Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1902-03-22

are resolutely closed, or are just part
ed in an expression seeming to promise
message of colossal import TO Man.
Now, why should these prosperous
and belaudeG persons take life so pain
fully? Not only are their works selling
by thousands and thousands, but these
writer's are never without supporters
who spend their time in proclaiminS
their gifts, their genius to the whole
earth. Is it the burden Of terrible re-
sponsibility that is stamping the mark
of woe upon so many fine countenances,
making the owners of them look like
bearers of weighty tidings from another
sphere? Are these images of heroism
that we see before us, portraits of in
spired prophets come to tell US all
about it? Or are they the photographs
of mere human beings like ourselves,
who have. perchance, been taking
themselves a little too seriously? We
wonder-New York Tribune.
The New York Times tells the follow
ing amusing story concerning one OF
the metropolis we'll known society
women:
She wanted to do honor TO a certain
recently married pair and was anxious
to have the guests understand just who
the lady was So she had the cards
read: ITO meet DR.. and Mrs. Mary
Wilkins Freeman This was no doubt
highly pleasing to everybody except
the doctor.
Robert Shackleton, author of Many
Waters, A Story of New York, pub
lished by D. Appleton and Company,
abandoned the practice of law to enter
the literary field in which he has al
ready achieved Il reputation. He is
forty-one years old and native of
Wisconsin. Almost all of his early life
was spent in Cleveland, Ohio, where ne
obtained his preliminary education.
He studied law at the. University of
Michigan and was admitted to the bar
in Ohio. Following a natural bent for
investigation, he was attracted to
newspaper work in which he was sue
cessful, serving from 1895 to 1900 on
one of the great New York dailies For
the last two years, Mr.. Shackleton has
occupied an editorial position on the
Saturday Evening Post of Philadelphia.
Aside from his regular journalistic
work, Mr.. Shackleton has become IA
miliar to American readers through his
short stories, magazine articles and
syndicate writing. He is well known
as an investigator of Indian localities
and history, and of localities of Ameri-
can history in general. A volume of
his New York stories has been pub
lished under the title of ''Toomey and
others" His first novel Many
Waters is a vivid description of met
ropoitan life showing side-lights that
would escape the ordinary observer but
which would appeal to the trained eye
of a newspaper man.
Harper & Brothers published this
week, Hamlin Garland's new novel,
The Captain of the Gray Horse
Troop" 1t is love story with very
novel and picturesque environment of
Indian and military life. The hero,
Captain Curtis, is a young American
army officer of sterling character-a
powerfully drawn American type. His
work has been placed largely in the
West and on Indian Reservations, and
his sympathies lie with the redman.
The girl he loves on the other hand,
Elsie Brisbane. despises the Indian,
sees in him only his weak points, and
this decided conflict of views keeps the
lovers apart for long time. There
are stirring Western scenes in the
novel, and a refreshing out-of-door at
mos sphere to offset the intensity of the
love story.
When inquiry is made in regard to
what people read, the thought natural
ly turns at once to the novels which
happen to be popular at the moment,
ben Hur," Robert Elsemere," 'Tril-
by" David Harum," Janice Meredith"
or The Crisis or Audrey" as the
case may be. Yet as John Cotton Dana
forcibly shows in a statistical article in
the March issue of the Worlds Work,
even these record-breakers make but
an insignificant showing when COM
pared with what the people as mass
really read, namely, newspapers and
periodicals. He finds that 4,500 new
books are published yearly in the
United States, with a total sale of per-
haps 100000. How they are over
Swallowed in the matter of circulation
by the periodical press, Mr.. Dana
points out by some interesting tables
One of the most curious is devoted to
showing how much space in terms of a
book the size of David Harum" is
given to various topics in the periodi-
calls of the United States for a given
year. The commercial and financial
news equals in space 27O,60O,OOO copies
of David Harum,' trivial personal
news 100, 100000, advertisements, 159,-
100000; politics, 156,6O0,000; sports,
132. O00. 900; legal, 119,0O0,O00; criminal.
S6.2000 900. The list is long and tapers
down to literature, music, art, ETC.,
which together make 51,000,000, theat-
rical news. 13.400,O00, and biblical. g.
600,0 900. OF course it is to be under
stood that a given reader may be in
terested in only few of these different
subjects that are brought under his eye.
nevertheless the figures are impressive.
and show that the attention of the
greater public must be gained, if at all.
through the periodical press.
The statement so often made. that
everybody is reading this or that
JUST p,
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