# The Story of the House of Cassell/Part 2, Chapter 6

CHAPTER VI
MAGAZINES AND PERIODICALS
At the time of John Cassell's death the Family Paper and the Quiver were the only two magazines published by the House, both being issued in the then approved style of weekly numbers at one penny and monthly parts at seven-pence. By 1867 the circulation of the Family Paper had diminished, and as a consequence the title was changed to Cassell's Magazine, and the size of the paper reduced, but the price remained the same. The type of contents was also changed, so that the new issue resembled the good magazines of to-day rather than its more solid contemporaries of the 'sixties. The salient paragraph of the publishers' lengthy note, by which the new venture was announced, ran thus:
The note ends with a flourish in which there is a personal touch foreign to most present-day advertising but savouring of the ebullient mid-Victorian time:
​The first editor under the new régime was the Rev. H. R. Haweis, who had Mr. Saville Clarke as assistant editor. The editor's MS. could have been none too easy to read, for an intimate friend of his says, "What I chiefly recall about Mr. Haweis is that his writing was worse than my own, which was so vile that my teacher, as he rapped me on the knuckles, would declare that it was worse than King John's." A year before this assumption of editorial duties Mr. Haweis had been appointed incumbent of St. James's, Marylebone. The youngest incumbent in London, and the least conventional, he quickly made his mark, drawing crowded congregations to his church. It is difficult to imagine that he had the qualifications of a successful editor, or that he could have found the work congenial. At any rate, his reign lasted a year only. The most successful of his books was "Music and Morals," and the most fruitful of his public activities his advocacy of Sunday opening of museums and picture galleries and the conversion of disused churchyards and open spaces into recreation grounds.
Haweis's successor was John Lovell, who, later, became the first manager of the Press Association. His stay also was short. The next editor was the popular writer of tales for boys, George Manville Fenn, who took the position in 1870 and retained it between three and four years. A short story of his in Dickens's All the Year Round first brought him to the notice of the firm. They wrote to "The Author of 'n Jeopardy'" inviting him to contribute to their periodicals, and thus began a pleasant association as editor and contributor which lasted throughout Fenn's literary life.
One of the serials which appeared in the magazine in Fenn's time was Charles Reade's "A Terrible Temptation." The storm of criticism which this story excited has already been mentioned. Good, strong stuff, with nothing risqué in it, but real and frank, it was considered improper by some readers of that demure period. While it was running Fenn had some correspondence with Reade. ​Only one letter of the novelist has been preserved, and that deals with nothing more exciting than the technique of illustration; but in the discussion of such an abstruse subject as the comparative merits of horizontal or upright pictures there is a twinkle of Reade's humour. The vertical picture he dubs "small and childish," having insufficient space "to present a dramatic situation":
There is Reade's honest, hearty ring in the concluding paragraph:
Wilkie Collins was also a contributor at this time. He was a singularly painstaking author, and not merely in the elaboration of his plots, for his MS. was corrected over and over again with meticulous care. Other writers for Cassell's Magazine during Manville Fenn's editorship were Hesba Stretton and Theo. Gift, the latter of whom, on her arrival from Montevideo, wrote sketches and verses, and later a charming serial story entitled "Pretty Miss Bellew."
In 1874 Fenn resigned the editorship of the magazine in which his wholesome and cheery character was so well reflected. His memory lingers pleasantly at the Yard to this day. Mr. Charles Harrison, for some years publishing ​manager of Messrs. Geo. Newnes, Limited, was at La Belle Sauvage as a boy. He tells how Manville Fenn would ring his bell and say, "Harrison, do you think you could get me a cup of tea?"
"I would reply, 'Yes, sir,'" says Mr. Harrison. "He little knew where I got it. There were no A.B.C.'s or Lyons's in those days, and I had to go as far as the Viaduct, where there was a dirty little coffee shop. Of course, by the time I got back to the office the tea was nearly cold, and Mr. Fenn would say to me, with a humorous twinkle in his eye, after smelling and tasting the brew, 'Well, Harrison, it is just warm, and it is sweet, and that's all I can say for it. Anyhow, I am very much obliged to you for the trouble you have taken. Here's sixpence for you.' So that wretched cup of tea used to cost him ninepence! I thought him one of the most delightful and lovable men I ever knew. It was a pleasure to do anything for him, quite apart from the generous recognition which he never omitted."
When Manville Fenn's connexion with the magazine ceased it was recast with a more domestic touch, the title was again changed to Cassell's Family Magazine, and Bonavia Hunt of the Quiver was appointed to the editorship. Hunt was a quick and deft worker and a man of varied activities. A few years after assuming the editorship of Cassell's Family Magazine he took holy orders, and thenceforward, until the end of his life, discharged regular clerical duties, first as curate, afterwards as vicar. A musical enthusiast, he became a Doctor of Music of Trinity College, Dublin, and member of the Senate. To his efforts was mainly due the founding of Trinity College, London, a musical institution now well known throughout the United Kingdom, which grew out of a choral society he had organized.
Dr. Hunt, to give him the style by which he was known in his later years, was fortunate in having, on both his magazines, an exceptionally capable assistant in Frank Holderness Gale, who had entered the service of the firm ​on leaving school in the late 'seventies. Hunt retained the double editorship for twenty-two years, giving up Cassell's Family Magazine in 1896 and thereafter concentrating upon the Quiver. The truth was that at this stage the magazine was not going well. It was suffering from the competition of many of the rivals which were so heartily derided by the "old brigade." Sir Wemyss Reid sent for Mr. Max Pemberton, then editor of Chums, and invited him to take charge and carry out a remodelling scheme. The understanding now was that the magazine should be run on broader lines, and "Family" was finally dropped out of the title, which once more became simply Cassell's Magazine.
Max Pemberton, assisted by Holderness Gale, set to work and kept it up for ten pleasant and fruitful years. He had the co-operation of many distinguished authors, and it was his good fortune to introduce two or three to the public. Thus, Robert Chambers, the great American romancer, made one of his earliest English appearances in Cassell's Magazine, while Mrs. Gertrude Atherton, then quite unknown to the public, was encouraged by Mr. Pemberton to come over from California, and soon established herself as one of the leading women authors of the day. It was in Cassell's that Hornung introduced "Raffles" to an admiring public and that Sir Rider Haggard gave us some of the most brilliant of his later stories. Cassell's also had the great privilege of publishing Rudyard Kipling's "Kim." All sorts and conditions of people helped with short stories. Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, S. R. Crockett, Tighe Hopkins, Agnes and Egerton Castle, Stanley Weyman, Guy Boothby, William Le Queux, and many others, formed a magazine staff which, in those days, had rarely been equalled.
