The New York herald., 1922-11-26

magazine in Philadelphia in 1900 said
MANY attempts have been made in vain
to establish periodicals in the small town
of Boston. but the Bostonians are interested
only in making money and prefer the
perusal of their meager and time-serving
newspapers And Boston kept returning
the compliment, although she must have
known that her rival couldn't help seeing
that all the time she was abusing Phila-
delphia she was imploring her citizens not
to let Philadelphia get away with the boast
that she was the only city in America
which could maintain magazines.
But it was true that Philadelphia pub
lished and read far more books than
either of her sisters: and it was also
interested in making money than in max
ing magazines. In the manufacture of
Goth Philadelphia was for a long time
easily the first of the three. Envy is very
often at the bottom of ridicule and the
joke which still exists to-day about the
backwardness of Philadelphia dates to that
time when she was so far ahead of the
others. Boston and New York, smarting
at her superior culture and social develop
ment. eased their feelings by a contemptu-
Gus sniff: and New Yort shifted the louder
because she had the greater reason to be
jealous For however Philadelphia and
Boston might squabble as to which was
Athens. they were both quite sure that
nothing could beat New York as Boeotia
Manhattan had been settled by the
Dutch. and one of the obstacles to es-
tablishing schools there was that the in
habitants spoke two languages and both
Of them badly. If you had been born in
New York any time during the eighteenth
century. YOU would have been in luck to
go to school at all. But perhaps. like most
of the New Workers. you wouldn't have
considered this particularly lucky For
New York had no ideals of general edu-
cation to uphold. Boston and Philadelphia
had been settled by people passionately
devoted To religious independence. even if
it was of very different kinds; and the
ability to read the Bible was thought all
important But New York had been
founded to trade with the Indians and
though afterward it took more mental
ability for the thrifty Dutch to outwit
each other and the Quakers and Yankees
than to outwit the ignorant natives it
was not the sort of mentality which at all
made reading necessary. Furthermore.
New York had suffered during the war
more than any other American city, be-
cause it had been so long occupied by the
enemy. What little striving there had
been toward local education and culture
naturally received setback, and naturally
It took the citizens a longer time to re-
gain their former prosperity The fate of
three magazines which Charles Brockden
Brown. our next literary figure. attempted
TO establish at the beginning of the new
century. seems To show this The two he
began in New York ran only a year each.
the one he began in Philadelphia ran for
five years.
Yet Philadelphia must have been much
annoyed that a son of hers. and the first
man in America who tried to live by his
pen, should have done this only impor-
tant work in New York. 1t was the first
indication she had that the despised
Boeotia was going to turn out an Athens
after all Indeed. prince was soon to
choose Cinderella rather than her two
laughing sisters. And it was only few