Chapter 9

_Blackwood's Magazine_ in 1824 congratulated America on C. R. Leslie's success. He never lost his profound respect and affection for Samuel Bradford, and named his second son after him. In the second year (1813) of Leslie's residence in London, Washington Allston's health became seriously affected, and he resolved to visit Bristol. Coleridge, who was affectionately attached to Allston, followed him thither. "The house was so full," writes Leslie, in his autobiographical recollections, "that the poet was obliged to share a double-bedded room with me. We were kept up late in consequence of the critical condition of Allston, and when we retired Coleridge, seeing a copy of Knickerbocker's History of New York which I had brought with me, lying on the table, took it up and began reading. I went to bed, and think he must have sat up the greater part of the night, for the next day he had nearly got through Knickerbocker. This was many years before it was published in England, and the work was, of course, entirely new to him. He was delighted with it" (p. 23).

THE ANALECTIC.--Washington Irving, who had met Allston in Rome in 1804, and who was for a time almost swerved from his literary purpose by his desire to become a painter, and with whose first literary triumph Coleridge thus became familiar, was also a Philadelphia editor. In 1809 E. Bronson and others began to print upon their Lorenzo press _The Select Reviews and Spirit of the Foreign Magazines_, edited by Samuel Ewing. The magazine was bought by Moses Thomas, in 1812, who changed its name to the _Analectic_. Irving was its editor in 1813-14. He contributed to it some of the essays of the "Sketch Book," "Traits of Indian Character," and "Philip of Pokanoket." He reviewed Robert Treat Paine, E. C. Holland, Paulding and Lord Byron, and wrote for it biographies of Lawrence, Burrows, Perry and Porter.[20]

[20] It is not a little remarkable that the list of Washington Irving's contributions to the _Analectic Magazine_ should have come to me in an Athenian newspaper.

+Tô 1813 ho Erbing anelabe tên syntaxin tou periodikou "Anakletik', hekdidomenou kata mêna en Philadelpheia. En aunô egrapse pollas biographias tôn periphanesterôn andrôn, hôn hai kyriôterai eisin hai tôn Amerikanon Pôrter kai Mporrôs kai tôn Anglôn poiêtôn Byrônos, Mouar kai Kampellou."--EBLOMAS.+ December 1, 1890.

Paulding and Verplanck wrote for the magazine, signing their articles "P." and "V."

William Darlington (1782-1863), Pennsylvanian, after whom was named the Darlingtonica California (a species of pitcher-plant), went to India as ship's surgeon in 1806, and published in the _Analectic Magazine_ a sketch of his voyage called "Letters from Calcutta."

The _Analectic_ contains a number of valuable portraits. The first lithograph ever made in America is in this magazine for July 1819. It represents a woodland scene--a flowing stream and a single house upon the bank. It was made by Bass Otis, who followed the suggestions of Judge Cooper and Dr. Brown, of Alabama. The drawing was made upon a stone from Munich, presented to the American Philosophical Society by Mr. Thomas Dobson, of Philadelphia. The _Analectic Magazine_ was finally converted into the _Literary Gazette_ and died one year later (December, 1821).[21]

[21] "I observe," said a gentleman at the Athenæum, "that the form of the _Analectic Magazine_ was changed on the first of this month." "No," replied his friend, "it has been _weakly_ for some time past."

WITTY AND SATIRICAL MAGAZINES.

The _Tickler_ was edited by George Helmbold, and was first issued, September 16, 1807, under the pen-name of "Toby Scratch 'Em." It had for its motto:

"Curst be the verse, how well soe'er it flow, That tends to make one worthy man my foe, Give virtue scandal, innocence a fear, Or from the soft-eyed virgin steal a tear."--_Pope._

It was to be issued every Wednesday morning, at the price of four dollars per annum, from 131 South Front Street. The first volume of fifty-two numbers was not completed until February 8, 1809. Helmbold enlisted in the army and was promoted to a lieutenancy at Lundy's Lane. After the war he kept the Minerva Tavern at Sixth and Sansom Streets. He afterward edited the _Independent Balance_.

The _Trangram, or Fashionable Trifler_, by "Christopher Crag, Esq., his Grandmother and Uncle," was published in Philadelphia by George E. Blake in 1809. It foreshadowed its wit and its satire in its introductory parody of _Macbeth_:

"How now, ye cunning, sharp and secret wags, What is't ye do? A deed with a double name."

