MANUSCRIPT: Temperance Gazette, The.
12 leaves, ink holograph manuscript on both sides (in most cases), with several columns of newspaper clippings attached. 25x19.5 cm. (10x7¾"), ribbon ties through splits along spine.
Curious and quite rare manuscript news organ produced in the small mining community of Ophir, where polite society was scarce and needed all encouragement possible. This is the first issue produced by Ms. Phelps (whether there were any more is unknown), all in manuscript, painstakingly handwritten, this apparently the 4th copy off the press, or rather pen, with No. 4 at upper left. Ms. Phelps did envision regular publication, with subscription rates ranging from 10 cents for a single issue to $ 2.00 for a full year. Delivery to home or business was extra. Besides some inspirational matter, the content includes news of Ophir and its residents, with an obituary of a deceased lodge member, praise for the new school principal, enlargement of the grocery store, etc. There is a long poem entitled "Gambler's Wife" that seems to be unrecorded. The editor makes mention of disease in Ophir that resulted in the closing of a mine. An uncommon look at frontier life in the California Gold Country.
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