The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-05-17

ath-NOtch. There, half concealed
among the weeds and grass, lay the form
Of Sioux warrior. dead and scalpless.
From a deep cash in the left cheek. the
warm blood was still flowing. Upon the
trunk of the tree where the dead war
rior lay they saw a small notch with the
sap still oozing from the wound
Death Notch has been here. behold
his totem said the Friendly.
Nevertheless. we must on to our
work. said Travis. SO forward all!
In single file the Eight Avengers set
off through the forest"
Lend your attention to another Bea-
die dime novel story of the odd days
that stirred many grandfather now
living. It's THE Wolf Demon, or The
Queen of the Kanawha. by Albert w.
Aiken"
Desperate Boone's hand sought the
handle of his knife. The bright blade
flashed in the air; second more and
II would have been buried to the haft
in the body of white Dog, but the In
dian girl perceived her lovers peril and
sprung to his aid, grasping the hand
of the scout just as he was about to
plunge the knife in the redman's breast.
THE red chief. taking advantage of
the girls aid. twisted his leg around
that of the scout. bore Boone backward
TO the earth, upon which the com
batants fell with a heavy shock. n
second more and the Shawnee warriors
surrounded the contendlng men. With
many cry of triumph they bound the
daring paleface who had lurked so near
to the Shawnee village"
And there's hundreds similar to these
on the old Beadle list. You will note
that the two sided story was a prac-
teal necessity to catch the boyish eye
and Imagination in the '70s. There was
the first section, consisting of three or
five words. and then the impressive
"Or," after which the second title of
as many words followed. And not a
few had three titles. as:
"Big-Foot Wallace, or the King OF
the Lariat, or Wild Wolf the Waco;
Long Beard. or out With the Giant
Spy. or Happy Harry the wild Boy Of
the Woods; Little Hurricane. or Perils
Of the Boy Captain. or the Oath of the
Young Avengers"
AS the rage for the dime novel began
to dwindle publishers and writer's
dashed themselves into a regular tor
nado of terrific titles. Some were:
Border Bullet, the Prairie Sharp
shooter. or Yank Yellowbird's Black
Hills Colony: Double Dan, the Das-
tard, or the Pirates of the Pecos":
The Dude Desperate. or the Baleful
Beauty of Birthstone Bar; Spokane
Saul. the Samaritan Suspect. or the
Double Twist at Camp Sahara: Buff
falo Bits Invincibles, or the Sable
Shadower's Sublime Sacrifice: High
Water Mark the Sport, or Silver-Tip
sid the Dead-Center Shot" and Vel
low Gid of Dark Divide, or the Mineral
Bankers Death Trump"
Probably the most popular Of the real
| "old timer" dime novels We're: BILLY
| Bowlegs": THE Chief of the Miami.
The Scout of Long IslanH: Lantern
Jawed Bob" and "Silverheels, the De,a-
ware" There are places where they
still may be dug up" for reminiscent
readers.
Girl readers were fairly "mesmer-
lied" in these dime novel days-or say
nearing the 's0s-witi the weekly serial
stories in which the chased hunted and
prosecuted maiden had her hands full
surviving the temptations and perus
that beset her. or course the favorite
story was the one in which the pretty
little shop or factory girl married the
handsome youth of high degree-pref-
erably a nobleman-and then returned
To give her old associates strawberry
and cream party on the lawn OF her
spacious estate. The publication that
had the greatest vogue OF this sor
was the Family STORY Paper. The Fire
side Com pdnion was another favoritc
The Saturday Night. published in Phila
delphia, and the NeU York Weekly o
10 IL =, H.
spellbound.
Then the stories of Mrs. Mary Jane
Holmes and Mrs May Agnes Fleming
were read by sentimental girls every
where, the former authoress PUBLISHING
always in book form. Mrs Holmes
heroines always had an attack OF brazil
fever somewhere in the story and thing
happened quickly and strangely Will
they were out of their heads. Mrs
Fleming always had a world weary
masterful man, who quarrelled with tn
heroine and then finally made 1t up 4
time for the last chapter to get to press
est. Elmo" and East Lynne" by othe
authors, were prime favorites.
Two writer's who had a remarkable
following in the old days were William
/; T, Adams, "Oliver Optic" and Horati
Alger, Jr. Adams wrote scores of book
for boys and girls. He always declared
he tried to instil the Christian spirit /
his readers, but of late years his book
/ have been taboo because of their allege'
, improbabilty. His Lake Shore Series
appealed to thousands of boys and hi
, "Woodville Stories" to as many of tn
other sex. Ragged Dick" by Alger ha
, its thousands of readers
Library systems throughout tn
country have been so expanded tina
boys and girls have all kinds of oppor
tunity to extend their reading to a
+. sorts of books. After the decline OF tn
rabid Indian story Of the dime move
=, kind there came mighty rush of detec
- tive stories. The "Old Cap Collier" elias
, had a skyhigh run. He was direc
:, descendant of the "Old Sleuth" storie
that ran first nearly fifty years ago in
!, serial weekly. Then the detective Graz
passed, although there are still boy
who eagerly seek them.
The fact remains, however, that boy
u and girls are not reading tales tina
;. stamp themselves as out and OF