The evening times., 1899-08-23
Popular Literature,

One OF the encouraging signs Of the
times is the gradually lowering price of cur
rent magazines. Time was when q really
frst-class monthly magazine could not be
obtained for less than half dollar Now
prices range all the way from the original
half-dollar to ten cents, and the quality
of the reading matter, illustrations, and
presswork is better than ever before. The
number OF these periodicals has also in
creased. There never was a time when so
much good reading matter was within the
reach of the people as now.
In places where the price OF wages has
not dropped so low that it has more than
kept pace with that of books, the people
are reaping the fruits of this change. Boys
and girls have stopped devouring "Old
Sleuth" and the Family Story Paper and
are reading literature which, if cheap, is
still grade higher than that of genera
tion ago. The man who pauses before the
counter piled with cheap books may not
know Charles Reade, or Dickens, or Thack-
cray from Jehoshaphat, bur if he sees works
by these authors spread out on that counter
he will buy these as quickly as any others
Ii is better for people to read good litera-
ture, even if they do not appreciate it, than
bad literature which they understand only
too well. More than that, it is better foI
children TO see good books about the house
than TO regale their youthful imaginations
on the Police Gazette"
The cheap magazine, and before that, the
frst-class magazine at higher price, has
IN nf 2 he of nri1
tors. Ii has been a sort of meiange of all
that was best in the current literature OF
two continents, selected by men who know
their public. II it erred sometimes on the
side of conservatism-as the causiic Mr..
James Ford asserts-that after ali, is a
good fault. The old "Scribner's," prede-
cessor of The Century," was most con-
serNative and proper magazine, even TO
the point of Philistinism; but il went into
country districts where people knew but
! little of the great world. II the edito. OF
/ that magazine had printed novel which
portrayed the Bohemian life of New York
or Paris as Bohemians know it, the imag-
: ination of many a girl and boy would have
! been fired with a longing 10 go and see
most cases, would have been anything but
beneficial. The cautious policy OF Dr. Hol-
land probably ayeIted some tragedies, in
those days of the early seventies. Now
adays people, even in the country districts
are waking up; they are more in touch
with the world and the worldly; the sum-
mer boarder has taught them things. But
ii was not so thirty years ago. DR.. Hol-
land was wise in his generation. He gave
the people stories of travel and adventu. e
wholesome romance, beautiful verse, and
| considerable humCr of a more or less I'M
conscious and healthy kind. The children
who used to see copies OF his magazine
lying about the house were educated into
q gli.amering appreciation of at and lit-
erature which HEY would neve' have ac
weekly This appreciation is nJw bearing
fruit in talented and clever young writer's
and in refined homes, where literature
real literature not the tempered Holland
brands read with under tanding, anC
treasures of real art adorn the walls. Pop.
ular education in America has proceeded
on a somewhat haphazard plan, but il:
many methods are, on the who,e, yielding
fairly good results, and it may be that The
habit of miscellaneous and sometime.
voracious reading, which is so strong
among our people, will produce more rea
wisdom TO the square inch than the cram
ming of the graded schools.