KEEPING UP WITH THE NEWS IN THE 19TH CENTURY.

KEEPING UP WITH THE NEWS IN THE 19TH CENTURY. Mary Jane gave me NEW YORK DIARIES, edited by Theresa Carpenter, which consists of daily excerpts about half a page long from various diaries kept by New Yorkers from 1609 to 2009. I am reading it pretty much day by day. Since I marvel at how the internet lets me keep up with the news all day long, I was surprised to read Heinrich Schliemann on March 27, 1869 marveling: “Every hour new issues of newspapers with later and always later news from all parts of the world….” I remembered the diary entry by Jose Marti from March 15, 1888 about the Great Blizzard of 1888 which occurred on March 13 and 14 (wikipedia article here; snowfalls of 20 to 60 inches). Marti described two of the bodies which had been found in the snow and then remarked: “What eagerness on the part of those living uptown to read the newspapers, which thanks to the intrepidity of the poor newsboys, finally came up from the downtown presses!”