The editor's work was congenial to Max Pemberton and well suited to one whose chief occupation was fiction. His own visits to the office were infrequent, for Holderness Gale had charge there, and all the reading was done at Mr. Pemberton's own home in Hampstead. "There is ​perhaps," says he, "a prejudice against this method of doing business nowadays, but where a magazine is concerned I am convinced that the seclusion of an editor's own study is invaluable to his judgment of MSS. My own contributions to Cassell's during these years were many. 'The Garden of Swords' appeared there, also 'Red Morn,' 'The Giant's Gate,' 'The Hundred Days,' 'A Puritan's Wife,' and many short stories. The artists were the best we could procure, and among my treasures are many of the originals which helped the books to their success."
Mr, Pemberton's alert and energetic editorship soon told, and much of the ground the magazine had lost was recovered. One special feature of his régime was the manner in which he contrived to elevate sport to a high level of interest. The articles on sport of all kinds which appeared in the magazine in those days were examples of excellent writing and fine ideals.
After a ten years' spell of editorship Max Pemberton withdrew, and the vacant chair was offered to Mr. David Williamson, the well-known journalist, who directed the magazine, and with it the Quiver, from 1905 until 1909, but without the help of Holderness Gale, who resigned the assistant-editorship of both publications. Presently Gale took up an important journalistic appointment in South Africa, whence he returned with broken health, and not long afterwards died.
Soon after Mr. Williamson's resignation Mr. Newman Flower added the magazine to the publications carried on under his direction, and converted it into a fiction magazine pure and simple, the title being accordingly altered to Cassell's Magazine of Fiction. This change in title, by the way, formed the subject of a lawsuit, which was successfully resisted. The first number appeared on March 29, 1912, ran to 264 pages, and included twenty-three stories by first-class writers and a complete novel by T. W. Hanshew. For some years the fortunes of the publication had varied somewhat, but with this ​radical change there came an end to its vicissitudes, and before long it had firmly re-established its old position as one of the first favourites of the magazine public.
The inception of the Quiver was John Cassell's, and its name came to him in a flash of inspiration. During his American tour he conceived the idea of a periodical which should supply Sunday reading for the family, and straightway entered into the multifarious details of character, contents, and production. On his return he was ready and eager to realize his purpose. Previous to his departure, in 1859, he had himself conducted the editorial columns of the Family Paper, but during his absence this task was entrusted to Mr. Petter, and the senior partner was glad that the arrangement should continue now that his mind was full of the new project. Miile travelling through the States he had noticed in almost every household a semi-religious magazine for Sunday reading, containing much religious matter of a reflective kind, leavened with attractive stories. That there was ample room in England for such a magazine he was instinctively convinced. "If it prospers," he said to a friend, "I shall have done some good."
The first vital point was to discover a title. "Cassell's Sunday Readings" was suggested, but was excluded because it suggested 'clippings' rather than original matter. "The Sunday Friend" and many others were written down, but none satisfied him. One morning, however, as he came into the office, he exclaimed: "I have got the title, the Quiver—a case for arrows, and we can have long arrows and short arrows—arrows, however, which shall wing their flight and tell their tale, all coming from this quiver of ours." Thus the new periodical was baptized, and as the Quiver it went forth.
The first number appeared on September 7, 1861. It was a twenty-four-page penny magazine, set in small type and without illustrations. No word of introduction accompanied the first issue, but an advertisement of the ​new venture described it as "John Cassell's New Weekly Journal, designed for the Defence and Promotion of Biblical Truth and the Advance of Religion in the Homes of the People." "The Quiver," it was added, "will be evangelical and unsectarian in its character, having for its grand aim the intellectual, moral, and spiritual improvement of its readers. Its staff of contributors will include some of the ablest writers in the sphere of religious literature, irrespective of denominational differences."
The first page of the new publication started off with a leading article on "The Bible, Christianity, and the Church," followed on the second page by an article on "Religion in the Home." Further on we find the first installment of "The Channings," by Mrs. Henry Wood, while a "Youths' Department," a "Weekly Calendar of Remarkable Events associated with the Christian Church," and "The Half-hour Bible Class" make up the rest of the issue.
Undistinguished and somewhat heavy as the magazine would appear to present-day readers, it immediately leapt into popularity. Its early years were marked by a rapid growth both in size and in circulation. Evidently it appealed successfully to those who keenly followed the movement towards popular education and the sweetening of life for the poor.
In 1864 a new series adapted to a wider public was started. The prospectus was written by Cassell himself, and was issued as a poster advertisement. "Our object," he said, "is to make this magazine a devout yet cheerful publication, to be read in every home—ministering to the wants of each member of the family and advancing their moral and spiritual welfare. Our aim has been to make men feel the reality of religious things: of God, of their duty to Him, and of eternity."
A special feature of the Quiver's work from the beginning to the present day has been its fruitful appeals for the support of humane institutions and the promotion of philanthropic efforts. In the £15,000 or thereabouts that ​its readers have contributed to various funds are included £2,662 to the Lifeboat Institution, £2,167 to the Bengal Famine Fund, £1,378 to a Quiver "hammocks fund" for the Training Ship Chichester, and £1,528 to the Silver Thimble Fund.
During the war the Quiver readers were particularly active. They raised sufficient money to buy and equip two motor ambulances for service to the wounded, these costing some £1,400. They also generously subscribed to St. Dunstan's and other war relief funds.
Another phase of the work of the Quiver ought to be mentioned. The "servant problem" was debated with warmth so far back as the 'nineties. At that time it was alleged that the old-time domestic servant who was faithful in her attachment to the fortunes of one family was practically extinct. As a means of testing the accuracy of this statement, the editor published a scheme for a new Order for Honourable Service, to consist of domestic servants of either sex who had held their present situations for seven years and upwards, with a special class of distinguished members who could show an uninterrupted record of fifty years' service in the same family. This latter provision was looked upon by many as not very seriously intended, and it was thought that the publishers would find few claimants of the "handsome Family Bible, published at one guinea," which was offered. Month after month, however, two or three duly authenticated cases of fifty years' service in the same household appeared in the list, making a very respectable muster-roll of veterans at the end of the first year.
