Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1901-05-25

They were discussing the modern
novel after the ticker had ceased it's
song and the heat and worry of the
days battle was ended. 1t was the
Issue of a story that has been most
widely advertised. and whose author
has been dined and wined and doomed
in the most approved fashion of mod
ern advertising.
Have you read it, was asked of all
Of the dozen men in the party. None
had done SO. Have you met any one
who has?" followed. There was again
a hush. for no one knew of a friend
who had read it. Yet it is a tremen-
deus success, as books go. Curiosity
was aroused as to what had become of
all the coo copies said to have been
published and sold. Scouting parties
y ent through the corridors of the big
hotel, each man commissioned to ask
every man he knew if he had read the
book. \ careful canvass was made,
and the reports when the scouts met
were that one woman had been found
who confessed to having read it on the
train on her way to this city.
\ party of six newspaper and liter
ary men who were having a bite in the
cafe was intcrrogated. They all knew
OF the book and of it's author. and yet
none Of them had read it, nor had
either of them a friend who had SAID
| he or she had read it. reader Tor one
| Of the large publishing houses had a
clcw as to where the book had been
sold Some one had said to him that
| the advertisements We're misleading
and that the book had nothing like the
sale that is claimed for 1t. Ihcre Is
where you do the publishers wrong.
| said he The book has had all the
| sale claimed for it, though 1t is prac-
| tically unknown here and IN othcr
cities of size where the sale has been
| comparatively small. 1t is one OF the
unsolvable things about book business
| in which there are so many unsolVapic
things.
| The sale has been pushed through
| the depa rtment stores here ana III
ether cities and has had phenomenal
sale in the country towns. FAST
north and west of us it has sold in ire
mendous quantities. When you come
ia 90 10 the country for the summer
Won will find that all the people resi-
dent here have read it. ana nave
| laughed at il. too. for it has had a rage
among them. as did its predecessor
which found it's tremendous sale III inc
cities almost exclusively. My ohly
theory is that the city people rlShtly
took it as an imitation of the reai
thing and therefore let it severely
alone while the cOuntrymen nave
taken the later issue just as good as
the original volume, just as they buy
somebody elsc's sarsaparilla that
lhappcns to be few cents cheaper.
New York Times.
| Gen. Lew Wallace says of "Tarry
Thou TIL Come" by George Croiy:
l"In my Judgment the six greatest
| English novels are 'IvanhOe. Inc
last Of the Barons." 1.-The Tale of Two
cities" Jane Eyre "Hypatia ana
This romance of CrOly's. If SNAKE
lsnc,re had never been born: if Milton
Evron and Tennyson were singers ye'
:, he and Bacon, Darwin and Ruski'
unknown. still the six WORKS
named would Of themselves sufnce u
constitute British literature.
Two novels which are announced Wy
tho Harpers are in course of drahao
zation, and will probably be iss".r
from the press simultaneously Wiz
their stage production. One bears 'ne
title 1.-The Kings Messenger anu :. :.
nv Suzanne AntrObus. It's scent =
laid in New orleans during the ear, -
days of its colonization by the fre"on
THE other novel is entitled "A Japaiie.e
Nightingale" and is written by o"'.l
Watanna half-caste Japahe',,
authoress. who has already attrac'e'
attention by her work in the Mas"
zines.