New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1898-10-31

add
=. 40 50 for every race Of the day.
The professional betting ring and bookmakers
A not admire Sloan so keenly rs do the small
.,srstors He has upset their calculations and
srcentages reversed their usual theories and
vsraees loosened their satchels ard not in
.-Aouently empti:d them. He makes business
FOR them undoubtedly for he has increased the
volume Of small betting on the turf. but he
wins too often to suit the professional method
and has too invar.able habit Of getting a
Mace for his mount, even Il the falls to
better horse. \ veteran turf writer remarks:
III there he jockey ring existent. thou
sands ~ punters ssseverate that there is, then
sloan has come as boon and blessing
men" An American jockey With the crown of
bca,ltude IS At least picturesque figure.
TRUTH AND FICTION
The Daily Chronicle" whose exposure OF
Louis de Rougemont as a charlatan has been
as effective as any similar work undertaken by
NJ Labcuchere IN Truth" has slenced the
Robinson Crusoc Bureau and is in com
handing position for pointing the morals one
y these Is the gradual degradation Of periodi-
cal literature and another is the astounding
expansion Of advertisement" Magazine readers
wee once relatively small but educated class
With well-dcfncd standards Of literary taste.
They are now an immense 2OdlenCc eager 10 pt
amused and with a craze for crude sensa-
,ion-the lust Of pleasure withou, the care for
quality" and the public is flooded with sensa-
tioral serials. which are little more than adver-
tsement broadsheets with a catotine story and
any other decoy attached to secure their dis
trihutior According to iris stern morahst
whose success in exposing literary imposture
lends weight 70 outs Dcken criticism, the root
., the evil IS the idea that YOU may and must
10 anything for circulation"
The Rougemont episode is slender peg To
larry the weight Of all this moralizng over the
decline &C literary taste and the development OF
sensational literature. The new Crusoe has been
proved 10 be a work Of fiction Ike the original
Crusoe. since the publishers guarantee or We
racity cannot ba maintained. 1t IS probably
more accurate in its natural history and soci-
oogy than Defoe's work for the adventurer
in coming 70 London became a reader at the
British Museum and made careful survey of
the literature Of Australian exploration, and
when hts story was dictated to shorthand writ
,rs there was a literary bureau to revise the
proofs and correct them after painstakine COM
parison with standard works OF ratural history
and travel If the story had been printed with
mi the guarantee Of its authenticity as rec
3rd n actual experience it would have been
As honest AZ other works # fiction. and 1t would
not have lacked imagination-a literary merit
The trademark Of vera city vas required. not
for literary. but for business purposes. and
when this was disputed the authors appear
ar.es before the British Association were ar
-sneed otherwise the story could not have
been suAici9ntly advertised to secure an enor-
nous circulation
The Daily Chronicle" has performed public
:ervice in exposing these tricks in trade. and
incidentally IL has enlarged its own circula-
lion. for its daily instruments Of its own Rouge
mont serial have been interesting and enter
aiming 1t has proved that Sir George Newnes
and the British Association were duped by
,ulaar adventurer whose credihility as a mar
-ator Of tale ~ marvellous experience is no
onger u be seriously regarded. A publishing
.vndlcAt4 is shown to have been credulous in
rs accordance OF a Munchausen tale as having
The substance ana form Of biography. and in
discreet and overzea ous in its advertising eX-
oediAnts While honesty has again been Nindi-
-ated as the best policy for publisher, author
and adventurer. IT is doubtful If this exposure
has any bearing upon literature Defoe's story
has never suffered from its accepted charac-
ter as a realistic work of imagination. \ vera
cious Crisoe would have been literary anon
ally Rou-enonts accusers have discredited
him as witness hut they have impaired a
highly imaginative quality to his recitals and
thereby enhanced. 4 anything, their literary
value
Il is one Of the Alterations OF the day to
speak with bated breath and whispering hum
hleness # the small but cultured public FOR
which books and ma gaines we're once published.
and u lament the overcrowded mob audience
which now clamors for vulgar sensationalism
and has no adequate standards Of literary
quality The sincerity of those who talk in
this strain Is an open question. Neither tera-
, ture nor dramatic art would gain by the sub
; stitution Of A small audience for large one.
The dramatic taste Of the pit and the gallery
Is better than that of the stalls in a London
theatre where dilettantAism and cynicsm reign
II is the power Of writing books stories for
large public that puts the modern novelist
upon his mettle and inspires him to do his best
work The real need II literature In these days
of swollen circulation and advertising enter
rise Is not restrictions upon editions and cir
cuation. but development Of the power and
resources Of criticism The Daily Chronicle
is 700 shy 10 point this moral nut in reality this
is what adorne the Rougemjnt tale Criticism
has interviewed AID exposed the WOrthlessness
q me publishers guarantee Of veracity and
also ~ the patronage accorded by the most
learned body in England to an ADVENTURE.
l. y. F
"PTNCH. BROTHERS. PCNCH"