We are not seeking fulsome praise, but we would like to hear directly from our readers whether or not YOUTH is coming up to their expectations. If it is not, we hope they will feel perfectly free to tell us about its shortcomings. Criticisms and suggestions are invited from all readers. We should be glad to publish in an early issue, if agreeable to the reader, the letter of the person who sends in the most practical suggestion.
Anyone who will send us the names and addresses of twenty-five of his friends, boys or girls, and fifty cents additional, will receive a year’s subscription to YOUTH. The magazine will be sent to any desired address. This is a very easy way for any person, young or old, to obtain a year’s subscription. We wish the twenty-five names for the sole purpose of distributing sample copies of YOUTH. They will be put to no other use, so that no one need have any hesitation in sending the list.
All persons who contemplate subscribing to YOUTH are urged to forward their names as soon as possible. While we are daily in receipt of many subscriptions, and have been since the first announcement of the magazine, yet we desire to increase our list to even a greater number.
Those persons who have not yet subscribed will, for the time being, receive all of the back numbers beginning with the first issue. This will enable them to obtain several extra copies without cost, and at the same time give them the opportunity of having all of the continued stories complete.
In order to encourage our readers to literary effort, we have decided to offer a cash prize of $100 for the best short story for young people, from one to five thousand words in length, suitable for publication in this magazine. Full particulars in regard to this offer will be found in the advertising pages of this issue. The offer is confined exclusively to subscribers of YOUTH, and we hope to see a large number of stories entered from them for competition.
In order to increase the circulation of YOUTH as rapidly as possible, we have decided to make some exceptional inducements to boys and girls to obtain subscriptions. The work can be done after school hours, and on Saturdays and holidays. The arrangement we make for doing the canvassing renders the work very agreeable, and the commission offered is so large that it cannot fail to be an inducement.