McClure's Magazine, Vol. 6, No. 3, February 1896

In Short

This issue of McClure's Magazine offers a dynamic snapshot of late Victorian American culture, seamlessly blending biography, contemporary politics, romance, and technical reportage. Across its varied pages, the reader encounters historical studies of Abraham Lincoln's early wilderness years and James A. Garfield's tragic presidency, alongside technical accounts of record-breaking steam locomotives and personal essays on the writing life. It has lasted as a rich artifact of nineteenth-century American literary tastes, revealing how a single magazine could shape public historical memory while entertaining the masses with high-stakes fiction and intimate reportage.

The Story

The volume opens in the American wilderness with Ida M. Tarbell's meticulous account of Abraham Lincoln's youth in New Salem from 1832 to 1836. The narrative traces the future president's early struggles as he attempts to earn a living, venturing into storekeeping with his partner Berry, obtaining a tavern license to sell off surplus liquor stock, and eventually learning surveying with a grapevine. Though financial reverses strike and his store "winks out," the overwhelming kindness of his neighbors sustains him. Amid these modest pursuits, he falls deeply in love with the bright, gentle Ann Rutledge. Her unexpected death leaves him heartbroken, yet he perseveres, entering the Illinois Assembly and setting out toward his ultimate legal and political destiny. Interspersed with this historical biography is a charming personal reflection by Grace Bedell Billings, who recalls writing to presidential candidate Lincoln in 1860 to suggest he grow whiskers—an advice he famously took, later meeting her on his inaugural train journey to thank her.

Shifted from frontier history to high-stakes political intrigue, Murat Halstead delivers an insider's chronicle of the tragedy surrounding James A. Garfield’s administration. The narrative outlines the fraught political climate at the Republican National Convention, where Garfield emerges as a compromise nominee to defeat Ulysses S. Grant. Halstead detalils the bitter internal feuds over presidential patronage between Garfield, James G. Blaine, and Roscoe Conkling, showing how these political fractures culminated in national shock and the President's eventual assassination.

Alongside these heavy non-fiction studies, the issue moves briskly through dramatic narrative prose and fiction. Ian Maclaren offers a quiet, touching sketch of "Schedule Perkins," a dedicated, dry civil servant who continues to dictate official departmental schedules from his deathbed with unwavering devotion to duty. Harry Perry Robinson brings technological thrill to the collection, detailing a record-shattering railroad run where an American steam locomotive pushes past ninety miles per hour across the dark landscape between Erie and Buffalo. Will H. Low contributes an expansive historical survey of modern art, contrasting the dreamy, cloud-strewn skies of Turner with the popular portraiture of George Romney.

In pure fiction, Anthony Hope presents a romantic tale of royal trickery and secret courtship. The Princess Osra sneaks out daily to the riverbank to converse with a humble student who sighs over Helen of Troy. Believing she is abandoning her royal duties for an impoverished lover, she flees with him on horseback, only to discover at the climax that her "student" is actually the Grand Duke of Mittenheim in disguise, whom her brother King Rudolf had arranged for her to marry all along. Finally, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps shares a reflective chapter from her autobiography, tracing her religious upbringing in Andover and the transformative moment at age sixteen when reading Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Aurora Leigh sparked her lifelong ambition to become a writer.

How It Unfolds

The frontier storekeeper Young Abraham Lincoln tries his hand at business in New Salem, securing a tavern license with William Berry to sell off their store's surplus liquor by the glass. Despite business failures and debt, Lincoln wins the enduring affection of his neighbors through his quiet, helpful nature, eventually finding his path into law and the state legislature.

Political storm at the convention Political strategist Murat Halstead recounts how James A. Garfield unexpectedly breaks a deadlock at the Republican convention to secure the presidential nomination over Grant and Blaine. The victory quickly sours into a bitter, high-stakes battle over political patronage and cabinet control with Senator Roscoe Conkling.

Racing the iron horse Reporters and official timekeepers board a specialized train with synchronized split-second stopwatches to measure a historic high-speed rail run. Flying through the night from Erie to Buffalo, the steam engine holds speeds over eighty miles per hour, shattering existing international records.

