The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-05-17
DIME. NOVEL DELIGHTS
OF YEARS AGO IGNORED
BY CHILDREN TO-DAY
Iurid Indian and Detective Stories in Which
Scores Died Between Cover and Cover
Give Way to Fiction of Better
Type That Is Read by Elders

w and thunder has been tOma-
hawked. scalped and buried
Lralth the haunted log cabin in the
f.r.; Of oblivion these thirty years.
"H.r.ui the Sewing Machine Girl" has
finished hcmmlng romantic rufiles on
nH.i.n imaginations. She Stacked up
ABBOTT quarter of century ago
yI..U Is Just as well, for she was cruelty
y,lt,utkcd What has taken the place
Of ,.r dime novel and the weekly five
cen, -yrial where the Indian massacre
and the prosecuted lovelorn glued the
ju,,nI,c eye to the lurid page for heart
hatu- hours at a time?
Librarians and book publishers have
been asked about 1t. They vary as to
reasons. Some say there Is a fashion
In o. ION for children as well as grown
us Others say that the admonitions
Of g,neration ago. born of hatred
of 90, melodramatlc publication. have
born, fruit at last and that childhood is
now 20 a healthy state as to Its choice
Of fiction
In fact some go so far as to say
that from FIVE to eight years of the
huys and girls life formerly given
over ,o overweight imaginings. have
been cut entirely out and that we now
have new boy and girl being, who
Jumps from Mother Goose right into
d.. serious reading of the elders and
Ike. H. BE this as it may, lnvestiga-
ton reveals and is able to chronicle
exactly what youngsters read in the
past and what they read now, even
though the reason for the change Is not
plain.
About 1870, 1t may be said, the dime
novel rraze was at its height. Before
then for many years the celebrated
New York Ledger. published by Robert
Bonner had hundreds of thousands of
rvId,rs who hung upon its continued
stories from week to week. But these
readers were wei on in their teens
or uut If them. In the late SOS the
Indian novel began to forge ahead in
popularity
II YOU should say that every boy be-
tween 10 and Is years OF age read dime
novel YOU would not be very far wrong.
There were exceptions of course. Par
outs did their best to keep what they
called trash" out of their Children's
hands Young mothers bewitched by
Mrs. Southworths stories in the Ledger
only a few years before still tried hard
to de- their duty in guarding their boys
and Girls from overindulgence in what
mauy termed improper fiction. But this
very creditable repression only served
60 measure the extent of the craze. In
most cases where the grownups Of
to-day look back on their Indian dime
novel reading period they smile grimly
as they recall how they planned all
sorts If subterfuae TO enjoy the sur
rcptitous reading Of their exciting hc-
tiou.
Novels were read by stealth. In some
cases one boy Of neighborhood whose
parents were not so strict as Others
Was made the Librarian. Boys fire.
qucn,ly "chlpped in" for dime novels
and one book served for all, each ca
gerly waiting his turn to get at it. Even
with parents vigorously denunciatory
and watChful boys and girls brought
IN the forbidden literature, hiding 1t In
srcrc, places from cellar to garnet and
sr.a.ug all sorts of odd moments and
opportunities to snatch a few moments
at It's pages. Publishers amassed great
wealth. Some Of the famous PUBLISHING
houses If to-day date their rise to tha
period.
The three great dime novel publica-
tiuns tor number of years were Bea'
dies. Munros and Ornum's-the latter
being the name Munro spelled in re-
verse. The Beadle novel was a book
uf light yellow paper cover about foul
and threc-quarter inches wide and si'
inches long. The average number Of
pages was l00-although the very pop
ular ones were longer. The Munro anc
Ornum novels were of the same siz'
as the Beadle. but their paper covers
were cream colored. illuminated will
dash.ng and daring pictures showint
hand to hand Indian and hunter bat
ties. II was no uncommon thing fo
the librarian" of the neighborhood t
possess from 500 to 1000 OF these dim'
novels. Toward the last years of tn
craze local stationers set themselves vi
as eXChangers. charging cents TO
swapping stories boy patrons had real
for those they had not.
Some of the titles of these tales wer'
truly bluodcurdlng, as 1t was the In
tent Of the author and publisher the!
should be. And yet-and this SHOULD
Be well remarked-not a lurid dim
novel Of the "craziest" period was tn
insulIer Of an impure thought or al
Objectionable principle. Full Of impos
s,hilities they We're, replete with blood
letting and rough border talk. but al
ways the right triumphed and villain
was discounted. They were gram
ma'rally put together, although gray
boards might deride their objective
But in heating up the boyish imae
nation so that the youngster got
wrong viewpoint Of life, there was tn
harm complained of by the critics.
Take a sample story Of the Bead
dime novel days, Here is one: "Deatf
Notch the Destroyer, or the Spirit LAX
Avengers, by on Coombs."
There suddenly came the sharp re
port # rife, followed by low cry
tn uumistakable death wall. The Eigl
AycuGers looked from one to the oth'
inQUylngly.
" Without a doubt another accurse
T'dsNn has fallen SAID Fred Travis.
''NoS, but who fired the shot| aske
young lIawes. Does the Omaha know
"'Ducs not Death Notch, the Youn
So. Hunter. Turk within these woods
grmy asked the friendly Indian.
THE Avengers started at the nan
OF me- they had never yet seen, yet {
Whom they had heard amazing report
a.