Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1868-04-08
NOVELS AND THEIR READERS.

This is an age of novels. Broadly
speaking, we might say that half the peo-
pie write novels, and all the people read
them. There are some exceptions, how
lever. There are a few who have, unhap-
PLY, no taste for the finest and truest life
pictures ever wrought out by writer's of
fiction. There are others who, whatever
! their taste. may be, avoid this class of
writings from d mistaken sense of duty.
We say mistaken, because in almost every
case those who cond mn novels are PERI
sons who have a great desire to instruct
and improve their fellows Now, most
I,of those they wish to benefit are permeat-
ed, saturated, with novels Fiction and
its results are wrought into the very
fibers Of their being. He who would
reach them most know something Of the
material in which he would work, and
| without being familiar with fiction, and
its effect upon the mind, he cannot have
knowledge Of average human nature
He is ilI-itted for his vocation as a car
I pen ter would be for his if he were ignor-.
ant Of the properties Of wood and iron. u 3
| The Saturday Revielo tells US that fifty
novels find readers in England for one
that was read in the beginning of. the
century. The great aim of publish. ers is
to supply such works as are IN demand,
and a high authority among them, Will
liam Chambers, states that the proportion
of works published in England for gen
I.eral reading is about twenty entertaining
volumes to ten which are, aVowedly! Ia
Istructive, and one which is immoral or
irreligious, The officers Of the New York
Mercantile Library have been in the hab-
Fit Of buying different classes of works ID
proportion to the. demands of their sub
scribers, and their purchases. offction are
not fully seventy-five, per cent. of the
whole for the year The report of the
Boston public library for 1867 tells US
that in its lower hall, which is its popular
department, every work of fiction gets, on
the average, seventeen readers year,
while the average of other works is only
four readers each, Indeed In the Ameri
can Athens the public taste on this sub.
ieet is not onl7 marked but capricious.
For instance, during the past year the
novelist who secured the highest number
OF readers per volume vas Mrs Caroline
Lee Hentz, while the single volume in
greatest demand was the "Midshipman
Easy of Captain Mafryatt. We eau
GLAD to add that only second in the list of
favorites was Hawthorne's "Mosses from
an Old Manse :" while the bound volumes
of Harper's Hohthly, Notwithstanding its
immense circulation among subscribers,
distanced all competitors among mere
collections of miscellany. " -.
1t is idle to say that our young people,
shall not read novels. They do and will.
lrue, some of these tempting works ara
good, some bad, and many Indifferent,
but that is equally true ofthe houses we.
live in, the air we breathe, the water we
drink. Out of such materials as we can
gather, imperfect as they doubtless are,
our physical and moral future must be
built, and the work of choosing the good
and rejecting the evil is at once discip-
line and test. A thistle and a straw
berry will both flourish in arichly manur-
ed soil, the one drawing the high flavor
Of its delicious fruit from the strength
that the other perverts into priekles and
pestiferous seeds. We must substitute
good novels for bad ones, just as in our
gardens we substitute choice fruits and
Vegetables for worthless weeds. The
deepest lessons in life have been embod-
led in the narrative form; the prophet.
Nathan clothed in fiction lskeen rebuke
to David, and our Say; or yelled ,in'para-
bles imperishable5 truth Ard for those
whose welfare is dear to us, let us echo
the petition "We pray not that Thou
shouldst take them out of the world , but
that Tnou shouldst keep them from evil"
90 MARK, lhWAIN'S TURKISH LUNCH II
never vAnt another one, .r The cooking
apparatus was In the little lunch con room
near the bazaar, and ii. was all open to the
street. The cook was, dirty, and SO was
the table, and it had no cloth on it. The
fellow took mass Of sausage meat and
coated it round a wire II and laid it on a
char coal fire to cook. When it was done
he laid it aside, and a dog walked sadly
up and nipped it, He smelt it first, and
probably recognized the remains Of a
friend. The cook took it away from him
and laid it before u.s.. Brown said, Il
pass.'l7g He plays euchre sometimes and
we all passed In return. Then the cook
baked broad, fat wheaton cake, creased
it we'll with the sausage and started to
bring it to US, 1t dropped in the d.;trt,
and be picked itup and polished i on the
seat of his breeches aud laid, IT before us
Brown said, Il pass We all nassea and