ety-five and Eighteen Hundred
Ninety-six, when over eleven hundred "brownie" and "chipmunk" magazines
were started in America. Every man with two or three ideas and ten
dollars' capital started a magazine. Steele, teeming with thoughts
demanding expression, at war with smug society, and possessing wit withal,
started the "Tatler," to be issued three times a week, price one penny.
Seizing upon a creation of Swift's, "Isaac Bickerstaff," a character
already known to the public, was introduced as editor. Bickerstaff
announced his assistants, and among others named as authority in Foreign
Affairs a waiter at Saint James Coffeehouse known as "Kidney." The spirit
of rollicking freedom in the publication, with a touch of philosophy, and
a dash of culture, caught the public fancy at once. The "Tatler" was the
theme in every coffeehouse, and in the drawing-rooms, as well. Those who
understood it laughed and passed it along to others who pretended they
understood, and so it became the fad. Then the anonymity lent the charm of
mystery--who could it be who was into all the secrets, and knew the world
so thoroughly?

Addison read each issue with surprise and amusement, but it was not until
the fifth number that he located the author positively, by reading an
observation of his own that he had voiced to Steele some weeks before.
Steele absorbed everything, digested it, and gave the good out as his own,
innocent and probably unmindful of where he got it. This accounts for his
wonderful versatility: he made others grub and used the net result.

Some years ago Francis Wilson made a mock complaint to the effect that
whenever he met Eugene Field in the "Saints and Sinners Corner" for a
half-hour's chat, any good thing he might voice was duly printed next day
in the "Sharps and Flats" column as Field's very own, and thus did the
genial Eugene acquire his reputation as a genius. All of which gentle
gibing contains more fact than fiction.

When Addison saw his bright thoughts appearing in the "Tatler," he went to
Steele and said, "Here, I'll write that out myself and save you the
trouble." Steele welcomed him with open arms. The first "Tatler" article
written by Addison relates to the distress of news-writers at the prospect
of peace. This is exactly in Steele's style; but we find erelong in the
"Tatler" a spiritual quality that was not a part of Steele's nature. From
current gossip and easy society commonplace, the tone is exalted, and thi