Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 11.djvu/538

 $22 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

In securing contributions from American authors of estab- lished reputation the Current was more successful. James B Cable, with " Southern Silhouettes," James Whitcomb Riley, and Joaquin E. Miller were among the contributors. In its early career the Current was reported to have $100,000.00 worth of excellent manuscripts pigeon-holed. From the first, however. Chicago men were important contributors. Eugene Field, Ernest McGaffey, Colonel William Lightfoot Visscher, and John Mc- Govern were among them. Field played with the pretentions of the editor of the Current in the report of a "Convention of West- ern Writers" at Indianapolis,, where he said literary workers would be asked : "But have you never written anything for the Current? He remarked that the implication was: "If you have, you must be all right.

In 1885 Mr. John McGovern, a vivid imaginative writer, who honestly believes that the "West is in literary rebellion against the East," and that " General McClurg's chief office was to command a literary blockhouse and keep down the Indians of the frontier," became editor of the Current. The periodical became an avowed exponent of the literary interest of the people in Chicago and the West, and their support was asked. As an experiment to see if such support could not be secured, in 1885 a beautiful Easter edition was prepared. With the enterprise backed by Mr. George Wiggs, a member of the Board of Trade interested in the patronage of local letters, 100,000 copies, four times the normal number, were printed. The paper bill alone was $3,000. But the bulk of the issue went to the ragman.

Under Mr. Wakeman's administration the circulation and advertising had been sufficient to give promise of success. With the magnetism of enthusiasm, Mr. Wakeman had interested able financial supporters. But by the end of his second year the finances were in a tangle. Mrs. Starrett, who characterizes the Current as "a flash in the pan," says that Mr. Wakeman pro- posed to sell the Current to the owners of the Weekly Magazine, which had grown in metropolitan character and was continued until 1884. The proposition was rejected. Mr. Wakeman left town. The Current, embarrassed financially and narrowed to