AMERICAN MAGAZINES.
THERE can be little doubt, we think, that American illustrated magazines are decidedly better and, having regard to the quality of their engravings and the quantity of their letterpress, much cheaper than their English com- petitors. Which of our magazines, for example, can compare with Harper's, which discount booksellers sell at 9d. a copy? The cause of this superiority is an interesting question. The writer of a recent article in the St. James's Gazette ascribes it to the greater facilities for distribution which the Federal Post Office places at the disposal of American publishers. Books and magazines below a certain weight, if delivered at a railway-station in bulk, are forwarded by the Federal Post
Office to their destination, and distributed for id. a pound inclusive, the result being that whereas the postal charges on English magazines and books run from 30 per cent. to 50 per cent., the average on American magazines and books does not exceed 5 per cent.
The English system, moreover, puts the cheaper publica- tions at a great disadvantage,—the books comprised in " Cassell's National Library," for instance, being charged id. each, or 33 per cent. ; while on the Nineteenth Century the postal charge is only 3d., equal to 10 per cent. on the pub- lished price. But, as a matter of fact, very few English publications, except newspapers, are sent through the Post Office. London publishers find it cheaper to deal with middlemen, to whom parcels are sent by train, and by whom magazines are for the most part distributed. Nevertheless, this is a costly process, and as the writer of the article in question observes, the sum which the proprietor of an English shilling magazine actually receives, seldom exceeds 60., and he has to give long credit. The proprietor of a similar magazine in the United States is supposed to net Md., generally paid beforehand, for the absurd practice of allowing retail customers 25 per cent. discount off the published prices does not prevail in the United States. These are striking anomalies, and it might be well worth the while of our own Post Office to offer greater facilities to London publishers for the distribution of their lighter wares to country customers. Books and magazines under a certain weight, if delivered at railway-stations in ,bags or bundles, could surely be carried to their destination and distributed at a cost of a halfpenny each without loss to the Department. On the other hand, it would be a mistake to assume that the Federal Post Office is, on the whole, more liberal in its arrangements with the public than the Post Office of the United Kingdom. In places with fewer than five thousand inhabitants, the American Post Office does no distributing whatever, and, to mention a small matter, all manuscripts un- accompanied by printed proofs are charged at full letter rates, while in England they are classed and charged as "printed matter." It should, moreover, be borne in mind that while the Federal Postal Department is a "losing concern," the English Post Office earns a handsome surplus, and that it is contrary to the policy of this country to favour particular classes at the cost of the community at large. If we can have illustrated magazines equal to Harper's, Scribner's, and the Century only by indirectly subsidising their publishers, we are better without them. The American Government is suffering from a plethora of riches ; ours is not. It would, however, be equally wrong to assume that the postal advantages enjoyed by American magazines are the sole, or, indeed, the main cause of their superiority to our own. It lies in the fact that magazine-readers, and readers generally, are not merely absolutely but relatively far more numerous in the States than they are here, and that the average American reader both buys more books and pays a higher price for them than the average English reader. Harper's and the Century, which Zscount booksellers in this country sell at 9d. and is. a copy respectively, are sold in the States at the full retail price of thirty-five cents. (17d.). In the cars, and at many of the hotel bookstalls, you have to pay 5d. additional. It is the same with newspapers, the retail charge for a three-cent paper being, as -often as not, five cents. And, to the surprise of the travelling Briton, these supplementary charges are neither begrudged -nor regarded as unreasonable. If you do not want to pay -them, you need not buy; and in no other country are the ideas implied in the saying, "Live and let live," so widely accepted and so generally observed. The feeling seems to be that any- body who serves the community, whether by blacking boots -or selling books, ought to be handsomely paid for his trouble. The sole exception is the unhappy British author, whose works are appropriated not only without payment, but often without thanks. Yet even the British author has his remedy. As was lately pointed out to the present writer by a gentle- man who had been " lobbying " against the International Copyright Bill, he can obtain protection for his books by the simple expedient of becoming an American citizen ; and -seeing that the ordinary American probably buys five times as many books as the ordinary Englishman, who is, indeed, oftener a borrower than a buyer, this idea certainly invites -consideration. If France was worth a mass to Henri Quatre, America is surely worth an oath to the British author. The misfortune is, that by taking it he would cease to be a British author, a fact, however, which would probably in no wise hinder the sale of his books.
