Behold us, then, in January; and let your tardy praise step up and do us justice. Is it supposable, or allowable, that with the high position we have attained, others starting from the ground—groundlings as they are—are to split the ears of night uninterruptedly with the senseless jargon of their own praise? When all around us, above and below, we hear the united voices of men, loud, uninterrupted, unanimous in our behalf, shouting out and proclaiming the treason and the folly.
Why, my dear Jeremy, what are the paid puffs—what the puffs solicited by printed circulars—and self-praise thrust upon the timid, to us?—when every mail from old post-towns, and old friends, and from new, brings renewed and additional pledges of the fast hold that “Graham” and his friends have upon each other. Why, in other words, should we fear the vain-glorious boasts that ring in the ears only of the dupes who are deceived by appearances? And if we arouse once in a while, and show our strength, it is but as the lion, to shake the flies from his sides, and to take his own repose securely in defiance.
Look at the present number with which we start the volume for the new year; has not every thing that the artistic skill of engravers could attain—all that the best pens of the country could accomplish, been done for “Graham?” We venture to say that no periodical, that is issued from the press for this month—for any month—will at all approach it in the real beauty and general excellence of its appointments. It is a gem! and a gem far above the ordinary taste of our imitators. Look, if you please, at the skill of Mr. Tucker, as evinced in the leading embellishment (both in design and execution!)—how far is it not above all that is presented elsewhere? Look again at the fine skill evinced in all the engravings of the number! at the exquisite coloring and the beauty of our Fashion-plate and Birds! and tell me, honestly, is there any thing in the tawdry and gaudy coloring of our contemporaries to be spoken of in comparison?
The year that has just closed, although one of great competition, has proven the hold that a long and uniform management of this Magazine has given it upon the American readers. It has not been, nor will ever be, conducted with a fit and flash policy—one year bad, the next good; alternating by neglect or caprice—but ever the same, through all its years, a dignified, sterling, illustrated work, worthy at all times, and in every number, of marked approval and regard.
The truth—or the wisdom—of our course, has been made manifest to us, during the past ten years, by the steady increase and permanent position of Graham’s Magazine; while its would-be rivals are fluctuating between small and large editions, or are dying out around it. We may safely say that we have never yet felt that this Magazine has had a rival in the line it has marked out. Others differ from it in the flippancy of their tone and flimsiness of material or character, or are as solemn as a death’s bell, while the engravings which adorn them are as out of place as flowers over the head of the dead.
Graham’s has always—so says public approval—hit the happy medium between lightness and the more solid and useful; and keeping always in mind the importance of a national tone, has touched the right chord in the temper of the nation, and established itself as the most popular American Magazine of the graceful and elegant class to which it gives tone, and which it has thus far sustained.
Our past year has been one of most unexampled success—yet we have made no boisterous announcements of it—for success with us is no novelty. Our readers must pardon us if we do not grow frantic upon the accession of a few thousand new subscribers, for the novelty of the feeling has been worn off by the constant and continued inducement to its exercise: it has become a matter of course, because we do our duty by our readers always—and on the constantly increasing reading population of this country, our drafts on at least one-third of them, are regularly honored with each recurring year.
But for the year 1850, we have consummated such arrangements with artists and writers, that we really feel not only proud, but inclined to boast in anticipation, and as a great deal will be said by others as to the splendor of their intentions toward their readers, we hereby throw down the challenge and ask them to equal Graham’s Magazine, in the elegance of its engravings, the high character of its literary matter, the extreme beauty of its fashions, and the high finish of the novelties in the way of decorations, which Mr. Tucker is getting up for us in Europe—if they can. They are forewarned—yet they will be shamefully distanced!
You will pardon me, my dear Jeremy, for this seeming egotism, but really, there has been so much disposition shown to set up an overawing shout over “Graham,” by those who should know better, that I have felt it worth while to say EXCELSIOR! over this number, if only to stop the mouths of the deceived and the envious. Hereafter, let no enthusiastic recipient of a thousand subscriptions set up his shout of defiance, for we dislike to bear down ALL opposition.
There is, Jeremy, a vast deal of angling with magazines at this season, and the baits thrown out are of every imaginable kind—and so that the poor fish is hooked, no matter how, he is remorselessly placed in the basket, and the exploit considered dexterous. The false flies upon the waters are numerous, and very prettily do they look too, and yet it does not strike the anglers, that he is a silly fish who dashes more than once at a bait through which he has been wounded. To be explicit—does any man suppose that thousands of people—silly as we all are—can all be gulled a second time? Or to be more explicit and distinct—that in a true magazine, something more is not wanted than flashy engravings, prosy sermons, and monthly vain boasting. There is such a thing as a literary Magazine of high merit—and is there not such a thing as fishing with a pin-hook for people who understand what such a Magazine is? What think you?