The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-09-05
HOW NOVELS AID REFORM.
The Powerful influence Exerted h!
Works of Fiction

Works of Fiction.
The Wigan poor law guardians says
Parsons Weekly. held a special meet
ing the other day to consider the best
method of educating their pauper chill
dren, a considerable sum of the rate
payers money having been previously
set aside for the purpose of building
homes to shelter them.
During the course of the debate it
transpired that these latter were to be
conducted on the principles laid down
by PETIT Ridge in his novel, "A Son of
the State" and, as some of those pres
ent were fain to plead ignorance of the
contents of that exceedingly interesting
book, the solicitor to the union volun-
teered to present each of the party
members with free copy.
1t is, too, an open secret that one of
the very best of modern reformatories
Tor girls owes its inception to "Mord
Emily" So that Mr.. Ridge can lay
claim to have exercised through his
writings a powerful influence for good
upon the future of the youthful flotsam
and Jetsam of both sexes.
Nor is this by any means a singular
example OF fiction influencing fact. On
the contrary, there are many such, one
OF the best known being that associated
with the Peoples Palace" in the Mile
End Road"
rms splendid institution owes its ex-
lstence to the popularity of a novel bv
the late Sir Walter Besant, entitled
All Sorts and Conditions of Men" In
II the writer pointed out how sore was
the heed among the people of East
London for social recreation and inn
provement and drew an imaginary nen
picture of a Palace of Delight"
wherein this need might be partly sat
isfied W
>. Inc idea caught on at once; the pub
TIC opened its purse, the trustees of the
paroachial charities fun aided the pro-
gect' and, lastly, to crown all, a we'll
known flrm set aside $1,000 a year in
perpetuity for its endowment and main
Not few towns. also. have baen
made" by books. A typical example
is westward Ho, in Devon, which was
d sleepy, decaying, forgotten little viii
ldge until the popular novel of that
name sent everyone flocking there to
see what sort of a place it was.
IN the same way Blockmore's
Lorna Doone' sent Lynton and Lyn-
mouth bounding into popularity. built
NOTES. erected boarding houses and en-
hanced the value of local real estate
at least 100 per cent.
The French army of to-day is prob
ably equal, man for man and bat
taIon for battalion, to any other on
earth. But who made it so? Not
president nor press nor general staff,
but Emile Zola, who, in his novel, 1.-The
Downfall, showed his countrymen the
inherent weakness of their then mill
tary system and by opening their eyes
to the truth made reform possible.
Inc abolition of slavery in the United
states of America is generally attrib-
uted TO the election in 1860 of the abo-
lltlonlst President, Abraham Lincoln.
and the consequent secession from the
Union of the slave-holding South.
But these events We're merely the
Immediately exciting causes of the
mighty social cataclysm that followed.
1t was a book which really sounded
long previously the death knell of slav-
cry on the American continent-the
famous "Unclw Toms Cabin" IF that
story had never been written" re-
marked William Lloyd Garrison, the
champion of emancipation, 1.-THE slave
would have remained a slave for at
least another half dozen generations"
Count Tolstoi when quite young
man pau d SuIp PRISE WISH 10 one OF the
common lodging houses of Moscow.
What he saw there shocked and hor-
rified him. He went home, sat down
to his desk and wrote the opening
chapters of What Must we Do
Then" The book acted as a trumpet
call to the Russian people and thence
forward the abuses he so graphically
described became automatically impos-
sible.
Afto- y,o,,ob +bo -o,,,a eozL;o.. 100.
to an end the horrors of the British
system of transportation beyond the
seas. PhilanthrOpists innumera BILE had
acclaimed against it. Blue books en-
phasized its undesirability, and crimi-
biologists decried it with one accord.
But it flourished in spite of everything
until Marcus Clarke's For the Term
of His Natural Life" (Which appeared
later as a serial story in P. W. brought
home the full hideousness of it to the
rank and file of the people. And from
that moment it was doomed.
Dickens fought the battle of the
downtrodden and oppressed in most of
his books. He was rarely wholly un-
successful. He spared no pains in get
ting up the facts. Before beginning
Nicholas Nickleby," for example, he
went down to Yorkshire like a Gov
eminent Commissioner inquire into the |
abuses of the Yorkshire schools. He
slew "Bumbledom with "Oliver |
Twist" but he spent months in visit |
ing, under all sorts of pretexts, the met
ropolitan and provincialE work houses. |
Had Rider Haggard never written |
King Solomon's Mines it is quite |
within the bounds of possibility that |
there would to-day be no British South |
Africa. 1t was a work of fiction, of |
course, and everyone fully recognized |
it as such. But yet, nevertheless, it's |
fascinating realistic descriptions of the |
wonders that were supposed to be hid |
den in the vast mysterious country |
beyond the desert" sent wave after |
wave of prospectors, hunters and adj |
venturers generally rolling northward |
and their discoveries paved the way /
for the future occupation of the coun- |
try.
Since last October the children in |