As soon as this movement had given evidence of vitality H.R.H. Princess Christian consented, at the editor's request, to become the Patron of the Order, and when about 2,000 members had been enrolled they enthusiastically adopted the suggestion that they should offer the Princess a token of their appreciation of her support of the movement. Their little keepsake took the form of a gold brooch, the setting of which held the ​device of the Order, and the presentation was accompanied by an illuminated address. Further accessions to the Order were stopped by the exhaustion of the ample fund placed by the proprietors at the editor's disposal, but even now applications continue to come in from servants with thirty, forty, and even fifty years' record of service.
A few years ago Mr. David Williamson, during his editorship, offered prizes for handicraft and needlework of any kind made at a cost not exceeding one shilling. In a few weeks thousands of articles from all parts of the world poured into the editor's room until it became a veritable repository. The whole stock of articles was divided equally between Dr. Barnardo's Homes and the Church Army, after the prizes had been awarded.
Although the magazine celebrated its jubilee in 1911 the editorial chair has had comparatively few occupants. John Cassell's successor was the Rev. Henry Wright, who was followed by J. E. Gore, and he by J. Willis Clark. Then came the Rev. T. Teignmouth Shore, and after him his assistant, Bonavia Hunt, who was associated with the Quiver as sub-editor and editor for forty years. He was followed in 1905 by Mr. David Williamson, and on his retirement in 1909 the present editor, Mr. H. D. Williams, was installed.
The literary history of the Quiver has been distinguished. Not only have many of the most notable writers of the day contributed to its columns, but many authors of world-wide reputation received from it their first commissions. For instance. Dean Farrar began writing for the magazine when still a master at Harrow, and continued his contributions over a period of more than thirty years. Among divines who have written in its pages are Thomas Binney, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, John Gumming, Morley Punshon, Henry Allon, Hugh Macmillan, and P. B. Power; among novelists, Mrs. Henry Wood and Ellen Thorneycroft Fowler; while present-day writers whose contributions appear in it from time to time ​include Dr. John Clifford, Dr. R. F. Horton, Sir Rider Haggard, Gertrude Page, H. A. Vachell, Baroness Orczy, David Lyall, Mrs. Baillie Reynolds, Annie S. Swan, E. F. Benson, Harold Begbie, etc.
One by one the great magazines contemporaneous with the Quiver have ceased publication, or entirely altered their character, and observers of the times have sometimes wondered at the fact that this publication should have held its own without undergoing radical modification. The fact is that, without ceasing to be a religious magazine, it has known how to advance and keep in touch with the times. In quality of authorship, art, and general production it can claim to be the equal of any of the monthlies. More than once its Christmas number—always a great feature of the year—has been distinctly superior to those of some of the most successful secular magazines of the day, at least in its illustrations. The result of this sustained but progressive policy has been that the Quiver has been able to hold its ground during the changes that have come over the religious world. "I shall leave the public a legacy in the Quiver, was among the last sayings of John Cassell; and nearly sixty years after his death the public are still in the enjoyment of the bequest.
To many "grown-ups" of the present generation the title of Little Folks awakens memories of long ago—a cosy fireside on a winter evening, a shady bank on a summer day, a nursery filled with eager voices all wanting to look at the new number at once.
For the christening of this new fledgling thanks are due to Bonavia Hunt, who, in spite of his many and various duties as magazine editor in those days, gave a kindly thought to the children. Until it had attained its thirtieth number he nursed it with diligent care and solicitude. It was then passed on to the no less capable control of Miss Clara Matéaux, who had written the leading story in the first number, entitled "Nellie: A ​Story for Careless Little Folks." Miss Matéaux contributed largely to the various Cassell publications for many years, but she was never so happy as when writing stories for children or discoursing to them in her charming manner on the science of everyday things.
When the magazine first appeared, in 1871, a child was regarded as a creature whose duty it was to be "good," which meant chiefly rendering explicit obedience to its elders and not asking inconvenient questions. And although the new magazine struck a lighter vein than was common in juvenile publications, such titles as "Cousin Willie's Fireworks: A Warning to Boys," "Maggie's Disobedience, and What came of it," and "Only a Penny: One or two pages about a Little Girl's Temptation," suggest that there was nothing revolutionary in its point of view. In the Preface the editor describes it as a "pleasant and instructive companion," and expresses the hope that readers will not only be "amused but improved." It was "intended to make its readers happy and bright, as all good boys and girls should be," and they were mildly exhorted to be "as good, gentle and industrious" as their best friends could wish.
For several years Little Folks appeared as a weekly paper of sixteen small quarto pages, with a full-page wood engraving on the first and last pages, and two full-page wood engravings in the middle. Other pages were illustrated with smaller engravings, so that there was only a limited space for letterpress. Yet the editor managed to get a good deal of variety into its pages. Besides cautionary stories, there were instructive articles on natural history, nonsense stories, true tales of heroism and animal intelligence, verse of various kinds, puzzles, and letters to the editor, together with many prize competitions. One must not compare the illustrations of the 'seventies with those of to-day, or one will fail to realize the inexhaustible delight which the pictures in the early numbers of Little Folks gave to less sophisticated children of fifty years ago.
​In 1875 the size of the magazine was enlarged and a colour frontispiece added to its increasing attractions. In 1877 it became a monthly issue, and it was now that the well-remembered blue and red cover was first adopted. About this time Miss Matéaux retired, and was succeeded by George Weatherly, a popular member of the regular editorial staff—a cousin, by the way, of the song writer—who had a distinct gift for appealing to the child mind. In 1880 the firm started a weekly paper for boys, under the title of the Boy's Newspaper, and in order that he might concentrate upon it Weatherly was relieved of Little Folks, which was put into the hands of Ernest Foster, another member of the editorial staff, under whose control it remained for several years and made great progress. In 1886 another cover was designed for it, the beautiful design in blue printed on yellow paper, by which it was known for ten years, and in 1887 the magazine was modernized. In the course of Foster's editorship, which lasted till the 'nineties, some of the best work of Mrs. Molesworth appeared in Little Folks, and there was also a serial by Clark Russell.
