The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-08-02

pire" in the Pau Hd1 GdSotee'-
Newspapers were already counting thou
sands of readers whore but a rev years peiore
tbev numbered only hundreds, and editors
,,,oro trying TO outbid each other in public
favor 6v the number and quality OF their
fonilletons For considerable time the
feuilleton. or serial tale, was deemed the most
important part of French paper. The bour-
oeois and his wife cared much more for the
Ingenious novel, eked out in daily doses OF
three columns, than for the brilliant Leading
article or the palpitating column OF JDstS
Ulcers. 1t used to be calculated during the
reign of Louis Philippe that a feuilleton
signed ''Alexandre Dumas" raised the crcula-
ton of paper by at least 3OOO and during
the time that the Journal des De6dtS pub
lished the 'NTysteres de Paris" by Eugene
Sue, the sale of that journal was more than
uuadrupled. OF course, the Introduction OF
the feuilleton produced an astonishing mum
Der of bad as well as good writer's; but, taken
all in ALL the French novelists OF twenty
years ago were body of men emlnently SUI
perior in point of talent to those OF the pre-
sent day One of the reasons OF this IS that
the class of novel-readers was better then
than now. Artisans and workmen had not
vet begun to read these works of fiction with
which the one sou newspaper has since faml-
Earized them Those who read the feullletons
were the bourgeois, who were necessarily more
exacting than untaught readers can be. Crit
cism. too, had not yet become the meaning
less thing to which French journalists of the
Second Empire have reduced it. Gustave
Planche Cuvillier Fleury, Saint-Marc Cir
ardn, and Sainte Beuve were all literary
Judges of rare merit, whose opinions were
esteemed, and whose censorship excited dread
enough to keep authors in subjection to the
laws of good taste, good style, and common
sense. But 1913 came, literature was swamped
for time in politics, and when the storm
cleared away and literature rose again to the
surface it was under new conditions, in new
atmosphere, and for a new class of people.
Politics were completely hushed journalists
had chains to their pens. The serious, respect
able newspapers might be counted on the fin
gers; the frivolous prints devoted to what was
called literature that's, to scandal nonsense,
and gossip were numbered by the hundreds.
Universal suffrage had been proclaimed the
people-not much wiser, perhaps, nor m ore
intelligent than their fathers, but nevertheless
more proud and more einquisitive-were begin
ing to ask the why and wherefore of things.
Theywere learningto read They were anxious
for q certain semblance ofinstruction, and they
wanted to have their newspapers like richer
folk Had liberty of the press existed, good
and cheap papers might have been founded,
as in England, to disseminate sound instruc-
ton and healthy opinions on political ques-
tiOns but the six centime stamp prevented
this. With q restrictive code of press regula-
tions, such as that which the second empire
had introduced, it was impossible to bring out
a good political paper under three-half-pence
(town price, or two-pence Country price,.
This suggested to certain capitalists the idea
of starting the halfpenny paper, giving no
political news, but crammed full of police
reports and details of murders, and rendered
h,o int inc oll laf
relating the prowesses of escaped convicts.
OF course the innovation succeeded. The
halfpenny papers, daubed with the lucubra-
tions of NJ Tonson du Terrail or M. Emile
Gaboriau, sold by the half million, and the
more expensive papers, enticed by the success
of their cheap rivals, took their cue from
them and launched out into the same kind of
literature; the only difference being that, in
stead of describing the achievements of po-
pular heroes like Rocambole, they addressed
themselves to more polished sympathies, and
spoke of swindling in high life, seduction,
abduction, and, above all, adultery. The in
evitable result of this movement was that
French novelists soon came to be divided into
two classes numbering about an equal number
of adopts, viz.-those who catered for the
upper classes, and those who contracted for
the lower. Needless to say that these
categories mutually despised each other;
the latter calling themselves educators
of the people" because, after making their
cutthroat hero triumph in two hun
dred and siXty-seven chapters, they
hanged him in the two hundred and sixty
eighth; and the former styling themselves
''realists," or characteristics, because in
describing Objectionable scenes they took care
to leave out nothing of what ought to have
been suppressed. To say that French novels
are more immoral at the present time than
they ever were before is to say nothing, for
French novelsts have never at any period
plumed themselves upon that kind of morality
which is required in England. But the
novelists Of the second empire are more
cynically immoral than their predecessors.
In the works of fiction written by authors of
other generations, one finds chapters enough
which might well have been left out: but in
almost every case one feels that these chapters
must have been written naively, without any
fixed intention of shocking, and that the Ian
guage Of them is such as was tolerated by the
usages of the day. But there is no excuse of
the sort to be alleged in defense of the French
novelists of the present time. Propriety
and decorum were never so loudly preached,
nor, on the whole, so universally practised as
they are nowadays. When, therefore nv
friend M. Louis de Rose applies his graphic
mind to the portrayal of incidents such as
could form the topic of no conversation out
OF Mabille or the Casino Cadet, it is evident
that he goes out of his way to do this, and
that his only object is to give to his novels
that strong flavor of patchouI which will en-
sure them a sale. Nevertheless, M. Louis de
Rose whose works adorn the table of every
boudoir in Paris, passes in the world for a
man OF stainless principle, and possesses
very lofty ideas as to the dignity of his
profession. He is decorated, is in high
favor at Court. is one of the committee of