A wellspring of joy in every house is this admirable periodical. "Do you take it for your children?" is our inquiry of friends from Kansas. "Indeed we do," our friends reply.
The circulation is simply enormous. Behold what good comes out of the financial profits! Go up to the Ruggles-Street Baptist Church, in Boston, some day. Not only listen to the grand music, which costs so many thousands a year, and to the preaching, but go into the big Sunday-school. Note, moreover, the many philanthropies connected with the church, besides its singing school and literary associations. Go down stairs to the lunchroom Sunday noon, and see how wisely and well the waiting are fed. Inquire how so much good is done, and you will be referred to the proprietor of this little weekly, as the main supporter of that church,—as unostentatious and modest as he is efficient. You could visit other churches also, and learn a similar story,—that the profits from The Youth's Companion are freely and worthily used.
These facts are cited because they are in themselves interesting, not because they make the paper a good one; but it is good, all the same. Its excellence is based on very different grounds, however. It is thoroughly readable, from beginning to end, every week. In Hezekiah Butterworth it enjoys the editorship of the wielder of a sagacious and skilful pen. Contributors are well paid. Two millions of renders go over their stories, poems, and sketches.
