Scissors and pastepot editing

In an age of four-page newspapers and monthly magazines, the news of such a curiosity as a mummy spread quickly up and down the East Coast, through upstate New York, and as far west as Ohio within a span of six weeks. Because newspapers and magazines could be sent for free through the mails to other publishers and editors, news was copied from one place to another, often with startling rapidity, especially when the news was carried in “hard copy” by post riders. In some cases the originating source of the news was noted, but in many cases, it was not. The actual tidbit of information could be edited or not, depending on the publisher's taste and room available.

At least one newspaper the Portsmouth, N.H. Portsmouth Oracle repeated the information a month after they first published it. Either they felt it was exceptionally newsworthy or maybe it was just a slow news week and they needed filler. 

Quite obviously the arrival of this mummy was exciting for the note attesting to its arrival to have disseminated so quickly and over such distances in a time when the news was not transmitted electronically.