New Orleans daily crescent., 1860-09-18
-I...,I so,lTr.ERN 4.rrEnAruRE.
We received BY yesterdays mail the suoJ0ine'-

letter:
BAYOU CHlcoT PARISH OF ST. LAsnRyss Ls ,sdt ~,
m a,osoo,5 Tbera ;s a constant complaint
throa,rhout the South that Southern perlodieal
literature is not supported by our pespiea Miliie
the whole country is oTerrun WIN 9ashy fupioa-
tions from the North; that while Southern authors
and nuhlshers meet with no encouragem ent, those
az the North are growing rich on tAe saels wrung
from the readers of the South. fhe assertions are
true in every particular. But whose ianlt IS u
have strdied the art of advertising more thor
oughiy than Publishers and business men in the
Soflth And they have found that the best way to
sell their periodicals is to seek out the name of
every man and woman in the country that will be
likely to become subscribers to their publications,
ard send specimen numbers to their address, and
to establish agencies in every city, village and
hamlet. Every country postmaster acts as an
sgent. But who ever receives specimen number
of a Southern magazine or review The writer OF
this born in the South and has lived here al
his life, and is nearly fifty years old without
having had the pleasure of seeing Soqthern
gazne or review during his life, except DeEoWs
and the Southern Cultivator. And althoegh ne
fhes often heard of such things and has peen anA-
ious to subscribe for them, he never couia learn
Il where they are published OF who are agents. his
i desk is always covered with reprints OF foreign
i reviews and magazines and Northern publications,
/ but none from our own press except the Two men,
4 toned Just RcW.
4 Let Southern publishers come openly into the
i market by obtaining lists of the names of every.
body, and showing their wares, establishing agen-
cies, offering Inducements to club subscribers, and
| they will find the Southern people ready to lit
them into life. But as long they continue to do
business in dark corners only, they ought not to
complain if their more cunning competitors sue
ceed, while they starye. Let them show what
they have for sale. -
i There is undoubtedly some ground for our cor
respondents complaint, so far as the dereleton of
Southern publishers in the matter of advertising is
coneerned-but he might easily have found out
something about Southern magazines and periodi-
Gals if he had read the Crescent regularly. On
several occasions we have alluded to and enforced
the claims of Southern literature upon the people
of the South, and have designated by name such
publications as we thought worthy of encourage
ment. Among these we have cited specially the
\ Southern Literary Messenger, monthly magazine
published at Richmond, Virginia, now quarter of
q century old, and edited with great ability by a
Southern gentleman, who was for two years the
Washington correspondent of this paper. The
Messenger is not only a literary Journal in the
modern sense Of the word, but is political to the
extent of being ever ready to defend the South and
her institutions, without invading the domain Of
party politics. Its contributors are men of solid
ability and established reputation, and its contents
are usually happy compromise between the
light literature Of Northern magazines and the
heavy and solid intellectual food of the British Re-
views. IF our correspondent therefore, wishes a
Southern Magazine, and good one besides, let
him send three dollars to Maefarlane & Ferguson
J. publishers of the Southern Literary Messenger
Richmond, Virginia. If he wishes weekly liter
ary paper, there is the Field and Firesde, published
Il at Augusta, Georgia, which, though established
only a year or two ago, has acquired a wide and
deserved popularity.
i The advice which is given to Southern publish
ers and dealers in literature is good advice, and
the suggestions made in regard to advertising, etc.,
if more generally adopted by them, would lead to
good results The secret of success, at this day in
any business dependent upon populast 1tronage, is
| dduertising-but it is q secret which publishing
houses to find out slowly than those en-
/ gagged in any other pursuit. Our columns TEEN
Il with advertisements of clothing merchants, dry.
goods merchants, druggists, ETC., who sensible
i enough to know that the public must be kept CON
stantly informed of the wares they have for sale
| and who know that no money is so proftably in
vested as that which is paid for advertising. Bu
comparatively few of our publishers and book
sellers seem to appreciate this fact, and people
consequently send off to distance for articles il
! that line that they might obtain at home If they
only apprsed of it through the columns of the
daily press.
In the North it is different. Bonner who pub
fishes a trashy weekly in New York, has made al
/ immense fortune in few years, by simply spend
/ ing fifty thousand dollars a year in advertising
| Frequently a whole broadside of a New Yorl
/ daily is filled with advertisements of new books
| In the South we are improving in this respect it ii
truebut we are not vet uD to the &c sDirit of tht
age.n We believe that in few years we will have
a recognized, exclusive Southern literature, su
perior in quality to that of the North-ard tha
there will be no excuse for any Southerner to send
elsewhere fon something to read, in respect o.
| either periodicals or books
i
POLITICAL ITEMS