The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1875-02-14
A POI ular Catholic Question.
cleveland Catholic Universe. ]

licailohs are 1tiauVelY biSHfT I'D price tbaD
| Typographical work of corresponding kinds
ssued by secular concerns. The charge is
not true q" far as it relates to Catholic mag
| azin' s and newspapers, Which are SO cheap
that every Catholic who possesses even
very small income can easily afford to dis
| charge his duty ms n Catholic by becoming
n subscriber. But the charge is made re-
peatedly concerning the books offered by
Catholic publishers, aud the complaint ID
added to the charge that as the prices are
| relatively higher, the mechanical execution,
the paper and binding, are relatively
poorer. Especially are these allegations
lodged against prayer books, and other
volumes of u purely devotional character.
Are these charges truef IL they are, what
| are the underly ing causes.
The Catholic publishing concerns are
conducted on strictly business principles.
No business can be conducted otherwise.
Every book which publisher issues, he
prints at the least cost which will produce
a sa'eabIe work, and he sells at the largest
| figure which the market will bring. In
| calculating the latter, he naturally affi xes
the highest price to books which will reeve
sdrtly sell, in order to recover his losses on
unsuccessful risks. Pray er-books necessarily
sell. Hence Catholic publishers are COM
PEELED to charge more for pray err books in
the present mercantile condition of Catho-
lie literature, than they would if their gen
eral publications. were better received. Ii
a candid statement could be made of the
| profits and losses Oh current Catholic pub
locations, Catholics would have abundant
reasons for being heartily ashamed of
themselves, and instead of charging exor-
btance upon the publishers, would wonder
| how their respective houses have been
| maintained.
Here we turn the censure directly on the
Catholic consumers. Are they not aware
that the responsibility attaches to them
sally a hny a,,Et ha funf
that they pay the highest market prices
for the trash with which the Protestant and
| anti. Catholic houses flood the country, and
upon which those publishers recover their
losses on the better class of publications
! The standard, in art, in music, in general
| as in Catholic, literature, does not pay for
itself, and the worthless in each renders
| literally-double duty. The sonata and
the fugue could not be printed in the
United States if the "Put Me in my little
Bed were not on the counters to meet tho
| engravers' bills for both. The fine pictures
would all remain in Europe If our art deal
era did not make enough on home daubs to
carry the meritorious canvas. The sour
rilous Harpers raked in their fortune on
! their popular lies for Protestant ignorance,
and the Janus faced Appletons have saved
| enough on their fimsy and often indecent
| paper covered novels to float their encyclo
| pedias in which they balanced their absti-
| hence from sIandering the Catholic Church
| by pilipg the ISLANDERS doubly into their
meretricious Journal. No Catholic, unwil
| ling to be classified with Judas, should
purchase 1Iarpers' Weekly or Appletons'
Journals, or the novels issued by either.
| The Catholic publishers do not resort to
these tricks of the pit in order to catch
popular pennies, and the Catholics who re-
ward sCch trickely are rightly duped 10y
those who adopt it. Yet Catholics intel
ligcnt Catholics, possessing fair means and
| at least pretending to culture-reGlect and
| ignore the entertaining, books offered by
| their own houses, and give away, with
out any suggestion of cxnrhitance, what
ever sum Ia asked for criminal romance
and morbid doggrrel. The novels of Miss
| BIaddou, Mrs. Humcs, Mrs. Wood, Mrs.
S"uthwolth; The poetry of maudlin SEMI
mtnt bound in dainty covers and sold at
| fancy prices on the latter account these
may be seen in Catholic houses. Bat how
often do find Nine Swetchine, Eugenie
| de Guerin, Aubrey de We're, the author of
The House of I"rke,"-a novel of most
decided merit in the strict "novel sense
MeIiue's acute and delightful MARY Queen
OF Scots; :" Mrs. Sadlier's pure and grace
full romauces; those unsurpassed satires,
The Comedy of Convocotlon," and "My
Clerical Friends" TO which is Just added
brilliant third by the same author,
| "Protestant journalism )" "Songs of the
Southern Seaa" by John Boyle O'R.illy;
|
! Allen Srarr,--the latter An American writer
o. sweet and true VerAe who needs only to
be read order to be loved next after
Adelaide Proctor, whom abe strikingly re-
sen hes We instance only specimen
/ bocks- Catholic literature In the United
| StateA tains hundreds of volumes of a
| popular character which left almost
untouched on the book sellers shelves.
| The Catholic producers-author and pub
lisber-lose money on them aud the Cath
ole consumer goes to the shops of the
avowed assailants Of his faith for enter
taiDment at any price, leaving the former
unaskcd for. and declaiming in the same
hour against the high price of Catholic
! literature.
! Now, fellow Catholics, we ought to mend
our manners in these matters. II Catholic
publications are high, it is we who are to
blame. We are the "balls'' of our own
literary market. We insist on keeping the
prices up. The mcdium class of orr pub
lications-such as those we mentiou-are
as cheap as corresponding books, and very
little IT any money can be made on them.
When we support our publishers better,
th"y will give us finer work. When we