The Philadelphia Magazines and their Contributors 1741-1850 Part 10

The magazine was of small octavo size, each number contained about one hundred pages, and was ill.u.s.trated with a fine portrait of an actor or actress. The regular performances at the theatres were criticised with a good deal of pungency and ac.u.men. It is said in the preface that "London boasts several periodical publications founded on the _Drama_ alone. In America there has not yet been one of that description." In January, 1811, the magazine changed hands, and was published by Thomas Barton Zantzinger & Co., in the Shakespeare Buildings at Sixth and Chestnut Streets.

At the close of the first year of the magazine a dramatic event occurred that caused unusual excitement in Philadelphia, and led to important consequences. The great tragedian, George Frederick Cooke, whom Edmund Kean p.r.o.nounced "the greatest of all actors, Garrick alone excepted,"

arrived in New York and appeared on 21st October, 1810, as _Richard III_ before two thousand spectators in the Park Theatre.

It was then that he requested the great audience to stand while "G.o.d Save the King" should be played, and during the storm that followed calmly took snuff until the audience acceded to his demand.

From New York he proceeded to Philadelphia. No such acting had been seen in America. The excitement among play-going people was extraordinary.

"He was to play _Richard_ on a Monday night, and on Sunday evening the steps of the theatre were covered with groups of porters, and other men of the lower orders, prepared to spend the night there, that they might have the first chance of taking places in the boxes. I saw some take their hats off and put on night-caps. At ten o'clock the next morning the door was opened to them, and at that time the street in front of the theatre was impa.s.sable. When the rush took place, I saw a man spring up and catch hold of the iron which supported a lamp on one side of the door, by which he raised himself so as to run over the heads of the crowd into the theatre. Some of these fellows were hired by gentlemen to secure places, and others took boxes on speculation, sure of selling them at double or treble the regular prices. When the time came for opening the doors in the evening, the crowd was so tumultuous that it was evident there was little certainty that the holders of box tickets would obtain their places, and for ladies the attempt would be dangerous. A placard was therefore displayed, stating that all persons who had tickets would be admitted at the stage door before the front doors were opened. This notice soon drew such a crowd to the back of the theatre that when Cooke arrived he could not get in. He was on foot with Dunlap, one of the New York managers, and he was obliged to make himself known before he could be got through the press. 'I am like the man going to be hanged,' he said, 'who told the crowd they would have no fun unless they made way for him.'"

The writer of these lines was Charles Robert Leslie, who, on the night in question, occupied a place in the flies, and from that aerial station "first saw George Frederick Cooke, the best _Richard_ since Garrick, and who has not been surpa.s.sed even by Edmund Kean" (Autobiography of C. R.

Leslie, p. 18). Soon after this memorable night Leslie made a likeness of Cooke which attracted Bradford's attention, and a fund was speedily raised by subscription to enable the young artist to study painting two years in Europe. Armed with letters to English artists, Leslie sailed from New York on the 11th of November, 1811, in company with Mr.

Inskeep. So slight a circ.u.mstance gained for him an introduction into the great world of West and Allston, and Landseer and Fuseli, and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and gave to England and the world the treasures of the Vernon and the Sheepshank's collections.

In the preface to the _Mirror of Taste_ (Vol. IV) the editors recognize the importance to them of the visit of Cooke. The magazine "rose into estimation just at that singular crisis when a great theatrical character unexpectedly visiting this country held a new light to the stage, and, pointing out the true dramatic representation, opened to our people a new train of thought, gave to the public mind a new spring, and imparted an impulse before unfelt, with a just and elegant direction to the general taste, roused the feelings and perceptions from listlessness and sloth, and infused into the best bosoms of the nation a generous spirit, which gave new life to the arts, quickened them into action and effect, called forth the infant genius of a LESLIE to the public view, and bade breathing portraits start from the canvas of a Sully."[19]

[19] Sully's painting of Cooke as _Richard III_ in the Philadelphia Academy of the Fine Arts.

The father of Charles Robert Leslie was Robert Leslie, who had been a watchmaker at Elktown, Md., and had removed to Philadelphia in 1786. He was a member of the American Philosophical Society and a friend of Rush and Barton and Wistar and Physick. It was while residing in London that Charles Robert was born, October 19, 1794. An elder sister, Eliza, was born in 1787 in Philadelphia. She won a prize for a story, "Mrs.

Washington Potts," in _G.o.dey's Lady's Book_, and afterwards edited the _Gift_, an annual, and _Miss Leslie's Magazine_, a monthly publication (1843).

_Blackwood's Magazine_ in 1824 congratulated America on C. R. Leslie's success. He never lost his profound respect and affection for Samuel Bradford, and named his second son after him. In the second year (1813) of Leslie's residence in London, Washington Allston's health became seriously affected, and he resolved to visit Bristol. Coleridge, who was affectionately attached to Allston, followed him thither. "The house was so full," writes Leslie, in his autobiographical recollections, "that the poet was obliged to share a double-bedded room with me. We were kept up late in consequence of the critical condition of Allston, and when we retired Coleridge, seeing a copy of Knickerbocker's History of New York which I had brought with me, lying on the table, took it up and began reading. I went to bed, and think he must have sat up the greater part of the night, for the next day he had nearly got through Knickerbocker.

