The Jersey City news., 1906-06-01
FRIDAY, JUNE /, 1905.

is supposed to have read it. And we
have to confess that we have never read
The dime novels that we are going to crit
scise, says the Brooklyn Eagle" We
have not thought it necessary, because
the pictures on the cover declare their
contents. When We observe a boy of
Il with both hands full of revolvers hold
ing up a crowd of desperadoes in sa-
loon, or when we see the heroine of the
story, with her hands tied. biting the
rope in two that holds The villain PEN
dent ever an abyss, we surmise that the
tale is one of incident. and with our yels
lew contemporaries screaming at us
morning. noon and night their tales of
robbery murder, graft, betrayal, disas-
ter. wreck madness, fire and horror, we
do not need to turn TO any other Illus
trated fiction for incident. Rather
would we enjoy bit of character or
humor; We might enjoy art and style;
we could even stand a disclosure of re-
6nement or nobility.
We sra hv no moo no sura that +ha dima
novel of incident is any worse than the
society novel of filth; on the contrary.
we imagine that it is better. Indeed, We
can sympathize with the state of mind
that finds ii more sanitary than the pop
ular novel. specified by contemporary
as .'reeking of tea, cigarettes and gaso-
line 1t must have the advantage of
simplicity, since it is read so earnestly
by people of simple minds 1t must have
the regulation melodramatic ending. in
which sin is punished and virtue tri-
unphs in a blaze of adulatory fireworks,
because the contemporary stage proves
tha. no story is acceptable to the masses
un.ess it proclaims the obvious with all
the ...dor of a reforner. We do not
snlaz.ae, from the pictures on the covers
that decorate the news-stands in yellow,
blle red and green that the difficulties
Of Tic hero are other than difficulties of
ure1.rstance--that is, they are not difi-
cuagies OF heredity and of environment.
T!.tFe is 10 Ibsen in ten-eent fiction.
g.. il is conceded that the people in
the american dime novel are ovcrfond of
weapons. Everybody in them, man, wo-
man and boy, in town or country. or at
sea. is armed to the teeth and is menac-
ing his or her fellow creatures at all
hours Of the day and night. The motive
Tor this display of firearms may be i'm
peccable, but the display itself is unccm-
portable to those who have to regard it
it close range, and from the business
end Of the pistols. Hence we are not
wholly surprised that Germany's literary
censor, who ID not impossibly William in
sisgaise, has decided to bar American
novels az TIE kiad that sell In vivid COW
RS. For it appears that 12-Jesr-cid
Beriiner who had been arsnB his imagin-
stiaa VITA "Old Sisuth," or Daredevil
Dick.' 81 "Jssse James Jags," bought
revolver recently and started to clean
put the Unter den Linden. The boy is
now n reformatory, meditating on the
fanibiisty of American literary IDEALS,
md the street sale Of Jack Hsrkaway
ster:es and Others Of their ksnd has been
rcrbddcsn from 4his time forth.
ii our f.es country this sort IL thing
lappsns rather frequently. except the re-
sefornacoey part Of It. Boys read the
ssurses os bandits and pirates, Or sss
slays III whch thsss popular ssatiemen
appear. ana arm themselves ia what they
beBsve so BE- righteous cause, with the
result rhzt somebody, who never contsm
plates bsing bandit. is Kurt. But we
srs fsss eapnxsy and we are also organ
s.aa. r 10 zuAstlap dAssasa sassAsaz4 rezs