Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 7.djvu/408

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��Daniel Lothrop.

��Awake ' Mr. Lothrop soon filled with ' Our Lit- tle Men and Women,' and ' The Pansy.' Urg- ent solicitations from parents and teachers who need a magazine for those little folks, either at home or at school, who were beginning to read and spell, brought out the first, and Mrs. G. R. Alden (Pansy) taking charge of a weekly pictorial paper of that name, was the reason for the beginning and growth of the second. The 'Boston Book Bulletin,' a quarterly, is a medium for acquaintance with the best litera- ture, its prices, and all news current pertaining to it.

'The Chatauqua Young Folk's Journal' is the latest addition to the sparkling list. This peri- odical was a natural growth of the modern lik- ing for clubs, circles, societies, reading unions, home studies, and reading courses. It is the official voice of the Chatauqua Young Folks Reading Union, and furnishes each year a val- uable and vivacious course of readings on top- ics of interest to youth. It is used largely in schools. Its contributors are among our lead- ing clergymen, lawyers, university professors, critics, historians and scientists, but all its liter- ature is of a popular character, suited to the family circle rather than the study. Mr. Loth- rop now has the remarkable success of seeing six flourishing periodicals going forth from his house.

In 1875, ^I- Lothrop, finding his Cornhill quarters inaquate, leased the elegant building corner Franklin and Hawley streets, belonging to Harvard College, for a term of years. The building is 120 feet long by 40 broad, making the salesroom, which is on the first floor, one of the most elegant in the country. On the second floor are Mr. Lothrop's offices, also the editorial offices of ' Wide Awake,' etc. On the third floor are the composing rooms and mail- ing rooms of the different periodicals, while the bindery fills the fourth floor.

This building also was found small; it could accommodate only one-fourth of the work done, and accordingly a warehouse on Purchase street was leased for storing and manufacturing purposes.

In 1879 Mr. Lothrop called to his assistance a younger brother, Mr. M. H. Lothrop, who had already made a brilliant business record in Dover, N. H., to whom he gives an interest in the business. All who care for the circulation of the best literature will be glad to know that everything indicates the work to be steadily in- creasing toward complete development of Mr. Lothrop's life-long purpose." *

  • The Paper World.

��This man of large purposes and large measures has, of course, his sturdy friends, his foes as sturdy. He has, without doubt, an iron will. He is, without doubt, a good fighter — a wise counselor. Approached by fraud he presents a front of granite ; he cuts through intrigue with sudden, forceful blows. It is true that the sharp bar- gainer, the overreaching buyer he worsts and puts to confusion and loss without mercy. But, no less, candor and honor meet with frankness and generous deal- ing. He is as loyal to a friend as to a purpose. His interest in one befriended and taken into trust is for life. It has been more than once said of this im- movable business man that he has the simple heart of a boy.

Mr. Lothrop's summer home is in Concord, Mass. His house, known to literary pilgrims of both continents as "The Wayside," is a unique, many gabled old mansion, situated near the road at the base of a pine-covered hill, facing broad, level fields, and command- ing a view of charming rural scenery. Its dozen green acres are laid out in rustic paths ; but with the exception of the removal of unsightly underbrush, the landscape is left in a wild and pic- turesque state. Immediately in the rear of the house, however, A. Bronson Alcott, a former occupant, planned a series of terraces, and thereon is a sys- tem of trees. The house was com- menced in the seventeenth century and has been added to at different periods, and withal is quaint enough to satisfy the most exacting antiquarian. At the back rise the more modern portions, and the tower, wherein was woven the most delightful of American romances, and about which cluster tender memo- ries of the immortal Hawthorne. The boughs of the whispering pines almost touch the lofty windows.

The interior of the dwelling is seemly.

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