The next editor, Mr. S. H. Hamer, made some striking advances. To him is due the credit of discovering Arthur Rackham and Harry Rountree; he also introduced two-colour pictures into the body of the magazine, and founded the "Little Folks Ward and Home Scheme" and the "Little Folks Nature Club," both of which developed beyond all expectations. The Ward and Home Scheme was conducted by Miss Bella Sidney Woolf for ten years, and under her guidance the readers of the magazine established in 1904 a ward of fourteen beds in the Queen's Hospital, Hackney Road, London, and in 1911 presented the same hospital with a fully equipped seaside branch with accommodation for thirty patients, which they have now set themselves to maintain. The enthusiasm with which the little folks took up the idea of giving a second chance to the children of the slums was remarkable. They subscribed their own pence, they ​collected other people's, they formed leagues in the interest of the scheme; they raised a first thousand pounds quickly, then another, and still went on subscribing. A big house with eight acres of ground was bought at Little Common, near Bexhill, and became the seaside home of the sick slum children of London—always full of pathetic patients who see beauty at Bexhill for the first time and learn what freedom and wide spaces mean, who suck health and strength out of a new life in lovely surroundings, well fed and housed, equipped with every appliance of play that is dear to a child's heart. Little Folks readers not only established the Home, but have provided more than eight thousand pounds of their pocket-money to keep it going. In connexion with schemes to interest children in their fellows, mention must be made of one of the earliest of all, founded on behalf of Dumb Animals and known as the Little Folks Humane Society. In reply to a letter addressed to Miss Frances Power Cobbe on the subject, she wrote:
"My dear Sir,—I am quite delighted at your 'Little Folks' Humane Society. What an admirable use you have made of your periodical to inspire this feeling among so many children! You will be able also to keep it up month after month. I wish we could make some universal organization for this special work . . . we ought to amalgamate in some way or other. Judging from your list, however, I gather that your 'little folks' are of the upper classes, while our Bands of Mercy are all, I think, village children.
"It is so pleasant and encouraging to see so much being done to lay the foundations of humanity in our social world. If this can only be done, the next generation will make a dean sweep of any cruelties now in vogue I can, unhappily, do little or nothing on these happy lines myself, being absorbed up to and beyond my powers in opposing the worst of all cruelties to animals.
Frances P. Cobbe."
A pretty story is told by that well-known author for girls, Mrs. L. T. Meade, in connexion with one of her ​books, "Beyond the Blue Mountains." "That story," she said, "I had first told to my own children on Sunday evenings, and when I went to the editor of Little Folks and explained to him the nature of the tale, he immediately arranged that I should give him the story. As I went home, however, I was troubled. The editor wanted the story at once, and I had not a word of it written; I had absolutely forgotten the first part. My son, however, came to my relief. He was a little chap of about ten years old at that time. 'Never mind, mother,' he exclaimed, 'if you have forgotten the first part, I remember it'; and he told it to me there and then, word for word."
During Mr. Hamer's editorship the magazine attained a higher level than it had ever reached before. Meanwhile, new forces were at work. Ideas on education were changing, and people were beginning to realize that greater attention must be given to the natural needs and tastes of children. There were writers who, dissatisfied with the books and magazines of their own childhood, wished to give the children of a later day the things they had longed for themselves; artists were producing a new kind of picture for children, and new methods of printing were being evolved. These new forces were brought to bear on Little Folks by Mr. Hamer, by Mr. Chas. S. Bayne, his successor, and by Mr. H. D. Williams, the present editor. The best work of the best writers for children is keenly sought for, children are not written down to, and the serious articles are no longer obtrusively instructive or hortatory. Similarly, the Little Folks Nature Club has been developed along the lines of modern Nature study, with the result that an enthusiasm has been aroused which threatens nearly to overwhelm all the other features of the magazine. Competitions have been retained to give readers an opportunity of exercising their budding artistic talents. There are rising authors who own to having received their first encouragement by winning a prize in a Little Folks story competition; and a well-known mayor and alderman of one of the oldest ​provincial towns has for years contributed some of the most amusing poems and pictures to the magazine, and still looks upon it as one of his own "children." The pseudonyms, or initials, to be seen from time to time beneath some of its pictures and articles hide the names of business and professional men who still retain the happy hearts of children and find it a pleasure to amuse and interest the children of a later generation than their own. So it has come about that to-day the magazine represents the life and thought of the child in a thorough and wholesome manner.
To Max Pemberton the thanks of many a youngster of yesterday and to-day are due for the idea of launching Chums on the stream of literature for boys. He himself relates the origin of the paper:—
"My connexion with Cassell's was accidental. I had devised a scheme for a popular penny newspaper, and everything was ready but the money. Unfortunately I did not discover a multitude of intelligent people competing for the privilege of financing me. The scheme went into the City, where so many good schemes go every day, and somehow or other—I have never yet discovered exactly in what way—it came to the notice of the late Mr. Galpin. He took it to Sir Wemyss Reid, who was then managing director of the company, and in due course I was asked to make my second appearance at La Belle Sauvage. The first had been far back in the historic past, when, as a mere undergraduate, I had bearded the then editor of the Saturday Journal in his den, and sold him a story. At this early achievement I thought my fortune was made, but, unfortunately, before I could perpetrate a second assault upon the Journal sanctum the editor had vanished and the castles in Spain were shattered.
"Sir Wemyss Reid, having considered the scheme, found it to be good and promptly proceeded to ignore it. The fact was that Cassell's were then contemplating a boys' paper, and whether it was that I looked juvenile ​enough for the job, or, on the contrary, wore a paternal air of gravity, the undertaking was offered to me. Of course, I accepted it. I would have cheerfully edited The Times at that moment, and dismissed the 'Encyclopædia Britannica' with a laugh. We set to work, and I called to my aid all the talent that I knew. Mr. D. H. Parry was the first, and then the late Mr. Henty, and others who were acquainted with this kind of work. Chums eventually appeared (1892) and sold some hundred odd thousands of its first copy. I thought then, and I think now, that the paper would have had a gayer start if my own ideas had been more generally accepted, and its two-column Chums format had been changed for one of three columns, with the corresponding opportunities for illustration. However, the paper jogged on very well, and therein I wrote 'The Iron Pirate' in the hope of stimulating the activities of a flagging public. This it certainly did, and, incidentally, permitted me to abandon editorship for the time being and devote myself exclusively to fiction.
