The evening times., 1899-12-19
CheRp Literature.

In recent address before the Nineteenth
| Century Club in New York. Prof. Harry
| Thursten Peck expressed his conviction
that there were too many books nowadays,
especially too many cheap publications. He
thinks that in the old times. when books
Cos, slore. people were likely TO buy but
| few, and those were of the best and lasted
until they were worn out by repeated read
ings.
This idea is not by any means new. 1t
has been advanced by great many other
people. some of them literary aristocrats
who feel that they must themselves give up
reading because it is becoming so COM
mon:" others oldfashioned folk who get
bew!idered when they look at the mass of
literature. frivolous, serious, instructive.
and metaphysical, which they think they
must read ITO keep up with the times"
II is hardly necessary to say 10 those
who know anything about Prof. Peck
that he belongs TO the former class
His idea Of culture is the avoidance
of anything which can by any chance
be connected with common" people.
This is rather a difficult matter for a
mere human being. and perhaps that
is the reason why there are so many COM
mon people and so few who are refined to
the last degree. So long as the constitution
OF things requires a vast majority of hu-
man beings to give most of their time to
forwarding the worlds work in general
there will be but few who can afford the
leisure necessary to attain the degree of
Peck.
In regard to the second half of his state
ment-that in the old times people bought
better books because the prices were high
er-there is considerable room for doubt
Anyone may see this who looks over the
shelves of an old fashioned bookcase.
Some Of the priggish, pedantc, uninter-
esting. and inaccurate literature doled out
TO readers of the last century would not
be tolerated even by unintelligent book
buyers today. There was an immense
amount of theological discussion printed in
this country during the colonial period,
and very little of it was worth moments
time. though a great deal was bought and
read. There were books of travel. giving
ness, and often without accuracy. There
were books of history containing such as
founding fables as the Windham frog
story. and misrepresenting men of note in
the most unblushing partisanship. Nova
days reputable biographers try to describe
a man as he is. not as some of his friends
o. enemies would like to thing that he is.
Of course. the old-time reader had
Shakespeare and Milton, and Dryden. and
Goldsmith. and Burns and a little later
Scott and Byron. for the production OF
cheap books has only reached overwhelm-
ing proportions in the last fifty years.
But when books were costly and scarce a
great many bright youths were almost de-
barred from buying them at all, and did
not even become acquainted with the great
est authors. Does Mr.. Peck mean to insin-
uate that it is better that people should
not read at all than that some of them who
do not care for good Literature should read
the wrong sort of books? Is it any worse
to devote ones time to Bertha NJ. Clay and
a box Of caramels than to lean over the
fence and gossip about ones neighbors?
a great many of them now find it in books
instead of in dissecting the regulations OF
their fellow beings. Meanwhile. those who
really enjoy the best books have a fair
chance to get them, for it is quite easy
TO see that the counters where cheap books
are sold are covered with the work of the
best authors as well as the poorest.
Finally iS a- al .n
read everything, as any book-lover knows |
1t is just as easy for one who wishes to |
DO so to discriminate, to reject, to read a |
few favorite books over and over again, !
as it was for his grandfather to do the |
same thing. The only difference is that |
The modern reader has a better chance to |
secure what he really wants.