The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-03-20
IN HOTEL LOBBIEs
Harmon's Strength

Harmon's Strength While sentiment among democrats seems to be somewhat evenly divided in respect to the standard bearer to be choscen in 1912. the democratic party has not been so harmonious or so hopeful oi the future in many years as 1t is now. said W. P. Triplett of Detroit.
 T believe that if the national conven- ton were held tomorrow it would be nip and tuck between Governor Harmon and Gov Woodrow Wilson, but I predict that when the time comes Harmon will be nominated. I am only democartic voter, private in the party ranks, but on trip east recently I found Governor Harmon much stronger in that section than l had imagined. He seems particu- larly strong in New York state and in Pennsylvania, although Wilson is not | without ardent followers everywhere" Concerning Magazine Literature
 Within the past 15 years there has been a remarkable increase in the number of l magazines published in the United States, and in making inquiry at the news stands one can but express surprise at the ready sale for most of the young periodicals, said an elderly citizen.
 "The older magazines have been im- proved and notwithstanding the fact that they are higher in price than the new they are in more eager demand than ever | This speaks well for American culture. There has certainly been notable ad- vance inN my day in the matter of appre- Ciati0n Of good m a oa zine IiteratIre When was young man only precious few periodicals could be made to pay. In the first half of the nineteenth century more than one high-class magazine had to sus- pend for lack of support, and as late as 1877 the Galaxy, which many of us recall as periodical of singular attractiveness, stopped publication. The New York Sun of March IS contains an interesting ar ticle on The Evolution of the Mag azine-A Visit to a Graveyard in the Astor Library It tells of the Galaxy, numbered among it's contributors Henry James. Jr., Marion Harland, John Bur roughs, Edward Everett Hale, Phoebe Cary. Mark Twain, Helen Hunt. Richard Grant White and Edmund Clarence Sted- man.
 The writer in the Sun goes on to say that the Broadway Journal, of which Ed gar Allan Poe was editor in conjunction with c. F. Briggs and H. c. Watson, was not nearly so fortunate as the Galaxy, lasting but year. through 1s45.
 Tn 1883 Timothy Flint, editor of the Knickerbocker. wrote in a cynical vein l,, 70 L. l.t- had the effect of grim humor. He said: The spirit of the age and country is op- posed to the progress of literature. It is pre-emnently an age of gross and ab- sorbing avarice, in which the love and the pursuit of money have eXtinguished those aspirings and tastes which impel the mind in the direction of literature. Such a spirit is adverse to meditation, the making of books and still more to buying them.
 Literature seems likely to perish under deluge of it's own exuberance. Many who would otherwise purchase and read books refuse. alleging as their grand excuse that among the numberless claim ants for public favor they have no means of discriminating those they ought to ratronze, and because some trouble is requisite to sift out the valuable from the vile, and because they cannot purchase all they excuse themselves for purchas- ing none.
 This brings to view another obstacle -the vile spirit and fashion of puffing and reviewing which spreads as a taint of mildew over our whole literature. In most instances it is In editors a sin with out any considerable temptation They sell themselves, as the agents of book sellers or the instruments of the i'll feel ing of clan, without compensation.
 But the most formidable impeachment to American literature of all is the coarse and absorbing appetite of the great mass of the community for politics. Who thinks of literature in the scramble of the outs to get in and push the ins' out While this rabid appetite pervades our public we can never expect to have higher national literature than that of newspapers
 That was written nearly 80 years ago. The country is flooded with cheap liter ature, but out of the whole mass of mag azine publications there is an amazing amount of constructive discussion and brilliant fiction. Pessimists may call this sordid and Goddess age, but the world grows better instead of worse. Never were there so many humanizing agencies in evidence as now and not the least of the elevating influences felt today is the magszine.'
 Birmingham and Mobile