was published and edited by Charles A. Anderson, when he was between 13 and 14 years old, in Gloucester, Essex County, Mass. from 1843 to 1844. He writes about many topics and local events, including the visit of a famous ventriloquist, meetings of various lyceums, temperance meetings, sliding, snowballing, and celebrating Christmas during the winter, hunting, maritime news, the local school, the establishment of a manufacturing company in town, and other newspapers published at the time, such as the "Temperance Journal." He includes puzzles, anecdotes, short stories, local notices, and advertisements. Several of the puzzles and jokes included are racist, being told in dialect and directed at people of color and the Irish. The advertisements are for furniture repair, daguerreotypes, spectables, and other goods. Many drawings and cartoons in black ink are included throughout the issues.
Charles Anderson Homans was born on May 5, 1830 in Beverly, Essex County, Mass. to William Albert (1798-1833) and Sarah Barret (Downing) (1796-1840) Homans. He had four siblings, Sarah Helen (1820-1892), William A. (1825-1828), Frances W. (1832-1913), and Sarah Glover (1839-1840). His parents died when he was a child and he presumably went to live with George H. Rogers and his family, as he is listed in their household in the 1850 U.S. census. Rogers was a merchant and it is likely that Homans obtained his maritime interests from him. Homans occupation is recorded as a mariner in that same census. He married Lydia Ann Kinsman (1834-1933) on March 20, 1856. They had two daughters, Lucy Rogers (1856-1941) and Alice Downing (1871-1953). His obituary in the New York Tribune states that he served in the Navy during the Civil War. After the war, he travelled in South and Central America, living in Suriname, Dutch Guiana and acting as U.S. Consul. He was also a thirty-second degree Mason and was made a Prince in Rose Croix Lodge in Bahia, Brazil. He became a writer in the latter part of his life, one of his works being "The Astrology of the Old Testament, published under the pen name "Karl Anderson." He died on November 8, 1901 in Brooklyn, Kings County, N.Y. from a spinal injury he had suffered in the war.