A year or two since, a weekly paper was started in London called the
_Illustrated News_. It was filled with tolerably executed wood-cuts,
representing scenes of popular interest; and though perhaps better
calculated for the nursery than the reading-room, it took very well
in England, where few can read but all can understand pictures, and
soon attained immense circulation. As when the inimitable London
_Punch_ attained its world-wide celebrity, supported by such writers
as Thackeray, Jerrold and Hood, would-be funny men on this side of the
Atlantic attempted absurd imitations--the _Yankee Doodle_, the _John
Donkey_, etc.--which as a matter of course proved miserable failures;
so did the success of this illustrated affair inspire our money-loving
publishers with hopes of dollars, and soon appeared from Boston, New
York and other places pictorial and illustrated newspapers, teeming
with execrable and silly effusions, and filled with the most fearful
wood engravings, "got up regardless of expense" or anything else; the
contemplation of which was enough to make an artist tear his hair and
rend his garments. A Yankee named Gleason, of Boston, published the
first, we believe, calling it _Gleason's Pictorial_ (it should have
been _Gleason's Pickpocket_) _and Drawing-Room Companion_. In this he
presented to his unhappy subscribers views of his house in the country,
and his garden, and, for aught we know, of "his ox and his ass, and the
stranger within his gates." A detestable invention for transferring
daguerreotypes to plates for engraving, having come into notice about
this time, was eagerly seized upon by Gleason for further embellishing
his catchpenny publication--duplicates and uncalled-for pictures
were easily obtained, and many a man has gazed in horror-stricken
astonishment on the likeness of a respected friend as a "Portrait of
Monroe Edwards," or that of his deceased grandmother in the character
of "One of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence." They
love pictures in Yankeedom; every tin-peddler has one on his wagon,
and an itinerant lecturer can always obtain an audience by sticking
up a likeness of some unhappy female, with her ribs laid open in an
impossible manner, for public inspection, or a hairless gentleman,
with the surface of his head laid out in eligible lots duly marked and
numbered. The factory girls of Lowell, the professors of Harvard, all
bought the new _Pictorial_. (Professor Webster was reading one when
Doctor Parkman called on him on the morning of the murder.) Gleason's
speculation was crowned with success, and he bought himself a new
cooking stove, and erected an outbuilding on his estate, with both of
which he favored the public in a new wood-cut immediately.
Inspired by his success, old
Feejec-Mermaid-Tom-Thumb-Woolly-Horse-Joyce-Heth-Barnum forthwith got
out another illustrated weekly, with pictures far more extensive,
letter-press still sillier, and engravings more miserable, if
possible, than Yankee Gleason's. And then we were bored and buffeted
by having incredible likenesses of Santa Anna, Queen Victoria and poor
old Webster thrust beneath our nose, to that degree that we wished
the respected originals had never existed, or that the art of wood
engraving had perished with that of painting on glass.
It was, therefore, with the most intense delight that we saw a notice
the other day of the failure and stoppage of _Barnum's Illustrated
News_; we rejoiced thereat greatly, and we hope that it will never be
revived, and that Gleason will also fail as soon as he conveniently
can, and that his trashy _Pictorial_ will perish with it.
It must not be supposed from the tenor of these remarks that we are
opposed to the publication of a properly conducted and creditably
executed illustrated paper. "On the contrary, quite the reverse." We
are passionately fond of art ourselves, and we believe that nothing
can have a stronger tendency to refinement in society than presenting
to the public chaste and elaborate engravings, copies of works of high
artistic merit, accompanied by graphic and well written essays. It
was for the purpose of introducing a paper containing these features
to our appreciative community that we have made these introductory
remarks, and for the purpose of challenging comparison, and defying
competition, that we have criticized so severely the imbecile and
ephemeral productions mentioned above. At a vast expenditure of money,
time and labor, and after the most incredible and unheard of exertion
on our part, individually, we are at length able to present to the
public an illustrated publication of unprecedented merit, containing
engravings of exceeding costliness and rare beauty of design, got up on
an expensive scale which never has been attempted before in this or any
other country.
We furnish our readers this week with the first number, merely
premising that the immense expense attending its issue will require a
corresponding liberality of patronage on the part of the Public, to
cause it to be continued.
_PHOENIX'S PICTORIAL_
_And Second Story Front Room Companion_
[Illustration]
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Vol. 1.] San Diego, Oct. 1, 1853. [No. 1.
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[Illustration: Portrait of His Royal Highness Prince
Albert.--Prince Albert, the son of a gentleman named Coburg,
is the husband of Queen Victoria of England, and the father
of many of her children. He is the inventor of the celebrated
"Albert hat," which has been lately introduced with great
effect in the U. S. Army. The Prince is of German extraction,
his father being a Dutchman and his mother a Duchess.]
[Illustration: Mansion of John Phoenix, Esq., San Diego,
California.]
[Illustration: House in which Shakespeare was born, in
Stratford-on-Avon.]
[Illustration: Abbottsford, the residence of Sir Walter Scott,
author of Byron's "Pilgrim's Progress," etc.]
[Illustration: The Capitol at Washington.]
[Illustration: Residence of Governor Bigler, at Benicia,
California.]
[Illustration: Battle of Lake Erie (_see remarks_, p. 96).]
[Page 96.]
The Battle of Lake Erie, of which our Artist presents a
spirited engraving, copied from the original painting, by
Hannibal Carracci, in the possession of J. P. Haven, Esq., was
fought in 1836, on Chesapeake Bay, between the U. S. frigates
_Constitution_ and _Guerriere_ and the British troops, under
General Putnam. Our glorious flag, there as everywhere, was
victorious, and "Long may it wave, o'er the land of the free,
and the home of _the slave_."
[Illustration: Fearful accident on the Camden and Amboy
Railroad!! Terrible loss of life!!!]
[Illustration: View of the City of San Diego, by Sir Benjamin
West.]
[Illustration: Interview between Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe and
the Duchess of Sutherland, from a group of Statuary, by Clarke
Mills.]
[Illustration: Bank Account of J. Phoenix, Esq., at Adams and
Company, Bankers, San Francisco, California.]
[Illustration: Gas Works, San Diego _Herald_ office.]
[Illustration: Steamer Goliah.]
[Illustration: View of a California Ranch.--Landseer.]
[Illustration: Shell of an oyster once eaten by General
Washington; showing the General's manner of opening oysters.]
There! This is but a specimen of what we can do if liberally sustained.
We wait with anxiety to hear the verdict of the public before
proceeding to any further and greater outlays.
Subscription, $5 per annum, payable invariably in advance.