170

January 13, 1798. As it states, it was, "Printed,

weekly, by John D. Gary, at the office of the Federal
Gazette, in Market-street". What happened to Gary's
printing office on Patrick Street is uncertain; it
may have expired from lack of patronage, for nothing
la known of it after the announcement quoted above.

The magazine continued through twenty-seven
Issues, and the first volume was closed with an index,
as the editor had promised. In the July 14, 1798
edition of the Key, Gary announced his intention of
suspending publication for two months, "from some ex-
citing and highly interesting circumstances", but
the magazine would be resumed on a monthly basis if
five hundred subscribers could be procured. However,
the Key never reappeared. Frederick and Frederick
County were not ready for such a general and literary
magazine.³⁹ It is to be hoped that the "exciting and
highly interesting circumstances" proved propitious.
No further record of Gary has been found in Maryland,
and it is likely that he went to another state. He
occupies a place of importance in the annals of Mary-
land printing as the publisher of the first periodical
issued in the state outside of Baltimore.

39 G. Retrospections, literary and antiquarian. p.317