148 SECRET MEMORANDUMS. 



so far as to say so in his second note ! merely expecting "the same 

 terms !" This does not at all suit their arrangements ; but it is ex- 

 ceedingly difficult to get rid of him. Month after month he per- 

 severes, until the tenour of his note to the editor, by melancholy gra- 

 dations, returns to his pristine humility ; and after this he gives it up. 

 He is heard of no more ; unless perhaps by an abortive last effort six 

 months after, in the vain hope of his hand and style not being recog- 

 nized. A man may easily meet with a rebuff by presuming too much 

 upon his popularity ; but when you are reduced to build upon your 

 obscurity, it is generally a lost case indeed. It is not unlike those 

 cunning folks who anticipate a large prize in the lottery, chiefly be- 

 cause they keep it a profound secret that they have bought a six- 

 teenth. 



But, besides all these difficulties attending the luckless being who 

 wishes " to start" as a periodical writer, there is another most im- 

 portant one inherent in the individual nature of these luminaries of 

 the month. It stares you in the face as a very simple fact when you 

 know it ; but, whether other writers have been equally slow, or that 

 Bradshaw Ellworthy was the stupidest of men, it is very certain that, 

 having no advisers, he was a long time in making the discovery. 

 And this is the self-evident truth which, directly I have uttered it, 

 will probably subject me to the laughter of all writers even of those 

 who never knew it before. That article which is just the thing for a 

 certain magazine, will be the last, for that very reason, which will 

 suit any other ! It is almost the same, even with newspapers. Now, 

 all young gentlemen, you can understand, not only why your ad- 

 mirable article was declined by the periodical you first sent it to, but 

 also why it ran the gauntlet through all the rest, and finally returned 

 to you, ragged, dirty, and blotted with black and red ink the natural 

 wounds and disfigurements of so arduous a campaign ! 



The introduction of so much politics, as we at present find in most 

 of the magazines, is a downright abomination. The progress of the 

 social machine has induced it ; but the mark has been over-shot, and 

 hence, as I believe, the decrease in sale of many of these periodicals. 

 After some forty thousand newspapers (: crammed with politics" being 

 inflicted upon us daily, the public want something very different at 

 the end of the month. The heads of the family may have no great 

 objection perhaps ; but all the other branches who have a large and 

 persevering influence, crave for general literature and amusement. 

 And this was the opinion that was acted on when I first became a 

 contributor. Woeful have been the consequences to the circulation 

 of many, by their over-doing the degree of change that was requisite. 

 Each magazine, however, has always had its peculiar tone of politics, 

 and to make this pervade it directly or indirectly throughout, con- 

 stitutes one of the chief cares of its conductor. To write an article, 

 therefore, upon any subject which shall exactly chime in with all the 

 principles and peculiarities of any given periodical, requires an eye 

 like that of the editor himself. Nor is this the only difficulty ; for 

 every editor has his peculiar idiosyncrasy as well as his magazine. 

 Each periodical has its own particular channel ; and to know exactly 

 what sort of cargo, amount of tonmige, and number of guns, will sail 



