428 



LESLIE, FKANK. 



lantic cable; the assassination of President 

 Lincoln and other salient points of the late civil 

 war ; the Chicago and Boston conflagrations ; 

 and the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia. 



In 1865 Mr. Leslie started the u Chimney 

 Corner," the editing of which he intrusted to 

 his second wife. He married her after his sep- 

 aration from the first had been legally effected ; 

 she also having previously been divorced from 

 her husband, E. G. Squier, the arcba3ologist. 

 To her he assigned likewise the editing of the 

 " Lady's Magazine," a continuation and enlarge- 

 ment of the " Gazette of Fashion," the first of 

 his publications in order of time. 



To these he then added in rapid succession the 

 " Boys and Girls' Weekly "; " Pleasant Hours "; 

 the "Lady's Journal," edited also by Mrs. Les- 

 lie; the "Popular Monthly"; the "Sunday 

 Magazine"; the "Budget of Wit and Chatter- 

 box"; and "Die illustrirte Zeitung," in Ger- 

 man. 



Such novels as from time to time appeared 

 in the columns of his periodicals he published 

 in book form at their conclusion. 



From these various publications, which proved 

 generally profitable, Mr. Leslie gathered a great 

 deal of money. From the " Chimney Corner " 

 alone he is said to have cleared fifty thousand 

 dollars in one year. The late civil war be- 

 tween North and South was to him a field 

 of most abundant harvest, the circulation of 

 his papers, chiefly the illustrated ones, having 

 during that time exceedingly increased. A 

 large portion of the money thus amassed he 

 converted into houses and other immovable 

 property, within the city and outside. 



Occasionally, however, he sustained consid- 

 erable losses, and more than once his financial 

 condition was not a little embarrassed. He 

 may, indeed, be said to have died in that con- 

 dition. 



In 1857, three years after he had commenced 

 as a publisher, the state of his affairs was such 

 that he should have stopped business but that 

 his creditors granted him an extension of time 

 for payment, during which respite he managed 

 matters so well as to set himself on a firm foot- 

 ing again. 



More seriously embarrassed were his affairs 

 in 1877, when he was forced to surrender his 

 property into the hands of a receiver, judicially 

 appointed in the interest of his creditors. By 

 an agreement which the parties concerned en- 

 tered into at this time, the creditors retained 

 Mr. Leslie as general manager of his publish- 

 ing business, allowing him twenty per cent, of 

 the profits for his use, which arrangement 

 proved beneficial in its results, as, partly by a 

 material reduction made in the running ex- 

 penses of the establishment, and partly by the 

 savings obtained from other details in conduct- 

 ing ^ it, above a million dollars of Mr. Leslie's 

 liabilities were, in a short time, cleared away. 

 In April, 1879, he also judicially recovered a 

 large proportion of his business. 



One of his heaviest losses was of very recent 



date the publication of the " Historical Eeg- 

 ister of the Centennial Exhibition," in one 

 volume, and it was caused by his eagerness in 

 doing well what he had undertaken. This 

 magnificent volume embodies a statement and 

 discriminating record of the industrial compe- 

 tition of almost all the peoples on earth friendly 

 assembled together, and represented, each by 

 its own native deputies, at Philadelphia in 

 1876, the most noteworthy details of the exhi- 

 bition being also illustrated through the entire 

 volume in the best style of art Frank Leslie 

 could command. The work was finished and 

 published at an immense outlay of money ; but, 

 while, on account of contents and manner of 

 execution, it is both valuable in itself and 

 most creditable to the publisher, it proved a 

 complete loss to him. It also involved him in 

 a number of unpleasant lawsuits with his 

 Philadelphia agents. 



The public's appreciation of Frank Leslie in 

 his chosen field of action was apparently such, 

 besides the generally widespread reputation of 

 his name, as must have gratified his sensibilities. 

 In 1848, the year of his first arrival in this 

 country, the American Institute of New York 

 awarded to him the medal for wood engraving. 

 In 1867, the State of New York appointed him 

 her Commissioner for the Fine Arts Depart- 

 ment to the Universal Exhibition held that 

 year in the French capital; and at the close 

 of it the Emperor Napoleon III personally 

 presented him with the prize gold medal. 

 Again, in 1876, the State of New York se- 

 lected him as her Commissioner to the Cen- 

 tennial Exhibition at Philadelphia, and his 

 brother commissioners from the other States 

 elected him president. 



His standing in life's social relations with his 

 fellow-citizens may appear from the fact that 

 he had his family residence on Fifth Avenue, 

 the most fashionable and costly location for 

 private dwellings in the city, and was a mem- 

 ber of the Manhattan and Jockey Clubs, neither 

 of which admits persons into membership but 

 such as hold a certain height of respectability 

 in the public's eye. He was also a mason, and 

 belonged to the so-called aristocratic Holland 

 Lodge. 



His hospitality was accounted boundless 

 for the manner in which he entertained his 

 friends and visitors at home, and the fetes he 

 gave at his rural residence, situate about mid- 

 way between Saratoga and Lonely Lake, ac- 

 quired for him a world- wide celebrity. Mr. 

 Leslie passed much of his time at this resi- 

 dence, called from its location " Interlaken," 

 and surrounded by an estate of six hundred 

 acres of land. 



A very commendable trait of Frank Leslie's 

 character appears in the relations lie held with 

 his employees, who numbered for some time 

 more than three hundred, the amount of money 

 paid them for their work exceeding six thou- 

 sand dollars weekly. He was beloved by them 

 all, and deservedly, as the manner in which 





