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Description
Founded and edited by a talented team of newspapermen, educators, lawyers with political savvy and clout, Themis was envisioned as a completely independent journal offering counsel and providing access to justice and law. A literary journal with common touches like feature stories, stage and book news, editorials, classified ads, public notices and political endorsements, the three-column, 8-page weekly newspaper commenced with the February 24, 1889, issue and was described by the Sacramento Bee as “neatly printed on good paper and filled with well-written and interesting matter on live issues.” A good part of the credit for the journal’s look can be attributed to William J. Hassett, managing editor, who began his career as a printer in 1854 and kept abreast of all the newest technology. He managed the Johnston Printing Company for 18 years until he was elected Mayor of Sacramento, serving from 1904 until 1906. Themis ceased publication with the July 7, 1894, issue. Editors and contributors Winfield J. Davis and William L. Willis both published key histories of Sacramento County told through the biographies of the important men of the times, and another editor, Major W. A. Anderson, was one of California’s leading lawyers and a veteran of litigation struggles involving the great railroads. Davis was a rock-ribbed Republican and Hassett a staunch Democrat, and Themis reflected the difference in outlooks. The last issue carried a tirade against moral reform and censorship of classic literature and a cry for better, more involved teachers but also railed against jobs given to minorities and outsiders and called for stringent anti-immigration reform. There are five volumes of Themis in the Special Collections of the Sacramento Public Library, dating from Volume One Number One February 24, 1889 to Volume Six Number 20 July 17, 1894.
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