Originally published in Pearson's Weekly (C. Arthur Pearson Ltd.) vol.2 #59 (05 Sep 1891).
The distinction belongs to the halfpenny Evening Tidings, which is published at Penzance. It was started during the Franco-Prussian war in 1870, to furnish the people of the town and neighbourhood with the latest news from the seat of war, and its publication has been continued without interruption ever since.
For some years after its first appearance it consisted of a single sheet about ten inches long by seven inches broad, printed on one side only, although at the present time it consists of four pages of about twelve inches by eight, more than two pages of which is occupied by advertisements. Its size is no doubt to be accounted for by the fact of its being so near the Land's End, which is so tapering a nature that there is not room to publish a larger daily. Telegrams received up to the time of going to press are inserted, so that the inhabitants of this beautiful watering-place, though so far away from any great event which is taking place in London or other place of importance, obtain as fresh news as that bought by the Londoner for his halfpenny on his way home from business in the evening.
The publication of The Tidings each evening is looked forward to with as much interest as are its much larger contemporaries in the metropolis. In its columns, under different headings, appear foreign and colonial telegrams, home telegrams, local and district news, mercantile marine news, meteorological report for the week, and particulars with to high-water at Penzance, etc., etc., while on market days the list of market prices is published. As an advertising medium it is decidedly good, for being so small the news is soon read through by the purchasers, who then turn to and read the advertisements. Generally, time-tables, cab fares, despatch of mails, and other particulars useful to tourists, are inserted somewhere in each issue.
Its circulation, though not large, is of a good class, about half the issue being subscribed for quarterly by people residing in the town. The remainder is hawked about the streets by newsboys, with the exception of a few which find their way throughout the county.
THe Tidings is termed the daily edition of The Cornish Telegraph. The Telegraph appears on Wednesdays (on which day its offspring is allowed to rest), and contains most of the items that have appeared during the foregoing week in The Tidings.