In the first number was an address by "The Publisher to the Purchaser.... The conductors of this paper, being a kind of whimsical and negligent gentry of easy habits and inconstant disposition, its continuation will not so much depend upon the patronage that may be given to it as upon their own humours and caprices. It is, as Johnson says of its title--'Trangram--an odd, intricately-contrived thing,' and, therefore, in its appearance will be as irregular in its size or proportions as unequal, and in its pecuniary value as unstated, though always as reasonable, as any other oddly-contrived thing ever was, or is, or ought to be." The publisher, George Blake, was a Yorkshireman and a music dealer in South Fifth Street. He told William Duane that the editors were Mordecai M. Noah, Alexander F. Coxe, a son of Tench Coxe, and in 1814 a member of the bar, and a third person "whose name he seemed unwilling to mention" (Duane). Only three numbers were printed, the triple team quarrelled, and the publication ceased.

Mordecai Noah was born in Philadelphia, July 14, 1785. After his removal to New York, about 1816, he became the owner or editor of a number of magazines and newspapers.

The _Trangram_ is full of local gossip and scandal cleverly concealed. Andrew Hamilton figures in it as "Dapper Dumpling." J. N. Barker, the author of "Superstition," is "Billy Mushroom." Joseph Dennie is nicknamed "Oliver Crank." William Warren is dubbed "the tun-bellied manager."

The account of a walk through the city streets ends with "the description of the defence of his friend would doubtless have continued until we reached the end of our journey had we not by this time arrived, where mathematicians never could arrive, at the Square Circle,"--that is, at Centre Square, Broad and Market Streets.

The third number, February 1, 1810, contains accounts of "Jeremy Corsica" (Jerome Bonaparte) and his visit to Philadelphia, and to "Bangilore" (Baltimore), and his acquaintance with Miss "Cornelia Pattypan," or Patterson.

The _Beacon, erected and supported by Lucidantus and his Thirteen Friends_, was published by W. Brown, and began its course Wednesday, Nov. 27, 1811. It aimed to surpass _The Spirit of the Reviews_, the _Dramatic Censor_ and the _Port Folio_, but it is believed to have made only two numbers. The purpose of the magazine was defined in the second number, December 11, 1811: "We propose to develop to our readers the machinery and composition of our Philadelphia Society."

The _Luncheon_ was a monthly satirical paper "boiled for people about six feet high by Simon Pure." Its first appearance was in July, 1815. The second number contained an abusive article upon William McCorkle. In January, 1816, Lewis P. Franks, the editor of the _Luncheon_, confessed himself the author of the libel and declared that the alleged biography of McCorkle was false, and that the journal would be discontinued.

The _Independent Balance_ was published weekly by "Democritus the Younger, a lineal descendant of the Laughing Philosopher." It was established, March 20, 1817, by George Helmbold, the first editor of the _Tickler_ and late of the United States Army.

The second volume had a vignette of a sportsman shooting a bird, with the motto:

"Whene'er we court the tuneful nine, Or plainer prose suits our design, Then fools may sneer and critics frown At every corner of the town,-- Condemn our paper or commend; One aim is ours, our chiefest end: With well-poised gun and surest eyes To shoot at Folly as it flies."

Helmbold died in Philadelphia, December 28, 1821. The magazine, after passing through several hands, finally became the property of L. P. Franks, who published it at "No. 1 Paradise Alley, back of 171 Market Street, between Fourth and Fifth Streets." At this time it was edited by "Simon Spunkey, Esq., duly commissioned and sworn regulator, weigh-master and Inspector General." Its motto proclaimed its purpose to anatomize the wise man's folly as plain as way to parish church:

"I claim as large a charter as the wind To blow on whom I please."

The _Critic_, by Geoffrey Juvenile, Esq., No. 1, January 29, 1820.

