It
gives a fine example of old-style journalism. Observe the ingenuity
with which a page of narrative is twisted into the first sentence. The
last two are the more startling in their abrupt fashion of leaving the
reader high and dry. The cow is starred; obviously the man appears a
minor actor:
"On Thursday afternoon, as a man of genteel appearance was
passing along Beekman Street, he was attacked by a cow, and
notwithstanding his efforts to avoid her, and the means he
used to beat her off, we are sorry to say that he was so
much injured as to be taken up dead. The cow was afterward
killed in William Street. We have not been able to learn the
name of the deceased"!!
Some of the items contain genuine if unconscious humour,--such as the
record of the question brought up before the City Council: "Whether
attorneys are thought useful to plead in courts or not?" Answer: "It
is thought not."
Then there is the proclamation that if any Indian was found drunk in
any street, and it could not be ascertained where he got the liquor,
the whole street was to be fined!
Among the earlier laws duly published in the press was that hogs
should not be "suffered to goe or range in any of the streets or
lands.
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