Allyson Umstead

Victorian Literature
Webster-Garrett
April 11, 2016
Victorian Periodical- Critical Review
When looking for periodicals, I made my key term freak shows. I wanted to relate it to
my presentation. I was lucky enough to find an article with the full issue online. I found an
article titled A Lively Damsel's Freak which did not have an author published in The National
Police Gazette. Looking into this periodical, I found very interesting this about it that I am
excited to share. As I will state later on, I found that this article was not focused on freak shows
as much as I wanted it to be; however, I found it to be a very interesting article so I continued to
use it.
The magazine was started by two men in 1846. They were George Wilkes, who was a
journalist and Enoch Camp. Around this time, tabloids were starting to gain popularity. This was
a tabloid, in a sense, but a new kind of tabloid. The Gazettes early issues were dedicated to
giving extremely detailed crime narratives, and Wilkes and Camp claimed they printed the
magazine to help police officers recognize criminals and bring them to justice (McKay). So it
can be seen as sort of a Crime Times magazine too; however, it included more personal stuff
about people as well as pictures. Therefore, making it somewhat a tabloid. Wilkes and Camp,
eventually sold the rag to former New York City police chief George Washington Matsell in
1856 (McKay). Matsell made major changes to the magazine. He made it more like a tabloid
because he included sex scandals, affairs, etc. Matsell is also the one that included all of the

illustrations. I guess earlier issues had none or very small images. He also expanded coverage.
This is probably how it went from the States to Canada, to other countries.
However, the editor changed still in 1866 when Matsell could no longer afford it. The
magazine went downhill, Things quickly changed, though, when a scrappy Irish immigrant
named Richard Kyle Fox joined the magazines team (McKay). So I am thinking that he was
the editor over the publication that I read. It is crazy how many changes and editors that this
gazette went through. According to the McKays, Fox came from Ireland and just sold the
Gazette desperate for a job. He worked hard and in a year was managing the business. He finally
was able to buy the magazine back in 1877, this means he bought back the magazine right before
the issue I read (from 1879) was published. Fox knew what the people wanted, and gave it to
them. Crime, gossip, sex, and sports.
The National Police Gazette had been around for quite a while. This particular issue was
already volume number 71. It was published in New York on Saturday February 1, 1879. It was
published weekly starting in 1846. The issue I found said that it had cost 10 cents. Postage was
free for people in the United States or Canada, anyone else had to pay. This show that this paper
was popular all over the world. Which means it had many Victorian readers. I think it was more
targeting a political standpoint. It covered mostly crimes that had been committed and major
events that were happening. I think people would subscribe to this just too always be updated on
the news going on around them. According to the McKays, this paper was, Americas first
hugely popular mens magazine. To me, this is very true. It was a very male centered magazine
for a male centered audience. It was all for men and what they would want to read about. The
example to McKays give is that it is like Sports Illustrated today. Foxs prime, target audience
was the young, single, and urban male. Under Fox is when we see more of a Sports Illustrated

type magazine with multiple pictures of sexy women. He was also one of the first to include
sports articles, which is something I did not know.
Browsing through the full periodical, the font is not very fancy. It is easy to read. Right
off the bat, the first page only contains the title and a picture of a woman sitting burlesque like in
a chair. There are four columns per page. There are many shorter stories relating to sports,
women, crimes, etc. There seems to possibly be some serialized stories in it. There was one huge
advertisement in the middle of the periodical on pages 8 and 9. It was for a dance happening in
NYC on a Monday night. It included men dressed up very nicely. Then the women were in very
risqu outfits. Even more so catering to the male audience. There was a whole section of
advertising at the end. The advertisements were sorted by amusements, medical, and
miscellaneous. The only down side is that even with the PDF of the article, I still could not really
make out exactly what any of the ads were for. I think I saw one for a sport theater, a medical
one for manhood, for a shop with ties as well as a tailor, one for stocks on Wall Street, and one
for playing cards. All very masculine advertisements. The article I had picked was unfortunately
not completely about freak shows like I was hoping. But the certain segment I had picked was
about a painting found with a deformed woman on it. People were not sure what to think of this
painting, but it hung in a famous hall for people all over to see. The artist was asked to change
the painting, to make it appear more normal, and the subject objected declaring she was happy
with who she was.
As stated before, I believe this periodical is for a younger man. Someone who is still
single and maybe successful. He would be interested in crimes, sex, and sports. I think this
magazine did not survive because of funding. I also think that there are now so many magazines
just like this one, there is no need to revive it in print. However, it was a good magazine so the

older issues are easily accessible. I did not see many authors names throughout the periodical,
but it was harder to see/ read the PDF print. I think this mostly reflected crime and mystery
writings. It was a very well loved magazine until it declined and then stopped publication in the
1900s; however, there are still websites promoting its content and trying to still keep it alive:
http://policegazette.us/. This websites statement for being up is as follows,
The Police Gazette is a legendary publication that originally ran for over 130 years and
was the inspiration for much of what we take for granted in today's popular
culture. Playboy, Sports Illustrated, the National Enquirer, Guinness World
Records, Life, Esquire,Maxim, Backstage, crime sheets like The Slammer, plus The Daily
Show, Colbert Report, Howard Stern.... The list goes on; the Police Gazette did it first. So
why call it the "National POLICE Gazette?" Because it also invented the John Walsh
show America's Most Wanted. Today, the Police Gazette is back. We publish new content
online and put out compilations of classic content from the past (Mays).
As I stated before, it influenced many masculine magazines of today. It was widely popular, so it
is no shock to me that it came back. This site even sells merchandise of the periodical. It was a
very interesting revival of this periodical.
The original magazine is set up with a bunch of stories, followed by pages of huge
pictures. Crime stories and statements filled the first page completely. The next page had
serialized crime stories and ghost stories. Next page had huge pictures and crime stories, same
with the page after that then sports stories followed. Simple layout, easy for men to find what
they wanted to read. The basic format is crime stories and pictures, one big ad, sports stories and
pictures, smaller ads. So, the text works, simply. It is probably about the same in every issue
which makes it easy to navigate. The language in this periodical actually was not too hard for

me. It is mostly the way we read and write today. Some words are different, but all in all, I could
read the whole periodical without a problem.

Works Cited
Mays, William A. "National Police Gazette." National Police Gazette - Official Site. National
Police Gazette Enterprizes, 2007. Web. 12 Apr. 2016.
McKay, Brett, and Kate McKay. "America's First Popular Men's Magazine: The National Police
Gazette | The Art Of Manliness." The Art of Manliness. N.p., 30 Apr. 2013. Web. 11 Apr.
2016.