The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-06-27


 "Of course," said MT. Matthews, the people who purchase these cheap books, little know what they are buying. To them, they are just story books, little realizing that it is just story book that rightly used makes one of the most valuable contributions to boys edu- cation, especially the boy in his early tens. Because these cheap books do not develop criminals or lead boys, except very occasionally, to seek the wild west parents who buy such books think they do their boys no harm. The the fact is, however, the harm done is simply an incalculab1e one.
 Of the most valuable assets a boy mas Is his imagination It is in propor- ton as this is nurtured that boy. develops initiative and resourcefulness The greatest possible service that edu- cation can render is to train the boy to grasp and master new situations as they constantly present themselves to him; and what helps more to make such adjustment than a lively imagination? Story books of the right sort stimulate and conserve this noble faculty while those of the viler and cheaper sort by over stimulation debauch and vitiate it as brain and body are debauched and destroyed by strong drink. If you take gasoline and fed it to an automobile drop at time, you get splendid re- suits because you have confineH and directed it with intelligent care and caution. Take the same quantity of gasoline and just pour it out and you either don't get anywhere or you get somewhere you don't care to go. Here IS an apt illustration of the proper use of the elements that must enter into make good books for boys For let it be understood that the good books for the aver age boy must be one that, as the Century Magazine says, is 'wholesomely perilous. And what is meant is this The redblooded boy, the boy in his early teens. must have his thrill, he craves excitement, has passion for acton, something must be doing all the time, and in nothing is this more true than in his reading. The man who writes books for boys that really get them coming must always work with combustibles, with explosive ma terials"
 The difference between a Treasure Island and a Nick Carter is not so much In difference in the clements, but the use each author makes of them,' said MT. Matthews. Stevenson works with com bustibles, but, as in the case of using the gasoline, he confines them, directs them with care and caution, always thinking of how he may use them in such way II the case of the Nick Carter the author works with the same materials, but with no moral purpose. with no intelligence No effort is made to confine or direct or control these highly explosive elements. For all the author of this type of read ing desires is to write something that will get by his publisher with another thriller sure to interest the boy. The result is, as boys read these books their imaginations are literally blown out, shot to pieces,' burned out and they go into life more terribly crippled than though by some material explosion where they had lost hand or foot. For, having had his imagination burned out not only will the boy be greatly handicapped in business but the whole world of art in It's every form almost is closed to him. Why are there so few men readers of the really great books or even of the passing novels sometime of realest worth? Largely, think. because the imagination of so many men as boys received such brutal treatment at the hands of authors and publishers and booksellers who have no concern as to what they write or pub fish or sell so long as 1t returns constantly the expected financial gain."
 Continuing. Mir. Matthews said s'r feel sure the public will be interested in know ing something about who writes and how these nickel novels fin the disguise of the bound book are written. Recently, a man came into my office fin New York He said he had been chosen by a certain publishing house to complete a series of Boy Scout story books asked him who had been writing the series before he un-