This was many years before it was published in England, and the work was, of course, entirely new to him. He was delighted with it" (p. 23).

THE a.n.a.lECTIC.--Washington Irving, who had met Allston in Rome in 1804, and who was for a time almost swerved from his literary purpose by his desire to become a painter, and with whose first literary triumph Coleridge thus became familiar, was also a Philadelphia editor. In 1809 E. Bronson and others began to print upon their Lorenzo press _The Select Reviews and Spirit of the Foreign Magazines_, edited by Samuel Ewing. The magazine was bought by Moses Thomas, in 1812, who changed its name to the _a.n.a.lectic_. Irving was its editor in 1813-14. He contributed to it some of the essays of the "Sketch Book," "Traits of Indian Character," and "Philip of Pokanoket." He reviewed Robert Treat Paine, E. C. Holland, Paulding and Lord Byron, and wrote for it biographies of Lawrence, Burrows, Perry and Porter.[20]

[20] It is not a little remarkable that the list of Washington Irving's contributions to the _a.n.a.lectic Magazine_ should have come to me in an Athenian newspaper.

+To 1813 ho Erbing anelabe ten syntaxin tou periodikou "Anakletik', hekdidomenou kata mena en Philadelpheia. En auno egrapse pollas biographias ton periphanesteron andron, hon hai kyrioterai eisin hai ton Amerikanon Porter kai Mporros kai ton Anglon poieton Byronos, Mouar kai Kampellou."--EBLOMAS.+ December 1, 1890.

Paulding and Verplanck wrote for the magazine, signing their articles "P." and "V."

William Darlington (1782-1863), Pennsylvanian, after whom was named the Darlingtonica California (a species of pitcher-plant), went to India as ship's surgeon in 1806, and published in the _a.n.a.lectic Magazine_ a sketch of his voyage called "Letters from Calcutta."

The _a.n.a.lectic_ contains a number of valuable portraits. The first lithograph ever made in America is in this magazine for July 1819. It represents a woodland scene--a flowing stream and a single house upon the bank. It was made by Ba.s.s Otis, who followed the suggestions of Judge Cooper and Dr. Brown, of Alabama. The drawing was made upon a stone from Munich, presented to the American Philosophical Society by Mr. Thomas Dobson, of Philadelphia. The _a.n.a.lectic Magazine_ was finally converted into the _Literary Gazette_ and died one year later (December, 1821).[21]

[21] "I observe," said a gentleman at the Athenaeum, "that the form of the _a.n.a.lectic Magazine_ was changed on the first of this month." "No,"

replied his friend, "it has been _weakly_ for some time past."

WITTY AND SATIRICAL MAGAZINES.

The _Tickler_ was edited by George Helmbold, and was first issued, September 16, 1807, under the pen-name of "Toby Scratch 'Em." It had for its motto:

"Curst be the verse, how well soe'er it flow, That tends to make one worthy man my foe, Give virtue scandal, innocence a fear, Or from the soft-eyed virgin steal a tear."--_Pope._

It was to be issued every Wednesday morning, at the price of four dollars per annum, from 131 South Front Street. The first volume of fifty-two numbers was not completed until February 8, 1809. Helmbold enlisted in the army and was promoted to a lieutenancy at Lundy's Lane.

After the war he kept the Minerva Tavern at Sixth and Sansom Streets. He afterward edited the _Independent Balance_.

The _Trangram, or Fashionable Trifler_, by "Christopher Crag, Esq., his Grandmother and Uncle," was published in Philadelphia by George E. Blake in 1809. It foreshadowed its wit and its satire in its introductory parody of _Macbeth_:

"How now, ye cunning, sharp and secret wags, What is't ye do?

A deed with a double name."

In the first number was an address by "The Publisher to the Purchaser.... The conductors of this paper, being a kind of whimsical and negligent gentry of easy habits and inconstant disposition, its continuation will not so much depend upon the patronage that may be given to it as upon their own humours and caprices. It is, as Johnson says of its t.i.tle--'Trangram--an odd, intricately-contrived thing,' and, therefore, in its appearance will be as irregular in its size or proportions as unequal, and in its pecuniary value as unstated, though always as reasonable, as any other oddly-contrived thing ever was, or is, or ought to be." The publisher, George Blake, was a Yorkshireman and a music dealer in South Fifth Street. He told William Duane that the editors were Mordecai M. Noah, Alexander F. c.o.xe, a son of Tench c.o.xe, and in 1814 a member of the bar, and a third person "whose name he seemed unwilling to mention" (Duane). Only three numbers were printed, the triple team quarrelled, and the publication ceased.

Mordecai Noah was born in Philadelphia, July 14, 1785. After his removal to New York, about 1816, he became the owner or editor of a number of magazines and newspapers.

The _Trangram_ is full of local gossip and scandal cleverly concealed.

