only one copy of it is now in
existence, and that is in London. The first newspaper to live, in this
country, was the Boston _News Letter_, first issued in 1704 and
continued until 1776. New York's first newspaper, the New York
_Gazette_, appeared October 16, 1725. At the outbreak of the
revolution there were 37 newspapers, and in 1800 there were 200, of
which several were dailies. In 1890 there were 17,760, of which there
were 13,164 weeklies, 2,191 monthlies, 1,626 dailies, 280
semi-monthlies, 217 semi-weeklies, 126 quarterlies, 82 bi-weeklies, 38
bi-monthlies, and 36 tri-weeklies.

The circulations belong largely to the weeklies, monthlies and
dailies, the weeklies having 23,228,750, the monthlies 9,245,750, the
dailies 6,653,250, leaving only 2,400,000 for all the others.

The largest definitely ascertainable daily average circulation for one
year, in this country, has been 222,745. Only one other daily paper in
the world has had more--_Le Petit Journal_, in Paris, which really, as
we understand it, is not a newspaper, but which regularly prints and
sells for one sou more than 750,000 copies. The largest American
weekly is the _Youth's Companion,_ Boston, 461,470. The largest
monthly is the _Ladies' Home Journal_, Philadelphia, 542,000. The
largest among the better known magazines is the _Century_, 200,000. Of
the daily papers which directly interest us--those of the city of New
York--the actual or approximate daily averages o