The Editor of the Daily Chronicle.

     Sir,--I have before me the Christmas numbers of two magazines--"Pearson's" and the "Windsor"--both to me rendered ugly and painful by being printed in various colors. About one-third of each of these magazines is printed--illustrations and letterpress--in red or reddish brown, a glaring green, or dull purple. The green and red, but especially the former, greatly detract from the beauty of the illustrations; while to read letterpress in these colors, sometimes printed alternately two pages of each color, is absolutely distressing to persons like myself whose eyes are not very strong, and must certainly be injurious even to those whose eyes are perfect. What advantages are supposed to compensate for these great disadvantages I cannot even conjecture; but in the name of good taste and common sense, I beg to protest against a method which renders illustrations offensive which might otherwise be beautiful, and makes reading a pain instead of a pleasure. --Yours faithfully,

Alfred R. Wallace.
Dec. 5.