Harper's Weekly Title Page

On the front page of Harper’s Weekly, February 1, 1868, is a full page spread featuring the poetry of John Thompson. The poem is reminiscent of Anderson’s “The Little Match Girl” (1845) and it sits atop an illustration of the young boy in the poem. In both illustration and poem, the poor boy has succumb to the cold and died in front of a building. 

As previously argued, the sensational nature of the Victorian periodical and newspaper was directly associated with the middle-lower classes and “new” or “common” readership. Therefore, the accompanying literature, illustrations, and other materials included into each weekly instalment must adhere to the sensational or, at the least, be familiar in nature to those reading. This front page spread does both. By placing an image and story of a dying boy on the front page, the paper immediately recalls “shocking” or “horrifying” elements of sensationalism. Furthermore, they cater to the sensational material throughout Harper’s, and serve as a preface to other sensational fiction inside the newspaper, including The Moonstone. Secondly, the nature of the boy’s death- a lower class individual- would be a familiar story for many that had been touched by poverty or hard times during the Victorian era. By implementing the familiar and the sensational, Harper’s Weekly introduces itself as a newspaper that caters to the common reader.