The Philadelphia Magazines and their Contributors 1741-1850 Part 14

It was the _Dollar Magazine_, commenced January 25, 1843, that offered the prize in June, 1843, for the best story, and, as already related, Edgar Allan Poe entered the lists of fame, and drew the prize in the lottery with the "Gold-Bug." Hawthorne published here, in 1851, "The Unpardonable Sin." The publishers of the _Dollar Newspaper_ were the publishers of the _Ledger_. When Mr. George W. Childs purchased the _Ledger_ he bought also the _Dollar Magazine_, and changed its name to the _Home Weekly and Household Newspaper_.

The _Occident and American Jewish Advocate_ was published monthly by Isaac Leeser from No. 118 South Fourth Street, and was continued from 1843 to 1847.

The _Legal Intelligencer_ began December 2, 1843, and, published weekly from that time to the present, is the oldest law journal in the United States. It was founded by Henry E. Wallace, and has been edited by J.

Hubley Ashton, Dallas Sanders and Henry C. t.i.tus.

Miss Eliza Leslie, sister to Charles Robert Leslie, after winning her first literary distinction with her story, "Mrs. Washington Potts," in _G.o.dey's Lady's Book_, began, with the aid of T. S. Arthur, the publication in January, 1843, of _Miss Leslie's Magazine_. In the address of "The Publisher to the Public" the new venture is thus introduced and commended: "_Miss Leslie's Magazine_! There is something in the very name that foretokens a prosperous career. It is a name a.s.sociated with the pleasantest pa.s.sages of our current American literature--with the most brilliant triumphs of our most brilliant periodicals. Who does not remember 'Mrs. Washington Potts' and that exquisite tease, 'Old Aunt Quinby,' and the 'Miss Vanlears,' and their pseudo-French gallant; and 'Mrs. Woodbridge,' and her economical mamma, and the thousand other creations of Miss Leslie's admirable pencil; and remembering these, who would not venture to predict that her magazine must be eminently successful? _We_ know that it will be." The first number contained contributions by T. S. Arthur, Mrs. Anna Bache, N. P.

Willis, Virginia Murray, John Bouvier, Mrs. L. H. Sigourney, Morton McMichael and Mrs. S. C. Hall.

Again, in February, the publisher advanced before the public with a modest little speech: "We foresaw that our magazine would create a sensation, but we had no idea that it would produce such a commotion as it has done. Everybody is in rapture with it, and the whole town has been crowding to get a peep at it--for, to say the truth, such has been the demand that we could not possibly keep pace with it.... We have already received a larger number of actual subscriptions than were ever before obtained for any periodical in the same period; and we do not hazard anything in predicting that before the expiration of our first year we shall have a greater circulation than any other monthly publication.... And then our contributors are all persons of genuine merit--men and women who write understandingly, and who know how to mingle entertainment with profit. No mawkish sentimentality--no diluted commonplaces--no pompous parade of swollen words--no tumid prosiness can find admission into our columns, for we shall avoid alike the hackneyed author whose reputation takes the place of ability, and the unfledged scribbler whose crudities are utter abominations. We care nothing for mere names, though a good deed is none the worse for coming from a good hand; but the small fry of literature--the lackadaisical geniuses--Heaven bless the mark--who, sc.u.m-like, float upon the surface, soiling what they touch and disturbing by their presence what, but for them, might be free from offence--we hold in utter abhorrence."

In _Miss Leslie's Magazine_ for April, 1843, appeared the first specimen of lithotinting that had been attempted in America. It was the work of an artist named Richards, who had seen several productions of Mr.

Hullmandel, of London, who had been experimenting in this style.

The first ill.u.s.trated comic paper on an original plan published in America was the _John Donkey_. The editors of the paper were G. G.

(Gaslight) Foster and Thomas Dunn English. Foster was a reporter on the _North American_ who had written sketches of New York, notably the account of the illuminated clock of the Seward House, and who had been brought to Philadelphia by Morton McMichael. English was born in Philadelphia, June 29, 1819, and in his seventeenth year was a contributor to Philadelphia newspapers. He was graduated in medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in 1839, and after studying law was admitted to the bar in 1842. His famous song, "Ben Bolt" first appeared in the _New York Mirror_ in 1843.

