The evening leader., 1918-11-15
MILLION BOOKS
SENT TO FRANCE
No Army in History Ever Read as
0mniverousIy as the
YankS.
PREFER DETECTIVE STORIES
Unexpected Demand for Serious Read
ing Surprise to Librarians-TecF-
nicaI Books Great Aid to the
Ambitious Soldier.


Washington.-More than a million
books have been shipped abroad by
the American Library association for
the use of the American expeditionary
force. The total available was 3,O0O,.
600, and this will be supplemented by
united war work campaign contri-
button of $3,500,000 out of it's total OF
S170,500000 for the six allied welfare
organizations.
About one-half of the area covered
in France by the American expedition
ary force has received it's first sprink-
ling of books. The distribution is pro-
ceeding rapidly and next July there
will be established in Paris central
reference library of 10000 volumes
available to any American soldier in
France. Upon application of a hut
secretary any book in the Paris Ii
brary will be sent anywhere in France
/ free of charge.
At every bookshelf the men find a
poster which reads: "These books are
loaned on the honor system. If you
fail. it fails. America is far away,
tonnage scarce and books precious
Play square with the other fellow; he
has played square with you"
Fiction Predominates.
The books sent to Europe have been
of two kinds, those contributed and
those purchased by the funds of the
association, which have amounted TO
$1000,O00. The variety of contributed
books is astounding and ranges from
mystery stories to. theological treatises,
from murder yarns to Milton's poems.
Fiction, of course, predominates.
No army in history ever, read SO
omniverOusly as has the American
army in France. The men are greedy
for books. In the days when the sup
ply was inadequate, the demand was
so great that a dOughboy who had
taken over in his barrack bag a copy
of o. Henry'S 'The, Four Million split
it into pamphlets, each containing one
of the authors short stories. He
passed the copies, thus, abbreviated,
along the line, and they literally were
read to pieces.
tive thrillers and for tales of the
Rocky mountains. Next comes the de-
mand for poetry. Robert w. Service
is the soldiers favorite poet, with
Rudyard Kipling a close second.
Guide books which describe cha
teaus, cathedrals and points of his
toric interest are in great demand, as
well as histories of France. A recent
cable message to this country called
for 500 copies of "Jeanne dare" show
ing that the Maid of Orleans is as
popular as the modern French maid
ems.
Demand for Serious Reading.
The librarians have been surprised
at the unexpected demand for serious
reading. Many a soldier has evident
ly chosen war times to get in a dig
at some books the reading of which
he has hitherto postponed to a more
oSdSUIs WIN d DSElSClly
straight face a doughboy inquired the
other day for Boswell's "Life of john
son."
OF course more than one inappropri-
ate book has found it's way overseas.
Imagine the emotions of the young
giant who stalked into "Y" hut, set
tied down for a quiet evening, and
found that the first book staring him
in the face was one of the gushiest
and most effervescent of the Elsie
books.
Most of the money spent for the
$4,000 purchased books has gone for
technical volumes designated to aid
the ambitious soldier in mastering the
science of war. Among these are books
on the psychology of color for the
camouflage corps, the chemistry of
high explosives, ballistics, sanitary en-
gineering, hydrostatics, meteorology.
applied geology and other subjects on
which the modern soldier must be q
| specialist,