Romance by the riverbank Princess Osra steals away from the palace to meet a plain-clad university student reading poetry by the river, eventually fleeing with him on horseback to choose love over royal duty. When her brother's guards overtake them, the student reveals himself as the Grand Duke of Mittenheim, successfully winning her heart through his clever disguise.

A awakening to poetry Elizabeth Stuart Phelps reflects on her strict yet thoughtful religious education in Andover. Looking out at the sunset through her window, she reads Aurora Leigh for the first time, an experience that permanently opens her eyes to the world of literature and ignites her desire to write.

The People

• Abraham Lincoln wants to establish himself as a self-sufficient businessman and lawyer in frontier Illinois, but he is hindered by early commercial failures and sudden personal grief. He overcomes these obstacles through relentless self-study and his genuine, helpful demeanor toward his neighbors.
• Ann Rutledge is a well-educated, gentle young woman of New Salem who seeks happiness amidst competing suitors, initially bound to an absent businessman before finding a deep mutual affection with Lincoln before her tragic early death.
• James A. Garfield wants to unite a fractured party and assert independent executive authority as President of the United States, but he faces fierce opposition from party bosses demanding control over federal appointments, leading to a fateful political crisis.
• Roscoe Conkling is a powerful political leader who seeks total control over government patronage, refusing to compromise with the executive branch and ultimately resigning his seat when challenged.
• Princess Osra wants to break free from rigid court expectations and choose her own romantic destiny, fleeing the palace for a penniless student, only to discover her choice aligns perfectly with royal policy.
• Mr. Perkins ("Schedule Perkins") is a dry, meticulous government official who wants nothing more than to execute his duties with absolute perfection, holding onto his work and maintaining administrative decorum even as double pneumonia claims his life.
• Elizabeth Stuart Phelps is an impressionable young woman in Andover who wants to find a meaningful purpose beyond her orthodox religious environment, finding her true vocation as an author after encountering poetry.

In Its Own Voice

"Lawfully to do this required a tavern license; and it is a warrantable conclusion that such was the chief aim of Berry and Lincoln in procuring a franchise of this character."

Biographer Ida M. Tarbell clears away romanticized myths to explain the practical, commercial realities behind Lincoln's early frontier business ventures in New Salem.

"A speed of 75 miles an hour (a mile and a quarter a minute) was maintained for the whole hour, and the 75 miles were actually covered in the 60 minutes."

Journalist Harry Perry Robinson captures the kinetic thrill and mechanical pride surrounding nineteenth-century industrial speed records.

"I owe to her, distinctly, the first visible aspiration (ambition is too low a word) to do some honest, hard work of my own, in the World Beautiful, and for it."

Author Elizabeth Stuart Phelps describes the profound impact Elizabeth Barrett Browning's poetry had on shaping her literary calling.

What It's Really About

At its heart, this issue of McClure's explores the tension between duty and individual identity across every sphere of nineteenth-century life. Whether examining Abraham Lincoln clearing timber in Illinois, President Garfield clashing with party bosses over patronage, or a dying clerk dictating schedules from his bed, the issue repeatedly asks what a person owes to their community versus their own soul. Beneath its popular appeal, the volume investigates how legacy is formed—showing that public heroism, artistic breakthroughs, and industrial triumphs all spring from the same quiet, persistent personal discipline in everyday life.

Why Read It Today

This collection will deeply satisfy lovers of American history, Victorian literature, and cultural archival studies. Reading it feels like opening a time capsule directly onto the literary landscape of 1896, where high politics, technical innovation, and popular storytelling shared equal billing. The prose flows with an unpretentious, confident clarity that makes even century-old political rivalries and railway schedules feel immediate and dramatic.

Modern readers should be prepared for the formal, somewhat dense Victorian prose style typical of late nineteenth-century periodicals, as well as period attitudes toward politics and society. The historical accounts assume a basic familiarity with Gilded Age figures, and the biographical essays occasionally lean into gentle idealization. Yet these minor hurdles only add to the issue's historical authenticity. What lingers long after reading is a vivid sense of an era in rapid motion—an energetic society reflecting on its humble frontier origins while eagerly racing toward the technological and political complexities of the coming twentieth century.