The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1890-10-19
PLEA FOR PAMPHLET AGE.
PLAN FOR BETTERING THE So
GAL ORGANIZATION.

Gathering Standardization OF Pam
phIets-Their Preservation In Libraries.
The other day a poor inventor came
to me to ask what he could do to obtain
a hearing from the great public. Ills
invention was not a matter of wood and
iron, with a model in room eighty
seven Of the Patent Department, Wash
ingtou; it was an honest idea about
lettering the social organisation.
Neither he, nor I, nor any one else
knew whether or no the idea was worth
anything. But we knew that great
many persons would like to hear about
it. So l said that / would talk to my
friend, the editor, who has charge OF a
great daily newspaper.
The editor is one OF the most inter
esting men | know Of, and he always
goes straight to the point. Yes, said
he, Il know all about it. His article
gave me a great many new ideas. But
we cannot use it,. Why not?" The
public does not care for such things
The public wants sensations; it never
does any thinking. Your friend, the
inventor, is a brainy fellow. But we
do not want to prins anything that is
slow. All our articles must be OF the
kind that would be worthless if they
were kept week
Never mind. l have heard all that
before. When an editor says the pub
Il 70 hap hn
the proprietors Of the paper think
that the public demand it. 1t is hard
on the public. and it is unpleasant for
the editor, because he has to follow two
ideals --tbe news-gathering ideal you
describe, and his private, individual
ideal. Now | know why 80 many edl-
tors are delightful fellows, even while
thew conduct newspapers which contain
nothing that is of the slightest value
a week after it is printed. But " hat
would you do if you were my inventor
Kill some one, and so get columns OF
description of his invention in thou
sands of newspapers Z"
perhaps be might put his ideas in
the form of story for one OF the
magazines, said the editor, calmly ig-
norlng ny favor; perhaps he might
publish pamphlet.
When | told the inventor, he SAID,
with bitter scorn: A pamphlet! And
who would read it, how much would 1t
cost? There will never be pamphlet
age again.
This is what / replied to the inventor,
after due consideration: Perhaps not.
But my friend the printer tells me that
paper and INK are cheaper every year,
and that plain composition Is being
done by machinery. Now if your artl-
Gle, that the daily papers think they do
not want, were printed in a five.ceht
newspaper, it would take three COL
umns, and even then there would be
great many more important articles in
the issue. But if you could print it in
long-primer type, and send 1t every
where, these very newspapers would
probably review it. Perhaps some day
1t will be practicable to publish pam
phlets Of, say, sixteen pages, for one
cent apiece. Then if half of the edition
is sold for two cents apiece, the inven-
tor of the future will manage to come
ont even.
Pamphlets are really very valuable.
The care taken to collect and preserve
them in all great Libraries, and the way
in which important matters are so often
settled by the evidence of obscure
pamphlets, prove that thoughtful men
who wish to have their articles printed
exactly as they write them. car do
worse than rely on the pamphlet. A
single copy sent to the Astor or Pea
body. or to Yale or Harvard, may have
to wait hundred years for its inter
prefer, but if it contains the seed OF
power its growth season will certainly
come.
If the publication of short, timely
pamphlets, some the work OF a few
hours, othsrs the work of a lifetime.
some by the great men and women OF
to-day, others by unknown persons like
my inventor, were 10 become general,
how much fuller our literary life would
be. should like to. be able ~ go into
my bookstore and wander past the table
of summer novels, and the table of pc
riodicals 10 the table of new pamphlets,
and find there hundred or more. all
well written, timely, straight from the
HNSs
men and women who were reviviDg
and developing an important depart.
ment of literary activity. Sometimes, L
feel sure, a twenty-page pamphlet
would go as far and prove as effective
as thousand page book. The historl'
cal and economic studies of young col
lege men, published in pamphlet form
by Yale, Harvard, Johns Hopkins, and
other institutions of learning, form
IN the aggregate a great contribution
TO the literary life of the time. But
these reach other students, seldom 'he
general, newspaper buying pupi c.
What conceive of as practicable. 3 to
cheaper and poPularize the pamphlet
that a very small expenditure of money
will enable person TO bring his ideas
before the community at large. ]
should like to see pamphlets of all
prices, from two cents to fifty cents, on
news.stands. should like TO have my
gardeners son. who knows a great deal
more about wild plants than do, write
leaflet on the Sierra lilies. and beside
it should like TO see Prof Nj. s paper
on The Difficulties of Civii-Servlce
Reform in Worthwhile, and Prof. IL. q
paper on 'Healthful Homes, neither OF
which newspapers thought Interesting
enough to publish, but which number
of people would like to have. 1t is not
SO much the political pamphlet, as the
industrial, the economic, the historical,
and the literary that | would have go
TO the making of the new Pamphlet
|Age.-Charles Howard Shinn in Critic.
The French Academy
At the close of a somewhat extended
paper read recently by NJ. Donlol before
the French Academy of Moral and 20
litical Science in review of Mr.. Blgee-
lows recent edition of Franklin S
works. his France and the Confederate
Navy and his 'Recollections of Labou-
lave, we note the following paragraph
..xyhap ono aska at the library OF the