An Old Magazine

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 129, 3 June 1933, Page 19

An Old Magazine

"The result ot somebody's spring cleaning was a loosely tied anil bulky pile of magazines, all pretty old, which came to the jumble sale, but could find no purchasers at any price. "When it was over I began idly to look through tho pile" (states a writer to the "Manchester Guardian"). "It would have been surprising, if any had been sold, for they wore indeed a dirty and tattered collection, moral and improving for the most part. But in the middle of tho pile there was one magazine—a jewel amid a heap of dross— which was much more than worth the penny I paid for it. It was a clean copy'of the 'Strand's' hundredth number. • ■ "In 1899 a large number of eminent people were writing for the 'Strand,' and all of them had a characteristic story in its centenary number. It began with Couan Doyle's 'Story of the Latin Tutor,' and then continued with some, charming letters of Buruo Jones to a little girl, profusely illustrated with his sketches. There was aW. W. Jacobs 'Night Watchman' story and also an instalment of one of tho best children's books «ver written, E. Nesbit's 'The Seven Dragons.' Tho magazine in those days had too a pleasing interest in science and in curiosities of contemporary history. The powers of liquid air were vividly lsdescribed by Bay Stannard Baker, and a good many pages wore devoted to a reproduction of the more jingoistic political cartoon of 'Punch,' while 'the rear of a brilliant number was brought up by Toby, M.P., 'From Behind the Speaker's Chair.' NOT MUCH CHANGE. "Wo are fond,of talking of the 1890's as belonging to another and an almost prehistoric ago. The advertisements of a good magazine of 1899, which are, in a sense, a mirror of much that goes to make .up a civilisation, would suggest that the changes have been less devastating' than we sometimes think. A good third of the advertisement pages were devoted to commodities and trading names which appear with regularity in the magazines of today. Except for superficial changes, like those in women's clothes, the typical layout of an advertisement is not strikingly different. Today we are able to use all sorts of colours to commend our goods in print, and then printing had n.ot achieved the same technical perfection. But advertisements were strident. They made a plentiful use of .pictures, and they appealed to "the! ."same fundamental instincts of sex and fear and self-display. We groan sometimes about the modern lack of retie'e'nee. and dignity when %ye so frequently see distinguished people allowing their names to be used in commendation of beauty creams and patent medicines, but they were doing it then. A celebrated Anglican Abbot says that somebody's tonic 'has been very much blessed by God to the Brother for whom it was ordered,' and a famous journalist tells us' that his 'family doctor frequently prescribes it as ono of the1 best tonics, he.can give.,',, : Nor did advertisers' disdain tho free gift, A 'Library Blotting Book,' a dictionary 'of 15,000 words,' and' an atlas, 'the whole bound together in an elegant and; artistic cardboard cover,' are offered as inducements to use a certain toilet soap. A RICH PENNYWORTH. "There are indeed differences between the advertisements in the magazine of 1899 and today, but it was left to our small daughter of eighteen months to find tho chief ono. "Sho commandeers every .magazine she can find and immediately searches for pictures of babies. Finding one, she hoots with delight, and insists on showing one. to everyone in the room. Experience has taught her that the advertisement pages form much the most ■#jui.t£ul ground for her hunting, for there seems to be a terrific competi'tldn between vendors of patent milks and babies' clothing. It is certainly Wufo that in a modern magazine all the best baby pictures are to be found among tho advertisements, and this is 'a matter on which I now speak with authority. This elderly magazine swam into her ken, and sho pounced! on it as eagerly as the others. But however carefully she hunted hardly a baby could she find, 'and,s ihsistiiig that we too should look, we found the search equally unrewarding, There were few babies, and those there, were so much, enwrapped with clothes that they were scarcely recognisable. ; ' !. "So for hpr my penny was Wasted, but for myself I think it was a: good investment. Conan' Doyle, Toby, M.P., W. W,. Jacobs, E. Nesbit, H. G; Wells —it is not often that one can command such a galaxy for the sum of one Xienny." . . l\