Show reminiscences OF AN OLD PUBLISHER the announcement by gassell company of the publication in book form of some of the most widely known and remembered stories of sylvanus cobb jr serves to recall some recollections of a very stirring period in oe newspaper publishing business in 1855 mr air bonner had bad fairly baart ed on his publishing career he had made an engagement with fanny fern then the center of more interest than any 1 literary woman in america to furnish f ur a story for a thousand dollars the story to occupy ten columns colum fis of the ledger or nearly a little less leso or a little more as S the exigencies of the story demanded demand d was to make no difference as to price this could with all fairness be rated at one hundred dollars per column and accord in an advertisement solicited by mr samuel french present head of the firm of samuel samu el french son pub lishers lis bers for gleasons gleasona Glea sons pictorial vom clorn panion the agent for which in new york mr french then was the liae hun dred dollars per col column dmn faw fait was duly set forth the advertis advertisement emen was inserted but the editor and publisher of the pictorial mr ballou who had nought bought the property of mr gleason in an editorial paragraph intimated a doubt as to the price paid fanny fro fern saying it was a good story to tell to the marines to mr bonner the attempt to nullify the effect of a solicited advertisement verti appeared like a gross injustice and he frankly told mr french so ao mr french ex postulated with his principal but only received a verbal excuse to the effect that the editor written the paragraph and had not been aware of its insertion until too late mr bonner in response to this said that he was not satis tiled with a private apology for a public wrong but said no more not very long thereafter however he be wrote to mr sylvanus cobb jr who was then attracting considerable attention b by y his stories and sketches and disposing of his manuscript mainly to mr ballou inquiring the price of a story from nis his peu mr cobb replied that he would furnish one tor for a hundred dollars to this mr bonner responded that he would give him two hundred T this djs was characteristic of the publisher of the ledder he was one of the few men in the business at that time who did not undervalue the article fae be dealt in and in this case he only did what he otten often repeated in his bis subsequent career paid more than he bargained lor for we need not say often of tea to the surprise and dali delight of his bis contributors tribu tors this first story the of moscow mr bonner read or read enough ot of to know that it would suit his purpose ose kand and quietly locked it op ap tn in his safer safe soon after he be wrote to the author requesting him to come bome to new edw york for the expenses of which he be inc losea his check mr cobb was not slow in coming the rub publisher lisher after some casual conversation convere on asked a mr cobb to te write a sketch of two or er three columns for which the former gave the plot without much ado mr cobb obb sat down and in a couple of hours haid had work done it was very batts satisfactory V and proved that the writer write was as swift t and ready in the mechanical department of his bis craft a as he was prompt prom pt in conception conce etim this thi interview resulted in a contract cont n for three more long stories for the adget ar intimation An that mr cobb afra h made ie an n arrangement with bonnon reached mr ballon allou ue he telegraphed cobb not to make ake any agreement until be heard I 1 from rom him it was too late mr cobb remained faithful to his engagement I 1 a contract was made soon after with mr bonner for five years and this tats was repeated related whenever it ran out as long as the writer lived mr cobb had bad extraordinary utility facility As a writer he proposed lu in the inter view which we have spoken of above to furnish the ledger weekly eighteen columns of matter of course coarse this was not regularly exacted but his work wha whatever fiver it was was always ready and always found a ready market ile he wrote abundantly every variety of matter and over many different signatures several of his stories have been published for the third time in the ledger the lio interest erest in them on oa their reappearance being ap apparently ardently as great as when first publish pT while mr cobb was living none of these stories could be had bad anywhere but in the ledger since their authors death however mr bonner presented to the widow her choice of any twelve of her husbands El stories except the gan of moscow which story the now retired pu publisher blisner could not bear to dissociate from the ledger as it was so intimately connected with the beginning of hii hi bi i well planned enterprise and great fortune it to is these twelve stories which cassell co are to publish in their Sti sunshine lushine series the first one coriou the gold beater I 1 I 1 has last just made maae its appearance and was was out of print on the day of publication tte the american Book seUer nw new york |