INFORMATION CIRCULAR 4
                                            (Revised 1957) 


                      THE  LIBRARY  OF  CONGRESS

                         CONSTITUENT SERVICES
                  SERIAL & GOVT PUBLICATIONS DIVISION




               The Boston Gazette and Country Journal

                           March 12, 1770 


Among the five newspapers published in Boston in 1770, The Boston
Gazette and Country journal of March 12, 1770, published by Edes
& Gill, gave the fullest account of the Boston Massacre, which
had occurred on March 5. Its story was set between heavy mourning
leads and illustrated with a cut of four coffins from a plate made
by Paul Revere.
  There were two four-page editions of the Gazette for March
12, 1770.  The first was accompanied by a Supplement of the same
date carrying advertising; the second had pages 1, 2, and 3
identical with the first, but page 4 carried advertising taken in
part from page 4 of the first edition and in part from the
Supplement.  To distinguish these two editions it is only neccssary
to note the first item on page 4, column 1. The first edition has
"To the New England Man", and the second edition, "Just published
and sold by Edes & Gill . . . North-Amcrican Almanack, and
Massachusetts Register, for the Year 1770."
  There are a dozen or more spurious reprints of the second
edition, but they are not exact facsimiles.  Owners of such
reprints should compare them with the following details from the
original (reprints will vary from these details):

    1. In the caption beneath the title on page 1, "freshest"
is set with 2 old-style letters "s".
    2. Page 1, column 1, the two-line quotation from Shakespeare
has the frst line indented farther than the second.
    3. Page 1, column 1, paragraph 1, line 5 ends with "has".     
    4. Page 1, column 1, paragraph 2, line 3, first word is
"production", not "publication".
    5. Page 1, column 2, paragraph 8 (third from bottom), line 3
ends with "Lillie", instead of carrying last syllable, "lie", down 
to the 4th line with resulting displacement of "all" and "&" in the
two following lines. 

    The line-up of the paragraphs on pages 2 and 3 of all reprints
examined differs greatly from that of the original, e.g.: 
    6.  Page 2, column 2, last line in original, "of this horrid
Massacre, the Bells were set a Ringing and".
    7.  Page 2, column 3, list line in original, "Meeting was
Dissolved".
    8.  Page 3, column 1, paragraph 1, last line in original, "in
the Commander's Assurances have happily prevented".
    9.  Page 3, column 1, paragraph 2, last line in original, "the
bloody Massacre of the Monday Evening preceeding!".
   10.  Page 3, column 1, paragraph 3, last line in original,
"surpass Description". 

     The Library's copies of the second edition and the
Supplement to the first edition are photostats made from the
original copies belonging to the Massachusetts Historical
Society, Boston.  The reprints differ from the original in many
if not all these details.  The commercial value of the reprints
is very small.








                         U. S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1957 
.