Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-10-02
EASTERN MAGAZINES.
AN ORTHODOX MONTHLY ACCUSED OF
INFIDELITY.
Periodicals steadily Losing Monsy :
Literary Matter Drug Hopeless
outlook for Writers.
Nrw York. September %, 1850.

Literary Matter DIug-Aopeles5
outlook for Writers.
New YORK, September %, 1850.
The magazine which has the largest cir
culation after Harper's, and is yet the
youngest of all the literary monthlies, is
Scribner's. It is only ten years old, but it
has shown more enterprise and energy, thus
far, than any of its rivals, and seems to be
making its way very rapidly. 1t has ad-
vertised most literally and judiciously,
and has naturally, therefore, gained large
circulation-about l20, 600, it is claimed =
which is reported to be regularly increas-
ING. Whether it has made very much
money up to the present is doubtful for it
has spent great deal-which it may not
have to spend again-and has thus
prepared the path leading to pecuniary
success. 1t has sowed what it regards
as financial seed, from which it
Justly expects a plenteous harvest
The prices that Scribner's has paid for IL
Illustrations and letter-press are handsome,
and its proprietors have shown an earnest,
laudable determinatit n to secure the best
ability they can command. The illustra-
tions frequently look better than those of
Harpers, owing to the fact that the paper
on which they appear is thicker, as 1t can
afford to be, since !Scribner's, containing
less matter than its competitor, is not
obliged to have so thin pages as Harper's
has in order to keep within the required
postal weight Scri6ner's actually spares
neither pains nor expense to make itself
in its understanding in every respect
tirst-c magazine. The publishers and
editors are enthusiastic in their vocation,
and work quite as hard therein for love as
they do for money. Probably they over
rate their periodical, as jealous workers
always do, but their high idea of it helps
it unquestionably.
ORTHODOXY OF PUBLISHERS.
The proprietors OF Scri6ner'S are Scribner
& Co., composed of Charles Scribner's Sons
(the firm name is unchanged, though only
one son is left, DR.. J. G. Holland, the
editor, and Roswell Smith, publisher of
the magazine. When Holland and Smith
were in Europe in 1869 they conceived the
notion of the monthly, and finally decided,
while walking one evening on the Bridge
of Mont Blanc at Geneva, to present their
plan to Charles Scribner & Co., Charles
Scribner then being alive. The plan was
accepted by the New York house on their
return, and everything got ready for the
issue of the periodical. One object they
had was to furnish a magazine which, as
IL. ~ 10
in literature - something needed, they
thought, because the other monthlies are,
in their judgment, decidedly lacking in or
thodoxy. The Judgment is, l presume,
mainly correct; for the literary mind of
the country is, for the most part, rational
istic, or as the evangelical would say, inf
del. Many publishers of newspapers,
periodicals and books have tendency to
churches and churchism but most writers
have tendency away from these.
Harper & Brothers, for instance, have
been conspicuous for Methodism but they
have not obtruded it in their business. In
deed, they are not of that mold They do
not mix their affairs with their theol-
ogy, having been commercial, no doubt,
before they were religious. This story,
told of the late Fletcher Harper,
considered the shrewdest and most
sagacious of the four original brothers,
illustrates the spirit the firm has worked
in. After the Rev. John S. c. Abbott had
been publishing for number of months his
g History of Napoleon" in the magazine,
and after he had incurred deal of censure
for his extravagant eulogies of his hero, an
old acquaintance of Fletcher walked into
the eounting-room in Franklin square, and
thus addressed him =" I came to see you,
MIR. Harper, to express my annazement that
your house should publish a work which is
an apotheosis of murder and an apology
Tor adultery. l allude, of course, to Alb
bolts History of Napoleon. The spirit
in which it is written is shameful and in
famous, How he as a consistent Christian
can write it, or you as consistent Chris
tan can print it, defies my understanding
Then the amiable and practical Fletcher
80 You amaze me by your words as much
as can amaze you. MIR. Abbott is GER
5ainly conscientious in his writings. He
has told me that every morning before he
takes up his pen he kneels down and ad-
dresses the throne of grace for inspiration
and guidance. And, moreover, my dear
sir, you viii permit me to add that 'Ab-
bolts Napoleon pays"
Sheldon & Co., who published the Cal
qry, are Baptists, think, and were much
disturbed, it is said, by the skeptical char
acter of papers that appeared in its pages
from time to time but if the Objectionable
papers sold the magazine their disturbance
was modified. Such is the story at least
but 1t may not be true.
Appleton &. Co., publishers of several
periodicals., lean to orthodoxy, though its
members differ as to sect. Still, they are
not narrow or intolerant, and, like the
Harpers, keep their business and ecclesi-
astic belief entirely apart The rigidly
evangelical have found great fault with
them because they issued the works Of
Tyndal, Huxley, Carpenter and Herbert
Spencer, directly leveled, as they allege, at
the teachings of religion and the spirit of
revelation. They have even gone so far as
to predict disaster for house that can lend
itself to disseminate rank atheism through
the land. The Appletons show no signs
Of disquietude, but hold the even tenor of
their way, publishing such books as they
think viii sell, independent of their bear
ing on orthodoxy.
Houghton, Osgood & Co., when publish
ers of the -AadRtic, represented conserve
tism and liberalism, Houghton being or
thodox and Osgood heterodox, am told.
The magazine, when Fields, 0sgood & Co.
had it, did not pretend to be IN the line of
clericalism, but represented the views Of
such advanced thinkers as Emerson, Low
ell and the transcendentalists generally.
l4ippincott & Co., Philadelphia, arc ortho-
dox enough, although they put no special
into their monthly.
HARD COURSE TO STEER.
To return to .Scri5ner's. Both its pub
fishers and editors are sound theologically /;
but they have been harried and denounced
not little by sectarian persons and publi-
cations fur their liberality. These de-
that the monthly should be one
sided and bigoted, which it is far from
being. and which its owners have never
Thought of making it. DR.. Holland has,
since he came to New York to live, grown
far broader than he use, to be, and has been
very combative toward certain
exponents OF evangelism by their animad-
version upon his course. He is rather pug
IL a., 81, oianflr euotickio uyithal