Every number of the _Critic_ contains some quip or satire at the expense of James Kirke Paulding, and his "Backwoodsman" is particularly levelled at. Paulding is dubbed "The Cabbage Bard," and the caustic reviewer proceeds to write: "We _had_ a Dennie and a Clifton, yet the classical elegance of the one has not availed to preserve his countrymen from being intoxicated by the quaintness and affectation of the Salmagundi school, and the purity and wit of the other have as little proved powerful to save his work from being deserted for the bathos and silliness of the 'Backwoodsman.' I remember them both. In private life they united qualities which are seldom found together, brilliancy of conversation and modesty of deportment. In their writings they were chaste without being tame, and elevated without being extravagant. Alas! I little thought to have lived until their light should be hidden by a cloud of delirious bats who had left their native obscurity and madly rushed to uncongenial day, vermin which are likely to be of direful omen to our country unless the land be speedily cleansed of them."

The greatness of Philadelphia is the inspiration and the pride of the _Critic_. "Having often heard Philadelphia called the 'Athens of the United States,' 'the birthplace of American literature,' I was naturally delighted at the prospect of a visit to so celebrated a city" (p. 14). And again: "Philadelphia with all its faults and follies is, in a literary and scientific point of view, the first city of the Empire" (p. 20). The _Critic_ fired its last arrow May 10, 1820.

Dennie's _Port Folio_ continued to be the admiration and the despair of contemporary editors and authors. In 1821 appeared the _Post-Chaise Companion or Magazine of Wit_. By Carlo Convivio Socio, Junior Fellow of the Royal Academy of Humorists. It was begun in January, 1821, and was issued from 15 North Front Street. In its first "leader" it deprecated comparison with the favorites of the hour: "With the venerable Mr. Oldschool, who for almost twenty years has delighted or instructed the 'mind of desultory man,' I would not presume to enter into a competition, still less should it be provoked with the profound labours of the editor of the _Analectic Magazine_ and his host of 'the most eminent literary men' who promised to eclipse the dissertations of the famous Northern lights" (p. 3).

The little paper contains a long article on Mr. Kean's acting (pages 37-51).

The _Philadelphia Medical Museum_ was conducted by John Redman Coxe for five years, from 1805 to 1810, and was published by A. Bartram.

The _Eye_, by Obadiah Optic, was published every Thursday by John W. Scott, from January to December, 1808, at three dollars a year. It was filled with odd, historical and alliterative articles.

The _Philadelphia Repertory_, a weekly literary journal, was published in 1810 by Dennis Hart.

The _Eclectic Repertory and Analytic Review, Medical and Philosophical_, was commenced in October, 1811, and continued until October, 1820. It was published quarterly, and edited by an association of physicians, and published by T. Dobson and Son.

It was continued in January, 1821, as the _Journal of Foreign Medical Science and Literature_, conducted by S. Emlen, Jr., and William Price, and published by Eliakim Littell. It finally ceased October, 1824.

The _Freemason's Magazine and General Miscellany_ was published from 1810-1812 (?). It was edited by George Richards, a school-master and clergyman of the Revolution. He was the author of "An Historical Discourse on the Death of General Washington" (Portsmouth, 1800), and of a number of patriotic poems of the Revolution.

ROBERT WALSH began, in 1811, the publication of the first quarterly that was issued in the United States. It was the _American Review of History, of Politics, and General Repository of Literature and State Papers_, and was published for two years, in four volumes, by Farrand and Nichols.

Walsh was born in Baltimore in 1784. He was educated in Catholic schools in Baltimore, and at the Jesuit College at Georgetown. While at college, in 1796, he delivered a political address before General Washington. He began the practice of law in Philadelphia. In 1817-18 he edited the _American Register_.

The _National Gazette_, a daily newspaper, was established by him in Philadelphia in 1819, and his connection with it did not cease until he sold it, in 1836, to William Fry.

The _Philadelphia Register_ had been a weekly paper, the title of which was changed, in 1819, to the _National Recorder_. It was founded in 1818 by E. Littell and S. Norris Henry. In July, 1821, it changed its name for the second time, and became the _Saturday Magazine_. De Quincey's "Confessions of an English Opium Eater" and the essays of Charles Lamb were published for the first time in America in the pages of the _Saturday Magazine_. In the following year (1822) the magazine became a monthly publication, and was called the _Museum of Foreign Literature and Science_. In this year (1822) it was edited by Robert Walsh. Toward the close of 1823 the proprietor gave notice that Mr. Walsh was no longer connected with the _Museum_. It was then conducted by Eliakim and Squier Littell. In 1843 the publication office was removed to New York, and the magazine was called the _Eclectic Museum of Foreign Literature and Science_. Littell had no connection with the magazine in this phase of its history. He went to Boston, and in 1844 established _Littell's Living Age_, of which he remained the proprietor until his death, May 17, 1870.

