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in the outset of periodicals aspiring to general popularity and patronage.
Ours is not blazoned through the land as,
The Cheapest Periodical in the World, “. ” The Largest Paper ever Published, “ or any of the captivating clap-traps wherewith enterprising gentlemen, possessed of a convenient stock of assurance, are wont to usher in their successive experiments on the gullibility of the Public.
No likenesses of eminent and favorite authors will embellish our title, while they disdain to write for our columns.
No ” distinguished literary and fashionable characters' have been dragged in to bolster up a rigmarole of preposterous and charlatan pretensions.
And indeed so serious is this deficiency, that the first (we may say the only) objection which has been started by our most judicious friends in the discussion of our plans and prospects, has invariably been this:— “You do not indulge sufficiently in high-sounding pretensions.
You cannot succeed without
humbug.”
Our answer has constantly been:— “
We shall try,” and in the spirit of this determination, we respectfully solicit of our fellow-citizens the extension of that share of patronage which they shall deem warranted by our performances rather than our promises.”
The public took the New Yorker at its word.
The second number had a sale of nearly two hundred copies, and for three months, the increase averaged a hundred copies a week.
In September, the circulation was 2,500; and the second volume began with 4,500.
During the first year , three hundred papers gave the New Yorker a eulogistic notice.
The editor became, at once, a person known and valued throughout the
Union.
He enjoyed his position thoroughly, and he labored not more truly with all his might, than with all his heart.
The spirit in which he performed his duties, and the glee with which he entered into the comicalities of editorial life, cannot be more agreeably shown than by transcribing his own account of a Scene which was enacted in the office of the New Yorker, soon after its establishment.
The article was entitled “Editorial luxuries.”
We love not the ways of that numerous class of malcontents who are perpetually finding fault with their vocation, and endeavoring to prove themselves the most miserable dogs in existence.
If they really think so, why under the sun do they not abandon their present evil ways and endeavor to hit upon something more endurable?
Nor do we not deem these grumblers more plentiful among the brethren of the quill than in other professions, simply because the groanings uttered through the press are more widely circulated
