The Arkansaw traveler., 1885-08-29
Concerning Magazines

New York Commercial Advertiser.l
 The fact that the Scribners contemplate the establishment of a new magazine, which was 6rst made known to the public in this journal two days ago, naturally suggests some reflections upon the condi- ton of magazine literature in this country as compared with that of other lands, and particularly of England.
 It is admitted, even in England, that our two great illustrated magazines are in every way immeasurably superior to any thing of the kind in Great Britain. ln- deed. their superiority is so emphatic that they have larger circulation even in Eng land than any English periodical of ap- proximately the same class, and that in spite of the fact that both of them are filled with distinctive American matter in the main. In the case of Hayber's Mag. asfne, as soon as the English publication of that periodical was begun there was a marked increase in the proportion of ar- ticles relating to revolutionary and other American historical subjects, and yet in a few months the magazine had a hold upon English readers which no English rival has been able 10 weaken.
 uS. The publishers of the two great American magazines offer very much better wares than any English publisher does, and hence their success. They spend money with liberality which secures to them the services of the very best artists, en- gravers and writers they let nothing come between them and the choicest produc- tions of the time, and from the choicest productions they select with the aid of the best critical taste and skill that the time affords. Their success in securing the English public means simply that in mag azne making, as in most other things, the best work is most acceptable.
 The enormous circulation of the two magazines here at home means that and something more. It means that this country throughout all its borders affords larger class of cultivated, alert, intellec. tual people than any other in the world. There is also no other country in which any first. class magazine would or could find subscribers to the number of quar- ter of a million, which implies readers to the number of at least a million and a half. There is no other country in which the great body ofthe people is at once able to appreciate high performances in literature and ait and sufficiently well of to indulge the taste freely
 On the other hand, England has class of popular magazines of large circulation, of kind that does not prosper here. These are magazines filled with sent- mental and rather "soppy" stories, with cheap illustrations, printed on thin paper We had such magazines once-or some that were like them in quality, though better printed-but most of them are dead or dying, because the people to whom they look for support have risen above their level and take the better mag azines instead. These are facts that lie upon the surface, and they are very com forting facts to those of us who believe in the education of the people and in the superiority of democratic institutions to aristocratic methods The circulation of our great magazines is proof of the gen. uineness ot popular culture among us their influence is chief agency in con- firming and broadening that culture We have reason to rejoice in our magazines as well as to be proud of theEl.