CHRISTMAS NUMBERS.

Waikato Argus, Volume VI, Issue 400, 18 February 1899, Page 1 (Supplement)

CHRISTMAS NUMBERS.

The " Christmas number habit"has got a firm hold ou tho English-speaking race all the world over, and, it may be added, on Continental nations also in a lesser degree. Probably there is not a corner of the globe in whioh newspapers or magazine proprietors do n)t offer their readers something extra at Christmas time. London newsagents of twenty years ago often received, it is said, an order to send a customer "all the Christmas numbers." This year, if any one had been rash enough to give such au order he would have received more than 180 speoial ChrUtmas publications issued by weekly and monthly papers and magazines published in London alone. This truly won lerful trade had its begining in tha early fifties, when the proprietors of the "Illustrated London News "began to issue a double number at Christmas. A year or two later they first published a coloured supplement, and in the same year Charles Dickens made a hugesucoess of his special Christmas story issued as a supplement to " Household Words." From that date men have looked for their special allowance of Christmas literature, and the thing has growa until no one individual can pretend to keep up with the supply. From having merely a coloured supplement the " Illustrated London News" progressed to giving away a separate coloured picture, and before long the "Graphic" and the "News" were keenly competii»g with each other. Those must have been the palmy days of Christmas numbers for these two great papers, when the " News '" paid Millais £3OOO for " Cinderella," and Fold 425,000 copies of the paper containing the plate, the blocks being actually worn out with the excessive printing, and when the demand for the "Graphic," containing another Millais pioture, "Cherry Ripe," was still unsatisfied after more than half a million copies had been sold. It is mentioned incidentally in an article on this subject in the " Daily News " that the machinery for printing the " Graphic " cost no less than £123,000, and that the mechanical work of producing the Christmas number whioh is done before the close of the previous year, gives work to 770 men. The greatest competition in tho Christmaa number line is now taking place between the magazines, and it has all come about within the last four years, since, in faot, the" Windsor " took to giving away a complete novel with its Christmas number. Tho cost of some of these speoial production may be imagined when it is said that several of the most popular short story writers, whose names appear in their lists of contents, receive from twenty to twonty-five guineas a thousand words for the English serial rights alone. It is asserted that more than one magazine editor will have reason to think he is lucky if the payments to writers and artists for his Christmas number come to less than £I2OO or £I3OO. It must pay, or they would not do it, but where the profit comes in is a mystery to the unnitiated. In the race for striking novelties one magazine this year, we are reminded outpaced all its rivals. " Cassell's Magazine " has actually got " several references to Christmas doings." There was a time, of course, when a Christmas number was "Christmassy" in contents as well as size, but times have changed, and if we are to believe Mr Shorter it is because writers are afraid of inviting comparison with Dickens. This may be so, but wo should not have credited the young race of writers with being afraid of comparison with anyone, or anvthing, not even "IDhe Christmas CaroL"