Welsh Journals

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WELSH NEWSPAPERS AND JOURNALS IN THE UNITED STATES. One sign of the vitality of a nation is its ability to maintain a periodical press. That the Welsh people in the United States have achieved this is evident from the list of newspapers and periodicals which follows. There has been no Welsh daily newspaper published in the United States. Probably the Welsh population was too scattered to make this a practical proposition and the Welsh community at any one centre too small to secure a sufficient number of subscribers. There were eleven newspapers devoted to Welsh interests. The Druid (Scranton) and The Welshman (Jackson, Ohio) were published in English. Y Drych, the oldest of all Welsh newspapers published in the United States, was first issued in 1851 and is still being published. The periodicals were mainly devoted to denominational interests and some are known to have had a wide circulation. The English periodicals relating to Welsh affairs, such as The American Celt (Scranton) The Cambrian (Cincinnati), and Cambrian Gleanings (New York), were of a general or literary character. On the other hand, The Day Light (Utica), was a Baptist monthly magazine. Of the Welsh periodicals, the majority were published by the Presbyterians (Calvinistic Methodists) and the Baptists. The earliest of all Welsh American periodicals was Cyfaill o'r Hen Wlad yn America (New York, etc.), the first number appearing in 1838. It was continued with slightly modified titles until December 1933 and was mainly con- cerned with the affairs of the Calvinistic Methodists. In fact its se- condary title after Vol. XXXIII was Cylchgrawn y Methodistiaid Cal- finaidd yn America. This denomination, or at least the Wisconsin Assembly of the Calvinistic Methodists, also issued a periodical entitled Y Lamp (Oshkosh) specially for young readers. The Baptist denomination issued a number of periodicals in Welsh, including Y Beread (New York), Y Glorian (Youngstown), Haul Gomer (New York), r Seren Orllewinol (Pottsville), r Wasg (Scranton), and Y Wawr (Utica). Some of these had only a very brief existence, but others had fairly long careers. Y Glorian, for example, was issued from 1872 to 1894, and Y Seren Orllewinol from 1844 to 1866. Apart from the denominational publications the young Welsh readers in the United States had their own periodicals, mostly of a re- ligious flavour such as Blodau yr Oes ar rsgol (Utica), Y Lamp (Osh- kosh and Utica), Yr Ysgol (New" York), and Y Trysor, but their existence was brief.