As a rule journalism on the West Coast is still in the lowest stage of
Eatanswillism, and the journal is essentially ephemeral. The newspapers of
twenty years ago are all dead and forgotten. Such were the 'African
Herald,' a 'buff' organ, edited by the late Rev. Mr. Jones, a West Indian,
and its successor, the 'African Weekly Times.' The 'Sierra Leone Gazette'
succumbed when the Wesleyans established (1842) the 'Sierra Leone
Watchman.' Other defuncts are the 'Free Press,' a Radical paper,
representing Young Sa Leone, and a fourth, the 'Intelligencer,' which
strove to prove what has sometimes been asserted at negro
indignation-meetings, namely, that 'a white man, if _he behave himself_,
is as good as a black man.' Cain, like the rest of the family, was a
negro; but when rebuked by the Creator he turned pale with fear, a tint
inherited by his descendants. The theory is, _par parenthese_, as good as
any other. The only papers now published are the 'West African Reporter,'
whose proprietor and editor was the late Hon. Mr. Grant, and the
'Watchman,' a quasi-comic sheet.
The worst feature of journalism in West Africa is that fair play is
unknown to it.
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