The Story of the House of Cassell
The successful editorship of a magazine for boys calls for much tact and consideration and for sympathy with boy-life and with its manifold aspirations which are only half understood by the boy himself. Manville Fenn, in an interview in the interests of Chums, spoke excellent sense when he said: "I think that boys do themselves a lot of harm by reading a great deal of stupid trash. In my opinion a tale for boys should possess plenty of good, stirring adventures without any preaching. Boys don't like being preached at. By writing a good, wholesome story you can alter a boy's character and make him a better lad in spite of himself. You don't want any bosh about love sentiment in boys' books. If you have a villain, show that he is a villain, and don't hold him up as a model of what a man should be."
This has constantly been the policy of Chums, and it is the basis upon which the magazine was built up and has maintained its position among periodicals for boys. Many rivals have come into the field, but under Mr. Newman Flower's direction it still holds its own, finding among its present-day adherents the same loyal and gay spirit that is illustrated in Foster's recollections.
In October, 1898, the New Penny Magazine made its bow to the public. Its raison d'être was thus explained in a prefatory article written by Sir Wemyss Reid:
"The pioneer of the cheap periodical Press was the Penny Magazine, originated by Charles Knight and dear to the reading public in the days of our fathers. Mr. Knight's publication has been dead for more than a generation. In issuing the New Penny Magazine, we are seeking to adapt to the tastes and requirements of the present day the idea which Mr. Knight embodied in his great publication. We propose to supply week by week a magazine fully equal in the quality of its contents to any of the popular monthly magazines; whilst the quantity of reading matter and the number of illustrations will be fully one-half of those given in publications costing six or even twelve times as much."
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