After retiring from the editorial chair of the _Museum_, Walsh successfully resuscitated the _American Quarterly Review_, which he published from March, 1827, to 1837.

The _Review_ was published by Carey, Lea and Carey. It appeared in March, June, September and December. Each number contained two hundred and fifty pages, and the subscription price was five dollars per annum. Some of Walsh's original works had met with approval in England. His "Letter on the Genius and Disposition of the French Government" passed through four editions in England, and was commended by Lord Jeffrey in the _Edinburgh Review_ (Vol. XVI, p. 1). The _American Quarterly Review_ did not share the same happy fate. The _Monthly Review_ said of it, "It is as dull a work of the kind as any that we know of. It is heavier even than the _Westminster_ when burthened by the lucubrations of Jeremy Bentham." Neal, in _Blackwood's_ (XVI, 634), sarcastically styled Walsh "The Jupiter of the American Olympus."

Walsh was United States Consul at Paris from 1845-1851, and remained in France until his death, February 7, 1859.

Joseph Delaplaine, in April, 1812, respectfully solicited the patronage of the public to the _Emporium of Arts and Sciences_, "conducted by John Redman Coxe, M.D., professor of chemistry in the University of Pennsylvania." The magazine was published monthly, beginning in May, 1812. It made three volumes, but two volumes only were published in Philadelphia. The second volume was conducted by Thomas Cooper, who, in 1813, removed the magazine to Carlisle, Pennsylvania, where it was printed by Kimber and Richardson.

The _Religious Remembrancer_ was begun by John Welwood Scott on the 4th of September, 1813. It was the first religious weekly published in the United States, and was three years in advance of Willis's _Boston Recorder_.

Two children's papers publishing about this time were: the _Juvenile Magazine--Religious, Moral, and Entertaining Pieces in Prose and Verse_, "compiled by Arthur Donaldson," Philadelphia, 1811, published monthly, twelve and a half cents per number. The _Juvenile Port Folio_, a weekly miscellany, was published by Thomas G. Condie, Jr., 22 Carter's Alley, in 1813.

A French weekly was started in 1815, _L'Abeille Americaine, Journal Historique, Politique, et Litteraire a Philadelphie_, A. J. Blocquerst, 130 South Fifth Street. Matthew Carey took subscriptions for the work, which continued several years.

The _Parterre: by a Trio_ (Cora and Charles Chandler), 1816, printed by Probasco and Justice, 350 North Second Street. This worthless little weekly was begun June 15, 1816, and ended June 28, 1817.

The _American Register, or Summary Review of History, Politics and Literature_--Phila.: Thos. Dobson, 1817-1818--made two volumes.

The _American Medical Recorder_ appeared in 1818, supported by a number of physicians. It was a quarterly publication. The title was changed in 1824 to the _Medical Recorder of Original Papers and Intelligence on Medicine and Surgery_. It was merged in 1829 into the _American Journal of the American Sciences_.

The _Ladies' and Gentlemen's Weekly Literary Museum and Musical Magazine_ was a weekly publication begun, January 1, 1819, by H. C. Lewis, No. 164 South Eleventh Street.

Washington Irving's first literary adventure was the publication of _Salmagundi_. It was begun in New York, January 14, 1807, by Irving and James Kirke Paulding. The origin of the venture is not quite clear, but it was an outcome of the alert and gay society in New York, of which Brevoort and Paulding and the Irvings were conspicuous members.

Mr. Paulding said of the enterprise, "It was when fairly initiated into the mysteries of the town that Washington Irving and myself commenced the publication of _Salmagundi_, an irregular issue, the object of which was to ridicule the follies and foibles of the fashionable world. Though we had not anticipated anything beyond a local circulation, the work soon took a wider sphere; gradually extended throughout the United States, and acquired great popularity. It was, I believe, the first of its kind in this country; produced numerous similar publications, none of which, however, extended beyond a few numbers and formed somewhat of an era in our literature. It reached two volumes, and we could easily have continued it indefinitely, but the publisher, with that liberality so characteristic of these modern Mæcenases, declined to concede to us a share of the profits, which had become considerable, and the work was abruptly discontinued. It was one of those productions of youth that wise men--or those who think themselves wise--are very apt to be ashamed of when they grow old."

