i am lying at full length on a broken-down haircloth sofa that has been placed near the cobwebby window of an old garret in a country farm-house. it is near the close of a rainy day, and all the afternoon i have listened to the pattering of the heavy drops on the shingled roof, the rustling of the slender locust-trees and the creaking of their branches as the wind moves them.
there are pop-corn ears drying on the floor of this old garret; its solid rafters[pg 2] are festooned with dried apples and white onions. odd bits of furniture, and two or three hair trunks bearing initials made with brass-headed nails, are scattered about the room, and from where i lie i can see a franklin stove, a pair of brass andirons, and one of those queer wooden-wheeled clocks that used to be made in connecticut years ago, and which are a fitting monument to the ingenuity of the yankee race.
every article in the room is carefully treasured, and none is held in more tender regard than are certain square, dust-covered packages of what might be old newspapers that are piled up in big heaps beside the old chairs and tables. one of these bundles lies on the floor beside my sofa, with its string untied and its contents scattered carelessly about. look down and you will see that it contains copies of the new york ledger, of a year that was one of the early seventies, and[pg 3] which have been religiously preserved, together with fully twoscore of other similar bundles, by the excellent people who dwell in the house.
the number which i hold in my hand contains instalments of four serials, as many complete stories, half a dozen poems, contributions by henry ward beecher, james parton, and mary kyle dallas, and a number of short editorials and paragraphs, besides two solid nonpareil columns of “notices to correspondents.” one of the serials is called “the haunted husband; or, lady chetwynde’s specter,” and deals exclusively with that superior class of mortals who go to make up what a great many of the old ledger readers would have called “carriage trade.” another story, “unknown; or, the mystery of raven rocks,” bears the signature of mrs. e. d. n. southworth, a name venerated in every household in which a red-plush photograph-album is treasured as[pg 4] a precious objet d’art. the short stories are simple and innocuous enough to suit the most primitive of brain-cells. the fiction is embellished with three pictures, which are interesting as specimens of a simple and now happily obsolete school of art.
the “notices to correspondents” are a joy forever, and reflect with charming simplicity and candor the minds of the thousands of anxious inquirers who were wont to lay all their doubts and troubles at robert bonner’s feet.
it is here that the secrets of the maiden heart are laid bare to the gaze of the whole world. it is here that we read of the young man who is “waiting on” a young widow and formerly “kept company with” a lady friend who is the cashier of the laundry which he patronizes. not knowing which of the two he ought to marry, he pours out his soul in this free-for-all arena of thought and discussion.[pg 5] “mary x.” writes from xenia, o., to inquire if she is a flirt because she has a new beau every two weeks, and is solemnly warned by mr. bonner that if she goes on in that way she “will soon have no beaux at all.” “l. l. d.” is a young girl of eighteen, whose parents are addicted to drink. she wishes to know if it is proper for her to correspond with a young gentleman friend who is a telegraph-operator in buffalo and has made her a present of a backgammon-board last christmas. that these letters are genuine is proved by their tone of artless simplicity, and by the fact that no single mind or score of minds could invent the extraordinary questions that were propounded from week to week.
careful perusal of the ledger lyrics reveals a leaning on the part of the poets of that period toward such homely themes as “the children’s photographs,” “the mother’s blessing,” and “down by the[pg 6] old orchard wall.” they are all written on the same plane of inanity, and are admirably well suited to the tastes of the admirers of mrs. southworth and sylvanus cobb, jr.
it is growing dark in the old garret—too dark to read—and i arise from the horsehair sofa, filled with memories of the past which have been awakened by perusal of the yellow sheet of twenty years ago. as i tie up the bundle and place it on the dust-covered heap with its fellows, my eye falls upon a dozen packages, different in shape from these and containing copies of the century magazine for the past decade, which are preserved with the same tender care that was once bestowed upon the ledger alone.
but as i slowly descend the staircase my mind is full of the favorite old story-paper, and of the enormous influence which its scotch proprietor, robert bonner, exerted over the literature of his[pg 7] day and generation—an influence which is still potent in the offices of the great magazines which now supply us with reading matter. i doubt if there has ever been, in this country, a better edited paper than the ledger was in the days when its destinies were shaped by the hand of its canny proprietor. no editor ever understood his audience better, or, knowing his readers, was more successful in giving them what they wanted, than was robert bonner, whose dollars accumulated in his own coffers even as the files of his paper accumulated in country garrets in all parts of this broad land.
“well, where do you find evidences of such careful editing in that hotch-potch which you describe so carefully?” i hear some carping critic ask, and as i run my eye over what i have written i realize that i have utterly failed in my attempt to convey an idea of the glories of that particular number of the ledger. i would[pg 8] say, however, to my critical friend that the paper is well edited because it does not contain a line of prose or a stanza of verse that is not aimed directly at the hearts and minds of the vast army of farmers, midwives, gas-fitters’ daughters, and the blood-relations of janitors who constituted its peculiar clientèle. and i would add that if the critical one desires to get at the very bone and sinew of ledger literature he should make a careful study of the poems which were an important feature of it, and in which may be found the very essence of the great principles by which the paper was guided.
indeed, mr. bonner used to be more particular about his poetry than about his prose, and always read himself every line of verse submitted to him for publication. some of the poems were written by women of simple, serious habits of thought; but a great many of the highly moral and instructive effusions that were[pg 9] an important feature of the paper were prepared by ungodly and happy-go-lucky bohemians, who were glad to eke out the livelihood earned by reporting with an occasional “tenner” from mr. bonner’s treasury. these poets studied the great editor’s peculiarities and personal tastes as carefully as the most successful magazine contributors of to-day study those of the various gilders, johnsons, burlingames, and aldens who dominate american letters in the present year. for example, no horses in ledger poems were ever permitted to trot faster than a mile in eight minutes, and it was considered sagacious to name them dobbin or old bess. poems in praise of stepmothers or life-insurance were supposed to be distasteful to the great editor, but he was believed to have an absolute passion for lyrics which extolled the charm of country life and the homely virtues of rural folk. if a poet wrote more than one rhyme to[pg 10] the quatrain he was warned by his fellows not to ruin the common market.
and now i hear from the carping critic again: “but you don’t mean to tell me that any good poetry was produced by such a process? why, suppose one of our great magazines—”
“who said anything about good poetry? it was good poetry for the ledger subscribers to read, and as to the great modern magazines—haven’t i told you already that i stumbled over a heap of them just as i was leaving the old garret where the pop-corn and the wreaths of dried apples and the bundles of ledgers are kept?”
