406 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
York, rated it at 80,000. But in the recollections of Mr. Francis F. Browne, Mr. John McGovern, and others who were among its readers, the Little Corporal is credited with having reached a cir- culation of 100,000 in its first or second year.
This large circulation was unhappily the cause of its decline and cessation. The price of subscription for twelve monthly numbers was $i, one of the first instances of low prices in pub- lishing. But the thousands and thousands of subscribers added to Mr. Sewell's lists did not bring proportionate additions of thousands of dollars from advertisements. In periodical pub- lishing the unit on which advertising rates are based is each 1,000 copies per issue. And for each of the added units of circulation the publisher must get additional revenue from his advertising pages, especially if he is publishing at popular prices. Mr. Sewell, with his long list of subscribers in hand, found himself ahead of the times. Advertising had not yet become extensive and the first source of success in business. The local firms which gave him advertising notices would pay only small sums; for they cared to reach but a part of his readers. With a small circulation these sums would bring a profit; but, after a certain point was reached, every copy demanded was printed at a loss. Everybody's Magazine, of New York, was threatened during the past year, on account of the increase in circulation caused by the Lawson articles on " Frenzied Finance," with a similar predicament, but could immediately raise the selling price per copy, and at the expiration of advertising contracts secure their renewal at a higher rate. Many a Chicago publisher since Mr. Sewell's day has sighed for such a circulation.
A squad of juvenile publications, in imitation of the Little Corporal, sprang into existence. Fifteen such were started between 1865 and 1871. Eight of these were not revived after the fire, and all except the Little Corporal and two others were very short-lived. Little Folks, begun in 1869, lasted until 1877. This was advertised as a monthly of " illustrated juvenile litera- ture," but was sold for 30 cents a year. The Young Folks' Monthly, undertaken in 1870, continued until 1883. An adver- tisement in a newspaper annual for 1880 said it was "a live,
