The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1922-08-05

I0RA
stories, with 1873 titles. come sec'
ond - . class In the Affection a,
the bluejackets. The boys ON III
rolling ships. with blue water -
the horizon and the splashins A.
the waves sounding in their an.
love to read about the strong. a.
lent men of the plains who raj,
cigarets with one hand and vhc
shoot quick with the other. or ths
81 classes into which the catalorps
divides the navy fiction, western
stories lead with 213 titles. B. M
Bower is the gobs' favorite author.
he leads with Is western noyel,
listed in the catalogue. Zane Grey
leads him a close second.
A second surprise comes when
one notices the large number Of
Juvenile books supplied to the II.
braries. Many of the enlisted man
are mere boys not yet done with
thrilling over such stories A
"Riflemen OF the Ohio" or "Tbs
Great Sioux Trail" As a class. iu.
venile books rank fourth in mum.
Der of titles, being exceeded only
by westerns, love stories and sd.
venture stories. ]. A. Altsheler has
20 titles listed in the catalogue
all stories for boys. Ralph Henry
Barbour. another we'll known wri.
ter for boys, has 10.
Juvenile books are closely press.
ed for honors by detective stories
Short stories come next in popu.
larity, followed by humorous stor.
ries. in eighth place comes stand
ard and classical fiction.
Some Solid Reading.
Yet, although the preponderance
Of taste is for light fiction. a con.
siderable percentage of the men
aboard Uncle Sans warships de-
mand the best in fiction. Georrs
Meredith, for instance. whom even
some professional critics find diff.
Guilty In reading. maintains place
among the live" books with three
novels, including his masterpiece
THE Egoist" Conrad is much.
read favorite. Nine of his novels
appear on the navy shelves. Thom-
as Hardy has one-"Far From the
Madding Crowd"-but neither Of
the other two great moderns, Henry
James and George Moore, is rep.
resented! Arnold Bennett is there
with four novels, and Kipling with
nearly everything he has aver writ
ten. Almost every ship in the navy
has to buy a new set Of Jack Lon
don's novels each year, so great is
the wear and tear upon these VOL
umes. The great novelists Of the
past-Dickens, Thackeray, Scott
Hugo, Balzac and George Eliot
among them-are well represented
But Jack does not always read
merely for amusement. His library
also contains large number
Of non-fiction works. Curiously
enough, a class of books in large
demand are books on etiquet The
boy who enlists in the navy is often
leaving home for the first time. He
finds he must write letters, and
simultaneously he discovers that
he cannot write good ones. He ap-
plies to the ships librarian for
help and receives model letter
writing book to help him over the
rough spots. Then when the SHIPS
are in port, the boys are entertain
ed ashore; and some of them feN
that their department will not Be
correct. So they, take the ettqud
books from the library and stud,
the social graces.
The whole aim Of the bureau M
navigation is to make the libraries
as interesting and at the same time
as useful as possible. Naturally
enough there is a large class Of
books dealing with travel. When
the feet is voyaging and approach
ing strange lands these books ore
most in demand. Poetry is not net.
lected-there are some 60 volumes
of it in the standard list. Robert
w. Service leading by comfortA.
BILE margin. There are scores OF
books on practical subiects-me-
chanical engineering, electricity,
radio. gas engines, business, even
farming. Each ship librarian is 10.
structed to use the bulletin boards
to apprise the men OF books in the
library which he thinks would ID.
terest them. The men are allowed
direct access to the books; and tho
librarian is not asked by authori:.
ties: How many volumes are In
your library" but rather. How
many volumes are issued to the