The first ill.u.s.trated comic paper in America, the _Lantern_, was started by John Brougham. "This paper," said Foster and English, "professes to be funny. Let us make a paper that professes to be stupid"--and the _John Donkey_ was published monthly by G. B. Zieber at Third and Chestnut Streets, and Zieber and Foster and English shared regularly in the profits. Nearly all the articles were written by English. The artist of the magazine was Felix O. C. Darley; Henry L. Stephens designed many of the prints, and Hinckley was the engraver of the magazine. Barnet Phillips, the author of the _Struggle_, a journalist born in Philadelphia, November 9, 1828, helped in the composition of the _John Donkey_. The circulation rose to twelve thousand, when Zieber failed, and Foster went out, and the circulation dropped to three thousand. The first volume was completed in June, 1848, and only a few numbers of the second volume were issued.

_Metcalfe's Miscellany_ was begun in March, 1841, and edited by Dr.

Thomas Dunn English. The contents were "entirely original," both stories and verse. The subscription price, one dollar per year, in advance.

English was invited to edit the magazine by Metcalfe, who had been a printer in the office of _Poulson's Daily Advertiser_, and who knew that English wrote editorials for that paper. J. Ross Browne, author of the _California Sketches_, wrote Oriental sketches for Metcalfe's.

The _Nineteenth Century_ was begun in January, 1848. It was published by G. B. Zieber and Co., and edited by C. Chauncey Burr. The first volume was embellished with a steel engraving of Horace Greeley, and the second volume with an engraving of John Sartain. The motto upon the t.i.tle-page was Goethe's famous "Light, more light still."

The first number was dedicated to Douglas Jerrold. "The Heart Broken," a story of Brockden Brown's life, death and burial, was contributed by George Lippard: "He became an--author! Yes, a miserable penster, a scribbler, a fellow who spills ink for bread! For a career like this he forsook the brilliant prospects of the bar. Yes, he set himself down in the prime of his young manhood to make his bread by his pen. At that time the cow with seven horns, or the calf with two heads and five legs, exhibited in some mountebank's show, was not half so rare a curiosity as--an American author!"

Among the contributors to the magazine were Mrs. Sigourney, T. B. Read, Bayard Taylor and Dr. Furness.

The _Friends' Review_ was the creation of the Orthodox Friends, in 1847. Its first editor was the mathematician, Enoch Lewis, who continued to direct it until his death, in 1856. A remarkable literary incident is a.s.sociated with the issue of January, 1848. In that month Elizabeth Lloyd (Howell), widow of Robert Howell, of Philadelphia, contributed anonymously to the _Review_ a poem, ent.i.tled "Milton's Prayer for Patience," in which the Miltonic manner was so deftly imitated, that even the very elect in criticism were deceived by it, and the poem was actually printed in the Oxford edition of Milton as Milton's own lament for his loss of sight.

Most of the Philadelphia magazines of the last fifty years have been enriched by the busy hand of Mr. John Sartain, and two of the most interesting of the city's periodicals were owned and edited by him. Mr.

Sartain, who has won the highest place in the history of American engraving, was born in London, England, October 24, 1808. He came to America in 1830, and settled in Philadelphia at the persuasion of Thomas Sully. No living engraver has accomplished as much work as this untiring and skilful artist. But it is not as an artist or an interpreter of art alone that he has won high honor; his literary labors, though less conspicuous and less splendid, are significant and interesting.

_Campbell's Foreign Monthly Magazine_ began September 1, 1843. It was published monthly for one year by James M. Campbell, of 98 Chestnut Street, when it was bought outright by Mr. John Sartain, who changed the t.i.tle to _Campbell's Foreign Semi-Monthly, or Select Miscellany of European Literature and Art_ (September, 1843, to September, 1844).

Sartain engraved a plate for each number, and compiled a laborious miscellany of the latest intelligence in art, science and letters. Many famous bits of literature appeared for the first time in America in this magazine. "The Bridge of Sighs," "The Song of the Shirt" (Vol. V, p.

211), "The Haunted House" (Hood), "The Pauper's Funeral" and "The Drop of Gin" (Vol. V, p. 138) were first published in these pages.

In 1848 Mr. Sartain purchased the _Union Magazine of Literature and Art_, edited in New York by Caroline Matilda Kirkland, the American Miss Mitford. The name of the magazine was changed, and _Sartain's Union Magazine_ appeared in January, 1849, edited by Mrs. Kirkland and Professor John S. Hart, of the Central High School. For a few months Dr.

Reynell Coates acted as editor, but in the third year of its history Mr.

Sartain a.s.sumed complete charge of his magazine. In 1852 it again returned to New York, when it was merged into the _National Magazine_.