"Of course I saw much of Sir Wemyss Reid. The meetings with him were invariably amusing. He would listen to the scheme I had to propound and then proceed to tell me a story of Bismarck or the Prime Minister. Once when I went down to discuss the enlargement of Chums he told me an amusing story of a Cabinet Minister of the day who, from motives of curiosity, thought he would like a penny ride upon a bus. He did so, and was fortunate enough to obtain a seat by the driver's side. They discussed many things, and as they went down Park Lane, the Cabinet Minister pointed to his own house and asked the bus driver if he knew who lived there: 'Why, yes,' he replied, 'the most immoral family in London, male and female.' Sir Wemyss, indeed, always had an anecdote, and it was a pleasure to introduce distinguished visitors to him because of those rare conversational gifts in which he had few equals then in London."
When Mr. Pemberton vacated the editorial chair of ​Chums in 1894, the late Ernest Foster became editor, and for the next thirteen years put the same energy into conducting a boys' paper that he had already shown in the management of Little Folks and the Saturday Journal. In his reminiscences, published under the title "An Editor's Chair," Foster writes: "If I were asked what portion of work as Editor of Chums stood out in my recollection as the most remarkable ... I should have little difficulty in answering the question. It was the friendly relationship, the good fellowship that existed between the readers and myself. I have never known readers who identified themselves so closely with a publication. . . . They were untiring in the personal efforts they made to increase its circulation . . . and, furthermore, they criticized with the fullest freedom everything that was provided for them."
Now and then an already well-known story was republished. One was "Treasure Island." Foster found that though many of his readers had, of course, read the book, they were not the less delighted to have it anew as a serial. When the last installment appeared the words "The End " were followed by an "In Memoriam" paragraph; for it happened that at the very moment when Foster was sending to the printers the sheet containing the final chapters of the story, the news arrived that Robert Louis Stevenson had died in Samoa. The correspondence of the boys was one of the joys and curiosities of editorship. "When boys wanted little things," said Foster, "they had no hesitation in asking for them, whether they were picture postcards, or the foreign stamps which came on letters to the office, or portions of authors' MSS., or their autographs, or, indeed, whatever fancy might decree. On one occasion Lord Roberts had been kind enough to write a short note for publication in the paper, telling, in reply to an inquiry, where and when he had won the V.C. After it appeared I received four or five applications from different boys for the original letter, and I have no doubt they all expected to get it."
​The successful editorship of a magazine for boys calls for much tact and consideration and for sympathy with boy-life and with its manifold aspirations which are only half understood by the boy himself. Manville Fenn, in an interview in the interests of Chums, spoke excellent sense when he said: "I think that boys do themselves a lot of harm by reading a great deal of stupid trash. In my opinion a tale for boys should possess plenty of good, stirring adventures without any preaching. Boys don't like being preached at. By writing a good, wholesome story you can alter a boy's character and make him a better lad in spite of himself. You don't want any bosh about love sentiment in boys' books. If you have a villain, show that he is a villain, and don't hold him up as a model of what a man should be."
This has constantly been the policy of Chums, and it is the basis upon which the magazine was built up and has maintained its position among periodicals for boys. Many rivals have come into the field, but under Mr. Newman Flower's direction it still holds its own, finding among its present-day adherents the same loyal and gay spirit that is illustrated in Foster's recollections.
In October, 1898, the New Penny Magazine made its bow to the public. Its raison d'être was thus explained in a prefatory article written by Sir Wemyss Reid:
"The pioneer of the cheap periodical Press was the Penny Magazine, originated by Charles Knight and dear to the reading public in the days of our fathers. Mr. Knight's publication has been dead for more than a generation. In issuing the New Penny Magazine, we are seeking to adapt to the tastes and requirements of the present day the idea which Mr. Knight embodied in his great publication. We propose to supply week by week a magazine fully equal in the quality of its contents to any of the popular monthly magazines; whilst the quantity of reading matter and the number of illustrations will be fully one-half of those given in publications costing six or even twelve times as much."
​No one can charge the projectors of the new weekly with lacking a robust belief in its deserts and its fortunes:
"In the New Penny Magazine," the editorial pen proceeded, "readers will find themselves in possession of a treasure-house of literature old and new, both solid and entertaining. Articles of exceptional interest, stories of adventure, thrilling records of gallant deeds, vivid pages from history, anecdotal accounts of novelties, curiosities and famous personages, and graphic descriptions of Nature's most wonderful scenes, will find a place in our pages. Each number will also contain one or two complete short stories and a serial tale by the best writers. Some of the richest gems of recent years will be found side by side with the masterpieces of the present day; and the whole will be embellished by illustrations from the pen, pencil, or brush of the leading masters of black and white art.
The idea that lay behind the new magazine, though not very explicitly stated, was that in the various publications of the House there were mines of permanently valuable matter which could be worked for nothing. At first, therefore, the paper was made up chiefly of reprint, more or less adapted to the taste and requirements of the day. It was in that way that it was possible to produce so large a magazine for the coin from which it took its name. A diligent and skilful editor was found in the late Wood Smith, who up to that time had belonged to a non-literary department of the House; and it made a capital start, and held its ground successfully for a few years, the proportion of original matter having, however, to be gradually increased until the reprint almost entirely disappeared. In 1900 Wood Smith joined Messrs. Harmsworth's staff, and Newman Flower left their staff to succeed him. The paper, now known simply as the Penny Magazine, has ever since been under Mr. Flower's direction, and ​although he is now, as Literary Director, with a seat on the Board, ultimately responsible in a literary sense for all the publications issued by the House, the Penny Magazine has been one of his pets, and is watched over with an indefatigable keenness to keep it up to concert pitch all the time.
It was in 1887 that the late Oscar Wilde accepted the editorship of the Lady's World, a monthly magazine "of Fashion and Society," as it styled itself, which had been issued for a year under the direction of a departmental manager. In his first number, November, 1887, he changed the title to the Woman's World.
At first Oscar Wilde took his work quite seriously, and eleven o'clock every Tuesday and Thursday saw him entering the portals of the Yard; but after a few months his arrival became later and his departure earlier, until at times his visit was little more than a call. "After a very short time in my association with him," says Mr. Arthur Fish, who was his assistant, "I could tell by his footfalls along the resounding corridor whether the necessary work to be done would be met cheerfully or postponed to a more congenial period. In the latter case, he would sink with a sigh into his chair, carelessly glance at his letters, give a perfunctory look at proofs or makeup, ask, 'Is it necessary to settle anything to-day?' put on his hat with a sad 'Good morning,' and depart again.
