Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 11.djvu/828

 812 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

1898 by a printer named John Carter, who came to Chicago from Streator, 111. An advertisement of Carter's Monthly, ap- pearing in Arts for America, announced one policy in keeping with a trend in publishing during the World's Columbian Expo- sition decade; namely, that the magazine would contain repro- ductions of 192 paintings by famous masters. Opie Read per- mitted the use of his name as editor. A serial by John McGovern was extensively advertised. Within a few months, however. Carter dropped the stories and devoted the bulk of his space to laudatory articles concerning some of the department stores. Mr. Read says that he then endeavored to have his name re- moved from the head of the page containing the table of con- tents in the periodical, but in vain. By the end of a year, however, the local write-ups had brought Carter's Monthly to a deserved death.

Literary efforts and temperance news were used in con- coction of an oddity among the periodicals put out at Chicago in the nineties. This queer paper was named the Banner of Gold. It was started with the support of several of the "old guard" of literary newspaper men belonging to the Press Club "good fellows" who in more ways than that of writing had un- fortunately followed the example of "Bobbie" Burns. Having been at Dwight, 111., under the care of Dr. Leslie E. Keeley, some of these men were enrolled as members of "The Bichloride of Gold Club of America." They conceived the idea that the reading world should be informed on the merits of Dr. Keeley's uses for bichloride of gold, and that news along this line could be best set off with sparkling gems of new literature, fresh and pure as prairie dewdrops. Further, it was expected that the journal would prove to be an outlet for the excitements of re- newed literary activity. When the first weekly number appeared, February 10, 1892, Charles Eugene Banks, a newspaper writer and poet, who has written a great deal of verse, some of which touches the heart like that of Riley, and also is marked by beauty in the use of word and meter, was the editor. An outpouring of rhymed enthusiasm from his pen, appearing at the top of the first column in the first number, contained the following: