The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-11-13

A contemporary English critic, Mr..
G.. $. Street. thinks the old fashioned
novel doomed If true it is very bad
for novel readers now. If the time
comes when Scott and Thackeray,
Dickens and Reade, George Elliot anu
BIackmore, BulWer and Charlotte
Bronte Meredith and Hawthorne are
dead, but instead the present crowd
of novel producers live, it will be
sad time for intelligence, mental
uplifting and literary skill and taste.
Mr.. Street has this passing hint as to
certain famous novelists:
I'm Walter Scott the story is pre-
dominant, though it was, perhaps, on
his minor characters that his finest gen.
JUS, that wide, obserVant, humor-lOV-
ing eye of his, was exercised; Miss
Austen always, and Thackeray at
times, were chiefly concerned with the
thorough exposition f common char
acter; of Fielding and Dickens we. re-
member the minor striking. eccen-
trio characters more than the protag
onists or the storieS.'
l have seen more than once ac-
counts Of what convicts in Northern
prisons read. They are not a gang
Of illiterates. but can read, and love
novels, and some good ones, but not
of the best always as will be seen in
the following taken from THE Reader
Magazine:' Dumas is of all authors
the favorite at Sing Sing. and 1,413
volumes of his works were read by
the convicts in the course of the year.
This shows good literary taste. Other
authors, as represented by the number
of their books read, ranked as fol-
lows: Charles Reade, 720; Collins
649; Corelli. $50; Doyle, 5S4; Dickens
SCI: Haggard, 4S1: Crawford. AIS. and,
Henty. 402.
after fiction came biography, of
which 1927 volumes were read; his
tory followed with 953 volumes; relig-
ion with 1872 and poetry with 2O5. OF
books in foreign languages. German
led with 1,6S6 volumes, Hebrew was
next with l,259; Italian third, with
1867 and French last, with 545. What
intelligence and vitality is enclosed in
the walls of prisOns!"
Such statistics show how little of q
moral uplifter is education in itself.
Neglect religious teaching-the train
ing of the spirit for Heaven-and edu-
walton leaves man unsaved, a victim
of sin and the servant of the devil. BY
the 5000 convicts in Sing Sing prison
in New York State, there were read il
1903. 40,500 books and of these 29.3Sl
were novels. If not morally right they
may corrupt convicts or give them
distaste to literature if not of the nam
by-pamby or highly sensational ana
absurd kind.
BY accident, so to speak, short let
ter written to me on the 10th OF No
vember. 1892, by one of the most
gifted of North Carolinians then liV-
ing. and he was not a lawyer, fell
into my hands recently. | had for
gotten it entirely 1t was written in
confidence. and so held by me. Writ
ing of a North Carolinian, not SO
prominent then as he is now, he urged
that through him North Carolina
should find recognition" He said that
nothing but a tender of superior gift
would be fitting award to him and
worthy tribute to North Carolina" He
held that the man referred to was
''the peer of any lawyer in this State"
that "in partisan organization his
executive cleverness is unsurpassed,
and he would transcend as custodian
of a departmental portfolio in the
Federal Government" He wrote of
one / had never estimated so highly
as my friend did and in view of the
ability he has shown during the
twelve years that since elapsed my
dear friend displayed far more of in
sight and forecast than ! commanded.
The person he indicated has grown
steadily in public confidence, and /
have no doubt, in capacity and eX-
perience He would have made an eX-