The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1882-01-20
The Century and ST. Nicholas.
THEIR RECENT GROWTH IN ENGLAND.

TUE CENTURY MAGAZINE may now be
considered fully started on its way under
the new name, and, with the forthcom-
coming Midwinter number, which will
have the new color design by Elhu We'd
der, the name "Scribuer's Monthly is to
be dropped as n subtitle. It's issues,
since the change was made, have been
commended by the press everywhere as
of rare beauty and interest The Novem
Der number was said by the Providence
journal TO be "the most able and valua-
BILE publication ever put forth in maga
zine form, while the "Press' pronounced
it ''unquestionably the most brilliant and
striking, as it is the largest and most
sumptuous, of anything yet known in
American or European periodical litcra.
ture." The Springfield "Republican"
called the December number "for per
sonal portraiture and biography, the
richest single issue ever made by a mag
azine." The IN. Y. Observer consid
ers the January Century IAN ideal
number The Charleston "News and
Courier" when the change in the name
was made, declared that it would "be
difficult to improve on 'Scribnor's, al
ready the first and best of American
magazines But the "Graphic' On. Y. J
recently said: Take it all in all, "The
Century is already better magazine
than "Scribner's" ever was and this is
the general verdict The increased ex-
cellence is not due to the change of
name; it is only the natural growth of
the magazine, made more conspicuous
by the change.
With this growing excellence has
come an increased sale. The average
edition of the numbers of the last two
volumes of "Scribners Monthly" was
| 10000; the average edition of the first
four numbers of The Century" is nearly
$4,000. In England, 2O,5OO copies of
November were sold, against an average
of 6,23O for the twelve months preced-
ing, and the sale of that number still
continues there as well as here In a
recent issue of the Dumfries { Scotland
advertiser" the rapid progress made
by "The Century among the reading
public of the United Kingdom was as
cribed to ''the Anglo-Saxon spirit, as dis
tinguished from the purely British or the
purely American, that pervades its
pages it is much more American than
it is British, but it is more Anglo-SaXon
than either, and more representative of
the race than of any of the various ma
tionalties ITO which it has separated. -
''St. Nicholas" has grown in England,
from circulation Of 5000 copies year
ago,to a regular circulation now of 5000
to 10000 monthly. 1t is not often that
the London Times goes out of its
way to compliment children's magazines,
and American ones at that, but its issue
of December 20, 1881, contained the
following good words about the last
bound volumes of "St. Nicholas:
'Thcre is an old song which sings
how II certain venerable man delighted
to pass the evening of his days in initial
ing his graudchild in the exhiarating
game of draughts, and how, so well did
the lad profit by his instruction, that at
last the old man was beaten by the boy.
In looking over the two parts of st.
Nicholas, this old song has come back
to us. Certainly the producers of such
literature for our own boys and girls must
look to their laurels Both in the letter
press and the engravings these two vol
umcS seem to us though the admission
touch our vanity or our patriotism, call
it by which name we will, something
closely) above anything we produce in
the same line, The letterpress, while
containing quite as large power of at
traction for young faucies, is so much
more dead, so much less commonplace
altogether of a higher literary style than
the average production of our ANIMALS of
the same class. And the pictures are of.
ten works of real art, not only as en-.
cravings, but as compositions of original
| DESIGN "