San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1896-04-02
DIME NOVELS WANING.
Reading Matter for Boys Better Than .
Generation Ago.

Generation Ago.
A great deal has been said lately |
about the reading of prenicious liter
allure by boys, but the book statistics
show that in this respect the world Is
much better than it was a generation
ago Blood and thunder" stories are
not so numerous to-day as they were,
simply because the demand for them
has greatly diminished. In the old days
there seemed to be an idea that there
were but two kinds of books for boys to
choose from. On the one hand were the
trashy tales of adventure and on the
other hand the tame and uneXciting
Sunday school, stories. boys mind
Graves stirring action, and therefore 1t
is no wonder that between Dare Devil
Dick, the Terror of the Plains" and
Honest Samuel; or Virtue Its Own Re
ward" he should choose the former.
But to-day the book marts are filled
| with volumes which are sure to please
the youthful mind, while exerting
naught but good influences. Boys OF
to-day are reading good, wholesome
literature, without too much flavor OF
the "blood and thunder" and yet not
insipid. William o. Stoddard, the well"
known reviewer, and himself a writer
| of boys stories, notes the changing
taste and says: In better supply and
in steadily increasing demand are the
better class of historical stories. The
lists of our large houses for the past
season are worth looking at in reference
to this point. 1t is not enough to say
that parents and guardians do most OF
the holiday buying. They know what
will be most acceptable to their OWE
Young people, and that is what they
select. That, therefore, is what the in
teIligent publisher provides most ofnext
time, and he at once confers with or
sends suggestions to his most valuable
authors. One well-known author OF
young peoples books has received with"
in the past six weeks applications from
no less than four prominent houses Tor
/ "a book based upon American history,
, with the added assurance that such
books are selling the best of any. Mere
t adventure, mere exciting trash OF any
kind. seems to be a back number. Its
, rot a contradiction of all this that such
4 writers as Jules Verne and Rider Hag
|, gard have found hosts of young readers
So they did, and old fellows of 80 reat
l them to this day. Some have beer
caught reading Robinson Crusoe.
Q Verne wrote burlesques of science, eX
u ploration and discovery, while Hag
k yards best successes were won with VIII
caricatures of Stanley in Africa, dashed
[. with the Arabian Nights There ha
{ been an end of this epidemic, bu' tn
/. wholesome, universal craving for Tn
q other kinds of literature indicates
steadily increases. The common school
% have had great deal to do with this I'M
~ provement in juvenile literature. III
70 bows and girls are continually receivin
!, more and better mental training
- Troy On. " Times.
~ Rival Dignities.
Englishman (producing poke
coin) - My MISREPRESENTATION
was made lord by the king whose pic
4 ture YOU see OH this shilling.
n Yankee with a similar gesture)-
" What coincidence! My great-grea'
y grandfather was made an angel by tn
Indian whose picture you see on TIL
a 4 cent-pueh