"On his cheerful days, however, which were fairly constant in the spring, everything was different: there would be a smiling entrance, letters would be answered with epigrammatic brightness, there would be a cheery interval of talk when the work was accomplished, and the dull room would brighten under the influence of his magnetic personality."
As contributors to the Woman's World Wilde secured a brilliant company which included the leaders of feminine thought and activity. Literary quality so high and various had never before been attained by any such ​publication. The names in the first number included Lady Archibald Campbell, the Countess of Portsmouth, Mrs. Bancroft, Mrs. (afterwards Lady) Jeune, George Fleming, and Amy Levy. Among later contributors were "Ouida," Lady Dorothy Nevill, "Carmen Sylva," Olive Schreiner, and, indeed, every writer who counted for anything in the literary world of women.
It was, of course, expected that the editor's own contributions would form a chief feature of the magazine, and it was arranged that he should write "Literary and Other Notes" for each month's issue. These duly appeared in the first four numbers, but, alas! then there came a falling off, so that the first annual volume contained but five contributions from the editor's pen. His second and last volume contained six, the result of a direct hint from the publishers that the editor was not sufficiently in evidence. But these contributions demanded great effort, and oftentimes press day found the printers awaiting "copy" for the pages left for the editor to fill.
These Notes are probably not generally known. They contain some piercing and characteristic shafts of criticism, and at least one notable appreciation. Before the first number of the Woman's World was actually published, the author of "John Halifax, Gentleman," died, and one of the Notes was devoted to her and her work. "Mrs. Craik," Wilde wrote, "was one of the finest of our women writers, and though her art had always what Keats called 'a palpable intention upon one,' still its imaginative qualities were of no mean order. There is hardly one of her books which has not some distinction of style: there is certainly not one of them that does not show love of all that is good and beautiful in life. The good she perhaps loved somewhat more than the beautiful, but her heart had room for both. . . . Her last work was done for the magazine which I have the honour to edit. She was very much interested in the scheme for the foundation of the Woman's World, suggested its title, ​and promised to be one of its warmest supporters. . . . Few women have enjoyed a greater popularity than Mrs. Craik, or have better deserved it. It is sometimes said that John Halifax is not a real man, but only a woman's ideal of a man. Well, let us be grateful for such ideals. No one can read the story of which John Halifax is the hero without being the better for it. Mrs. Craik will live long in the affectionate memory of those who knew her, and one of her novels, at any rate, will always have a high and honourable place in English fiction. Indeed, for simple narrative, some of the chapters of 'John Halifax, Gentleman,' are almost unequalled in our prose literature."
In the same number, reviewing a novel written by a woman, he describes characterization as "the enemy of literary form." It is "such an essential part of the method of the modern writer of fiction that Nature has almost become to the novelist what light and shade are to the painter, the one permanent element of style." In the third series of Notes he develops at greater length his views on English fiction. "In England," he writes, "we have had no schools worth speaking of. The fiery torch lit by the Brontes has not passed' on to other hands; Dickens has only influenced journalism; Thackeray's delightful superficial philosophy, superb narrative power and clever social satire have formed no schools, nor has Trollope left any direct successors behind him, a fact which is not to be regretted however, as, admirable as Trollope undoubtedly is for rainy afternoons and tedious railway journeys, from the point of view of literature he is merely the perpetual curate of Pudlington Parva. As for George Meredith, who could hope to reproduce him? His style is chaos illuminated by brilliant flashes of lightning. As a writer he has mastered everything except language; as a novelist he can do everything except tell a story; as an artist he is everything except articulate. Too strange to be popular, too individual to have imitators, the author of 'Richard Feverel' stands ​absolutely alone. It is easy to disarm criticism, but he has disarmed the disciple. He gives us philosophy through the medium of wit, and is never so pathetic as when he is humorous. To turn truth into a paradox is not difficult, but George Meredith makes all his paradoxes truths, and no Theseus can tread his labyrinth, no Œdipus solve his secret."
One of the best of Oscar Wilde's contributions is "A Note on some Modern Poets," in which he writes of W. E. Henley's verse: '"His little 'Book of Verse' reveals to us an artist who is seeking to find new methods of expression, and who has not merely a delicate sense of beauty and a brilliant fantastic wit, but a real passion for what is horrible, ugly, or grotesque. No doubt everything that is worthy of existence is worthy also of art, at least one would like to think so, but while an echo of the mirror can repeat for us a beautiful thing, to render artistically a thing that is ugly requires the most exquisite form of alchemy, the most subtle magic of transformation. Some of the earlier poems of Mr. Henley's volume, the 'Rhymes and Rhythms in Hospital,' as he calls them, are like bright, vivid pastels; others like etchings with deeply bitten lines and abrupt contrasts and clever colour suggestions. In fact, they are like anything and everything except perfected poems, that they certainly are not. But it is impossible to deny their power. They are still in the twilight. They are preludes, inspired jottings in a notebook, and should be heralded by a design of 'Genius making Sketches.' Rhyme gives architecture as well as melody to verse; it gives that delightful sense of limitation which in all arts is so pleasurable, and is, indeed, one of the secrets of perfection; it will whisper, as a French critic has said, 'things unexpected and charming, things with strange and remote relations to each other,' and bind them together in indissoluble bonds of beauty; and in his constant rejection of rhyme Mr. Henley seems to me to have abdicated half his power. He is a roi en exile who has thrown away some of the strings of his lute, a poet ​who has forgotten the fairest half of his kingdom. . . . However, Mr. Henley is not to be judged by samples. Indeed, the most attractive thing in the book is no single poem that is in it, but the strong human personality that stands behind both flawless and faulty work alike, and looks out through many masks, some of them beautiful, and some grotesque, and not a few misshapen. In the case of most of our modern poets, when we have analysed them down to an adjective we can go no further, or we care to go no further; but with this book it is different. Through these reeds and pipes blows the very breath of life. It seems as if one could put one's hand upon the singer's heart and count its pulsation. There is something wholesome, virile and sane about a man's soul. Anybody can be reasonable, but to be sane is not common; and sane poets are as rare as blue lilies, though they may not be quite so beautiful. . . . Mr. Henley's healthy, if sometimes misapplied, confidence in the myriad suggestions of life gives him his charm. He is made to sing along the highways, not to sit down and write. If he took himself more seriously his work would become trivial."