In 1819 Paulding attempted to revive _Salmagundi_, and a "second series" was published fortnightly in Philadelphia, 108 Chestnut Street, by Moses Thomas, from May 30, 1819, to August 19, 1820. Evert A. Duyckinck, in his preface to the latest issue of the first series, writes, "Some ten years or more after the conclusion of _Salmagundi_, Paulding ventured alone upon a second series. Washington Irving was in Europe, and the muse of Pindar Cockloft was silent. It was a dangerous undertaking, for the very essence of a _Salmagundi_ is the combination of choice ingredients--a product of many minds.... Yet it contains many delightful pages."

The publication is referred to by Paulding in a letter to Washington Irving, January 20, 1820: "I must now make two or three explanations concerning myself and proceedings. Hearing last winter from William Irving that you had finally declined coming home, and finding my leisure time a little heavy, I set to work and prepared several numbers of a continuation of our old joint production. At that time and subsequently, until Gouverneur Kemble brought your first number [of the Sketch Book] down to Washington with him, I was entirely ignorant that you contemplated anything of the kind. But for an accidental delay my first number would have got the start of yours. As it happened, however, it had the appearance of taking the field against you, a thing which neither my head nor heart will sanction. I believe my work has not done you any harm in the way of rivalship, for it has been soundly abused by many persons and compared with the first part with many degrading expressions. It has sold tolerably, but I shall discontinue it shortly, as I begin to grow tired, and I believe the public has got the start of me. It was owing to Moses that I did not commence an entire new work."

The reputation of the periodical in Fashion's choicest circle is hinted at in Halleck's "Fanny:"

"And though by no means a _bas bleu_, she had For literature a most becoming passion; Had skimm'd the latest novels, good and bad, And read the Croakers, when they were in fashion; And Dr. Chalmers' Sermons, of a Sunday; And Wordsworth's Cabinet, and _the new Salmagundi_."

In closing his introduction to the new series, Paulding alluded gracefully and affectionately to his tried and generous friend and former fellow-worker, Washington Irving. "The reader will not fail of hearing, in good time, all about the worthy Cockloft family; the learned Jeremy, and the young ladies who are still young in spite of the lapse of ten years and more. Above a dozen years are past since we first introduced these excellent souls to our readers, and in that time many a gentle tie has been broken, and many friends separated, some of them forever. Among those we most loved and admired, we have to regret the long absence of one who was aye the delight of his friends, and who, if he were with us, would add such charms of wit and gayety to this little work that the young and the aged would pore over it with equal delight."

The Protestant Episcopal Church established the _Episcopal Magazine_ in January, 1820. It was conducted by Rev. C. H. Wharton and Rev. George Boyd. The former editor, Charles Henry Wharton, was born in St. Mary's County, Maryland, June 5, 1748. Notley Hall, the family estate, was presented to the family by Lord Baltimore. Wharton was educated in Jesuit schools and ordained a deacon and a priest of the Roman Catholic Church. In the last years of the Revolution he was chaplain to the Roman Catholics in Worcester, England, to whom, in 1784, after joining the Church of England, he addressed his celebrated "Letter." He was a member of the American Philosophical Society, and for a short time President of Columbia College. In 1813-14 he was co-editor with Dr. Abercrombie of the _Quarterly Theological Magazine and Religious Repository_.

The _Episcopal Magazine_ was published by S. Potter & Co. and printed by J. Maxwell.

The _Rural Magazine and Literary Evening Fireside_, a monthly publication by Richards and Caleb Johnson, was begun in January, 1820. Its purpose was to give correct views of the science of agriculture. It also contained articles on slavery, a sketch of Benezet, etc. But the farmers were not inclined to write out their ideas of agriculture, and the bucolic journal, after binding its monthly sheaves into a single volume, asked its own _congé_.

Nathaniel Chapman was the only begetter of the _American Journal of the Medical Sciences_, which, in its seventy years of history, has known the touch of so many skilful editorial hands. Chapman issued it as a quarterly from the publishing house of M. Carey and Son. It was then called the _Philadelphia Journal of the Medical Sciences_.