The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1891-06-17
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RAILWAY LITERATURE.
THE GUIDE BOOKS THAT ARE PUB.
LlsHEo BY RAILROADS.

Vast Sums Are Spent in Hiring Capable
Writers and Exceptional Artists to Re.
produce Scenery for Costly Volumes t.
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 ur
book as handsome as almost any example
Of rich edition of Shakespeare that mer
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 o.
general passenger Office
But that elegant volume is almost for
gotten now Its defects were that it,
pictures were ready made, and repre-
sented a low grade of art, while thu
letter press, or reading matter, was th,
work of the general passenger agent--s
clever man but not professional writer
Today no such pictures and no sucl
writing is accepted for 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 q painting or a
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 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 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-
900 copies, and have cost the railroads
from five to twenty cents copy Some
are designed to appear like novels, some
like stories of adventure and some like
books of travel. Their titles are such as
are likely to prove attractive to large
bodies of citizens.
Not to quote any one of them, but to
show what sort of bait they throw to
the public, they may be said to be named
in some such way as these: "Where to
Camp Out, Where to Go This Sum-
mer," "Three Days and a Thousand
Trout" Hunting the Mountain Goat"
Pure Air and Balsam Pines," Country
Board, Cheaper Than Staying Home. :"
One enterprising western railroad man
has issued little book on etchings, ex-
quisitely printed, and made to close up
into large envelope tied with satin
bow knot.
SOME NOTABLE IRREGULARITIES.
Some of the very best map making
that has been done in this country has
grown out Of the competition in guide
books. just at present tho rage is for
birds eye, views, however, and these are
cleverly made to show every hill and
stream and village and patch of forest
in vast areas of country. They all omit
every indication of marsh land, and all
are printed with green ink, in order to
produce the most astonishing effects
of universal greenery, shade and cool
ness.
1t is noticeable characteristic of all
them that they show only one railroad,
never any more. No guide book pub
hshed exhibits Chicago as accessible by
more than one railroad, and enormous
tracts like North Dakota and Utah are
made to appear to depend upon a single
line of rails for their means of internal
traffic. In such maps railroads seem to
reach degree of perfection that is not
noticed by those who travel most upon
them.
For instance, they are always straight,
direct lines from point to point, precisely
like the great highway that Nicholas
marked down upon the map of Russia
with pencil and ruler in order to
show his engineers how he would con-
meet Moscow with st. Petersburg. Not
even the Rocky mountains are able to
hinder the absolutely straightforward
course of any railroad. On the maps
the line of the tracks goes straight along
past the mountains as if they We're mere
ruts in wheat field. The reading mat
ter in the guide books shaws that each
railroad avoids mosquitoes and malarial
regions with the same success.
Where there are no mosquitoes the
writers say SO, and where they are as
thick as peas in pod the most dignified
silence is maintained with regard to
them. But there one sees how greatly
competition has elevated this class of
literature, for only few years ago these
books were as unreliable as the old
fashioned circus posters. They do not
lie today. The next thing will be that
they will tell the truth. New York Sun.
A Hint to the Wealthy.
"My health is getting worse and
worse; I've tried every climate, and
none of them afford me any relief" said
arich New York invalid to friend.
aTsIi fell Won what to do. Move to Sing