Andrew Hamilton figures in it as "Dapper Dumpling." J. N. Barker, the author of "Superst.i.tion," is "Billy Mushroom." Joseph Dennie is nicknamed "Oliver Crank." William Warren is dubbed "the tun-bellied manager."

The account of a walk through the city streets ends with "the description of the defence of his friend would doubtless have continued until we reached the end of our journey had we not by this time arrived, where mathematicians never could arrive, at the Square Circle,"--that is, at Centre Square, Broad and Market Streets.

The third number, February 1, 1810, contains accounts of "Jeremy Corsica" (Jerome Bonaparte) and his visit to Philadelphia, and to "Bangilore" (Baltimore), and his acquaintance with Miss "Cornelia Pattypan," or Patterson.

The _Beacon, erected and supported by Lucidantus and his Thirteen Friends_, was published by W. Brown, and began its course Wednesday, Nov. 27, 1811. It aimed to surpa.s.s _The Spirit of the Reviews_, the _Dramatic Censor_ and the _Port Folio_, but it is believed to have made only two numbers. The purpose of the magazine was defined in the second number, December 11, 1811: "We propose to develop to our readers the machinery and composition of our Philadelphia Society."

The _Luncheon_ was a monthly satirical paper "boiled for people about six feet high by Simon Pure." Its first appearance was in July, 1815.

The second number contained an abusive article upon William McCorkle. In January, 1816, Lewis P. Franks, the editor of the _Luncheon_, confessed himself the author of the libel and declared that the alleged biography of McCorkle was false, and that the journal would be discontinued.

The _Independent Balance_ was published weekly by "Democritus the Younger, a lineal descendant of the Laughing Philosopher." It was established, March 20, 1817, by George Helmbold, the first editor of the _Tickler_ and late of the United States Army.

The second volume had a vignette of a sportsman shooting a bird, with the motto:

"Whene'er we court the tuneful nine, Or plainer prose suits our design, Then fools may sneer and critics frown At every corner of the town,-- Condemn our paper or commend; One aim is ours, our chiefest end: With well-poised gun and surest eyes To shoot at Folly as it flies."

Helmbold died in Philadelphia, December 28, 1821. The magazine, after pa.s.sing through several hands, finally became the property of L. P.

Franks, who published it at "No. 1 Paradise Alley, back of 171 Market Street, between Fourth and Fifth Streets." At this time it was edited by "Simon s.p.u.n.key, Esq., duly commissioned and sworn regulator, weigh-master and Inspector General." Its motto proclaimed its purpose to anatomize the wise man's folly as plain as way to parish church:

"I claim as large a charter as the wind To blow on whom I please."

The _Critic_, by Geoffrey Juvenile, Esq., No. 1, January 29, 1820.

Every number of the _Critic_ contains some quip or satire at the expense of James Kirke Paulding, and his "Backwoodsman" is particularly levelled at. Paulding is dubbed "The Cabbage Bard," and the caustic reviewer proceeds to write: "We _had_ a Dennie and a Clifton, yet the cla.s.sical elegance of the one has not availed to preserve his countrymen from being intoxicated by the quaintness and affectation of the Salmagundi school, and the purity and wit of the other have as little proved powerful to save his work from being deserted for the bathos and silliness of the 'Backwoodsman.' I remember them both. In private life they united qualities which are seldom found together, brilliancy of conversation and modesty of deportment. In their writings they were chaste without being tame, and elevated without being extravagant. Alas!

I little thought to have lived until their light should be hidden by a cloud of delirious bats who had left their native obscurity and madly rushed to uncongenial day, vermin which are likely to be of direful omen to our country unless the land be speedily cleansed of them."

The greatness of Philadelphia is the inspiration and the pride of the _Critic_. "Having often heard Philadelphia called the 'Athens of the United States,' 'the birthplace of American literature,' I was naturally delighted at the prospect of a visit to so celebrated a city" (p. 14).

And again: "Philadelphia with all its faults and follies is, in a literary and scientific point of view, the first city of the Empire" (p.

20). The _Critic_ fired its last arrow May 10, 1820.

Dennie's _Port Folio_ continued to be the admiration and the despair of contemporary editors and authors. In 1821 appeared the _Post-Chaise Companion or Magazine of Wit_. By Carlo Convivio Socio, Junior Fellow of the Royal Academy of Humorists. It was begun in January, 1821, and was issued from 15 North Front Street. In its first "leader" it deprecated comparison with the favorites of the hour: "With the venerable Mr.

Oldschool, who for almost twenty years has delighted or instructed the 'mind of desultory man,' I would not presume to enter into a compet.i.tion, still less should it be provoked with the profound labours of the editor of the _a.n.a.lectic Magazine_ and his host of 'the most eminent literary men' who promised to eclipse the dissertations of the famous Northern lights" (p. 3).

The little paper contains a long article on Mr. Kean's acting (pages 37-51).

The _Philadelphia Medical Museum_ was conducted by John Redman c.o.xe for five years, from 1805 to 1810, and was published by A. Bartram.

The _Eye_, by Obadiah Optic, was published every Thursday by John W.

Scott, from January to December, 1808, at three dollars a year. It was filled with odd, historical and alliterative articles.