The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1878-10-24
The Daily and the Dime Novel.

There is marked tendency, long since
and many times noticed, toward the dis
placement of the monthly magazine and the
daily newspaper. All topics of interest are
now taken up and ably if somewhat hastily
treated by the Journal. The latest theory of
Darwin, the yesterdays discovery by Edison,
the most recent brilliant failure of Joseph
Cook to reconcile science and the old theolo.
gy. the newest views entertained by Ruskin
of the relations between art and morality, the
freshest calculations furnished by Bismarck
or Disraeli of the mysterious art of statecraft,
all these are first made known through
and commented upon and discussed by the
daily paper. When Proctor discovers a
planet, he hastens TO announce his discov-
cry through the press; when Huxley
successfully conducts an experiment demon
strating anew the fallacy of the theory
of spontaneous generation, he giyys
the result to the first enterprising reporter
who calls upon him; when Stanley crosses
Africa and finds new nations and strange
rivers he furnishes the account Of his explor-
ations to daily paper; when SchIiemann
unearths the long buried city of Ulysses he
telegraphs the story of his delving to some
London journal that acquaints the whole
world with it the next morning. Story,
essay, sermon, scientific treatise, satire upon
manners and morals, all seek the newspaper.
By the time the monthly or quarterly get
round to these things they are old, and have
been so generally discussed that people begin
to tire Of them.
Indeed so enlarged has become the scope
of the newspaper, that until very recently,
but two departments of literature, the drama
and the dime novel, have been neglected by
it. To-day the drama is the only thing left
uninterrupted by the daily. The New York
Herald, in certain respects the foremost and
in many the most enterprising Of American
journals, has usurped the functions of the
dime.novelist. and with its wonted sagacity
aud alert appreciation of the needs of the
readingpublic, enters the field and fairly con-
tests for the palm with Beadle and Munroe.
Last Saturday it began the publication Of an
exciting and sensational story, The Red
Warriors of the Bayou or the Creoles of the
Crescent State, (this title.is no. to be found In
the headlines, but will doubtless be given to
the work when it appears in book form.) a
story that exhibits all the extravaganza of
imagination, disregard of probabilities, calm
ignoring of facts, gorgeous rhetoric, that char
acterize and distinguish the tales with which
the Messrs. Beadle and Munroe and their
many rivals and followers, have so long de-
lighted the American public. The scene of
the story is in Louisiana, and the character.
are masked men with blood-curdling titles
who take terrible oath upon penalty of
death, and do the bidding of their dread
chief without question. They are sworn to
carry out their purposes at all hazards, and
undertake arson, murder and even ballot.box
stuffing to accomplish their ends. In COM
pliance with the catholic spirit of the times
and as becomes an independent journal the
Herald pictures the Red Warriors as admit
ting men to the oath-bound organization
without regard to their previous political SER
vitude. The movement is entirely non.par.
tisan.
The Herald is to be heartily congratulated
upon the success of its attempt to introduce
the dime-novel into journalism. The cap
tious critic may, perhaps, be able to pick
flaws in the romance, but the faults are
those incident to the necessary haste of news
paper work. On the whole the incursion in
to this new field can be commended as bril-
liant triumph. The Herald, too, with a
sharp commercial sense and a commendable
recognition Of the inability Of the people to
pay high prices these hard times, undersells
Its bloated rivals. A dime is no longer asked
The Red Warriors Of the Bayou is for sale at
newsdealers' for four cents copy.
But one more triumph remains for the
Herald to achieve. 1t has discovered Liv-
ingstone and introduced the dime novel into
the columns of the daily paper. Let it now
bend its energies to the journalization of
the drama.