Belles and Beaux
ON THE 31st of January, 1874, some years after the Saturday Journal had
made its successful entry into the weekly story paper field, a new weekly was
begun by Beadle and Adams. Its full title was Belles and Beaux, a Home Weekly
for Winter Nights and Summer Days. It was a four-column, 16-page weekly
paper, 16 by 11 ¼ inches in size, excellently illustrated with two pictures
in each number and printed on good paper (Fig. 163).
It contained short stories, poems and serials, the latter all love stories,
and in most numbers also a page of music. It also contained a "Letter Box,"
with answers to questions, mostly advice to the lovelorn, etiquette, recipes
for cosmetics and cleaning, and all the other things which at the present time
are used as space fillers in the daily newspapers. A few advertisements were
accepted. The paper sold for ten cents a copy or four dollars a year. Among
the contributors were Mrs. Ellet, Mrs. Burton, Georgiana Dickens, Archie C.
Irons, Lucille C. Hollis, Mrs. Mary Reed Crowell, Harriette E. Prescott, William
Wirt Sikes, and Kate Putnam Osgood.
Apparently the journal did not pay; perhaps it did not appeal to the "beaux,"
for only thirteen numbers were issued, the last one appearing on April 25, 1874.
In the last number was an announcement that the journal would be discontinued,
and that all of the writers would continue in the New York Saturday Journal,
published by Beadle & Adams.
A set of Belles and Beaux, in good condition, is worth fifty dollars
or more. It is very rare.
Only four serials appeared in this journal.
Fig. 163 Belles and Beaux
Only thirteen were issued, from January 31, to April 25, 1874.
REDUCED.
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