The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1894-06-11
ASTOR's RAIsON D'ETRE.

It is announced that Thomas Mast, the
caricaturist. has gone to London to draw
for Astor's Pail Mall Magazine. Mr..
Mast dropped out of sight many years ago,
some time after he left the Harpers; il was
supposed he was dead. People will learn
with pleasure that he is still able to
handle the pencil. Keppler and the other
brilliant comic artists who elbowed him
out OF the front rank could draw, wbic
he never learned 10 do; but none of them
possessed his biting humor. There is
plenty of room fol him in England. Eng
lish caricature is dreary commonplace.
PWnch has not an artist who can design a
humorous cartoon. Its pictures are a
lame repetition of each other, which no
one but hardened cockney can laugh at.
Mast will at any rate impart novelty to his
branch of art.
Mr.. AStor seems at last to have dis
covered the purpose of his creation. The
establishment of a magazine TO publish
articles which American periodicals have
declined seemed hardly an adequate ex-
cuse for his expatriation, but if he pro-
poses TO use his money by purchasing the
best talent in this country as we'll as in
England at prices which American pub
fishers cannot afford or do not choose to
pay, he will not have lived IN vain. He is
consuming large proportion of Bret
Harte's work, and the bulk of the new
work by Rudyard Kipling in spite of the
latter's residence in Vermont. Now he
has got Thomas Mast to conduct comic
department, and presently we shall hear
of his having made a contract with
Du Maurier. 1t is understood that his
scale of remuneration defes competition,
and in letters as In every thing else money
will tell.
The English and American periodicals
have paid Mr.. Astor the compliment Of
combining against him, apparently for the
reason that, being a millionaire. he has no
business to embark in a branch of indus
try, but il he makes a good magazine the
combination will not hurt him with the
public. Thus far. it must be confessed, he
has not made good magazine. The titled
personages who serve him as editors do
not understand their business. They
make a periodical which is a thing of
scraps and patches and which has the fatal
fault of being dull They are probably
members of some high-class London club,
and they make a publication for consump-
ton in that club. That is the error which
is so often committed by men who are des-
titute OF the journalistic instinct. Such
men publish articles adapted to their own
reading. forgetting that they are not types
of the reading public, and thus they even
tually find themselves catering to very
select eoterie indeed. A successful maya
zine, like successful newspaper, will con-
tain matter which the average reader
pd in ha alr x-fn
style which will arrest his attention. 1t
may be as wise as Plato and as learned as
an encyclopedia. but il it does not deal
with topics of the time, and deal with them
in bright. breezy way. it will have 10 be
content with the patronage of scholars,
who have not much money to spend Oh
periodicals.
Mr.. Astor will probably find this out in
due time, and will supersede his lords and
baronets with practical editors who have
learned by experience what kind of read
ing the public wants, and with what sauce
it should be served up. When he does,
there is no reason why be should not
make the best magazine IN the language.
His means enable him to command the
best talent in England and the United
States. 1t is with writer's as with other
pIUuuC6TSs lutN Will sell tn6lr wares
where they can get the most money for
them. And, on the other hand, readers
are very family influenced by patriotism
or sectional loyalty; they will buy the
reading which suits them best. wherever
and under whatever auspices il is pro-
duced. The Harpers experienced no diff
Guilty in buying the best European work
under the noses of the English magazines.
and their magazine has now perhaps as
large circle of English readers as any of
the London mOnthlies. So Mr.. Astor, if
be allows II to be understood that he wants
the best American work. and Is ready to-
pay more for it than any American pub
Usher will. will undoubtedly get it, and,
all other things being equal. the public
will prefer his periodical to It's rivals.
But TO accomplish this end ne will have
to enlist the judgment of editors who
know bright article from a dull one, and
this he does not yet seem to have realized.