The St. Louis Dramatic Critic was first issued on December 21, 1882, by S.G. Webb, John T. Smith and F.B. Rotrock. Its editor was Alexander R. Webb...In 1884 Dickison Brugman bought it, dropped the word "Dramatic" from its title, and changed it into a general and local paper.
(From the Encyclopedia of the History of Missouri by Alexander N. De Menil, 1901).