The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-04-13

OF wages!
Being neither a prophet nor bust
ness man ] have nevertheless found it in
teresting to chart the courses of partieu-
lar books as they progress from point to
point on the monthly summaries and ap-
pear with increasing or diminishing fire.
queney in the reports from divers parts
of the United States. l can only suggest.
however, some of the conclusions that
may be drawn from these observed phe-
nOmena; there are enough of them to
support almost any hypothesis to which
one may be committed in the beginning.
The Case of Deere Mable."
Dere Mable, which appeared in the re-
ports from two sections of the country in
November with total score sufficient to
bring it into the list of the Most Popular
Six for the entire United States, and
which REQUIRED in three of the lists for
December, dropped almost out of sight in
the reports for January. 1t ran q poor
seventh in the South Central States and
was barely mentioned elsewhere. But
even the most hardened statistician would
hardly regard this single datum as suf-
fcient from which to draw a sound con-
clusion. @-'
Let US, then, consider The -Four Horse
men Of the Apocalypse. In November
this book appears once in the published
tables in sixth place in the report from
the South Atlantic States. 1t had, as
= the complete record shows, moderate.
scores in New England and the South
Central States; the folk who draw books
from public Libraries in the North Cen
trail States and the West had not yet
heard Of it. But by December The -Four
HOrsemen was first in demand In the
South Atlantic and Western States,
fourth in the North Central and South
Central States and second in the whole
United States. January reports moved
it up to still higher place. 1t is one of
the three books that appear among the
first SIX in every part of the country; it
is first in two divisions, second in two and
third in one, and at the very head of
the list for the whole country.
Now let the statisticians make their de-
auctions and tell us what these facts
prove. l don't know; the value of adver-
Using, perhaps.
Harrington, Porter, Wells.
The only two books that rival The
-Four Horsemen in popularity, in that
they appear among the first six for every
part Of the country land, may add, on
almost every individual ibrary's report)
are The Magnificent AmberSOns and 4
Daughter Of the Land. Mrs. Porter's
book shares with Joan and Peter the dis
tinction of being among the first six for
secutive months. New England read Mr..
Wells's novel and got through with it be-
fore the rest of the country was fairly
started. "Shdrings" is again, for the
second time, the faVorite in the New
York New England section, but is pene-
trating southwark and westward so rap
idly that it requires little exercise of the
prophetic faculty to forecast for it
higher place on the national list in an
other month. But here again l must
leave it to minds more highly trained in
astrology and other forms of analytical
research to determine the significance of
the persistence of Harrington in relation
to the aeceleratiOn of Lincoln, or what
should be deduced from the bread and
treacle juxtaposition Of Wells and Por-
ter; may be it all means nothing but that
people like to read good stories" The
continued popularity Of The Amasing Is-
tcrlude lends color to this hypothesis.
On the other side of the page, where
the non-fction books are hsted-now Ne
are getting into the realms in land about
which Librarians love to ramble-there
is one singular circumstance that imme-
diately strikes one. In the three months
A. $4,000, 80 p,ol, -, no,,o-J 80