Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-10-16

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that name. Rice, who is rich, is
ambitious to make it power and
an influence in American thought, and his
ambition is surely more laudable than that
of many of our young men who seek dis
tinction by driving coaches, as he once did,
playing polo, leading the German and
staring out of
FIFTH AVENUE CLUB WINDOWS.
He has improved it greatly, and has
brought it abreast of the time. He is
New Highlander by birth, 1 believe, WHO was
educated at Oxford (England), and who
believes that the literary center of the Re.
public must soon be where the commercial
center is His aim still is to make the
| Rerieae solid, but interesting and brilliant
at the same time, and he is working hard
to this end. The recompense he offers is
not very liberal-S5 a page-though, as
the pages contain only 500 words, It is as
| liberal as any of the magazines. Writers
for the periodicals should not expect their
writing to be very profitable. Ii they
have such expectation, they are doomed to
disappointment. They should look for
their chief reward in the satisfaction they
get from expressing their thought.
1.-THE CATHOLIC WORLD"
Is a very good magazine of the theological
sort, containing many interesting papers,
but nearly all bordering on or connected
with clerical issues. Its editor is Rev. l.
| L. Hecker, an American born priest, who
has the reputation OF possessing much tai
emit and culture All its contributors are
] I +bsnb GafbnlinS oil
| naturally has the tone OF the Church, and
is often narrow and intolerant. How can
it be otherwise? TIE assumption of in
fallibility necessitates narrowness and in.
| tolerance. The magazine has a circulation
of G, 900 or 1000, and is not, probably, re-
munerative directly, though it may be as.
an organ of the faith. Its age is 10 years.
1t includes considerable selected matter,
and much of its work is done by priests,
and in literary sense, done very we'll
This must be so, for very few professional
authors are Catholic, or in truth religienists
of any sort.
THE ATLANTTc's" PAST AND PRESENT.
The Atlantic, although not so good as it
has been, is still, unquestionably, the best
literary monthly the country has given
birth to. When begun, % years ago, it
had no rival worthy of the name,
and in many things it keeps the
lead The particularly shining names
which first commended it to public
favor, such as Nathaniel Hawthorne,
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Oliver Wendell
Holmes, Cornelius G. FELTON,, Henry w.
Longfellow, James Russell Lowell, appear
either not at all or very seldom. owing to
the death of some and the absorbing occu-
patton of others. Albeit Longfellow and
Holmes, Whittier and Lowell still sing on
its pages, their songs are rare, and may
hap more welcome for their rarity. A
younger race of men supplies the place of
the older, and many of those are gifted and
graceful. Latterly the magazine has had
more soliditY and less speculation-paper
on politics, political economy, national
issues and international questions having
| taken the place of airy, sentimento-phil-
osophic essays. Already it has had five or
six publishers, and not one of them, ven-
ture to say, has found it in any degree
profitable. 1t is, belize, doing as well now
as it has been for years, though scarcely
making money. 1t is not so liberal In tone
or payment as formerly. 1t used to pay
| $3.50 paper to its best writers, whether it
made seven, eight or ten pages but now
| $40 is deemed high rate-S6 to 81 being
the general figure. 1t no longer pays on
acceptance either, and authors are often
forced to wait year or two for checks
which they should have had when their
| work was done. The atlantic has had
three editors, not counting assistants
James Russell Lowell, who knew
GOOD THING on INSTINCT,
But who had no method, and no concep.
ton of business. He very frequently
carried off manuscripts, it is reported,
mislaid or lost them, and caused the pub
fishers endless trouble. 1t is strange that
poet, and therefore man of imagination
and sympathy, can be SO oblivious of the
rights of other authors. James T. Fields
was the second editor, and restored order
out of chaos. He has the name here
perhaps falsely-of being very self-appre-
ciative, of addictedness to hon-hunting
and to repetition of stories he has made
familiar by much telling; but he is en-.
tertaining in his way, and he under
stood the duties of his office.
William d. Howells, the present
editor, is the best, on the whole, OF the
three, and is an extraordinary product of
the composing. room. Although one of the
finest writers in the republic, and master
of delightful style, he owes most of his
education to himself. Born at a village in
Ohio, he learned printing in his fathers
office at Hamilton and Dayton, and worked
pretty steadily at the case from his twelfth
to his nineteenth year. He then went to
Columbus as Legislative correspondent OF
the Cincinnati Gazette, and two years later
became editor of the Ohio State Journal
He began contributing to the atlantic at
23-he is now 43-and was appointed Con-
sui at Venice at 25, remaining abroad three
years. After some literary skirmishing
here, he repaired to Boston, and was made
assistant editor Of the magazine until
Fields retired, when he was appointed his
successor. The Atlantic has the most brill
liant list of contributors in the country.
| Independent of the older authors, there
are Stoddard, Stedman, Henry James, Jr.,
Howells, Aldrich, Warner, Clemens, De
Forest, Grant White, Higginson, Weiss,
Parton, Piatt, Bret Harte, Joaquin Miller,
Fawcett, and nearly all the cleverest men
of the country, as we'll as such women as
| Harriet Spoford, Celia Thaxter, Harriet
! Stowe, Helen Hunt, Louise Moulton, Kate
Hillard, Sallie Woolsey, Kate Field, Rose
Terry Cooke, Lucy Larcom and Constance
Woolson. Its circulation varies from Ia, 900
to 10000, and is now, l am told, about
5000.
L1ppINooTTs
philadelphia is the only magazine proper
left. 1t is IL years old, and has circula-
ton, hear, of not more than 10000. 1t
is decidedly readable and ably-edited by
John Foster Kirk but it is not very en-
terprising, nor very liberal in its dealings.
In its character it is more provincial than
cosmopolitan, most of its contributors ap-
pearing to be Pennsylvanians. j. B. Lip
pincott & Co. appear to regard keeping it
up as desirable; but they do not
pretend that it is other than loss, or that