The Indianapolis journal., 1896-06-14


these, 5.104 were interested i'm patents. In
the general reading rooms 71057 readers
drew zis.o51 volumes OF these 81 .257 were
in the department OF philosophy, AZ. $50 were
In the department of science. 67.2S9 were in
the department of history. and 71,725 in the
department of letters and art.
These two libraries have their existence
for the benefit of students almost ex-
clusively, and so the general taste of the
reading public is indicated only in general
way: the number of students using the
libraries in proportion to the population is
large enough to be gratifying to the patriot
LIBRARY REPORTS.
Very likely the interest of the people as a
whole. in both solid and light books, would
be shown more nearly II to the reports of
the Lenox and Astor were added those of
the Mercantile and the free circulating IL
braries. The number of people entitled to
use the Mercantile library was 5O99. These
used 179.5s4 volumes of which 102 2sl were
iction-56.sS per cent This being library
for the general reader able and willing to
pay for his privilege, the character of the
taste of the well-to-do readers of the city
would seem to be we'll set forth by this
exhibit. The Free Circulating Library
shows a demand for considerably larger
proportion of light literature. Thus out of
41,a0l volumes circulated, 1855 were fiction
and Il. .421 juvenile. The fact that children
Of ten years or more are permitted TO use
the books of this library naturally accounts
BY collating the reports of all the libra
ries of the cities IL would doubtless appear
that among library patrons the demand for
solid books exceeds chat for light reading
considerably. though bot to so great an ex-
tent as that indicated by the catalogue OF
publishers.
However. it is a Question whether the
reader who would prefer TO buy something
worth his time has fair chance TO get
ii, and that is 10 say that dealers and even
publishers of good standing have become
| so much accustomed to rating the taste of
the reader low that. they do not supply
| him with what he wants. They are, in a
| way. like the BARRIERS. who all keep file
| of pink-tint sporting paper full of pictures
| of prize fighters for the delectation of the
stance, the traveller who reaches the rail-
road station before his train is ready.
turns in vain to the book stall for any
| thing worth buying except the periodicals
save only some of the novels that are
| worth buying. But If these railway deal
| better books they could not do it, because
| the customers will spend only so cents or
| thereabout for volume with which to
| while away the hours of the jour ley. In
| other words, novels are the only books Of
| fered in paper covers. Works of history,
| biography, economics-what not print
| as we'll as written in a form that repels
| the casual reader. and are sold at a price
that he will not pay-often cannot afford.
Even books of travel are bound up and
| sold at $l.5O or more. while works of
| science are repellant as the stiff backed
pews of Hard-shell meeting house Sup
pose Thoreau's Cape Cod' were printed
| in decent paper covers and put on the
news stands at so cents, as it might well
| be. 1t is possible that no traveller would
S foand Wbd 59 buy It in to 1.-The
| Shaler's Land and Sea" were offered i'm
| the same style at the same price. Is 1t
| possible that ii would be so overshadowed
by Ewes Ransom that no one would buy
! IL? If more than 40 per cent. of the pat
rons OF the Free Circulating and the Mer-
| camille libraries preferred books of solid
1 n If
| fiction. it Is fair to assume that sale for
such works of nature as those of Thoreau
| and Snaler-works OF intense interest which
| all can understahd-would sell if the
| price and convenience of form were the
same. at least we'll enough to pay for the
| venture.
A story told the reporter about the works
| of Shakespeare at one of the free circulating
library branches illustrates the advantage
venient form and placing them where they
may be. found conveniently. The library
had a library. edition of Shakspeare-one of
the staid kind that looks well on the
| shelves and nowhere else. OF course. II
was. occasionally called for. but 1t was In
no no danger of wearing out; One day a gem
| tseman with kindly heart gave the branch
a Shakespeare in forty volumes, each i'm
GEAR type, but in size just right to get into
s ,ne side pocket OF youths coat Every
| volume but the glossary was taken out the
| next day and the edition is in constant use.
The conservatism of book publishers to-
Of certain sizes of pages. will probably con-
tinue to contract the sale of books of solid
| worth Tor many years, but not always.
SOLID READING.
very clear view of the relative taste of
American readers for fiction and for litera-
ture of more solid worth may be had by
| counting the pages devoted to each class in
a years issue of any one of the leading
American magazines. Fiction and poetry
| 1T will be found, occupy less than half the
4 I.
American readers. for each Of these maga-
| zines has a circulation counted in hundreds
of thousands every month. Mr.. Howells,
| in an article in Scribner's on THE Man OF
| Letters as a Man of Business" complained
| of the great space devoted by magazine
| editors to what he called contemporaries
history, science. etc; He assumed. practi-
| cally that only novels and poetry were lit
erature. and he thought the field of litera-
dene was fenced in by too CONSTRUCTED cir
s;,o. Gle OF barned p wire, 80 7, to speak But the
| they do-what the readers of the United
States want: and they must supply that
want or seek other vocations. OF course.
| i'm drawing the line between fiction and
other kinds of books ii is not intended to
| intimate that good fiction is undesirable
| scarcely need be said that a man who had
| never read novel would be quite much
warped mentally as one who had never
read the Bible
The effect of the periodical literature on
| the sale of books was considered in talk
| ing with publishers and dealers, but they
| were not agreed in the matter. That the
| serial publication of strictly frst-class
story helped the sale of the book was uni
| versally admitted. But some very good
stories are hurt by serial publication. Hen
ry Holt. in his lecture at Yale, took this
view of the matter:
1.-The knowledge of the future is going to
| be stored much more generally than the
| knowledge of the present is in vast sets
of bound periodicals with elaborate in
| dexes. The drift in that direction is very
plain in the libraries now IL does not seem
| probable that the number of periodicals
can be great relatively to the num-
ber Of people as that OF books now is.
There are only about dozen that supply
any literature worthy of the name-I mean
non-technical literature. OF books of SINH
lar character there are published every
year many hundreds. But books do not
average sale of a thousand apiece. Prob
ably not one in a year, sells $4,000. We
now QSS) have three good magazines sell
ing far more than 100000 month IL each
COPY of such a magazine displaced copy
| of a book these three magazines would in
year kill off 50o0,0e0 books. OF course,
! they do not kill off that many books, but
| they kill "A great many.
At the office of the American News Com
pany. where vast Eumbers OF all kinds of
| books are handled. Il was said that about
the only books affected by periodical liter
| ature were novels al 80 cents each. The
4 Of at