Its editor fled the City after the disas
trous battle on Long" Island, and he
was heard of afterward as publishing
his newspaper at one and another of the
towns of the Hudson under circum
stances that would have apalled a less
determined man. In the month of Au
gust, 1777, while at Esopus, he printed
an advertisement, in which he proposed
to take any kind of country produce in
the way of trade. His prospectus reads
very quaintly: "And the printer, being
unable to carry on his business without
the necessaries of life, is obliged to af
fix the following prices to his work,
viz.: For a quarter of news, 12 lbs. of
leef, xrk, veal, or mutton, or 4 lbs. of
butter, or 7 lbs. of cheese, or 18 lbs. of
fine flour, or half a bushel of wheat, or
one bushel of Indian corn, or half acord
of wood, or 300 weight of hay or other
articles of country produce as he shall
want them, in iike proportions, or as
much money as will purchase them at
the time ; for other articles of printing
work, the prices to be in proportion to
that of the newspaper. All his custo
mers who have to spare any of the
above, or other articles of of country
produce, he hopes will let him know
it, and afford him the necessary sup
plies, without which his business here
must very soon be discontinued." It is
gratifying to be able to state that the
sturdy patriot survived the Kevolution,
and lived to revisit the city of which
he had been Postmaster in 1i3. His
patriotic labors and sufferings- justly
entitled him to the following epitaph :
"A due tribute to the memory of John
Holt, printer to this state, a native of
Virginia, who patiently obeyed death's
awful summons on the thirtieth of Jan
uary, 171, in the sixty-fourth year of
his age. To say that his family lament
him is needless; that his friends be
wail him, is useless; that all regret him,
unnecessary; for that he merited every
esteem is certain. The tongue of slan
der cannot say less, though justice
might say more." Such an epitaph, in
scribed over the dust of an editor, who
had also held commission as Postmaster,
opens a wide field of emulation to the
journalists and ollicials of these later
days. Seritmer.
