* * * * * OUR OWN ARTISTS ABROAD.—In order to keep the high position of this Magazine, as a work of art, fully up to the standard it has attained, we have sent our excellent engraver and designer, W. E. Tucker, Esq., to Europe to make careful drawings of such subjects as he may find upon the walls of the Academies, or in private collections, and to engage such American artists as he may find abroad, who may be useful in carrying out our grand design of being _the first to introduce new subjects to the American eye_. Our cotemporaries content themselves with re-engraving stale prints which may be found in the windows, or in using such cast-off English plates as may be offered here cheap; but the vast circulation and profit of this work returns to our readers in such liberal arrangements to keep them advised of the freshest and most beautiful works of art as may be found in the wide range of the world. For several years our Fashion Plates have been brought freshly from Paris, and their beauty of design and coloring has been the subject of universal praise. Now, by having _our own artists_ employed, both abroad and at home, we not only defy competition, but laugh at it. * * * * * THE NEW VOLUME.—With the next number we commence a new volume of Graham’s Magazine, which, we do not hesitate to promise our readers shall be one of rare excellence and beauty. Our past volume, closing with this number, was exhausted very early, and we have consequently been obliged for two months past to refuse all orders for the work from January last. We shall therefore furnish our subscribers with a title page for the coming volume in our next issue. All our arrangements for the next six months are perfected, and from July to December our readers may expect a succession of brilliant numbers in every respect. Our increase for the past six months has been unexampled, and with the steady flow of new names, coming with every mail, we look forward to being compelled greatly to amplify our means of producing our edition. Our printers now run their presses both night and day—keeping us frequently waiting for copies to supply the demand. Hoe certainly must invent a _book-press_ to run 10,000 per hour for us, and at our demise we shall leave him the copyright of Graham. * * * * * RIVALS.—We see a great deal about the rivals of Graham, going the rounds in the way of paid notices. Does the oldest inhabitant remember a time when such notes were not given out? We have a brood of these rivals, freshly fledged every spring, who die somehow of the praise of the penny-a-liners in literature, Snooks has an article in the “Great Monthly Thundergust,” calculated to make a noise.