American Newspaper Directory. (New York : Rowell.) — The publishers have prefixed
to this volume an interesting "sketch of the growth of Journalisni in the United .States," ending with a contrast between the newspaper statistics of the United States and those of European countries. In 1870 there were published, it would seem, in the United States 5,871 newspapers, a number to which France, with 1,668, and Great Britain, with 1,456, approach most closely. Among European countries, Portugal with its 26, comes last, if we exclude Turkey, with its 7. The continent of Asia is said to support 30 only, though this can scarcely take into account the journals, English and native, which are published in India. It is doubtless true in one way that, "as compared to other nations, America is far ahead in the extant of her journalism." Every American reads a newspaper, and gets from it a certain varnish of knowledge, while almost every village supports one or more. Some of these, however, must be of a very insignificant kind, to judge of the account which they give of themselves. The Preston Clipper, to take an instance at random, which in size is a sheet of 20 inches by 25, has an estimated circulation of 320, and is sold for an annual subscription of one dollar, cannot be a very important organ. The gross income, allowing that advertisements bring in twice as much as the sale of the paper, cannot be more than £200, a sum for which little indeed can be furnished to its readers. There are hundreds of such enumerated in the Directory, whereas all the English provincial papers are on a much larger scale.
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