Smyrna times., 1888-08-15
4 ROOK A DAY.

age book day, month in and month
out" the proprietor continued "These
people are mostly novel readers, of course.
1t gets to be a passion with them, like
anything else, and they give all their
spare time to it. If they can't get hold
Of new story as soon as they have fin
lshed the old one they don't know what
to do with themselves and are miserable
like tippler whose rations have been
cut off or morphine eater who can't get
the drug"
''Do you notice much difference in the
class Of stories preferred by men and wo-
meny' the reporter asked.
mo, | can't 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 love stories or novels
written by women. They prefer the de-
tective stories and mysteries Of Du Bois-
gobey and Garboriau and Zolas highly
favored stuff. g. w. NJ. Reynolds sen
satiOnal rOmances used to have a big sale,
but they aren't i'll as much demand as
they were"
Haven't the cheap libraries hurt the
sensational story papers great dealg' the
reporter inquired.
"Well, not as much as l thought they
WHY gums " az AlLols LllG EtullGuluu
said. Il expected the story papers would
be entirely driven out of the field by the
cheap libraries, but I hardly think their
sales have fallen as much as % per cent.
The papers have to keep booming them
selves all the time, though, or they lose
ground badly. They aren't the bonanzas
they used to be. The newsdealers 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 d-Ill-pay-
u-neXt-time' class. Now, if they fail
topay once it knocks the profit off good
many papers"
The people who read the story papers,
then, are Of different class from those
who buy the cheap library novelist"
FALSE AND FOOLISH IDEAS.
eyes, as a rule, they are. 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 all.
l can tell one of them almost as quickly
as | set eyes ON her-for the story paper
readers are generally women. They have
a would be grand and romantic air about
them, use big words and theatrical ex-
pressions, and try to initiate generally in
their manner the highly wrought charac.
ters they read about in the serials. Girls
brought up from the time they are fifteen
or sixteen on this sort of reading aren't
satisfied with a man unless he is like the
heroes of their stories, and they are apt
to wait good while before they find one
! who seems to promise to come to what
they call their ideal And then, If they
/ do get married, in ninety y-nine cases out
OF hundred, they soon discover that the
| promises were all false; that they haven't
married their hero at all, but only an
ordinary, common place man, with moi
enough OF the story paper ideal to hin
to supply paragraph in ono of the sloppy
serials.
These people with the story paper
habit" the speaker continued, "seen
hardly able to control their impatienc,
from week to week for the succeeding in
stallments of the romances. MANY Of
them make practice of coming here abou-
the time they know the papers arrive anC
waiting until they can get them; and Il
they should happen to be late, and all thu
papers are sold out when they get here
then there is row.
''HOw many of the cheap libraries ar,
there now in existenceP the reporter
asked.
"Oh, probably fifty all told" the deale
answered, "and new ones are starting III
every week. The trade has got to b
something immense. Many Of the libra
ries are published irregularly, sending ou
o volume once or twice month. Their
are about dozen which come out regu
larly from one to three times a week. !
couple Of the leading ones for Will
published a number every day, but the,
seemed to have exhausted the supply oi
uncopyrighted and foreign novels anC
other available books, and now send ou
three numbers a week.
eve have an arrangement which makes
the cheap libraries cheaper STILL" the
speaker continued. "We buy back book
which are not damaged in reading at hal
price, so that even people who read eigh
or ten books a week ere in no danger O
bankrupting themselves by indulGinQ il
this form Of dissipation. It isn't an ex
pensive vice nowadays, at least in its i'm
mediate consequences" = Washington
Star.