Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1904-01-29
Mhnt IN. Psonls A.. -


The Outlook lately published An f-
ieresting SYMPOSIUM ia gh.r. s r1..
rian al large exprr.elr'. B pe....,..s,.,
tie first rank AMI We'll Known A..
York bookseller gave their a.are.,.
Of the extent 10 which louk- Ore -..s
in America and the kind al l.a.-s,r-,
are most popular.
The librarian. John Cotton Dana oil.
Newark. y. j.. asserts that almost d..
eryLOdy today reads something. ii o-,r
the signs aud posters. Ten 20 fwar,r
millions Of cur population read Bav..
papers, he thinks, and pyrhap, Two ID.
three millions read serious Utrlrr-.,
He calculates that adults read ,.yr--z
novels TO thirty other books and ,sf..
The demand for s0meta.-s n d.,
comes now from millions t.rr.ry -
a few thousands. The dem land T.gf.-
suited 10 their capacities aaI ul..as .-f
the supply comes forth, The b.-.-.F
the penny paper and the five cent l.sfsT
these are their Third and Fourth Rs.
ers. their literary primers. their u.r......
tons 10 better things In reading ib.-,
they are teaching themselves and frirr.-.
ing themselves. and Ia almost The bis.
possible way. They get what they vfs-,
they read With interest and pleasure. H.
take profit therefrom. MUreaear-aaltss,
is the other weighty fact o. "a. gae.-
they steadily improve In their ch.s.
The chronicle Of the growth O.. clean INA
wholesome journals. daily. w.Gly ana
monthly. In the past two decades Is i1s,
as wonderful In its way as that u tFa
growth Of those yellow papers which make
us cringe.
The publisher Charles +. Brett. pres
ident of the Macmillan company. is lu.
pressed by the growing intelligence O,
the reading public and says:
Compare the books in late years BY
such writer's as Maurice Hewlett Mrs
Wharton, James Lane Allen and other
popular writers whose works have
great and enduring sale today with the
books most popular In the early seven,
ties, and it will be quite clear. / think
that the standard Of popular taste during
even so short a period as twenty or thirty
years has been not mlrel" improved. but
greatly improved. - In publishing
experience of nearly thirty years ! have
never known a really good book fail 10
make it's mark and find its public
The bookseller Ernest Dressed North
says:
/ In examining the statistics OF the year
! showing the number Of books printed and
/ the classes they represent one gets an
/ idea of what the public really reads The
/ foil owing figures, although representing
/ the publishing end of the bushes S. are
/ also fairly representative of the booksaa.
/ ing end. Fiction. imported and Hume
made heads the list of 1902 by an output
! Of between seventeen and eighteen hun.
dred. Aside from the technical pub.ic4-
tions which are merely tools for the work
man, the entire lists of other works q
/ litera ture for the same year, upon an &C.
/ RnOwledged approximate estimate nun.
Der only between 1900 and 300 We must
accept. then. the fact that in there days
we prefer our mental pabulum served IN
the form of fiction and acknowledge al
the same time that the boundaries be.
tween fiction and philosophy or psych5l-
ogy or scientific statements have quite
/ disappeared and everything included IN
| the entire universe can, 1t now appears
be put into a story.
If the reading of books be taken as
the measure of the peoples intelligence
there is no doubt that we are steadily
advancing.