The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1891-06-12
RAILWAY LITERATURE.
THE GUIDE BOOKS THAT ARE PUB
LISHED BY RAILROADS.

Writers and Exceptional Artists to Re-
produce Scenery for Costly Volumes to
| Advertise the Line.
The greatest rivalry among railroad
men is in the getting out of guide books
Several years ago rich southern rail
road published luxuriously gotten up
book as handsome as almost any example
of rich edition of Shakespeare that men
and women display upon parlor center
table. 1t was thought then that the
limit of enterprise and expenditure had
been reached, and that there never would
be anything finer bearing the imprint of
general passenger Office.
But that elegant volume is almost for
gotten now. Its defects were that its
pictures were ready made, and repre-
scented low grade of art, while the
letter press, or reading matter, was the
work of the general passenger agent-a
clever man but not a professional writer
Today no such pictures and no such
writing is accepted for a representative
guide book.
A school Of artists has grown up to
meet the demand for such work, and
they are salaried by the big printing and
bank note engraving companies that get
out these books They produce careful,
artistic and clever pictures, and manage
to give them the appearance of the
choicest pictures in the magazine.
AS matter of fact, the latest guide
books are limitations of the magazine in
every particular except that they in
clude no advertising pages. But the
more wealthy railroads will not employ
these professional guide book illustrat-
ors. They secure high class artists who
are too independent to sign their names
to what they do, but provide the best
work of which they are capable, because
they are better paid for it than for any
other work that they do.
BIG PRICES PAID FOR WORK.
Men who study such matters are able
to recognize the personality of the art
lists in their methods of drawing, and
such persons often see a painting or
study of picturesque place in one of
the art galleries or at an art sale at the
same time that they receive copy of
some guide book illustrating other beau
ty spots in the same region in q set of
drawings by the very same artist, who
has been whirled hither and thither in
that part Of the country in special car
at the expense of the railroad company
that monopolizes the traffic.
In that same car with the artist goes
the general passenger agent, but he no
longer writes the matter in the book.
He has secured the services of some
well known literary man of the second
or third class to describe the region with
his pen for higher rate Of remunera-
ton than the writer could get for any
other work. Two thousand dollars is
below the highest price that has been
paid for the illustrations in a single guide |
book, and in all probability no first class |
book of the kind has been written for
less than $500.
These books have been poured from |
The presses of the best printers in the
country in editions of from 5000 to TO-
700 copies, and have cost the railroads |
from five to twenty cents copy. Some |
are designed to appear like novels, some |
ike stories Of adventure and some like
books of travel Their titles are such as
Ire likely to prove attractive to large
bodies of citizens.
Not to quote any one Of them, but to
how what sort Of bait they throw to
he public. they may be said to be named
n some such way as these: "Where to
Camp Out" Where to Go This Sum-
ner," ''Three Days and a Thousand
Trout, Hunting the Mountain Goat"
Pure Air and Balsam Pines" Country
Board, Cheaper Than Staying Home"
)ne enterprising western railroad man
las issued little book on etchings, ex-
Iuisitely printed, and made to close up
nto large envelope tied with a satin
low knot.
SOME NOTABLE IRREGULARITIES.
Some of the very best map making
hat has been done in this country has
TOWN out of the competition in guide
looks. Just at present the rage is for
'lrd's eye, views, however, and these are
leverly made to show every hill and
tream and village and patch of forest
q vast areas of country. They all omit
very indication of marsh land, and all
re printed with green ink, in order to
reduce the most astonishing effects
universal greenery, shade and cool
ess.
1t is noticeable characteristic Of all
hem that they show only one railroad,
ever any more No guide book pub
shed exhibits Chicago as accessible by
iore than one railroad, and enormous
racts like North Dakota and Utah are
lade to appear to depend upon single
ne of rails for their means of internal |
raffic. In such maps railroads seem to
each degree of perfection that is not
oticed by those who travel most upon
nem.
For instance, they are always straight,
irect lines from point TO point, precisely
Ike the great highway that Nicholas
larked down upon the map of Russia
nth pencil and ruler in order to
1ow his engineers how he would con-
ect Moscow with St. Petersburg. Not
ven. the Rocky mountains are able to
lnder the absolutely straightforward ,,
purse OF any railroad On the maps
re line Of the tracks goes straight along
asst the mountains as if they were mere
ats in a wheat field The reading mat
r in the guide books shows that each
abroad avoids mosquitoes and malarial .
agions with the same success.
Where there are no mosquitoes the
'riters SAY so, and where thew ara a. 4.