Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1888-10-20

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Persons very fond Of reading. but with
little spare time to indulge their taste, who
visit a narrow shop near one of the de.
partments, are apt TO come away with a
severe attack Of the blues. The shelves,
counters, and even the floor Of tho shop
are ehock full Of pretty nearly all the wis
dom OF the ancientB and wit Of tho mod
efns, done up in elegant but handily
pocketa5le paper bound packages, which
sell al from ten TO twenty cents each. The
shop, in fact, is a sort Of headquarters for
the cheap libraries now SO numerous, and
which are said to be doing great damage
to the more ~pretentious branches of tho
book trade.
Here, for S., a careful person can pur-
chase o 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. A 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 II person with
the reading habit feels ashamed not to
buy an armful and rush OF 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 inquiaitive reporter. lone
man in particular used to come in regu-
larly every other or third day and carry
off each time from six tt. eight volumes.
tic didn't appear particular about what
he read, but took them just as they came.
He kept it 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 it struck aAe reporter that there
might be.
A OOK A DAY.
There are plenty OF people who aver
age a book a day, month IN and month
ont" 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 hole
Of a new story as soon as they have fin
ished the old one they don't know what
70 DO with themselves and are miserable
like u tippler whose rations have been
cue ttf III Il lI4OI pune GltGf WAC can | LCL
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
t~ectiye stories and mysteries Of Du Bots
gobey aud Garboriau and Zola's highly
Favored stuff. q. w. NJ. Reynolds sen
s%ational romances used to have a big sale,
but they aren't in 10 much demand rs
they were"
'Haven't the cheap libraries hurt the
sensational story pa - Il great dctsly" the
reporter inquired.
"Well not r. much es ! thought they
were going to at first the gentleman
said. "A expected the story papers would
be entirely driven oUt Of the lcld by the
cheap libraries. bat ! hardly think their
sales have fallen rs much as % per cent.
The papers AVE 70 Keep booming them
selves al the time, though, or they lose
ground badly. They aren't the bonanzas
they used 70 be. The neWsdcalers wouldn't
be very sorry If the story papers were
driven out OF the fold 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-Il pay
you next time class. Now, if they fail
to pay once it knocks the profit off a good
many papers"
"Ihe people who read the story papers,
then, are Of q different class from those
who buy the cheap library novelist"
FALSE AND FOOLISH IDEAS.
Eyes, as u 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
ns | 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 10 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 mar unless be is like the
heroes Of their stories, and they are apt
to wait u good while before they find one
who seems TO promise TO come 10 what
they call their ideal. And then. if they
DO get married, IN ninety nine cases ~it
Of IA hundred, they soon discover that the
promises were all false; that they haven't
married their hero ut 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.
''These people with the story paper
shit" the speaker continued, seem
hardly able "a control their impotence
from week to week for the succeeding in
sediments of the romaGco5. Many Of
them make a practice Of coming heru 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 EXISTENCE" the reporter
asked.
'Oh, probably fifty all told" the dealer
answered, "and 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
Ia volume once or twice a month. There
are about a dozen which come out regu-
larly from IL to three times a week. A
couple of the leading ones for a while
published a number every day, but they
seemed to have exhausted the supply Of
uncopyrighted and foreign novels and
other available books, and now send out
thrae nnmbprs 81 weak