The morning call., 1894-02-18
MAGAZINE LITERATURE.

The failure of Godey's Magazine is an
event in modern periodical literature.
Godey'S antedated all the present month
lies. 1t was at one time owned in part by
the late George w. Childs. When Hdr-
per'S and Putndn's were founded it had
an established position in the world of let
tiers and fashion. Watcher it died long
ago or languishng did live throughout the
years is not remembered at this moment /;
but last year it get an infusion of new
blood and started on the course as rival
10 the leaders of periodical literature. Its
race was short; it died with the Christmas
souvenirs; one shall hear of it no more.
The almost simultaneous reduction in the
price of the Cosmopolitan and the whis-
pered embarTassments of other monthlies
show what a struggle the periodical press
is having. Among the first Of the luxuries
which q man cuts off when hard times
come is his supply of entertaining reading.
1t is ALMOST as hard to establish self
sustaining monthly as to found a success
full daily. The late John A. Appleton used
to say that his house had not the faculty
of running a monthly. 1t has maintained
the Popular Science Monthly, which has
away DOSA a fdluaDl au0 10 plUOuUll d
profitable periodical; but it is publica-
ton sui generis. published at high price
and appealing to limited class. The
only publishing house which seems 10
possess the knack of starting successful
serials and making them pay year after
year and generation after generation is the
Harper Brothers. Its instructive to note
with what tact they cater to each separate
class, ard supply every one with just what
they want
A comparison between Harper Monthly
and the English periodicals which have
fourished during the forty-f0ur years of
its existence explains the vitality of the
American periodical. HGrper'S Magazine
was started to consume good foreign mat
ter which was becoming. too copious for
publication in book form. 1t had existed
for quite while before it became con-
sumner of the native product. But when il
was four or five years old it became
market for American matter, and a few
years afterward it produced that exclu-
sively. Its editors found that they could
buy better and more popular matter at
home than they could borrow from abroad.
The eighty-six or seven volumes which
have appeared constitute an encyclopedia
Of literature. art, science history and
travel which is without rival; on what
ever subject student wants information
he can get it in some volume or other, in
an agreeable shape, conveyed with ac-
curacy, and written from the American
standpoint. There is not foreign peri0di-
cal of which so much can De said. If
young man were shut up in Fort Churchill
in the Arctic regions with nothing to read
but set of Hdrper'S Magazines he could
acquire from it fair education, and would
never need to spend dull evening.
The other Harper periodicals. the
Weekly. the Bazaar, and the Young People.
have enjoyed as they have deserved almost
as large a measure of popularity. The
Weekly has to some extent departed from
its original purpose of being a newspaper.
1t Is more of an art journal than it was,
and it devotes more space to sport than it
would have done under Fletcher Harper.
But it always contains some capital read
ing. and is an Indispensable article of
drawing-room furniture. Ladies and
children find in the Bdzdr and Young
People just what they want, so that they
need not 60 further aheld for reading.
The problem which the publishers of
these publications had to solve was to
supply each class of readers with the
literature for which their souls craved, of
the best quality, and alta minimum cost.
That seems to be simpleiproblem. but in
fact the numerous failures of other pub
fishers shows how difficult it is. A few,
a very few men are born with the capacity
to gauge the public taste. and to know in
stinctively what people want and what
they do not want. Some highly cultured
editors prove failures from shooting over
their readers heads. The Harpers, while
appealing. as Mr.. Howells says. to the Gull
tured and refined class, nave never catered
to that class alone. Their publications
have been aimed to suit the public at large.
1t is one of the most remarkable circum-
stances in literary history that three gen.
eratiOns Of the family have succeeded
each other in the business, and that in
each generation members have been found
who possessed this very rare instinct