Among other reasons for the prosperity of American maga- zines and periodicals generally, are the marvellous energy and 'enterprise of their conductors. A New York weekly paper has been known to spend five thousand pounds in advertising a short r-omance of small merit by an author of no great repute. The larger magazines, besides paying liberally for ordinary contributions, and spending largely on their illustrations, never consider expense when it is a question of obtaining -something striking and new. Not long ago, the proprietors of the Century sent a well-known writer and an artist of repute on a two years' tour in Siberia, for the purpose of preparing a aeries of illustrated articles on the condition of Russian prisons .and the treatment of political exiles. If it were physically possible, they would be quite capable of sending expeditions to survey Saturn and illustrate the mountains of the moon. in nothing is the contrast between American and English magazines so marked as in their publishing and editorial offices. It is Hyperion to a Satyr. " Harper's " is one of the sights of New York, a huge stone building of many storeys, -entered from the street by a broad staircase, and containing within its ample walls steam-engines, printing-machines, warehouses, studios, splendid suites of editorial offices, and all the paraphernalia proper to a colossal establishment of its kind. Bat the offices of the Century Company are even more remarkable. Besides their well-known magazines, Harper's produces an illustrated weekly paper,, and a great multitude of books. The other house publishes only two magazines, the Century and St. Nicholas ; yet its editorial offices in Union Square are quite as extensive, and furnished with exquisite taste. Stepping into an elevator, which is in continual movement, the visitor is raised in a few seconds to an upper storey, well lighted and out of hearing of the racket of the street, and presently finds himself in a vestibule leading into a suite of splendid rooms. The walls are adorned with the choicest productions of pen and pencil, the floors richly carpeted; while desks, tables, chairs, and all the other appointments of the place are as costly and luxurious as those of a first-class London -club. Books, magazines, and engravings are scattered about, and contribute to the general effect of artistic elegance and literary repose. If you are a stranger, a pretty girl, with a flower at her breast, asks your business, and if you desire to have speech with one of the editors, conducts you to his room, a spacious, well-furnished studio, in telephonic communication with other departments of the house, and announces your name, and though be may never have heard it before, you may count on a cordial reception. For Americans detest any-
thing that savours of exclusiveness, and American editors are as accessible and affable as American Presidents.
Compare this with the style of similar establishments in London. Entering a narrow gateway, you find yourself in a gloomy yard, shut in by a confused mass of buildings with innumerable doors. After ascertaining from a liveried and lusty porter the whereabouts of the editorial quarter, you turn your steps thitherward, and mount a flight of narrow stairs, at the head of which is a small boy in a sort of sentry-box, to whom you confide your wish for an interview with the gentle- - man you have come to see. The boy gives you a paper, on which you inscribe your name and business. With this he goes off and, presently returning, bids you follow him, then leads the way through a labyrinth of long passages and up and down little staircases, until you come to a row of small rooms bearing a striking resemblance to large rabbit-hutches, in one of which, with the help of your guide, you may find the editor whom you seek. It must be admitted that the American style is the pleasanter, and perhaps the more businesslike, of the two. But English publishers will perhaps say that when the English public buy high-priced magazines by the hundred thousand, they will show as much enterprise, and house their editors as nobly as American publishers house theirs. In the meantime, English publishers have their compensations. That old yard in the heart of London is rich in historic associa- tions; long before the birth of the American Eagle it was a centre of literary activity, and its precincts are hallowed by memories the like of which cannot gather round Franklin and Union Squares for generations to come. But this is a base, mechanical age, and we fear that even the most patriotic magazine publisher of the Row would be only too willing to exchange all these advantages for a client6le of half-a-million readers.
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