When Paper Runs Short.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 29, Issue 37, 15 May 1917, Page 2

When Paper Runs Short.

: AMUSING MAKESHIFTS IN JOURNALISM. When a man gives his mind to the publishing of a newspaper he seldom allows himself to he thwarted by a mere lack of the conventional material that goes to its making. In the ingenuity of his devices, indeed, he need not blush in the presence of the most resourceful of "Heathen Chinees.” In armed camps, with battle raging fiercely in his ears, in beleaguered cities through which famine and disease stalk, when his last sheet of white paper is exhausted k« is seldom at loss to find a substitute to serve his purpose.

During the American Civil War newspapers probably assumed the most varied and remarkable forms they have ever known, at a time when not a sheet of white paper was to be had “for love or money.” When the defence of Richmond was at its most desperate stage, and paper and black ink were exhausted, the Confederate newspaper still appeared, by the expedient of commandeering all the white handkerchiefs in the town. Printed in red ink on handkerchiefs the first issue of this unconventional paper contained a spirited address to the women of Richmond, which closed thus grandiloquently ; “If each handkerchief were 'as boundless as the globe’s' expanse, it would not serve to stanch the Federal mud-blood yet to be shed.”

Before the writer is a copy of a still more remarkable publication of the time, consisting of two sheets of canvas tied at one corner with a red ribbon. On the first sheet is the picture of a sheeted skeleton, armed with a scythe, pointing downwards with a fleshless hand to a cannon land a warship, while in large letters is the legend, "War and to death—being the blockade-number of the Charleston Courier.”

During the siege of Paris, Sedan and Metz in the Franco-Prussian war, more than fifty years ago, newspaper proprietors were driven to their wits’ end to find substitutes for white paper ; hut with few exceptions they proved equal to the emergency. One well-known Paris newspaper flourished for a time on brown paper; another made flaming appearances on paper of vivid crimson ; and a third was printed on wash-leather, which its readers were asked to keep that it might always serve to “stimulate unslumbering revenge against the hated enemy.”

A score of years ago a Nebraska newspaper .made a sensational appearance printed on wall-phper, a departure for which the following amusing explanation is given by the editor : “Aid is being sent here for the farmers, but we can’t issue on aid-flour or a piece of meat ; and having run all our white paper through, we are using up the wall-paper given us, which is about exhausted, and only the office-towel is left. So we ask our brother printers to consider our situation, with a family to support, with nothing coming in ; and we know th«r ever-generous disposition will see some way to contribute a little paper to keep our journal going tor the food it will do the outside world in telling them how this afflicted, drought-stricken district is getting along ; also to enable us to get shoes and proper wraps for our wife and four children.”

A scarcely less remarkable souvenir of the American Civil War is a copy of the "Daily Citizen’’ issued at Vicksburg, Massachusetts, two days before the fall of the city and the victorious entry of General Grant and ' hie army. This copy of the "Daily Citizen” is printed on grimy wallpaper, on one side only ; for the other is covered with an atrocious pattern of gaudy yellow and green. No less amusing were the makeshifts to which the publishers of Trinidad newspapers were obliged to resort some years ago. Owing to strikes in England the supply of white paper jn the island was exhausted, and it was impossible to procure more. In their dilemma the publishers were obliged to have recourse to coloured paper, with the most startling results. Thus, one issue of the "Port of Spain Gazette'* was printed os mauve paper, with a n inside supplement of vivid yellow ; another was of cerise paper, with a magenta supplement ; while a third number, dated March 17, 1891, was clothed in brilliant green, an appearance which was thus ingeniously explained by the Editor : "Our readers will notice from ‘our wearing of the green’ our recognition of the honour due to the feast-day of Ireland’s great patron

vanre.^ Not long ago a Cape newspaper startled its readers by taking the guise of brown paper. "This departure,” the Editor explained, “is due to the fact that the supply of white paper bad failed. Rather than disappoint our readers by missing a week’s issue we have decided to use the only paper available.” In India such makeshifts are probably more common than in any other country in normal times. A short time ago a native paper of Ahmedabad published one of its issues on yellow paper. Its readers were at a loss to understand the transformation until the following week’s issue appeared on dark-green paper with the editorial explanation that the ordinary stock of white paper had run out, and it had thus "become necessary to use some coloured paper which was intended for wrappers." When some time ago there was a famine of paper in spain, an enterprising Spaniard solved the difficulty by printing his paper on handkerchiefs. "After it has served its purpose as a messenger of news,” the Editor informed his readers, "the handkerchief can be sent to the laundry and thus he restored to its normal use. It will serve to dry your tears, to wave your adieux, to hide any article you wish to pick up unpercelved, and in a hundred other ways which need not he detailed it will be found worth considerably more than the modest sum of 2£d. charged for it.” In the early thirties of last century Paris was familiar with a very remarkable newspaper which bore the title, "The Political Pocket Handchief.” It was printed on a large square of white linen in order to avoid the exorbitant duty on paper, and its claim was that, for the equivalent of threepence, its purchaser got not only the news of the day but a most serviceable pocket-handkerchief. After running for nearly three years, the proprietor stopped publication on the ground—as stated in the last number—that the linen absorbed so much ink that the expense was too great. On many an occasion newspapers have continued to survive on the most meagre supply of paper. There are still to be seen copies of one which was eagerly read, nearly sixty years ago. by the pitiful handful of brave men and women who held out at Lucknow against the bloodthirsty Sepoys who hemmed them in on all sides. It contains a daily journal of the besieged garrison.

Among other papers produced under somewhat similar conditions were a, brown-paper single sheet published at Suakim during the early; days of the Sudan campaign and a lithographed page which did much to cheer our gallant and sorely-tried soldiers in the horrors of, the Crimean campaign.—“ Weekly Telegraph.’