Harper's Young People, January 20, 1880: An Illustrated Weekly

In Short

This issue of Harper’s Young People offers a characteristic window into late-nineteenth-century American youth culture, combining educational articles about astronomy and natural history with serialized fiction, poetry, and children’s letters. Through tales of magical princess rooms, faithful puppies, Norwegian fishermen, and dreamlike clock parties, the magazine entertains while gently reinforcing Victorian values of kindness, duty, and industriousness. It has endured as an authentic artifact of period domestic life and juvenile entertainment.

The Story

The issue opens with brief verse and a structured scientific dialogue where a professor instructs children on the nature of the sun, explaining its immense size and distance through astronomical measurement and physical comparisons. Moving from the heavens to fantasy, Fletcher Reade’s serial Lady Primeval introduces Princess Bebe, who finds herself lodged in a palace where floors are jasper, furniture is of carved gold and silver, and an opal bed glows like a rainbow. Yet, lacking warmth and softness, the princess shivers through the night; she discovers that the king’s gifts—jeweled necklaces, a warming jacinth stone, and a magnificent garden of stone-gem apples, coral roses, and amber daffodils—are entirely hard and inedible, leaving her in bitter despair.

Shifting to domestic realism, Sara Keables Hunt invites readers on a floating journey down the Nile aboard a flat-bottomed boat, describing the lateen-sails, crew tracking by rope, and picturesque riverbanks filled with palaces and ancient ruins. Alongside this exotic excursion, an urban tale recounts how a resourceful boy named Joe rescues a suffering, neglected puppy named Blinky near a town pump. Joe faithfully balances his chores and schoolwork, though he initially rebuffs a shivering, impoverished Southern boy named Bob—sent north by his war-impoverished family and teased as "Little Reb"—before witnessing his classmates bully Bob in the snow, prompting Joe to take Bob under his protection alongside Blinky.

Further north, a narrative of Norwegian life follows two friends, Klaus and Lars, whose adventures among mountain waterfalls and cod fisheries are complicated by unspoken affection for Ilda. Klaus generously departs for America so Lars can marry Ilda, but when economic struggles persist in their fjord homeland, Lars, Ilda, and their child Hanne set sail across the ocean for the New World, only to suffer a shipwreck off the coast where they are miraculously rescued by none other than Klaus, now prosperous and settled. Finally, in a lighter imaginative sketch, young Caddy Podkins attends a surreal birthday party hosted by a grandfather clock that whisks her away to a brass-walled room where fifty active, tiny clocks hop about on little brass feet.

How It Unfolds

• The sun explained — A professor gathers children to teach them that the sun is our nearest star, detailing its immense proportions and how scientists calculate its distance through the velocity of light.
• The glittering prison — Princess Bebe explores her royal chambers and magnificent gardens, only to discover that every luxurious fruit, flower, and bed is made of cold, hard gemstones that offer neither nourishment nor comfort.
• Rescue at the pump — Joe steps forward to save a convulsing, abandoned puppy named Blinky from a curious group of children, carrying the dog to safety and welcoming him into his daily life of chores and schooling.
• The bullied classmate — Joe rebuffs the lonely Southern boy Bob, but later intervenes when schoolmates target Bob in a snow-bound game, making Bob a loyal friend alongside Blinky.
• Sailing the Nile — Travelers embark on a two-month voyage aboard a flat-bottomed Nile boat, observing the lateen-sails, chanting crew members, and changing panoramas of ancient Egyptian riverbanks.
• Norwegian hardships — Klaus quietly emigrates to America to clear the way for his friend Lars to marry Ilda, while Lars and Ilda later face bitter poverty before deciding to cross the ocean themselves.
• Shipwreck and reunion — Caught in a violent ocean storm, Lars and Ilda are cast into the sea during a shipwreck, only to be pulled ashore and sheltered by their long-lost friend Klaus.
• The clock party — Young Caddy Podkins enters a magical dream-realm hosted by a grand hall clock, where a wheel-shaped table and fifty lively, hopping miniature clocks celebrate a festive gathering.

The People

• Joe is a sharp, diligent boy whose bright eyes and compassionate nature lead him to rescue a suffering puppy and eventually defend an ostracized classmate.
• Blinky is a wretched, neglected puppy found in the throes of a convulsion who transforms into Joe's faithful, beloved companion.
• Bob is a skinny, shivering boy sent north from Georgia after the war whose family poverty and defensive shyness make him a target for bullying until Joe stands up for him.
• Princess Bebe is a royal visitor who is dazzled by a palace of limitless mineral riches before realizing that its cold, gem-encrusted luxuries cannot sustain human warmth or life.
• Lars is a hardworking Norwegian fisherman whose struggles with poor crops and unsuccessful trading voyages drive him to seek a new life across the ocean.
• Ilda is a gentle, steadfast young woman in a red bodice and white chemisette who chooses Lars, packs her spun linen, and bravely faces the perilous voyage to America.
• Klaus is a merry, courageous fisherman and sailor who unselfishly leaves his homeland for America and later rescues Lars, Ilda, and their child from a shipwreck.
• Caddy Podkins is a young, observant girl living across the street from a grand party who finds imaginative solace in a magical dialogue with a tall hall clock.

In Its Own Voice

• Describing the scale of our solar system, the professor explains to the children: "Now suppose it to be only one inch, or about as large as a plum or a half-grown peach; then we would have to regard the sun as three yards in diameter, so that if it were in this room it would reach from the floor to the ceiling."
• Lamenting the deceptive nature of her royal surroundings, Princess Bebe cries out: "It is very certain that I must die... and she covered her face with her hands, crying bitterly, and praying that if death must come to her, it might come quickly."
• Reflecting on the immutable habits of Nile boatmen, the narrator observes: "It is not an Arab's nature to look ahead; he sees only the present."

What It's Really About

The periodical explores the tension between material wealth and genuine human sustenance, contrasting literal gemstone riches that offer no warmth with simple acts of kindness, friendship, and resilience. It investigates how curiosity about the physical world—from astronomy to natural history—can be harmoniously blended with moral instruction and imaginative storytelling. Beneath its Victorian domesticity, the collection examines the immigrant experience, the psychological scars of the Civil War, and the comforting regularity of a well-ordered universe where duty, loyalty, and faith ultimately prevail over hardship.

Why Read It Today

Readers who appreciate historical artifacts, Victorian children's literature, or the foundational evolution of youth magazines will find this volume deeply charming. Reading it feels like stepping directly into a nineteenth-century parlor, accompanied by period advertisements, earnest letters from young readers across America, and woodcut-illustrated sketches of exploration and fancy. Modern readers must navigate period attitudes, including regional biases and occasional traces of nineteenth-century dialect or paternalism, but these elements only heighten its authenticity. The reward is a warm, unhurried prose style that honors the intelligence of young minds while capturing the innocent wonder of a bygone era.