to say that _Punch_ has of late years been steadily losing its
reputation, but the truth of the statement seems at least doubtful; and
however this may be, indubitably _Punch_ is yet the foremost comic
weekly. Though it depends in the main upon a regular staff, its doors are
not locked against the outside contributor. Second, _Judy_ (recently
edited by a woman), _Fun_, _Moonshine_, and _Pick-Me-Up_ (one penny).
Like _Punch_, all these papers, except _Pick-Me-Up_, are noticeably
conservative in their policies, and continue to move in the old grooves.
They do not, I imagine, offer much opportunity to the outside contributor.
_Pick-Me-Up_ devotes itself to the humour of the music-hall, and is
probably not largely beholden to women for its sprightliness. Third, the
halfpenny organs of wit, represented by _Comic Cuts_, and twenty other
sorts of _Cuts_. If a woman considers herself destined for the
comic press, her wisest course is to collaborate with an artist. A joke
may be the best and most original joke in the world, but it will not
have a very safe chance of acceptance unless it is illustrated. The
illustration _per se_ may be without talent; no matter; mediocre
pictures have certainly been instrumental in selling innumerable jokes.
And as with jokes, so with "skits," satires, and parodies: the writer
must combine with the artist if success is to be reached.

Monthly magazines divide themselves into three classes:--First, the purely
popular,--_Strand, Ludgate, Pearson's, Windsor, Woman at Home, Lady's
Realm,_ &c. Second, the high-class general,--_Blackwoods'_, _Pall Mall_,
_Macmillans' Cornhill_, _Longmans'_, &c. Third, the reviews,--
_Nineteenth Century_, _Contemporary_, _Fortnightly_, _National_, and
_Westminster_. Of these three classes, the aspirant is likely to succeed
best with the second, since the first demands names of renown, and the
third either expert knowledge, scholarship, or high technique.