"Mr. Spirit" and The Big Bear of Arkansas

N 1845, when William T. Porter proudly announced the begin1 ning of the fifteenth volume of his weekly sporting journal, the New York of the Times,' both he and his magazine stood at the threshold of a popularity till then unparalleled in the annals of American journalism.2 Affectionately known to thousands of Americans from Canada to the Mexican border as Mr. Spirit and the Tall Son of York, Porter had achieved such recognition as the fruit of his successful pioneering in a unique editorial field: for he had not only made the most emphatically a SPORTING PAPER . . . accredited for accuracy, for fulness and impartiality, but had also striven to elevate its character by associating with this peculiar feature the charms of Polite Letters, and the delights of Music and the Theatre.3 The Spirit, in short, had proved its worth as an entirely new and original American venture, a successful rival to Bell's Life of London: its widespread appeal was evident in the flood of encomiums that poured in from other journalists and private subscribers throughout the nation;4 and Porter was ready to advance its prestige and his own still further by becoming an anthologist and exploiting its contents in a series of volumes initiated by the publishing firm of Carey and Hart under the whimsical general title of the Library of Humorous American Writers

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