It is tempting, by way of rejoinder to Wilde, to recall an almost unknown letter Henley wrote to a friend: "I have never babbled the Art for Art's sake babble. If I have, I'll eat the passage publicly. What I've said is, the better the writer the better the poet; that, in fact, good writing's better than bad."
The two men were, of course, radically antipathetic. Mr. Edwin Bale, deploring the antagonism between them, did his best to bring them together. He invited them to dine at his house to meet each other and certain wellknown artists. The result was, in Mr. Bale's words, that "Wilde completely won over Henley, the latter insisting that Wilde should drive home with him to Chiswick, and at three o'clock in the morning they left together in a hansom cab. I saw Wilde the next day and he told me that they 'sat and babbled' at Chiswick till nine o'clock ​in the morning. One remembers how Jack Wilkes won over Dr. Johnson by his wit and gaiety when Boswell brought them together at the dinner-table."
During his two years in the editorial chair, only on one occasion was Oscar Wilde known to be angry. This was when John Williams, the Chief Editor, came to see him waving a copy of Marshall P. Wilder's book, "People I have Smiled With," of which Cassell's were then preparing an English edition. In a paragraph dealing with Oscar Wilde the American "smiler" wrote: "The first time I saw Oscar he wore his hair long and his breeches short; now, I believe, he wears his hair short and his trousers long." Striding up and down the room, Oscar Wilde ejaculated, "Monstrous! Perfectly monstrous!" and to appease him the offending paragraph was deleted.
Some of the letters from the contributors to the Woman's World are not without interest. A month or two before her death Mrs. Craik wrote, "For myself, whatever influence I have is, I believe, because I have kept aloof from any clique. I care little for Female Suffrage, and have given the widest berth to that set of women who are called, not unjustly, the Shrieking Sisterhood. Yet I like women to be strong and brave, both for themselves and as helpers, not slaves and foes of men."
Dr. Anna Kingsford wound up a letter by asking, "Are you going to have stories in your magazine? Because I have just perpetrated a little tale suggesting an incident I saw at Monte Carlo. Shall I send it to you to look at? It is very light and . . . pathetic. At least I think so. Well, at all events, here it is. You will see at a glance whether it suits you. If not, please send it back as soon as you can, because I don't make any rough copies of the stories I write. I write them down first hand, just like letters, so if MSS. are lost they are like children drowned or run over."
Oscar Wilde's attitude towards his editorial colleagues was always cordial. His pleasant relations with Mr. Arthur Fish, who assisted him with the magazine, ​developed into a friendship which survived his departure from the Yard, and was expressed in letters, inscribed copies of his books, a wedding present—little attentions that relieved the drab routine of business life.
The Woman's World was continued, after Wilde ceased to be editor, on the same lines; but the publishers had virtually given up hope of success, and the third volume was the last.
The Story-Teller, started in April, 1907, with Mr. Newman Flower as editor, was the first considerable periodical to be launched by Sir Arthur Spurgeon after his accession to the General Managership. It is an "all-fiction" magazine, and proved an instant success. Its course from the beginning to the current number has been one of unchecked prosperity.
The New Magazine was born in 1909. It is differentiated from the Story-Teller in not consisting entirely of fiction, and in not dispensing with the aid of illustration. Its most distinctive feature is an attractive theatrical supplement, printed in tone on art paper and consisting of scenes and personalities from the principal play of the month. The New Magazine has been as brilliant a success as the Story-Teller.
True to its traditions, the House of Cassell has never lost touch with technical literature and journalism. One of its most interesting periodicals is Work, a weekly published at a penny originally, but now at threepence. The first number appeared on March 23, 1889, its editor being Francis Chilton Young, who had made a name for himself as the author of books on handicraft.
The son of a Devonshire clergyman, Mr. Young, on leaving Cambridge, became a schoolmaster. At Kingsbridge, his native place, he formed evening art classes for workmen, and taught them drawing so that they might be able to commit their ideas to paper before proceeding to work them out. Later he became ​connected with Cassell's, editing a new edition of "The Popular Educator," and other works. For several years he edited a technical publication for another firm, and was then engaged by Cassell's to start Work. Its success was instantaneous, and has been well maintained. It is the mechanic's and handicraftsman's weekly companion, instructing him in a thousand matters of direct and practical interest. One of its most important features is its "Questions and Answers" pages, in which experts, retained for the purpose, clear up difficulties and give directions to correspondents in need of them. What was probably the first industrial exhibition ever organized by a newspaper was held at the Polytechnic, Regent Street, in December, 1890, under the auspices of this paper. The opening ceremony was performed by Sir John Lubbock (afterwards Lord Avebury), then M.P. for the University of London. In 1893 the editorship of Work was assumed by P. N. Hasluck, who founded the well-known series of "Work Handbooks." The present editor, Bernard E. Jones, succeeded him in 1909, and under his vigorous initiative the paper has prospered exceedingly.
Periodicals and books on gardening have been issued under the editorship of W. P. Wright and H. H. Thomas, and works from their pens have been greatly appreciated by all interested in horticultural enterprise.
Many of the older contributors to Cassell's periodicals have the liveliest and kindliest recollections of their associations with the House. Mr. D. H. Parry, who has been one of the most valued writers for it, sent in thirty years ago the first story he ever wrote. He is writing for Cassell's publications still. "My recollection, extending over two distinct régimes," he says, "is one of unbroken courtesy and kindly consideration. The first Editor-in-Chief with whom I came into contact was the late A. J. Butler, sometime Fellow of Trinity, a scholar and a gentleman. I remember giving him something of a shock in the tiny den where the E.-in-C. was kennelled in those ​days—conversation being continually interrupted by the passage of locomotives close to the window. Our talk was of Napoleonic History, and I made some allusion to Marbot's Memoirs. 'What! You know your Marbot, do you—in the original, I hope?' he added sharply. When I admitted the soft impeachment he was greatly relieved. 'I am glad of that,' he said. 'You alarmed me for the moment, for I have just finished what I believe to be the first English translation ever done.'
"When my old friend Max Pemberton suggested Chums to the firm, he was not long down from Caius, full of energy, a keen boating man, and a great exponent of the old high bicycle. It was my privilege to write the first serial that appeared in that best of boys' papers, and turning over the earlier volumes to-day there is a breezy freshness about them that is truly Pembertonic. He afterwards edited Cassell's Magazine, and had an able coadjutor in poor Holderness Gale, who, alas! has 'gone aloft.'
