Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1886-07-30
THE READING HABIT.
m the New York Evening Post,

1
In the hearing in January last before the
committee Of the Senate ON the copyright bill
introduced by Senator Hawley, there was a
good deal said about the rapid decline in the
demand for American books under the COM
petition Of the cheap reprints of all sorts of
books by the American pirates, Henry Holt
added.
This is not the whole question. 1t is rap
idly becoming question whether with rare
exceptions we are going to have any serious
books at all. Consider this moment the
competition of books issued by these cheap
libraries Is ruinous to all books that are nor
in these cheap Libraries. lt is not question:
of the competition of an English book whlSh
is reprinted for 20 cents, with the same euI
ton OF book which is reprinted Tor doiiar.
1t ia the competition OF this cheap reauinS
matter that u man can pick up and throw
away with all the substantial books Ii Is
ruining the sale OF ali books. IL Is not rum
ing the sale merely of books of fiction, or the
sale of mere trash
He then cited as an illustration the failure |
in the American market of Sir Henry |
Names two or three last books, the early |
ones having sold very well, and continued
sln the old days of trade courtesy the pet |
extravaganza of many a substantial citizen in |
an out ot-the-way place, was to step in the
bookstore OF an evening, glance over the stock
and take something substantial home in a
shape which he could hand down to his |
children and his children's children. Now,
except in favored places, there is no book
store Tor him to go to. Its place is taken by
a toy shop, with few school books IN one
corner aud great counter full of cheap
pamphlets. The book buying habit is dying
out 1t was never confined to those who
read. Books are largely bought by people
who fancy books, who take them home in
tending to read, but don't"
The complaint now comes from England
that even the novels are no longer selling
well that there is "no money even in
| cheap reprints OF very popular ones. We re-
Sattt los lnrfr in a
| F0rfHiqANy RCricIr by Mr.. Alexander lnnes
| Shsnd over the great depression in the tic-
| ton market, and proposing as remedy the
issue of first editions even in cheap paper
covered form, as an experiment If it or
something like il, does not succeed, "sooner
or later" he says, some future anualist
will have to write the history of the decline
and fall of English felton,"
We have ourselves little doubt that the de-
cline in serious reading, which Mr.. Holt
says interferes with the sale of solid works
Is now to be witnessed in continuous reading
of any kind, and that it is from this that
novels in a book form are suffering. To
| read a book-any book whstever-with pleas
ure or even comfort the attention has to be
| so disciplined that it can pursue one line of
| thought for at least 8u hour or two. Keep
l ing ones mind on a book Of any kind needs
practice, just as much as keeping ones mind
| on a speech or sermon. The capacity for lis
| tening well is now rarely found except among
| Judges and lawyers, and even among the
l IL
| influence of printed briefs and arguments.
| But il has to be cultivated in order
to be either attained or retained, as
| everybody knows who only occasionally
| goes to hear sermon or lecture. The un-
| trained attention runs hither and thither
| like a restless child, and nothing but a very
| determined effort of the will keeps II fixed
| on the words of the orator or wards oil sleep,
in which, again like restless child, it is very
| apt 10 take refuge on the slightest approach
| Of fatigue. Curiously enough, too the iEcs-
! pacity for sustained attention or mental effort
| is one of the most marked characteristics of
| the savage as distinguished from the civilized
| man. All who have had to do with the say.
| age in any part Of the world testify that the
| difficulty In communicating new ideas TO him
| is the difficulty In getting him to listen long
| on any one subj lect His mind is as prone to
| wander rs that of child.
The capacity for reading book-that Is for
| keeping the mind fixed on one argument or
| narrative for period more or less prolonged
| has always in modern times been much more
| widespread than the capacity for listening,
| owing to the fact that We all get our earliest
| mental training through books. AS long,
| too, as books were the only sources OF enter
| tainment and large numbers OF more or less
4 | cultivated people lived In the country, and
, | there were no newspapers or other periodi'
| Gals, and few amusements, and travel was
rare and expensive, the habit OF reading was
| kept up But there is great reason to fear
| that, what with the ewspapers and the maya.
| zines, and the art galleries, and the museum,
3 l the theatres, and facility with which We can
a | get other people to gossip with us when we
| are both idle and lazy, the number of those
| who can or ever do read book, even a novel,
! even poor novel, il rapidly declining In
, / fact we fear that any one who inquired
| among his friends, outside the professors
and professional literary men, would lind that
l the number OF those who now ever read a
| serious book OF any kind was exceedingly
| small, and that those who read even novels is
7 growing smaller. Most men who have not
kept up the habit OF reading in fact, go to sleep
| over a serious book almost Immediately, and
throw down novel after few
| pages if the plot does not thicken
rapidly, or the incidents are few. The
| thoughtful novel, such as George Eliots,
| filled with reflection and speCulations, would
} fare much worse now even coming from an
| author of her powers, than it did thirty years
ago The newspaper, in truth, is fast form
ing the mental habits of this generation, and
even this is getting to be too heavy, unless
| the articles or extracts are very short The
| reader begins more and more to resent being
| asked 10 keep his attention fixed on any
| one subject tor more than five minutes.
l In short any one who fiatters himself
| during the busy years of an active career,
| when he does no reading bat newspaper
| reading, that he is going to become a reader
| of hooks at a later PERIOD when he gets more
| leisure, may rest assured that he is greatly
| mistaken. When leisure comes he will find
| that a serious book will tire him or send him
/ asleep in ten minutes, just as a dumb bell
| would tire a long unused arm. To be able to
| read continuously for long periods at any
time Of life, just as to be able TO row, or walk,
| or ride, one must keep in practice year after
| year, by doing more or less OF 1t every day
| or at least every week. The man who finds
| that he shrinks from a book and longs for a
| Sunday paper, may feel as sure that he is
| mentally out of condition" as the athlete
| who cannot bear to leave his easy chair with.
| out a cocktail.
The falling off in the practice of book buy
| ing, even among those who mean TO read but
| do not, of which Mr.. Holt speaks, we think
| is due in considerable degree to the superior
attractions of what we may call other kinds
| OF furniture. For books, whether old or new,
| are to the collector-that is to the man who
| buys books without seriously meaning to
read them, and without feeling much interest
, | in what they contain--books are furniture
rather than literature. Thirty years ago, be-
| fore the aesthetic movement, that is, before the
, | days OF "art and bric-a- brac in the country,
, | substantial citizen" who had made money
and wanted to show 1t ordered library
as matter of course when furnishing
, his new house. 1t filled some of the vast
spaces on the walls of his parlor, which in
those days the upholster who used to be
wholly occupied with the carpets tables, and
} | chairs, did not reach. Moreover il fell in with
the traditions of the time, when not only in
New England, but all along the seaboard, a
gentleman was expected.to have a library, and
there were sets OF books which every gentle