AN AMERICAN CHILDREN'S MAGAZINE.* Tins is a huge book—too huge
for children, or even grown-up people, to handle with ease—of eight hundred and fifty pages, of double-column and smallish type. " Nevertheless, it seems to us a perfect mine of pleasure, which even the most patient industry, stimulated by au insatiable appetite, could scarcely exhaust, before another vein, probably of an over improving quality of ore, will be discovered in the same region next November. That
SS. Nicholas, Seraner's Illustrated Magasinc for Girls and Boys. Conducted by Mary blames Dodge. Vol. VI. London: Sampeoa Low, Marmon, Searle, and region, we fancy, must be New York, though there is nothing on the title-page to show that Mr. Scribner and Miss Dodge are not English, while " London " and "Messrs. Sampson Low and Co." unmistakably are so. Scribner and Miss Dodge are certainly not English, and many of the names of those who form the mighty phalanx of contributors are un- mistakably American. It is a sort of American "Every Girl's (or Boy's) Annual " or "Aunt Judy ;" and it seems to us to be broader than its English prototypes, both in the variety of the matter it furnishes, and in its provision for the various wants of young people of different ages, and wiser in its avoid- ance of melancholy subjects ; and it certainly supplies a larger amount of letter-press monthly, though we cannot add "for the money," as we have no means, while we write, of ascertaining its price. But what constitutes its special claim to attention is the beauty and number of its illustrations. We estimate them at from six to seven hundred. These are of all kinds, and of wonderful variety of style, from valuable en- gravings to a few strokes of inimitably comic marginal illus- tration, and little vignettes, at the beginnings and ends of papers, of extreme grace, and drawings explanatory of questions of elementary science. Even riddles are not considered toohumble for fanciful and beautiful engravings, and pictures are provided in each number—as are also little stories and rhymes in large type, and spurning the economy of double columns—for the "very little folk." The very linings of the cover are filled with illustra- tions of all the best known nursery rhymes. Paper and type are admirable, and the binding is not only pleasing to the eye, but so supple and good that the book will lie open at any part,—a desideratum, when its size and weight are considered.
The subjects include tales, travel, verses—of various quality, certainly—popular science, papers that may be regarded as encyclopmdie—explaming words in everybody's mouth, but little understood, foreign customs, manners, places and things. Besides these contributions, there are more dis- tinctly instructive departinents,—pieces of foreign prose to be translated, the best translation of which appears in the magazine in a subsequent number; but we think St. Nicholas might take a hint from English children's periodi- cals, and more systematically stimulate mental exertion by giving subjects for essay-writing and private reading, sug- gesting the books to be read for the necessary information, and offering moderate prizes for, or occasionally, perhaps, publica- tion of, the best papers in response. There is a " Jack-in-the- pulpit " department, so mixed up of truth and fiction, that it is sometimes difficult to say what Jack and his correspondents are driving at. He is, we suppose, a sort of agent for St. Nicholas, who is the nominal editor, and who has a very considerable department, called "The Letter-box," all to himself, and to which, we humbly think, he gives too much space, as children's letters are not often valuable, and not always quaint or clever ; they contain, too, more praise of St. Nicholas than it seems quite modest to publish, considering that children's judgments are not especially well informed nor impartial. Another department that is, perhaps, overdone is "The Riddle-box." No doubt,
puzzling over riddles will sharpen the juvenile intellect, and perhaps engage its attention when more valuable work would be shirked; but riddles are profitless in themselves, and great temp- tations to unlimited expenditure of time, and irritating to the dull-pated child—nourishing mndclle-headedness, instead of clearing it away. Fancy seventeen elaborate puzzles proposed in a single number, two large pages of the smallest type being devoted to the statements of them. The mere looking at them made the head of the present writer swim with dizziness, born of the mixed sense of intellectual weakness to comprehend even how to set about finding out what is meant to be done, and moral weakness in allowing himself to be tempted into such clueless labyrinths of thought, when so much reel work remains outside to be accomplished. St. Nicholas should rather set his readers' wits to some constructive work, instead of to the finding- out of riddles. Some of our English serials for juveniles offer small prizes, not only for the best essays, stories, translations, and other literary work, but for the best carvings, drawings, paintings, crewel and other artistic work, models in cardboard, clay, &c., the subjects being given by the editor. Another valuable characteristic of these English serials is the stimulus they supply to unselfish exertion for others, in collecting and working for charitable institutions ; supplying monthly informa- tion about these institutions and what their own readers have done for them—having a care not to stimulate, at the same time, the appetite for applause—but withholding the names of the little workers.
To return to St. Nicholas ; do not the "very little folk" come off with a very little share of the good things going? They have only from two to four pages allotted to them in each number, which, considering that the typo is very large and the pictures very predominant, do not leave much room for story-telling.
May we make two complaints against this very charm- ing book for children. The first is that the contributors are too numerous to be at all select, and that sufficient judg. ment has not been shown in the choice of materials. Where there are about 150 contributors—we note that two-thirds of these are ladies—in a single year to a single magazine, a large proportion must be mediocre, not to say inferior. It may be— of this we know nothing—that the magazine is partly or entirely supported by unpaid literary volunteers, which would account for much feeble work ; and this brings us to the second fault we have to find, and which is indeed merely a result of the first, namely, that many of the host of short papers seem to us wanting in point or purpose, and to convey little amuse- ment, or information, or stimulus to thought for the reader. And it can scarcely be otherwise, when we consider how very short the majority of the papers are. After deducting the space occu- pied by pictures and" departments,"—" J ack-in-the-pulpit," " The Letter-box," "The Riddle-box," and "The Very Little Folk,"— we have calculated that the contributions proper can only aver- age three pages each, which, allowing for the space occupied by long stories, leaves no room whatever for the expansion in the short papers of any valuable thought, or for the conveying of any extensive information. We would discourage the publi- cation of short, aimless papers, and the employment of inferior writers.
In conclusion, we would remind our readers that such dis- praise as we have expressed has been of the majority of the small papers, and not at all of the bulk of the writing, which consists of the longer stories, many of them delightful reading, and from the pens of well known and justly admired writers, the selection of which reflects the very highest credit on the editor, Miss Dodge. Indeed, such names as Louisa M. Alcott,. John G. Whittier, Julian Hawthorne, and many others, decide the claims to notice of the magazine before us ; to Americans, many more of the names—notably, Miss Dodge's—unknown to English readers, would no doubt stamp St. Nicholas as com- pletely with the hall-mark of talent and principle, as those more widely known which we have mentioned. We warn English magazines for children to stand to their arms—in the matter of illustrations, especially—it they would not be beaten by their American cousins.
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