Guy Fawkes and the News

During the days of many years before, Marco Island became a melting pot of folks from not only the Midwest and America, but also a home and a workplace for travelers from around the world.

On a beautifully clear autumn morning on Marco Beach, Gareth Marsh walked into our lives. He was just in from England and his enthusiasm was beyond contagious. He was fresh out of the British army and very excited to have his new job and new home to be Marco Island.

Halloween was past, November was beginning, and this was when Gareth began asking about the upcoming bonfire night. “Where will the bonfire be for Guy Fawkes night?”

The reaction from our American Marco Beach Boys was the same. “What bonfire, and who is Guy Fawkes?”

We soon learned from Gareth that Guy Fawkes was an English conspirator who tried to blow up the Houses of Parliament in 1605 with 36 large barrels of gunpowder. The plot was driven by opposing religious and political factions and when the treasonous scheme was discovered, along with enough explosives to level the heart of London, the news of the plot and the treachery became the leading story and headlines for all the newspapers throughout the British Empire.

To this day in England, and in most British colonies, piles of wood grow throughout the year to be kindled on the evening of Guy Fawkes Day. As the flames celebrating the defeat of the catastrophe rise into the night, the United Kingdom and her colonies recall the news and the former world headline with a poem and a chant: “Remember, remember, the fifth of November . . . gunpowder, treason and plot.”

After we explained to Gareth that Guy Fawkes Day might have to be a celebration with pizza and beer, instead of beer and a bonfire, other stories began to emerge about other major headlines and the beginnings of newspapers.

Fifty-nine years before the birth of Jesus Christ, Julius Caesar proclaimed to the citizens of Rome that an information scroll would be placed on display throughout the city. There would be information gatherers and an organized bureau to oversee the process. With typical Roman efficiency, any valid information with value to the public could be found and read on a regular basis. The Acta Diurna or Daily Events became so popular that Romans would wait in line for the first newspapers well before the information sheets could make an arrival. On some occasions, when no one was watching, an entire edition of Acta Diurna would be snatched away from the official public station to be taken home and privately cherished. Eventually, the legislature became a law offering severe punishment for any ordinary citizen caught with a Roman newsheet.

During the winter of 1451, Johannes Guttenberg fabricated a press to print an old but popular German poem. Two years later, Guttenberg used his new technology to print the first best seller. A bible printed in German quickly became so popular that Guttenberg was happy to hire and train apprentice printers to keep up with the overwhelming demand.

During the late 1400s, German pamphlets with the Gutenberg presses were printing dark and terrifying tales of troubles in Transylvania. In the untamed Carpathian mountain regions of Eastern Europe there was a monstrous and sadistic tyrant raging against Germans living in the province. The inhuman and bloodthirsty creature that reigned over a mysterious army of gypsy people reportedly gave himself the ominous title of Vlad Tspese Drakul. The exaggerated tales of horror printed in the first German newspaper became the folklore fuel that propagated Count Dracula and the entire concept of vampires.

By the end of the 15th century, the beginnings of a postal system were emerging in France and nothing was more savory and relished that the news and stories that were circulating in the early French forerunners of newspapers.

In England, informative “Broad Sheets” or “Broad Sides” were keeping printers busy advertising special events or community plans for the future. In 1622, a printing of The Weekly News became the first “Broad Side” for parishioners after local church services. Later in 1666, the London Gazette became the first newspaper with print formatted into columns.

During the spring of 1690, in the American colony with the deep-water port of Boston, a “Broad Side” sheet made a debut appearance with the tentative title, Publick Occurrences. The local British magistrate, however, did not authorize the Bostonian “BroadSheet,” and as a result, all copies were confiscated and burned. The writers and printers were thrown in jail or placed in stocks for public ridicule, and warnings of severe punishment were the shouts of town criers as they sang out against any future foolishness.

At the time of the Boston tea party, the American colonies were ready for a change. The British, “taxation without representation” was enough to curl any colonial American’s hair and when over two dozen newspapers began touting the disgruntled public in favor of independence, the rise of the American Revolution was not far away.

In 1791, the Bill of Rights guaranteed free press, and as a result, the newspaper industry began to grow faster than many early Americans could read.

In 1777, the first daily newspaper in France was the Journal de Paris, with the Pennsylvania Packet following a few years later as America’s first daily paper.

Weekly newspapers however have always proved to be something special. Most folks work nine to five, five days a week with weekends off. For many, a weekly paper is the only edition that busy folks have time to enjoy.

“Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.” Thomas Jefferson 1787. 

When Gareth Marsh came to America and Marco Island and told us about the bonfire, Guy Fawkes, the headlines, and “Remember, remember the fifth of November,” he could not have known he would take the training from Marco Beach home to England and become the general manager of both the Liverpool and Manchester Marriott hotels where he is working today.