The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1888-08-10
LIGHT LITERATURE.
EFFECTS OF THE CONTINUED CON-
SUMPTION OF TRASHY STORIES.
A Washington Reporter Prizes Into the
the Secrets Of the Cheap Book Trade.
The Novel Reading Habit and Its Re-
sults-Cheap Libraries.

Washington Reporter Prizes Into the
the Secrets of the Cheap Book Trade.
The Novel Reading Habit and Its Re-
suits-Cheap Libraries.
Persons very fond of reading, but with
little spare time to indulge their taste, who
visit a narrow shop near one of tho de-
partments, are apt to come away with a
severe attack of the blues. The shelves,
counters, and even the floor of the shop
are chock full of pretty nearly all the wis
dom of the ancients and wit of the mod
erns, done up in elegant but handily
pocketable paper bound packages, which
sell at from ten to twenty cents each. The
shop, in fact, is a sort Of headquarters for
the cheap libraries now so numerous, aud
which are said to be doing great damage
to the more pretentious branches of the
book trade.
Here, for So, careful person can pur-
chase library more extensive and better
than was ever owned by many a man
whom the world calls great and wise.
History, biography, poetry, philosophy,
science, literature and romance are min
gled In bewildering confusion and pro-
fusion. glance at the titles of the
famous works piled ON shelf and counter
fills one with despair Of ever being able to
read them all, so numerous are they; and
yet they are so cheap that a person with
the reading habit feels ashamed not to
buy an armful and rush off to his den to
devour them at once.
1--WE have several customers who read
two and three books a day" the proprie-
tor said to an inquisitive reporter. Zone
man in particular used to come IN regu-
larly every other or third day and carry
off each time from six to eight volumes.
10 didn't porttcttlar about xt-hot
he read, but took them just as they came.
He kept 1t up week after week, too. He
had a place In the interior department,
but was discharged not long ago"
The proprietor didn't intimate that there
was any connection between the mans
reading habits and the loss of his position,
but 1t struck she reporter that there
might be-
BOOK DAY.
There are plenty of people who aver
age book q day, month In and month
out, the proprietor continued. These
people are mostly novel readers, of course.
1t gets to be 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
ished the old one they don't know what
TO do with themselves and are miserable
like a tippler whose rations have been
cut off or a morphine eater who can't get
the drug"
"Do you notice much difference In the
class of stories preferred by men and wo-
menl" the reporter asked.
NO. | 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-
t.cti,.a Stnriaa and 20 I'm pni
gobey and Garboriau and Zolas highly
favored stuff, q. w. NJ Reynolds SEN
sationul romances used to have u big sale,
but they aren't in 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 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 25 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 nswsdealers 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
you-next-time' class. Now, if they fail
to pay once 1t knocks the profit off d 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.
"Yes, 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.
| can tell one Of them almost as quickly
as | set eyes on her-for the story paper
readers are generally women. They have
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 areu't
| satisfied with u man unless he Is Ike 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-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 not
enough of the story paper ideal to him
to supply paragraph in one of the sloppy
serials,
''rhese people with the story paper
habit" the speaker continued, "seem
| hardly able to control their impatience
from week to week for the succeeding in
| stallments of tho romances. Many of
them make 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,
then there is a row."
How many of the cheap libraries are
there now in eXistencer' the reporter
asked.
"Oh. probably fifty all told. the dealer
answered, "und new ones are starting up
every week The trade has got to be
something immense. Many of the libra
ries are published irregularly, sending out
volume once or twice month. There
arc about dozen which come out regll-
larly from one to three times week. A
couple of the leading ones for while
published number every day, but they
seemed TO have exhausted the supply Of
uncopyrighted and foreign novels and
other available books, and now send out
three numbers a week.
"We have an arrangement which makes
the cheap libraries cheaper still,' the
speaker continued. 1--WE buy back books
which are not damaged in reading at halt
price so that even people who read eight
or ten books a week are in no danger OF
bankrupting themselves by indulging in
this form of dissipation 1t isn't an ex
pensive vice nowadays, at least In its i'm
mediate consequences - Washington
| Star.
| Coffee Among the Arabs