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Matthias Bartgis, Pioneer Printer at Frederick
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and the destruction of the murderers "..... in a flame of fire, with blood
gushing out of their mouths......."8
BARTGIS PRINTS ENGLISH AND GERMAN NEWSPAPERS
In the following year he established a weekly newspaper in English
which first appeared on January 4, 1786, under the title of The Mary-
land Chronicle, or The Universal Advertiser. At about the same time he
started a German newspaper which on January 18, 1786, he proposed to
have sent with The Maryland Chronicle to the towns nearby by means of
a post system. Although no copies have been located of this German
paper, it was published for at least a year, for on February 28, 1787,
the following note appeared in The Maryland Chronicle.
"Those persons who shall have occasion to publish Advertisements in this extensive circulation
News-Paper; or in the German, are requested to have the copies delivered, (accompanied with the
pay) at the Printing-Office, early on Mondays."9
In June of the same year he probably found that the work connected
with the publication of two newspapers and the running of a printing
establishment for job work was too much for one man to direct, so he
advertised for a partner.
"Wanted, An Active, industrious Person, either married or single, to take the management and
direction of a Printing-Office in the english and german language, and two public papers in this
town. It is necessary that he should not only possess a competent knowledge of the business, but be
qualified to make judicious arrangements—collect the common occurences, and form all such para-
graphs as are to be composed and arranged under the Frederick-Town head.—Such a one, provided
he can be well recommended for honesty, sobriety, and for an unshaken attachment to independent
principles, will be admitted into partnership on the most reasonable terms, as little or no money
will be required—The business, has long since been established, and the apparatus chiefly new, and
compleat.—Application to be made to the printer hereof."10
The requirements for this position were probably not met for no change
was made in the imprint of the English paper by the addition of a
partner's name.
The editing and press work involved in publishing two weekly news-
papers must have made his shop in Frederick a busy place. Good printers
were scarce during the early history of American printing and it was
8 See Bibliography of Imprints, No. 371.
9 Seidensticker suggests that it is possible that the German paper established in 1786 was continued and called Der
General Staatsbots, which name was attributed to a German paper published at Frederick every other week in 1793. See
German Printing in America, p. 135.
10 Maryland Chronicle of June 6, 1787.
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