Lexington weekly intelligencer. (Lexington, Mo.) 1871-1887, 1873-08-13


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The Needing e tho People.
IN ibis are of general. education Il
i, an ifnpcetAnt question. what,io the
neonle fssas II We desire 10 know
thc quality Of bone, flesh and even the
color Of animals, from the mobiles.
creature TO the tinicst insect, We
must fad Quit food on WHICH the!
feed. So, if we desire to ascertain
what the masses are becoming, NOR
ally, intellectually, socially, POLITICAL
" aud oven physically, we hAvt
only to find cut what Kind Of litera.
turc they love most.to read.
First, we must inquire what sort
Of books find most ready sale-wha'
are most sought after IN our public
libraries. II we r to be guided by
the statistics on this subject, we con-
fsss they are far from satisfactory.
ltappears from an investigation made
ID regard to the character Of the
works taken out Of our various pub
lie libraries, that the great mass of
The books read are noeels, and ofthese
the most read are novels almost I'M.
known to cultivated people even by
name. They are not Scott, Thackeray
or even Dickens, but the call is for the
writings Of such authors as Mrs.
Carolipe LeeIIentz, Mrs. Southworth
or Sylvanus Cobb, etc. 1t seems
that while Thackcray is called for
M Mrs. HEATH is called for ten
times; where Dickens is inquired for
fifteen tiMcs, Mrs.@S0uthworth is
wanted seeeRty-Sfr. Where Oliver
Goldsmith has one reader, Sylyanus
Cobb finds one hundred in America.
The last "dime novel" will be read
by more in the next twelve months
than any one of Thackeray's since it
was printed. The great historians,
who furnish the land marks and charts
for the world to steer by, are neglect
ed and left to rest OIL the shelves.
The essayists, from Addison down.
are undisturbed. All the great poets,
such as Milton, Shakespeare, Cowper,
Thompson and even Burns, the poet
of the people, with a host of others,
are unread. The demand is for these
novels. Like a people emerging from,
b%arbarism, the story is the first liter
atare, and a story, too, like tho Arab
tale, which requires no thought or
exercise OF the faculties ; and if by
chance there should occur a passasO
giving moral or pointing All incident
requiring reflection or thought, il is
skipped for the thread Of the story.
The mind seeks to deal with mere
fancy, which never existed oris likely
to exist oil sea or land.
Then there is q literature eagerly
devoured, not properly called books.
1t is not the literature which the
enlightened critics take account oS
and which cultivated people know
about, and which is enjoyed and read,
whose authors + among II best
living poets, historians, sssayists, aid
novelists; but a literature which lies
far below this, and las nothing in
common with it ; a literature which is
beneath criticism, and seldom finds
insertion in respectable magazines or
reviews, of which the Ledger is 4
specimen. They cmanate from the
story igrinders, aud bear the same
relation to literature that the street
organ-grinders do to good music;
=xsenusSysTahus Cobb, or airasd1niffni
with ascrank, turned by a small boy,
calling itself "Oiiter Optic" till the
story drops ont to order.
lido not speak now of floods of
vicious literature which shock the
moralities and poison the streams of
popular literature. This occupies a
strata lower still ; butt I'M speaking
now of the stuff OH which h e.:nasses
Of reading people feed, which is mere.
~ imbccilc, meaningless twsddle, an
outrage on human life and the Eng
lish lagguage. This is the kind OF
literature read and demanded, and
because off our press groans day aud
night, our news-stands III burdened
and our highways are flooded, and
even our mail weighed down. in
The wake of these arc hundreds OF
editors of daily and weekly newspa-I
pcrs, who, taking advantage of this
public thirst for the marvellous, the
exciting, tie unreal, and even the
vicious, like scavengers, furnish to or
der the low paragraph, the indecent
insiuuation, the low jest, to provoke a
smile-endeavoring to bring into rid
icule our most sacred thoughts and
hottest associations. These caro- but
little about elevating the masses.
Like ,comorauts they fatten ION
the public malady and boldly glory
in their shame.
Aud what is the result, then, ofour
people having learned to read? Why,
MS the Arab sits by. the nightly fire
of his cncampment and listens to
some wild story of impossibility, SO
the young men aud women Of Amer
ca who al read, get the exciting
story from some library, newsstand
or railway news-boy, and sit e%ntranc-
ed and Intoxicated over the lamp
light, Or beneath the broad light of
heaven. Is this the effect of having
taught our people 10 read? Is this
what We call education? Is this
training likely TO assist the rising
generation to sustain our free institu-
lions, defend our liberties, and to hold
fast to our Bible religion?
While it is well that we have taught
several millions of people to read, wo
have done very little to i'm
i