The Richmond palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1855-1875, 1873-11-08
WAYNE COUNTY, INDIANA, NOV 8, 1873 go. &.


Children's Magazines.
Some times I feel like rushing
through the world with two pla-
held aloft in my right
hand, beware of Children's Maya
zines! the other hourished in my
left, Child's Magazine wanted! A
good magazine for the little ones
was never so much needed, and
much harm is done by nearly all
that are published. In England,
the so called juvenile
periodicals are precisely what they
ought not to be. In Germany,
though better, they too often dis.
tract sensitive little souls with gro
tesquerie. Our magazines timidly
approach the proper standard in
some respects, but fall far short in
others. We edit for the approval
of fathers and mothers, and en-
deavor to make the child's monthly
. milk and water variety OF the
adults periodical But intact, the
child's magazine needs to be strong
er, truer, bolder, more uncompro-
missing than the other Its cheer
must be the cheer of the bird song,
not of condescending editorial bab-I
BILE. IF it mean freshness and
heartiness, and life and Joy, and its
words are simply, directly, and mu-
sically put together, it will trill it's
own way. We must not help it
overmuch. In all except akillful
handling of methods, We must be
.as little children if we would enter
this kingdom. 47
If now and then the situation
have fun in it, if something tumble
unexpectedly, if the child mind is
surprised into an electric recogni-
ton of comical incongruity, so that
there is reciprocal ssha, hav be.
tween the printed page and the
reader, well and good. But, for
humanitys sake, let there be no ed
itorial grimacing, no tedious vault
ing back and forth over the grim
railing that incloses halt and lame
old jokes long ago turned in there
to die. ~ f
Let there be no sermonixing eth
!, er, no wearisome spinning out OF
facts, no rattling of the dry bones
of history. A child's magazine is
it's pleasure ground. Grown peo
! pie go to their periodicals for re.
Taxation, it is true; but they also
60 for information, for suggestion,
and for to-day's fashion in litera-
ture. Besides, they begin, now q
days, to feel that they are behind
the age if they fail to know what
the April Jig-jig says about 90
and so, or if they have not read
BIS much talked Of poem in the
Argosy. Moreover, it is the thing
to have the Jig jig and Argosy on
ones drawing room table. One
must read the leading periodicals
or one is nobody. But with child.
rem the case is different They take
up their monthly or weekly because
they wish to, and if they don't like
it they throw it down again. Most
children of the present civilization
attend school. Their little heads
are strained and taxed with the
days lessons. They do not want
to be bothered nor amused, nor
taught, nor petted. They Just want
to have their own way over thei,
own magazine. They want to en-.
ter the one place where they may
come and go as they please, where
j. they are not obliged to mind, o,
say yes ma am and yes sir'-where
in short they can live q brand new
free life of their own for q littl.
while, accepting acquaintances a
they choose and turning their back
without ceremony upon what doe
not concern them. OF course the,
expect to pick up odd bits and trea
sures, and to now and then 'dro]
in familiarly at an air castle, O
step over to fairy land. They fee
their way, too, very much as we oil,
| folk do, toward sweet recognition
of familiar day dreams, secret good
nesses, and oil the glorifed classic
of the soul We who have straye
farther from these, thrill even I
meet a hint of them in poems an
essays. But what delights us i
Milton, Keats and Tennyson, child
rem often find for themselves j
stars, daisies, and such joys an
troubles as little ones know. Tbs
this comparison holds, is the BET
we can say of our writer's. If the
make us reach forth our hands 1
clutch the star or the good dee
candle blaze. what more can b
done?
Literary skill in its highest is b1
the subtle thinning Of the veil ths
life and time have thickened. Mr.
Browning paid her utmost TRIBE
Chaucer when she spoke of
e. his infantine
Familiar clasp Of things divine"
The Jig jig and Argosy may de:
with Darwinianism broadly and fai
. ly as they. The upshot Of il a
will be something like
"Hickory, dickery dock!
The mouse ran up the clock.
4 The clock struck one
And down she ran
Hickory, dickery dOck!"
And whatever Parton or Arthr
Helps may say in that stirring art
Gle, "Our Country TO- day." it's sul
stance is anticipated in
"Little boy blue!
Come, blow your horn!
The sleeps in the meadow
The cows in the corn"
So we come to the conviction th,
the perfect magazine for childre
lies folded at the heart Of the ida