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25 April 1849 Prospectus Magazine for Ladies! The Subscriber, believing that the Ladies of Akron will look favorably on an effort made by one of their own sex, in their own town, to arrange for them and others an intellectual, literary bouquet, unexceptionable to the most refined taste and most exalted sense of virtue, and at so low price as to be within the reach of all, lays before them the proposed plan of a small Magazine to be called THE AKRON OFFERING, and printed once every month on good paper and with good type. The Offering will contain Original and Selected Tales, Poetry, Essays, &c., &c., besides remarks on various subjects connected with the welfare of mankind in general, whether they have not received the attention due from intelligent, accountable beings. There will be no list of contributors’ names proclaimed as an assurance of merit in its contents, there will be no Engravings or Fashion Plates, but the heart will be addressed in tones of sacred truth, and the mind, we will hope, will dwell with pleasure on the mental creations portrayed on its pages. Is thy home but varied beauty? A vision fair and bright; And dost thou love thy duty, And walk in heavenly light? This little work will seem to thee, A new and added tie, The Akron Offering 26 To bind in true humility, To Him who rules on high. Is daily life thy portion? In pleasures or in woes; Hast thou on life’s broad ocean, No haven of repose? This Offering will help thee, Though struggling to be blest, And point thee to Eternity, For everlasting rest. Is thy heritage, the anguish The wounded spirit feels? In sickness dost thou languish? Crushed by life’s ills; These pages shall awaken The thoughts that give the power To meet earth’s strife unshaken, And fit for death’s dark hour. To all, this lowly Offering In humble hope is made, That, while our efforts proffering, Its pages light will shed, That mutual good securing, Will gild each darkened path, And be a light enduring, When we shall sleep in death. Terms.—$1.00, to be paid on the delivery of the first number, which, if sufficient encouragement be given, will be issued in the month of May. No subscription received for less than one year. Calista Cummings.1 Akron, March 28, 1849. 1. This prospectus appears in Summit Beacon 10, no. 50 (April 4, 1849): 2. Cumings’ name is spelled variously in documents that name her. In the Offering, however, it almost always appears as “Cumings .” See n. 16, p. 10. ...

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