The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1915-08-16

will be far superior and bring more
money.-Orlando Reporters
ABOUT NOVELS
(Savoyard in Louisville POST
The Montgomery Advertiser re-
calls that Charles A. Dana regarded
the reading of fiction as one of the
greatest pleasures in life, and
though one of the busiest men in the
world. the great editor devoted a
part of every day to the reading of
novels. The Advertiser also cites
that the late Mr.. Justice Harlan, of
the United States Supreme Court,
was addicted to the habit of read
ing dime novels and found that
i they relaxed his mind and afforded
him pleasure.
/ Thomas CARLYLE, perhaps the most
gigantic intellect of his generation,
leaned the manuscript of his French
! Revolution" to John Stuart Mill TO
read, and he, in turn, loaned it to
Mrs. Taylor, whose maid threw the
first volume of it into the fire. mis-
taking it for waste-paper. When
Carlyle was told of the misfortune
/ his look was terrible, and one ac-
count has it that, after an awful 81
lence of more than a minute. he ex-
ploded and delivered himself of
single and powerful profanity, and
then sent for the novels of Captain
Marryatt, a very prolific writer, and
read every one of them from be-
ginning to end before he set about
rewriting his great prose epic.
eJremiah S. Black, the leader of
the American bar and one of the
most powerful controversial writer's
VINO ever spoke the English tongue,
bought Bonner's New York Ledger
every week and read every line of
It's eight pages, seven pages of which
We're filled with trashy novels by !
such writer's as Mrs. Southworth
Sylvanus Cobb, Emmerson Bennett I
Mary Kyle Dallas, Amy Randolph,
and others of like ilk.
MI. Dana was right-the man
who is not fond of a GOOD novel is
to be pitied. Every parent should
teach the child the reading habit.
and the best way to do that is to he.
Sin with fiction. No boy of ten
years is Ounce who is delighted
with Robinson Crusoe and saturated
with the events narrated in that
great masterpiece. Defoe was
wonderful genius, and though some
Of his books are not fit for the
young, 1t is possible that he has con-
erred more pleasure and profit on
Inc young than any other English
writer. He was the author of the t,
lrst historical novel. THE Memoirs
d Cavalier" that the first Will
lam Pitt supposed to be authentic
history, And it is as instructive as
work of history as it is delightful /,
IS narrative of romance. !
Defoe was not as great genius s
IS Swift, and it would be difficult to +
lame writer of any tongue since +
who was; but Swift's
ioveis, If we may call them novels. I
we're not for the common herd =
they are political allegories, and to
Understand them one must be ac- +
Iuainted. intimately acquainted. y
With the history and the politics of I,
he times. CULVER was a composite :
haracter-B olingbroke and Swift
nd while the young can get amuse- =
nent from the book, it was written
or the educated man, fond of pub
ic life.
The wonderful influence Swift en- n
rted over the mind of his reader is y
Illustrated in the anecdote of the :,
ountry squire who went M to !,
ondon from Hampshire. In a cof- ;s
ae-house he heard a discussion of q,
he book, and one gentleman spoke =.
1t as fiction. Our squire then en- h,
red into the controversy and swore o.
lat he was intimately acquainted =,
it'll Captain Gulliver. who was his n,