Understanding that Mr.Beecher's sermons might give a partial and denominational tone to the magazine, Edward arranged to publish also in its pages verbatim reports of the sermons of the Reverend T.De Witt Talmage, whose reputation was then at its zenith.

The young editor now realized that he had a rather heavy cargo of sermons to carry each month; accordingly, in order that his magazine might not appear to be exclusively religious, he determined that its literary contents should be of a high order and equal in interest to the sermons.

But this called for additional capital, and the capital furnished was not for that purpose.
It is here that Edward's autographic acquaintances stood him in good stead.

He went in turn to each noted person he had met, explained his plight and stated his ambitions, with the result that very soon the magazine and the public were surprised at the distinction of the contributors to _The Brooklyn Magazine_.

Each number contained a noteworthy list of them, and when an article by the President of the United States, then Rutherford B.Hayes, opened one of the numbers, the public was astonished, since up to that time the unwritten rule that a President's writings were confined to official pronouncements had scarcely been broken.