AN AMERICAN PUBLISHING HOUSE.* " A THRIFTY but rather unprogressive
provincial town of sixty thousand inhabitants" is Mr. J. H. Harper's description of New York as it was a hundred odd years ago. Thither in the year 1810 came a lad of sixteen, James Harper by name, son of a house carpenter in Middle Village, Long Island, who made up his living by working a small farm and keeping a small shop. The boy had made a hero of Benjamin Franklin, and chose printing as his occupation. Two years or so later a second brother, John, took up the same trade. In 1817, when John had served his apprenticeship, the two started in business for themselves. In the August of that year they printed for a New York publisher an edition of Seneca's Morals, the compositors who served the press being two other brothers, Joseph Wesley and Fletcher, who by this time had been apprenticed to the firm. Its first independent venture was Locke on the Human Understanding. Wesley joined the house in 1823. A delightful little story is told of this event. The young man bad been living with his father, and had been charged, somewhat to his surprise, full price for his board. When the proper time came the father handed over the accumulated money to his eon. He was to set up in business with it. Accordingly he bought a partnership in his brothers' house. Fletcher joined it in 1825, and so it became "four equate," rpcdravot droEU tkey0V one may say. " Which of you is the Harper and which are the Brothers ? " some one asked. "Either one is the Harper, the rest are the Brothers," was the reply. Seldom, indeed, has any business house been built on such a firm foundation of intelligence and integrity. No one who reads the story told in this volume can wonder that in 1877, when the youngest and last survivor of the four passed away, the humble enterprise of fifty years before had become one of the great publishing houses of the world. As we follow the story of how this came about we find many things of keenly competing interest. The literary relations of England and America claim, here at least, the first place. Harpers had much to do with international copyright, achieved, not, perhaps, in ideal shape, in 1891, after a struggle of more than half a century. Charles Dickens had it in his mind when he came in 1842, but found that things were not ripe. But Harpers had anticipated it by agreements with English authors for advanced sheets, for which they were willing to pay notable prices. "George Eliot" received £1,700 for one novel, and Dickens £1,250 for Great Expectations. The camaraderie of the New York publishers favoured the arrangement; the legal settlement was brought on, we imagine, by competition elsewhere. We cannot wholly pass by the story of the great fire of 1853, a frightful disaster—a loss of nearly a million dollars against an insurance of two hundred thousand—met with magnificent courage.
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