he 3,000 inhabitants of the village, as
well as the surrounding countryside, including the first Lutheran church
for the German-speaking settlers in Michigan.

The journalist also appeared on the scene in this prologue to the drama
of the University's history. Less than six years after the arrival of
the first settlers, the first number of the _Western Emigrant_ appeared
on October 18, 1829. Like all country journals of that period it was far
more interested in national politics and even foreign affairs than local
events; any one who searches for a chronicle of the daily life of those
times finds scant reward in the columns of these papers. Even so
important an event as the first meeting of the Regents is dismissed with
a brief paragraph which throws no light on many interesting questions
raised by the official report of that gathering. Yet such slender sheets
as this, which eventually became the _State Journal_, and its Democratic
contemporary, the _Argus_, established in 1835, furnish a picture of the
life of those times in unexpected ways that would greatly surprise their
editors, whose duty, as they saw it, was chiefly to guide the political
opinions of their readers by strong and biting editorials, by long
reports of legislative actions and by publishing the speeches of the
political leaders of their party. The enterprise and industry of the
community shows up well in advertisements, where every form of trade
suitable for such a growing community found representation. One merchant
advertised some 125 packages of fine dress goods from the East in a long
and alluring list anticipating the great celebration over the arrival of
the railroad; another firm, whose specialty was "drugs, paints, oils,
dye-stuffs, groceries," offered its wares "for cash or barter, as cheap
if not cheaper than they can be procured west of Detroit." Cook's
"Hotel" announced a few years later that it had been "greatly enlarged
and fitted up in a style equal to any Public House in the place," and
that its location in the public square was "one of the most pleasant and
healthy in Ann Arbor." The editor of the _Argus_ in 1844 revealed the
secrets of his business office in the following double-column notice:

Wood! Wood!

Those of our subscribers who wish to pay their subscriptions in
wood will please favor us immediately.

Professional ethics was not quite so tender a subject in those days as
it is at present, for John Allen anno