The Washington times., 1901-07-28
MAKING TASTE In READING.
What Librarians Notice of the Lat
ter Day Tendency.
Belief That Standards of Apprecia-
fion Are Slowly Ri.ing-Denand
for the --latest" in FfctiOn-CIas
sizes Barely Holding Their own.


tion Are slowly Ri.ing-Denand
for the "Lntest'' In Ffction-CIas
sics Barely Holding Their Own.
NEW YORK, July 2-The elevated
railro ids were never intended to be an
| index to literary taste, but unquestion-
ably. along these avenues of the lithog-
raphers art and in places similarly in
vaded by notices of enormously circu-
| lated books, the public is being intro
duced to its daily reading The public
Librarians, who have chance to observe
the inclination of large masses of the
city's ordinary reading public, say un-
hesitatingly. when asked the popular
| tendency in reading: whatever else
| they want, they want the latest
number of people In charge of H.
braries were asked to give their views.
Their opinion was that almost everybody
wanted brand-new fiction. The standard
| works of a bygone day were holding
their own, and little more. Dumas, Scott,
and Dickens. it appears. were being
largely rea6; Thackeray and TroIlope
and Jane Austen only by few intimates;
and Poe, Haggard and Wtlkie Collins,
together with others who might or might
not be called standard, to a degree less
4
The great ocean of mediocrity which lay
between the standard writer's and the
writer's of the immediate day was scarce
| ly traversed at all, SO said these Ii
| brarians
| At Cooper Union, two volumes of Du--
mas are drawn to every one of any other
author But another librarian says that
| one single woman comes to his library
| each week and draws six noyels-the limit
Of her drawing prerogative-selecting them
| from list which she complies from the
| announcements of the newest purchases.
This librarian thinks he perceives in this
| woman. who Is slightly deaf, partial ex-
PLANTATION. namely that she has a crav-
| ing to become acquainted with the pres
ent day life. just as many osher devotees
of fiction may, when confined within
narrow range of observation. But it is
not true that book, because it is con-
| temporaneous. treats Of contemporaneous
life. The deaf woman would, of course.
obtain no insight into the daily life about
her by reading When Knighthood was in
Flower or The Helmet of Navarro"
The craze for sbrard-new fiction" said
another of these librarians. lis one of
those unaccountable phenomena which
takes possession of the public because the
public likes to be taken possession Of BY
reading every book placarded in the
street cars, the public imagines itself be-
coming par-excellence educated, culti-
waited, and well-informed." Complacency
Is. of course. the main thing. Il should
except, he added, "a certain small por-
tion who are devoted to the romance
reading habit, and a much larger class
who take the newer books simply be-
hav hEya
names of older and better books
1t Is not beyond the realms of possi-
oiiity that some day some man like Mr..
Carnegie, who has ready money to In
vest In social experiments. will take
Vanity Fair" and advertise 1t I'D hill
and down dale. with all the previous ad-
vantage Of its having actually been
through many editions. 1t will be inter
esting to see then whether the master
piece attains to the enormous sales re-
corded for frothier works Meanwhile the
librarians are using less costly subter-
fuges to bring their readers up to stand
ard literature by letting them wander in
the fields of the ephemeral for a time
Here Is the opinion of Melvil E. Dewey,
Director OF the State Library, apropos OF
this subject:
"One who reads nothing has no basis
for any preferences. Some are willing to
let children adults read dime novels
or yellow journals, IL necessary to get
the reading habit started. A foothoId
once gained, progress toward better
things may begin. Some eminent libra
rians have gone so far as to advocate
furnishing what most of US call trash for
ground bait, In order to attract those
who. they think. would not rise to any
thing higher. Many readers find their
way to the best books only through read
ing and outgrowing the poorer; the prob
lem before the public library is to decide
at what point in this process of growth
its work should Begin
DIR. John s. Billings. director of the
public library system of this city, when |
asked if he thought cheap literature had |
a certain usefulness in getting the read |
ing habit started. said simply: "A man |
would be very brave who tried to answer |
Boston Public Library was more cour- |
ageous. Il think" said he. that the |
tendency is to work from the bottom to |
the top in the matter of reading. As |
crave lines and pickles, so |
young folks seek the poorer book. Every
boy one meets in the electric cars selects
the lowest of the batch of newspapers
offered him. A college professor of
English literature whom / know began.
1 think, on Obi, or Three Fingered Jack
and the stories of Sylvester Cobb, jr.,
such as The Gunmaker of Moscow An
person will read books suited
to his or her capacity. All classes must
be fed at the public library with their
own kinds of stuff
"A poor woman here" continued the
Boston librarian who read all of Mrs.
enjoyed them, and replied that she had
few comforts of life, as she was very
poor and lived in wretched tenement, |
but that these books described people who
had warm food and good houses and
were well dressed, and she got warmth
and comfort from reading about them. A
great effort Is being made in libraries to
encourage the best reading, especially
among the young. 1t is the new book
that Is much in demand. How so many
people find out about the new books
DO not know. The information seems to
pass from one to the other, so that the
public libraries might have hundred
copies OF David Harum' and give them
all to readers the first day
The firm which publishes 20 per cent of
Ill books falling under the head of nickel | I
ibraries'' and 10-cent paper-covered novels
leals exclusively with the newsdealers. | ,
The covers of it's publications design /
d to arrest public attention. They run in
.olor schemes, whereby are designated
ertain familiar series. If Madison Ave I
.ue finds the Temple Classics at
10 strange that Sixth Ave- l