Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 11.djvu/408

 392 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

Mechanics' Institute was an organization for night study, which brought lyceum lecturers to the city and established a library. One object in founding the magazine was to secure exchanges for this library gratis. The serious money panic of 1857 in Chicago embarrassed the institute, and further hurt the magazine's circu- lation. In John Gager & Co., publishers of maps, the magazine had able business managers. Zebina Eastman, the editor, was a distinguished lawyer as well as writer. But he was a prominent abolitionist; and his interest in political affairs may have taken some energy from his literary efforts.

An outside passage on " the world's literary omnibus " was all they asked in March. In April they announced that the magazine had conquered for itself a place in the literary omnibus. The May and June numbers were late in coming out. The July number was omitted. The August number was the fifth and last. Andreas, the historian of Chicago, says the failure was a great loss to the literary interests of the city.

The last of the prairie-day periodicals were brought out under the editorship of James Grant Wilson, then a young pioneer mak- ing his literary debut at Chicago; now, in 1905, with more than three-score years and ten to his credit, a conspicuous figure in the Authors' Club, Century Association, and other circles of literary men at New York. He was the editor of two literary periodicals which closed the pioneer period. With a literary bent inherited from his father, a poet-publisher, and an educational equipment secured at College Hill, Poughkeepsie, Mr. Wilson took Horace Greeley's advice to young men, and came west in 1857. Andreas in his History of Chicago, 1884, says, on p. 411 of Vol. I : "In March, 1857, James Grant Wilson, editor (Carney and Wilson, publishers), began the publication of a monthly magazine desig- nated the Chicago Examiner, devoted to literature, general and church matters." In a letter written October 9, 1905, Mr. Wilson informs us that this is an error, saying: "The title Chicago Examiner is new to me, and I think no paper or periodical could have appeared at that period without my knowledge."

In April, 1857, however, Mr. Wilson, as sole editor and pro- prietor, founded a rather enduring journal, the Chicago Record.