"Retrospection is always sad work, and death has removed many once familiar faces from the famous old Yard. Ernest Foster, of the Saturday Journal; Bonavia Hunt, of the Quiver; John Hamer, the publisher; Archibald Forbes, the war correspondent; Colonel Knollys, Major Griffiths, John Augustus O'Shea—that fiery old Zouave and confirmed Fleet-Streeter, G. A. Sala, Sir Robert Ball the Irish astronomer, Sir Richard Temple—all these and many more I have met there and shall never meet again on this side of the 'Great Divide.' But happily others, though no longer at La Belle Sauvage, are still in the land of the living—Richard Kearton, accomplished naturalist and born poacher; S. H. Hamer, of Little Folks, affectionately known to his colleagues as Sam; and Frederic Whyte, who, among other works, edited 'Battles of the Nineteenth Century,' and whom it was an absolute pleasure to work for.
"I was a very young man when my first contribution ​was accepted; since then the House has published several military volumes of mine and many editions of these, serials innumerable and articles and short stories the very number of which I have long forgotten, and through it all I have the recollection of the same abiding courtesy, the same prompt payment, and friendships that remain unbroken."
Interesting sidelights on some of those who wrote for the House are given by Mr. Charles Harrison, among whose contemporaries at Cassell's were Charles Peters and F. J. Crowest. "Peters was a choir boy, and ladies used to say when he wore his surplice that 'he looked like an angel.' But he put on flesh as he grew older, and I hardly think the resemblance was then so obvious. Nevertheless, he ran the Girl's Own Paper, of which he was the founder and editor, with great success. Mr. Crowest was afterwards Mr. Petter's private secretary. He, too, took to music, and sang a tenor song with very considerable charm. Presently he became manager of the Walter Scott Publishing Company.
"As I entered the Yard, John Proctor was leaving it, to begin that career as a cartoonist in which he was so successful. George Manville Fenn, who held an editorial chair for some years, was a skilled reader of the public taste. Other members of the staff were W. B. Tracy—who subsequently went to Manchester—and J. A. Manson, John Williams, Lewis Wright, Daniel Gorrie—whose brother, Sir John, became Chief Justice of Fiji—George Rose Emerson, one of those handy men who were as indispensable to a big publishing house years ago as they are to-day; jolly A. H. Wall, who was afterwards custodian and librarian of the Shakespeare Memorial at Stratford-on-Avon; and Miss Clara Matéaux, a delightful woman who had an extraordinary aptitude for writing for children.
"A great many outside contributors were constantly coming to the Yard, and of these I can still see in my mind's eye Dr. Francis Waller, one of the most ​distinguished of Dublin's literary coterie, and father-in-law of Teignmouth Shore; John Timbs, a dear old boy, a Brother of Charterhouse, who used to give me a shilling every time I got a cheque cashed for him; and Edmund Ollier. Godfrey Wordsworth Turner, a writer of extremely graceful verse, often called on his way to the Daily Telegraph; and many a chat I have had with Captain Mayne Reid and with W. H. G. Kingston, both of whom had real sympathy with lads. Dr. Robert Brown was another regular visitor after he came to live in London; and W. C. Bennett, a little man with long grey locks, constantly wrote verses for the Quiver or Cassell's Magazine, and used to leave his 'copy' with me. Among the novelists the biggest men in my days were Wilkie Collins and Charles Reade and Sheridan Le Fanu. Reade wrote a splendid hand, and though there were no literary agents in those days, both he and Wilkie Collins were excellent men of business."
The A. H. Wall of whom Mr. Harrison speaks was not only one of the early contributors to Cassell's periodicals, but for some years a member of the staff. Born in Charterhouse Square in 1828, he died only a few years ago after a particularly varied career, in which he had been author, editor, actor, scene-painter, miniature painter, and finally librarian at Stratford-on-Avon. Another old contributor whose career showed astonishing like variety was Matthias Barr, a native of Edinburgh, who died in South London in 1911, in his eighty-first year. "I was always a Jack of all trades and master of none," he said in an interview shortly before his death. "First I was a flautist and violinist and 'cellist. Then an artist, the only picture which remains to-day as a result of my dabblings being retained for the frame's sake. Next I was a clay-modeller, and again I produced just one work of art as a memorial of my student days—a statue of Sir William Wallace. Then I turned my attention to the theatre, and the manager of the Royal, Edinburgh, staged one of my plays, which retained the boards for six ​weeks." After this he came to London and found himself on Blackfriars Bridge on the last occasion but one on which the Lord Mayor proceeded to Westminster by water. "Evening," he said, "found me still on the bridge, and I fell asleep on one of the side enclosures which were a feature of the old structure. Suddenly I was awakened by a stentorian voice sounding in my ear. 'A cold berth, this, my friend.' It was the voice of a recruiting sergeant, who not unkindly sat down beside me. 'Come,' he urged, seeing that I was shivering; 'I'm going for a hot meal. Come with me.' I went, and joined the army." In his later years the old poet wrote verses, chiefly about children and home, which had a wide vogue.
Mr. Robert Leighton recalls the association between Cassell's and the Whitefriars Club, of which many of their editors, a large proportion of their contributors, and not a few of the authors for whom they have published, have been members. "In conversation over lunch and at dinner, or round the club fire, a member or his guest would say something betraying a special knowledge of some particular subject, and afterwards (for business was never obtruded into the social communion) he would be buttonholed by an editor or receive a letter asking him to write a book or an article on that subject. As an instance, I remember that William Senior had written a graphic article in the Daily News about the wreck of the North-fleet. John Williams recognized the hand, and asked him to write a book on 'Notable Shipwrecks.' That, I think, was Senior's first book. Then, I myself one day," Mr. Leighton proceeds, "happened to say at lunch that I had just come from Cruft's Dog Show, where I had won a prize for one of my terriers. Sir Arthur Spurgeon, who was present, discovered that I knew a good deal about dogs, and he led the talk on to a discussion of existing books on the subject. I argued that they were mostly out of date, that even Vero Shaw's 'Book of the Dog' was not of great use, since so many new canine breeds had become fashionable and so many old ones had become ​extinct. A day or two afterwards I was asked to go and see Mr. Cross at the Yard—the result being that I was engaged to write 'The New Book of the Dog.'" Mr. Leighton adds that the present General Manager is "more universal" than any of his predecessors, allowing no restriction of personal taste to interfere with the range of the literary output of the House.