The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-06-09
EVENING CHAT
BY RUTH CAMERON.

When you pick up a magazine what
do you turn to first?
If you are one of a sadly large class
of magazine readers I can answer my
own question.
You turn directly to the most inter-
esting looking short story-the story
that has the most alluring title. the
most attractive pictures and the best
selling" name attached to it.
And when you have gobbled that
story up, you read the next best, and
so on down the line, to the rather un-
interesting story with a lot of solid
print and only one or two illustrations.
Maybe you also glance at a poem
or two, If they are short enough, and
perhaps read the dramatic criticism.
But how often do you read any of
the nonfiction articles-the true stor-
les of what men and women are doing
be better men and women, the descrip-
tons of little known lands, the investi-
cation and discussion of unsatisfactory
conditions of government and industry,
the opinions of great men on the big
economic and civic questions of the
day, the stories of important inven-
lions and discoveries, the memoirs of
famous men?
Now 1 know that of course that there
are a great many people who do read
these things, or else they would not be
bought and printed but l also think
there is an abominably large class of
magazine buyers who seldom look at
these nonfiction articles.
Tax anyone of these fiction-only read
ers with the habit and he will in all
probability retort:
But I work hard all day, and when
/ get home and get hold of a magazine
I'm too tired to try to educate myself.
l want to be amused"
Listen, my friend. Will it really tire
roI1Rh n int AlliQQnt-
ly interested occasionally than to be
perpetually amused?
Some of these serious articles deal
in technical terms and demand great
concentration, but these are decidedly
in the minority, and the majority do
rot demand any more mental effort
than is necessary to follow the antics
of the characters in the customary love
story and think they will interest you
full as keenly once you get accustomed
to reading them.
That's the crux of the whole matter
the getting used to it.
For a person who habitually reads
only fiction, to pick up a magazine and
turn past the story with the alluring
sketch picture of the lady with the big
hat and big eyes and fuzzy hair porting
tea for the man with the Greek god
figure, and read instead how a certain
judge has succeeded in alchemizing
bad boys into good citizens, or who
pays for his Sunday beef and what
methods might be taken to persuade
the culprit to give some of that five
back, may demand self denial at first,
but 1 don't believe you will require
much after you have done it several
times.
If you don't possess it, why don't you
start acquiring the nonfiction article
reading habit today?
Begin by promising yourself that in
all the magazines you take up for the
next month you will read at least one
or two of these articles and by the
end of the month I'm ready to wager
you'll have the habit.
Now, don't think I'm decrying maya
zine fiction. I'm not. think it would
be sad indeed if one could not some
times spend delightful hours forget
ting ones self and ones cares in a
clever magazine story.
I'm simply suggesting that it won't
hurt you if you wean yourself from an
unmixed diet of mental cellars and
cream cakes and similar pastry-delici-
Gus though they may be-and add a
few literary beefsteaks and mutton
broths to your magazine menu.