e Magazine," with "Religious, Moral, and Entertaining Pieces
in Prose and Verse," was compiled by Arthur Donaldson, and sold in
eighteen hundred and eleven as a monthly in Philadelphia--then the
literary centre--for twelve and a half cents a number. In eighteen
hundred and thirteen, in the same city, the "Juvenile Portfolio" made
its appearance, possibly in imitation of Joseph Dennie's "Port Folio;"
but it too failed from lack of support and interest.

Boston proved more successful in arousing attention to the possibilities
in a well-conducted children's periodical, although it was not until
thirteen years later that Lydia Maria Child established the "Juvenile
Miscellany for the Instruction and Amusement of Youth." Three numbers
were issued in 1826, and thereafter it appeared every other month until
August, 1834, when it was succeeded by a magazine of the same name
conducted by Sarah J. Hale.

This periodical is a landmark in the history of story-writing for the
American child. Here at last was an opportunity for the editors to give
to their subscribers descriptions of cities in their own land in place
of accounts of palaces in Persia; biographies of national heroes instead
of incidents in the life of Mahomet; and tales of Indians rather than
histories of Arabians and Turks. For its pages Mrs. Sigourney, Miss
Eliza Leslie, Mrs. Wells, Miss Sedgwick, and numerous anonymous
contributors gladly sent stories of American scenes and incidents which
were welcomed by parents as well as by children.

In the year following the first appearance of Mrs. Hale's "Juvenile
Miscellany," the March number is typical of the amusement and
instruction the editor endeavored to provide. This contained a life of
Benjamin Franklin (perhaps the earliest child's life of the philosopher
and statesman), a tale of an Indian massacre of an entire settlement in
Maine, an essay on memory, a religious episode, and extracts from a
traveller's journal. The traveller, quite evidently a Bostonian,
criticised New York in a way not unfamiliar in later days, as a city
where "the love of literature was less strong than in some other parts
of the United States;" and then in trying to soften the statement, she
fell into a comparison with Philadelphia, also made many times since the
gentle critic observed the difference. "New York," she wrote, "has
energy, spirit, and bold, lofty enterprise, totally wanting in
Philadelphia, ... a place of neat, well regulated pl