, 1888-08-12
LIGHT LITERATURE.
fleets OF THE CONTINUED CON.
SUMPTION OF TRASHY STORIES.


suits Cheap Libraries.
Persons very fond Of reading. but with
a;tlrspare time to indulge their taste, who
visit u narrow shop near one of tho de
FartmeIts, are apt to come away with II
severe attack of the blues. The shelves.
counters. and even the floor of the shop
are chocli full of pretty nearly all the wis
dom Of the ancients and Wit of the mod
c,uS, done M in elegant but hUudily
20, ketable paper bound packages, which
soil at from ten to twenty cents each. Tho
shop. in fact, is II sort of headquarters FOR
tho cheap libraries now SO numerous. and
which are said to be doing great damage
to the more p]retentiuus branches of the
look trade,
Here, for 50, a careful person can pur-
chase u library more extensive and better
than was ever owned by many Il man
whom the world calls great and wise.
History, biography, poetry, philosophy,
science, literature and romance are min
glcd in b~ewilderiug confusion and pro.
fusion. A glance at the titles If the
famous works piled on shelf and counter
nils one with despair of ever being abe to
read them all, SO numerous are they mud
yet they nre 50 cheap that a person with
the reading habit feels ashamed not to
buy an armful and rush of to his den to
AtNbhA AhtlLA III bllNtH
I'VE have several customers who read
two and Three books "a day " the pruprie
tor said to AN inquisitive reporter. Ono
man in particular used to come in regu
larly every other or third day and carry
OIL each time from six to eight volumes
He didn't appear particular about what
he read, but took them just as they cane
He kept it up week after week, too lie
had Il place In the interior department
but was discharged not long ago"
The proprietor didn't intimate that there
WIS any connection between the mans
reading habits aud the loss OF his position.
but it struck he reporter that there
might be.
A BOOK a DAY.
There are plenty of people WHO aver
age a book a day, month in aud month
out" the proprietor continued. These
people are mostly novel readers, of course
Ii gets to be Il passion with them, like
anything else, and they give all their
spare time to it. If they can't get hold
of II now story as soon as they nave fin
ished the old one they don't know what
to do with themselves and are miserable
like a tippler whose rations nave been
cut off or a morphine eater who can get
the drug"
"Do you notice much difference in the
class of stories preferred by men and wU
mem" the reporter asked.
No, | cant say that | do. The women
don't seem to be especially fond of love
stories. In fact, some women who come
here won't read owe stories or novels
written by women. They prefer the dc.
tectivs stories and mysteries Of Du Bots.
gobey and Garboriau and Zola's highly
favored stuff. q. w. NJ. Reynolds sen
%sational romances used to have IL big sale,
but they aren't in as much demand US
they were"
Haven't the cheap libraries hurt the
sensational story papers II great dealy' the
reporter inquired.
well, not as much as thought they
We're going to at first the gentleman
said. II expected the story papers would
be entirely driven out of the field by the
cheap libraries, but | hardly think their
sales have fallen as much as % per cent
The papers ave to keep booming them
selves all the time, though, or they lOsg
ground badly. They aren't the bomau2as
they used to be. The newsdcalers wouldn't
be very sorry If the story papers were
driven out of the field altogether. The
margin of profit on them is very small,
and the worst of it is the people who buy
them are of the charge it and I'll. pay
60 pay once it knocks the profit of a good
many papers"
The people who read the story paperl,
then, are of u different class from those
who buy the cheap library novelist"
FALSE AND FOOLISH IDEAS.
Yes, us II rule, they arc. The people
who read these novels and serial stories
get false and foolish ideas of life. This
is especially true of the confirmed story
paper readers. They are the worst of ali.
! can tell one of them almost as quickly
as GAt ayes On hap-fnr tho STONY a5.p
readers are generally women. They have
u would be grand and romantic air about
them, use big words ard theatrical eX-
pressions, and try to initiate generally in
their manner the highly wrought charac-
tiers they read about in the serials. Girls
brought up from the time they are fifteen
or sixteen IN this sort of reading aren't
satisfied with Il man unless he is like the
heroes of their stories, and they are apt
TO wait a good while before they find one
who seems to promise to come to what
they call their ideal And then, If they
do set married, in ninety nine cases out
Of Il hundred, they soon discover that the
promises We're all false; that they haven't
married their hero at all, but only an
ordinary, common place man, with not
enough of the story paper ideal to him
to supply a paragraph in one of the sloppy
serials.
lhese people with the story paper
habit, the speaker continued, seem
hardly able to control their impotence
from week to week for the succeeding in
stallments OF the romances. Many Of
them make a practice of coming here about
the time they Know the papers arrive and
waiting until they can get them; and If
they should happen to be late, and all the
papers are sold out when they get here.
thea there Is a row."
How many of the cheap libraries are
there now in eXistencer' the reporter
Rsked.
''Oh, probably Hfty all told, the dealer
answered, and new ones are starting mp
every week The trade has got to be
something immense. Many of the libra
ries are published irregularly, sending ont
Il volume once or twice Il month. There
Hre about a dozen which come out regu.
larry from one to three times Il week. A
couple of the leading ones for Il while
published a number every day, but they
seemed to have exhausted the supply OF
uncupyrighted and foreign novels and
other available books. and now send ont
three numbers a week.
I'VE have an arrangement which makes
the cheap libraries cheaper STILL the
speaker continued. I'VE buy back books