The Republican journal., 1907-11-14
Cu.p,po p,,opupv Editor and
THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY.


the Atlantic Monthly must be interest
ed in the 50th anniversary number and
its reviews for the fifty years of Litera-
ture, Science, Art and Politics by such
competent writers as Thomas Went
worth Higginson, Henry E. Pritchett,
Hamilton Wright Mabie and Woodrow
Wilson are especially noteworthy con-
tributions to periodical literature. To
one like the writer, who has known the
magazine from the start and we'll re-
calls its launching by the firm of Phil
lips, Sampson and Co., the reminiscent
articles, and particularly An Early
Contributors Recolections" by John
f. Trowbridge, appeal most strongly
AT tie time of the Mormon rebellion,
1857, Nh. rowbridge narrowly escaped
accompanying the troops sent out to
check the rebellion. "ThiS force was to
leave Fort Leavenworth in June or
July,crosS the Plains a place of sinister
significance in those days and reach
Salt Lake City early in the autumn
The expedition was commanded by Col.
Albert Sidney Johnston, who was a
prominent Confederate leader in the
Civil War. 1t did not reach Salt Lake
City, as planned but was showed up in
the Rocky Mountains and suffered great
priEations, having to subsist for time
on mule meat. The writer accompanied
the second division of the Utah army,
commanded by Col Monroe, which left
Fort LeayenWorth the following spring,
only to lind Oh reaching Fort Laramie
that the war was over and to meet there
the peace commissioners sent out by
President Buchanan. One Of these
commissioners, Ben McCulloch, was
later an officer in the army of the Con
federacy and was killed in the battle of
Pea Ridge
The mention by Mr. Trowbridge of
|'the most noteworthy of all the early
stories, In Cellar by Miss Harriet
Prescott, which appeared in the second
year of the magazine, February, 1885,
recalls not only the story but the home
of its author in Newburyport, Mass.
\ t the time the story appeared Miss
Prescott had either very recently grad
uated or was still student in the High
School, and in age was Gin the early
twenties." The story was SO remark
able a production that James Russell
Lowell, then the editor was "a little
suspicious at first of it being a clever
adaptation from the French" The af-
tiuence of diction and wealth of color
in Miss Prescott's later contributions
were remarkable, and no doubt were
due In part to her surroundings. New
buryport was the home of people who
had long been engaged in the East In
dia trade and Of sea captains who had
visited all the ports Of the globe. Many
of the homes were veritable museums
from cellar to attic. Rich hangings,
splendid rugs, carvings in wood and
ivory, grotesque idols and innumerable
other things, gorgeous in color and odor.
GUS of the Orient, We're everywhere in
evidence: and daily association with
travelled and cultured people, supple
mented 10y natural literary ability, gave
Miss Prescott's writing a charm that
has endured to this day. She is known
to the present generation of readers
as Harriet Prescott Spofford, and her
younger sister Mary Prescott, has also
won success in the literary field
Another early contributor to The At
lantic in whom the writer felt per-
Sonal interest was Edward H. House.
who was met as a newspaper man in
1860, and who i'll that year had two con-
tributions in a single number of The
A tiantic, which was thought at the
time to be an unusual distinction Mr..
House was then on the staff of the New
York Tribune Later he went to Japan
and after living there some years, con-
tributlng to The Atlantic Monthly, Har-
pers Young People and other periodi-
Gals, returned to this country. His
health was impaired and he longed for
the Lotus land he had left and returned
to Japan to die there.
There are one or two illusions to Ar
temus Ward in this anniversary num-
Der Of The Atlantic. Mr.. Arthur Gil
man goes so far, in spirit of fine con-
descension, as to say: cit is remarkable
how well Artemus Ward is remember
ed" But there is no reference in this
anniversary number to Artemus Wards
visit at the office of The Atlantic, as
described in his letter from Boston,
The description was headed 'Iitera
toor," and it was as follows:
1.-The Atlantic Monthly, Betsy, is a
reg lar visitor to our western home. /
like it because it has got sense. 1t
don't print stories with piruts and
honist young men into 'em, making the
piruts splendid fellers and the honist
young men dis'gree'ble idiots-so that
our darters very naturally prefer the
piruts to the honist young idiots; but it
gives us good square American litera-
oho III IN 20 ha