Omaha daily bee., 1918-12-29
Have aHeart
For Soldiers.
Convalescing
Send Them All Your
Books and Stories
With Happy
findings
you any Of lbsen's books
II or plays? Well, keep them!

Have you any OF the popu-
lar fiction with happy cndings? Give
them to the soldier boys and help
save their reason,
Popular fiction is not usually
treasured as a part of the home il
brary, and after these books are
read they are good for but one
thing-to be passed on to another
who had not read them.
Have heart! Take the first few
minutes you have and gather up all
the bright, CHEEKY stories there are
about your house and send them on
their merry way
Fiction and the lighter forms oil
reading play large part in the
daily lives of the men in hospitals
every librarian of the A. L. A. Wal
service reports. Stories of adven.
ture cannot be supplied in sufficient
number. The men cannot get
enough Of Zane Grey, Rex Beach
Jack London, E. Phillips Open
helm and Kipling. The best novel
is western story with dash OF
romance.
Every man will read a love
story, but he honestly prefers the
wholesome sort" says the librarian
at one of the largest hospitals. I've
quite revised my idea of the atti-
tude of man toward sentimental
reading
On a visit of the librarian to the
wards, one man had tentatively SCI
lectel Stevenson's Treasure Is
land" from an armful of books pre-
scented for his inspection. rs it a
love story he asked, and handed il
back when given the negative an
swer. Sure, | want love story"
f. affirmed. I've got girl"
Not Happy Ending.
He liked the looks of Mary John
sons Audrey" but was warned<
that, though emphatically love
story, the novel had not happy
ending" That gave him pause, -bnt
he finally chose Audrey
81 can stand the ending he
said. Unhappy endings have beer
known to cause lasting depression
in military hospitals.
In the assortment of fiction and
stories of personal war experiences.
carried by the librarian on the ~saiiie
ward visit, were dictionary, a
higher algebra and trignometry,
plain and solid geometry, and q
book on mechanics, each of them
going in response to special re-
quest to the occupant of some bed.
An Italian in one of the wards eyed !.
the collection and drew out the
trigonometry.
Bill, you don't want that book,
volunteered his bed neighbor to the
left That's higher mathematics,
you can't read that. Better give him
novel"
Bill looked inside the trigonom-
etry and quite apparently found it
no more ineligible than Chinese
Still, he was reluctant to surrender
it for a novel in an easy style.
Probably the title had appealed to
the Latin in him, but obviously he
wanted to hang on to it because it
had real substance. He frightened
with delight when the librarian told
him she now was equipped to sup
ply him with Italian books.
Detective Stories.
All the men like detective stories.
A casual evening visit to the ex-
IRENE psychopathic ward brought
requests for detective fiction from
three white and two negro patients.
There are hundreds of thousands
of books, unused on the shelves of
American homes, that are just the
books the tens of thousands Of
wounded men in the army hospitals
need now Every public library is
a receiving station for library war
service. Books taken or sent to the
library will get into the soldiers
hands promptly.
Give Them Happy findings.
Why the unhappy ending is the
stock weakness of the beginner at
story writing is easy to explain.
Stories with unhappy endings are
easier to write! The human mind
is naturally subjective and sad
vocabularies in every language have
many more adjectives. verbs and
adverbs to express sorrow and
gloom than to express happiness and
lightheartedness.
This subject lends itself nicely to
a debate, but as far as the men in
the war hospitals are concerned the
argument has only one side: Give
US happy endingsl
A Red Cross nurse tells of serial
story that had been read by two OF
her patients, one of whom was de-
pressed for a whole day because the
heroine died.
Il wish I'd never read it,. he
complained Il fell in love with
that girl. If ever found one exact
ly like her I'd certainly ask her TO
marry me"
One very sick man in Canadian
hospital had started an adventure
serial on the ship that brought him
to America. The story was such
lurid affair that it actually increased
his fever. He died the morning the
next instalment was received.
Cooks with happy endings, books
that will entertain and help pass
away the weary weeks of con-
valescence, are needed at once for
our wounded men in hospitals. Send
your gifts to your public library.
They will get to the soldiers without
delay,