The Marlboro democrat. [volume] (Bennettsville, S.C.) 1882-1908, 1889-10-04
a MOVE. EAY.
The Average OF some Of theSCon-
flrmed Devourers.

"We have sevdral customers WHO
read two and three, books q day. the
proprietor said to alNtnquisitiye Wash
lngton Star %reporter..\ "One man IN
particular used to COME in regularly
every other or third day end carry off
each time from six to eight volumes.
lilo didn't appear particular about what
he read, but took them just as they
came. lie kept it up week after week,
too. He had q place iii tho Interior
Department., but was discharged not
long ago.
Tho proprietor didn't intimate that
thtre was any connection between tho
mans reading habits and the loss Of
his position, but it struck the reporter
that there might be.
''Ihele are plenty Of people who aver
age u book u day, month In and month
out" the proprietor continued. s"These
people are mostly novel readers, Of
course It gets to be q passion with
them like anything else, and they'll
give all their spare time to it. If they
can't get hold Of a now story rs soon as
they have finished the old one they
don't know what to do With them
selves and are mlserable-like q tippler
whose rations have been out oil. or u
morphine eater who can't get the
drug"
"Do you notice much difference in
tile class OF stories preferred by men
and women?" the reporter asked.
mo, 1 can't say that I do. Tho
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 womon They
prefer the detective stories and myster-
les OF Du Boisgoboy and Gaboriau and
Zola's higbly-favorel stuff. G.. w.
Reynolds sensational used to
have a big sale, but they aren't i'll as
much demand rs they were.
Haven't the cheap libraries hurt
the sensational story papers u great
deal?" the reporter inquired.
"Well, not az much as | thought
they were going to at llrst," the gen.
tlenlan said. ~ expected the story
papers would be driven entirely out oil
the field by the cheap libraries, but l
hardly think their sales lave fallen as
much as % per cent. The papers have
to keep booming themselves 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. Tho
small. and the worst Of 1t Is, the people
III pay-you-next-timo' class. Now. If
profit off Of u good many papers,
pers, then, are Of q different class from
fhnQa >yl,o Inv tho ohoon ljhro,. y nov
els?"
Eyes, as q rule. they are. The peo-
pie who read these inferior novels and
serial stories get false and foolish ideas
of life. This is especially true OF The
confirmed story readers. They are the
worst Of all. l can tell one Of them
almost as quickly as I set eyes on her
for the story-paper readers are gener-
ally women. They have a would-be
grand and romantic air about them,
use big words and theatrical expressions
ana try to initiate generally in their
manner the highly-wrought characters
they read about IN the serials. Girls
brought up from the time they are If
teen " sixteen on this sort of reading
aren't sltisled with n, man unless lie IS
like the heroes d Gaigi stories. sS2s 4$
they are apt to wait ay,xsod while LoaUlu
they find one who seems to promise to
como up to what they call their ideal.
And then, If they do get married, In
ninety-nine cases out of u hundred they
soon discover that the promises we're
all false; that they haven't married
their hero at all, but only an ordinary,
commonplace man, with not enough Of
the story paper 'ideal' to him to supply
a paragraph in II Of The sloppy seri-
ais.
"These people with the story paper
habit" the speaker continued, ''seem
hardly able TO control their impatience
from week to week for the successive
instalments Of the romances."