Springfield 1636-1886, History of Town and City, by Mason A. Green ...

344 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-18S6.
local information, bnt was open to free discussion upon the hundred
questions that self-government had grappled with. One is struck with
the literary quality and wide reading of the men who wrote commu-
nications " to the printer." The average editorial of the country
weekly of to-day, as well as some of the larger papers, does not exhibit
a fraction of the quality, logic, and incisive force that characterized
the literature of the " Gazette" and its immediate successors. The
" Gazette " printing-office was a few rods south of the court-house,
where also were an extensive stock of books, writing-paper, maps,
and cartridge papers, to be exchanged for rags and countr^^ produce '
or even money. The}" published in 1782 an " Astronomical Ephe-
meris," calculated for the meridian of Springfield. This almanac
was prepared by Professor Strong, of Yale. This and Goldsmith's
" Deserted Village," with other books, were sold b}" the several post-
riders from the printing-office.
These post-riders formed a graphic feature of the day, running, as
they did, from the "Gazette " office up and down the valley, and both
east and west. They were in straits in 1782, because they were com-
pelled to pay weekly for their papers, and were unable to secure sub-
scription money from their customers promptly. One post-rider,
named Rumreil, covered a route from Northfield to Hartford. The
printers themselves were often in trouble, owing to the arrears of the
subscribers. Here is one advertisement in 1782 : " Tliose gentlemen
who engaged to pay for their papers in grain are once more earnestly
requested to make immediate payment, as the i)rinters are in much
want of that article." Babcock and Haswell published a number of
local books, among them two sermons by Mr. Breck, one delivered
at the funeral of David Parsons and one at the ordination of David
Parsons, Jr., of Amherst.
Mr. Babcock — his name was Elisha — took the whole paper in
1784, but before the year closed Brooks & Russell were the publish-
ers. The paper edited itself. It was soon moved to the Great Ferry,
its name changed to the " Hampshire Herald," and the proprietors