It would require more space than can be given here to merely enumerate the different newspaper ventures that have been set afloat in Cleveland, some to disappear almost as soon as launched, others to buffet the waves for a few months, or even years, and then to pass away and be forgotten. In the days when nothing more was required to start a newspaper than a few pounds of type and a hand press, or credit with the owner of a press, new journals appeared and disappeared with great rapidity. Even now, when it is hopeless to think of attempting the establishment of a journal without first sinking a large capital, there are people venturesome enough to try the experiment of starting a newspaper upon little or nothing. The end of such experiments is always the same.

The first newspaper issued in Cleveland was the Cleveland Gazette and Commercial Register, commenced July 31, 1818. It was ostensibly a weekly publication, but the difficulty of procuring paper with the desired regularity, and other untoward circumstances, sometimes caused a lapse of ten, fourteen, and even more days between each issue. In October, 1819, the Cleveland Herald was started as a weekly, by Z. Willes & Co.

In the Summer of 1836, the Daily Gazette was issued. This ran until March 22, 1837, when its owner, Charles Whittlesey, united it with the Herald, under the name of the Daily Herald and Gazette, the new firm being Whittlesey & Hull, and after a few days Whittlesey & J. A. Harris. The Gazette title was subsequently dropped, and that of the Herald preserved, Mr. Harris being the sole proprietor and editor. Messrs. W. J. May, A. W. Fairbanks, G. A. Benedict and John Coon were at different times added to the firm, Mr. May and Coon afterwards retiring, and being followed after some years by Mr. Harris, who was the veteran editor of the city. The Herald is now the oldest paper in the city, and the oldest daily in Northern Ohio. It was always Whig or Republican in politics.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer was the natural successor of the Cleveland Daily Advertiser, a Democratic paper published about a third of a century since, by Canfield & Spencer. The Plain Dealer was owned and edited from its start by J. W. Gray, who made it a sharp and spicy journal. His declining health compelled him to take less interest in his paper, which soon lost prestige, and having gone into incompetent hands after Mr. Gray's death, it was before long compelled to suspend. Being purchased, after a short suspension, by Mr. Armstrong, it was resuscitated, and is at present, under the ownership and management of Messrs. Armstrong & Green, a successful enterprise.

The Leader dates its origin on one side to the True Democrat, an Independent Free Soil paper, dating back over twenty years, and on the other to the Daily Forest City, a "Silver Gray Whig," started about 1852, by Joseph and James Medill. After some coquetting an alliance was formed between the two papers, and the name of Forest City Democrat adopted for the Consolidated paper which was afterwards changed to the Leader. None of those connected with either of the original papers are now connected with the Leader. Of those who became the publishers of the latter paper Mr. E. Cowles retains his connection and is the largest proprietor.

The German Wachter am Erie completes the list of regular daily papers now published in Cleveland. The Herald is published morning and evening, there being two editions of the evening issue. The Leader is issued in the morning with an evening edition under the name of the News. The Plain Dealer publishes two editions in the afternoon, and the Wachter am Erie one afternoon edition.

[Illustration: Yours Truly, A. W. Fairbanks]