Bellville [Tx] Countryman, July 17, 1861
We copy the following from the Galveston Civilian. It is very appropriate at this time:
The Christian Advocate appears on a half sheet, though without proportionate diminution of interesting reading matter. The scarcity of paper and of paying subscribers begins to tell on the newspaper business, and we fear that many papers will not stop the curtailing process at a half sheet. The Richmond Reporter gives its present issue the name of the Half Loaf, though we doubt not the ample crops of Fort Bend county will keep the publishers fully supplied with the staff of life. No people appreciate newspapers more highly than the citizens of Texas; and we trust that they will not neglect to sustain the press in the present crisis. Good names on a list of subscribers will not do this. It requires money, or something that will sustain life. Country publishers can use much of the produce of the farm and workshop in lieu of money; and subscribers should make it a point to contribute such aid as is in their power, without waiting for that common bore, the dun, alike unpleasant to those who give and those who receive it.