Longfellow contributed frequently to the magazine. His translation of "The Blind Girl of Castel Cuille" appeared here in January, 1850. Poe contributed "The Bells" (November, 1849) and his "Poetic Principle"

(October, 1850). Harriet Martineau wrote for _Sartain's_ her "Year at Ambleside," which ran through the year 1850, and T. Buchanan Read, George Henry Boker and Frederika Bremer were frequently in the pages of the magazine.

POSTSCRIPT.

Since the final revision of these pages I have learned that Samuel Stearns was the editor of the second volume (1789) of the _Philadelphia Magazine_. He was a physician and astronomer, born in Bolton, Ma.s.s., in 1747, and died in Brattleborough, Vt., in 1819. He made the calculations for the first nautical almanac in this country, which he published in New York, December 20, 1782. Twenty-eight years of his life were spent upon a "Medical Dispensatory," which he left unfinished at his death.

Of one publication of the eighteenth century, the _Philadelphia Nimrod_ (1798), I have made no mention. Although for a long time a hot questrist after it, I have not been fortunate enough to come by a copy, and of its history I am mainly ignorant.

My list of the medical, theological and scientific periodicals of the present century is by no means complete, but it may be serviceable for future correction and extension.

There was a publication in Philadelphia, in 1811, ent.i.tled the _Cynic_, "by Growler Gruff, Esquire, aided by a Confederacy of Lettered Dogs." It wore the motto:

We'll snarl, and bite, and play the dog, For dogs are honest.

It was published weekly from September 21 to December 12. The princ.i.p.al purpose of the little paper was to censure and abuse the theatrical managers of the city for abolishing the old theatre boxes.

A dramatic review which has a station in the file, and not i' the worst rank either, is the _Whim_, published by John Bioren, No. 88 Chestnut Street, at twenty cents a number. It was a small paper issued during the theatrical season and for sale at the Falstaff tavern. The editor, James Fennell, was born in London in 1766, and died in Philadelphia, June 14, 1816. He came to America in 1793 and made his first appearance in Philadelphia. He published "The Wheel of Truth," a comedy; "Picture of Paris;" "Linden and Clara," a comedy; and "Apology for My Life,"

Philadelphia, 1814. The first number of the _Whim_ appeared Sat.u.r.day, May 14, 1814. The argument for the publication was founded upon the pre-eminence of Philadelphia among the cities of the nation, "The city of Philadelphia professedly and avowedly declaring itself the _Athens of the United States_" (p. 8). The journal ceased, I believe, with the tenth number, dated July 16, 1814.

It has been no part of my task to discover and describe the early magazines of the State, though that had been an attractive piece of literary exposition--to the expounder, at least. In conclusion, however, it may not be amiss to recite a few of the earlier examples of provincial editing.

The first magazine west of the mountains was the _Huntingdon Literary Museum and Monthly Miscellany_. It was edited by William Rudolph Smith, a grandson of Dr. William Smith, of the _American Magazine_ (1757-8), and Moses Canan. It was printed by John McCahan and published in 1810.

Its editors defined it to be "the first asylum for the varieties of literature that ever had been published west of the Susquehannah" (p.

576). The magazine ceased in December, 1810, with the complaint that "with the exception of some pieces of poetry from several gentlemen in Philadelphia, and an essay on the early 'Poetick Writers,' the editors have received no _original_ matter."

A still earlier periodical was the _Gleaner_, "a monthly magazine, containing original and selected essays in prose and verse," Stacy Potts, Jr., editor, Lancaster, 1808-9.

Carlisle possessed two religious magazines of early date--the _Religious Instructor_, "under ministers of the Presbyterian Church, Carlisle, 1810;" and the _Magazine of the German Reformed Church_, edited by Rev.

L. Mayer, and continued by Rev. Daniel Young, begun in 1828, and making three volumes.

Another semi-religious periodical was the _Literary and Evangelical Register_, "containing scientifical, evangelical, statistical and political essays and facts, together with missionary intelligence and miscellaneous articles, interspersed with poetry." This magazine was edited by Eugenio Kincaid and published at Milton, Pennsylvania. It was begun in July, 1826, and continued until June, 1827.

The _Village Museum_, "conducted by an a.s.sociation of young men" (Vol.

I, 1819-20), was published by Gemmill and Lewis at York, Pennsylvania.

It bore for its motto:

Along the cool-sequestered vale of life We keep the noiseless tenor of our way.

The magazine is full of the neighborhood and gay with local color. It ceased in July, 1820.