Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-10-16
EASTERN MAGAZINES.
THE POPULARITY OF SCIENCE IN
AMERICA.
Boston Periodicals from New York Eyes
A Monthly that steadily Loses
An Ancient Review
NEw YORK. October S. 1850.

Naiuaoie periolicaiS IN Tue IetuoHc. IL Is
popular in its contents and popular in a
commercial sense, having an actual circula-
ton. it is said, of 10000 to IA, 900 copies,
which is very large for magazine of this
sort. More interest, as you know, is felt
IN science in this country than in any coun-
try of Europe, owing doubtless to the wide
diffusion of knowledge, and the general
readiness of the people to embrace new
ideas. European scientists have noticed
and commented on this, and Judged
very favorably thence of the intel
lectual character OF the citizens OF
the New World. Our public lib
raries report very large proportion OF
the books taken out as scientific ones, and
they are taken out frequently by people
destitute of regular education, and in the
lower ranks of life, showing that science
has really got hold of the understanding
and excited the sympathy of the people.
No monthly in the Union has a better
foundation than
1.-THE POPULAR SCIENCE"
1t is 80 years old is SIS year, or so
cents number, and pays its publishers,
d. Appleton & Co., handsomely, since
nearly all its papers are selected SO that
the expense Of original contributions is
saved. 1t has been enlarged lately, and
is, | hear, steadily increasing Its editor
is Edwin L. Youmans associated with his
sister, Eliza Youmans), native of Albany,
occupied from boyhood with scientific pur-
suits. When but II or l3, he contracted a
malady of the eyes, which deprived him of
sight for several years. During his blind
ness, his sister read to him six or seven
hours day, and after he had recovered
his vision, aided him in making expert
ments in chemistry. His misfortune led
him to the subject of ocular illustration in
science and to the publication OF his "Chem
zeal Chart of Colored Diagrams for the
use of schools. All his life he has been a
hard student, and having
A WIFE OF MEANS,
And being without children, he can follow
his studies without the embarrassments
and distractions of pecuniary unindepend-
ence. He has travelled much abroad, and
Is on intimate terms with the leading
savants of Europe. He is an intimate
travelled much together abroad. Now in
his seth year, and scarcely able to use his
eyes, he is an enthusiast in science; is per-
petually thinking, studying or debating,
except when he eats and sleeps. In no
sense gregarious, he can rarely be per.
suaded into society of any kind, unless it
be of the scientific order. Youmans is
regularly engaged by the Appletons, edit
ing nearly all the scientific works they
publish. As may be inferred, he is an un-
compromising nationalist, though tolerant
of all opinions, even the most orthodox.
The Appletons also publish the Art Jour-
nal, edited by Oliver B. Bunce, at 50 a
year, sold by subscription only, and are re-
ported to have done well with it in the four
or five years since they have set it up. 1t
contains some original matter, to which
the firm is not partial, albeit the bulk of
it is selected. Its feature is engravings
from pictures of note, many of which are
very good. These sell the periodical but
naturally the sale is limited, and yet re-
munerative.
1.-THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW,
Which has been modernized and contem-
ported by its owner, Allen Theodore Rice,
is published, or properly printed by the
Appletons. While magazines have been
dying or changing their form, the North
American has been issued more frequently.
After having been Boston quarterly for
more than sixty years, Rice purchased it,
and turned it into bi-monthly, and with
the January number of last year it became
monthly. For the past two or three
years it has been published here, and since
it has passed into Rice's hands--he is the
editor-it has materially altered its char
acter. Before that it was solid, solemn,
heavy, ole. fashioned periodical, New
Workers. said with irreverence, to be read
approvingly, and even admiringly, by the
Adams family and all the old fossils and
barnacles that adhere to Plymouth Rock,
of Massachusetts,. Generation after gene
ration tried to read it, fell asleep and
was gathered to it's fathers. One publisher
preceded another. Nobody made or
dreamed of making money out of it-that
would not have comported with the pro-
prieties of veteran responsibility in Beacon
street-it vegetated on from decade to de-
cade, causing not a rifle in the literary
sea, living an unvarying, acceptably mo-
notonous death. The few hundred read
ers it had were the only persons conscious
of its being. Certain men wrote for it on
subjects of antique date for which nobody
cared, and received, when willing to take
pay, So page for their ponderous contri-
buttons. In some sense it was the
CRADLE OF PERIODICAL LITERATURE
In America, and was for thirty-6ve years
the most creditable publication of the kind
we had. AS other periodicals, like the
Knickerbocker, Putnam's and the atlantic,
appeared, it was left behind in point of en-
terprise and interest, although, consoling
reflection, it never failed to be eminently
respectable and exceptionally dignifed.
Under the old dispensation it was never
known to attract attention save when
James Parton was engaged, just after the
close of the war, to write an article for it
on Daniel Webster. His article was capital,
and created such sensation that hun
dreds of intelligent persons were made
aware, for the first time, of the existence
of the Recie,u. Some of them may have
heard their fathers speak of it, but most Of
them imagined it had long before gone to
its grave. Parton
RUTHLEssLY SHATTERED THE IDOL
Which Boston had SO devoutly worshiped.
Instead of the god-hke Daniel into which
it had elevated him, the clever author pre-
sented him as an animal with big brain,
sluggish, sensual selfish, who allowed
himself to be a pensioner Oh the bounty Of
State street, and who had no moral prin-
ciple whatever. His gigantic intellect alone
redeemed him from bestiality /; his head
was mental machine capable of prodigious
performances the rest of him was physical
appetite and self-indulgence Imagine how
solid Bostonians would receive this They
were simply Mortified, and believed that
Parton should be burned at the stake. They
pronounced it disgraceful, infamous, and
lamented that they should have lived to see
the day when the grand old Rerie,o should
SO demean itself-should SO shame all its