Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1899-11-19

1IHNO IE -
A young lady wrote me a Few Gays
ago 10 know II thought novel reaui"s
injurious. think she thought me d"
ola gentleman who had reared fanny
and was therefore. familiar Win inc
course over which her parents were Wy
| ing TO steer her l am nothing OF ShS .,
| lock Holmes, but / am certain Ihat 90.
mother and father oppose her Isa"'ile
! novels. / am also certain ina. NV
| finding il difficult TO prevent her iorh-
ing the habit, or 10 cause her " re" ,,a,,Id
! If II il is already formed. No slIl "ou'u
| n,,.r consider the question unless some
| objection had been raised. 90 peho'S
- reallv natural for girls 10 ieau
novolr If IS lust as natural lot men,
! ,~,b,btv hut men never become suCh
SLAVES TO the habit as TO grow lean anu
sad as The hero and heroine OF a SCI IA
tale in a story weekly advances iuI'ho'
INTO the difficulties the author mas oe-
vis.d for them. or 10 become bright anu
buxom when lived happily ever after
waras" is reached at inns.
A half a century sgo-two deea"es
aco-I should have told my correspondent
She should not read novels. Na"I'J
everybody 20 whom chs would nave 40
dressed the Inquiry she pas 10 me N ,..
have done the SAME lnins 1liies i''
greatly CHANGED. Every body fetda no.'i'
a., Never i'm tho history Oh hu-
r.auitv were 80 many BOOKS Dcl"s
&c Ana never was the hst Oh D"u
I,.oi.s beiug SO rapidly heightened No'e'
we're So many novels prH.e-. "e I'm Inn,
her of bad ones IS enormous. - ci.'.'
American publishing house "NIc" - '-l.o
49,. lesld.s actIOn. boasts that il SEQ
n.it "a new book every day Ma"+ "a
fhoun read as ii they had Deth "iI''o"
the night before 1890, ,.,o,,.
Rut there are q great many boou UoVN'
being printed. y great many Ho'e's'
whose influence must make i'' e''''
are issued every year / usk nDtmHs
H. savir, that the standard of English
and American fiction is higher now tnan
over n has been Indeed. the hclon OF
the world is probably better. "ith tha'
of France as "a possible C%ccpuon-Icr
HUGO. De Maupassaut. a1d Daucel are
dead. Nobody has taken their places
lola is too uncertain.
III English ana American Acuon "l
recent years readers can hnd great
deal which would have been considered
decidedly out OF place IN q mover MY
wears ago. For instance our hoIhds
Nelson PAGE presents pictures OF inc olu
South which ! am told are rholosIdpN.c
as TO accuracy. Richard HaIdihs laws
has described modern American city Hle
in lie VARYING phases as no writer of
fifty years ago ever did for urban ne j"
op,, countrv Hugh Wynne' has been
used by Dr. Mitchell as the medium TOT
telling history in most attractive Iorih'
Orchard Cayvel" helped make history
and suggests much which IS not tod
though / am afraid MIR. Churb Al taxes
such great liberties with facts tnat MS
work cannot be recommended 90 the SUI
dent of history Kipling Is an ahthiopO-
loeist. He doesn't deal in history. nc
writes Of men and women. lie is uI-
shacked by degrees Of latitude or HeIl,
dams of longitude. All nations anu
tongues furnish his characters heau al
that Kipling has written ana you H"''
studied life under every SUM- ,.
might 20 on for hours mentioning
fiction writer's Of to-day whose woINs
contain that which makes them valuable
IN old and young. OF course everybody
has read what / have mentioned. j SIM
plv wished to direct attention 10 the gem
eral superiority Of the ncton OF to-day
over that of. say. forty years ago, When
Mrs. Ie Hentz and Mrs Southworth ana
authors Of that class were furnish-
ing American readers with the greater
part of their fiction.
But / haven't yet told my young lady
whether she should read novels. II
mamma and papa say no, why thal SET
ties il. II she asked the question be-
cause she really wanted TO avoid doing
that which would prove hurtiul tho re-
Div would be different. l understand
that whiskey is an excellent medicine.
But many women and children VIII go 10
bed hungry tonight, ana many Jam
cell is occupied because men take too
much Of it,
Hieh-class novels may afford not only
pleasant, but useful, reading 10 4 young
lady. If she wishes 10 read Inc
Duchess's" novels or Bertha Clay's. she
does SO against my solemn injunction
and warning. as well as against the COM
mands Of her mother and father, II they
have at heart the intellectual welfare Of
their daughter. II she DO still school
girl she probably has not great deal
of time for reading other than text
books If she has she VIII ind biography
and travel extremely intoresting and
certainly helpful in throwing slde-lghts
on the history and geography OF her
school course. II she reads good novels
she will find that they. too often AFFORD
familiar help. But II she find that his
tory and language ana mathematics anu
philosophy seem insunerably dull after
finishing a novel, she should not read
any more fiction until the tase for text
books returns. For, while fiction is all
right in moderate doses, If taken In too
large quantities il almost certainly Inn
pairs the mental appetite so that the
more solid food will become too heavy
TO be palatable or digesuble. / hope
my young lady will bear that In mind.
And one thing more Love stories are
not specially helpful 10 schoolgirls.
Ideas regarding love are not necessary
I'm the school course. Besides, they al
ways come soon enough, and without
the aid OF books.
"Of all the dramatic-tragio stories l
know-and / learn q new one every day
the Governor Of one of the Southern
States unearthed the most terrible about
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c-~~~a-- 1T NEEDS STEA1.
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