New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1857-01-16
NETWORK DAILY TRIBUNE, FRIDAY JANUARY &c. 1857
..,.- ,;,;r, for !. than our critical Judgment .p-

vrss,e- liking for IL than ouI entE7A e"cn' ~
nroyes. We Ike il because il Is an 90 hmhisr-
because Of some pleasant rememoranoee conne''e'
with earlier numbers, and because oil tue inae'sNs
able Joke. Of the Editors Table. but ~neu VIC
come 70 look behind these association we are rs'ne'
puzzIed 70 find other grounds OF Attachment IL"
literary claims are small, although II mas more '"an
one pleasant correspondent. The JoVla iun oil Spar
rowqrass, the quiet, genial humor OF the Rector o'
RardoIf and certain spriehtliaess IN It's bnei an
ecdotes and sketches will perhaps redeem H. In inc
abser &c of solder qualities.
II will be perceived that it IL not an enthusiastic
view which we have taken Of this department OF
letters. We do not regard il, on the whole, a.
worthy Of the intellectual status OF the nseon. We
ought to have more commanding Quarterly; We
ought 10 have more Nonthles like Putnam; and We
ought 10 Weld them more liberal support than is
now lavished upon wooi-cuts and fashion plates
For, the publishers and managers OF the Magazines
are not to blame II they do not always reach the
standard of perfection. A good periodical pre-
supposes good writers, and good writer's cannot be
had without good pay. 1t is the experience OF
every one who has been engaged with the Press In
this country that there is no want Of able AID ac-
ccmplished pens in it, but in too many cases. un-
happily, these pens are diverted from the pursuit OF
literature into more remuperstive employments
None Of our Reviews pay anything like adequate
prices for contributions. They fancy themselves
exceedingly generous if they give 6fy or hundred
dollars for an essay, for which The Edinburghor The
North British would readily pay two hundred and
fifty. The consequence is, that the most skillful
writers-tbose who do not relinquish literature
for some one Of the professions, or for some mer.
camille business-aJe either drawn of to the foreign
Quarterles, or take to the newspapers.
The newspapers, indeed are the great rivals of
the less frequent periodicals. They not only pay
writers more, but they please readers better. Our
people are a restless and active people, and very
much like their FLIP of excitement every day. A
month seems long time for them to wait for their
reading, and as so many of them are in circum-
stances which DO not allow them to take number
of journals, they usually select daily or weekly
psper. Our dailies and weekies, under the recent
improvements in newspaper management, begin 70
ius..iify the choice Beside the news they furnish
tDey ueYOte more or less sPaNO y" sNFNN"N N'N
gence and literary discussion, and, in that way,
satisfy the needs of the generality of readers.
Yet there must ever be large class of subjects
which newspapers cannot adequately treat, and
large circle ofreaders whose tastes they cannot sat
sfy 1t is to these subjects and to these tastes that
the magazines should address themselves; andwe are
confident that if they should do so, with the proper
enterprise, variety an skill, paying the best writers
the highest prices, and representing in their pages
not the etete and drOwsy spirit of the libraries but
the buoyaDt and original elastic life of the nation,
they would sOOn be recOmpensed by the most gen.
erous returns For scholars and historians the
musty TONES Of the past may have charm, but the
world at large wants, beside the instruction of
thought, the stimulus of incident and the grace Of
narrative, fearless spirit, full of the impulse and
tendency of the age. With twenty millions Of
white men, with every advantage Of nature art and
society open TO them under new circumstances of
existence, and engaged in the most glorious expert
ment Of political and social progress that the world
has ever seen, We require writer's who, disdainiug
to repeat the stalc phrases of the books, shall be
fresh lively, earnest and bold and periodicals that
WELD the power of mighty institution over the
popular mind