The Alaska daily empire., 1923-03-14
THE DIME NUTEL.

A news item to the effect that two Baltimore nDs.-iesss than 1T years of departed from their homes with s22 between them, their destination the Canadian northwest where they proposed to become mounted policemen brings back to the middle aged and older men of the country the dime novel era Of their own boyhood It reported the Balti- more youth were started their search for adven- by reading stories of the daring exploits or the Northwest police.
 There are few meh of fifty in the country today who did not fall onetime. large small de- gree. under the spell of the dime novel, which was ao generously printed and circulated when he was in the romantic formative of his boyhood. These men will recall how they waited excitedy from week to week for the newest novel, and how they read it candegtinely, hidden away in the barn, the attic in their sleeping room after the folks had retired, because few parents approved Of the dime novel;
 In spite of this attitude the part of the older people toward the dime novel they were not, after all, injurious many believed As rule they had really bad effect their readers, and the instances where boys turned to lives of crime because they read them were rare Some of the most solid business of today found their first thrill their first sigh for adventure, in the dime novel.
 It may be true that many of these boys dreamed of going out to the Wild West for the purpose Of fighting Indians. Perhaps some of them determined that they cid enough they would go to the great city and become detectives, running desperate criminals to their lair and perhaps being fortunate in the end as to wed the beautiful hero
 
 occatcaally boy would start immediately and avery tender age 10 make his mark in the bringing juftice of bad men. but these instances were rare and generally the boys got no fart CT than will the boys with the s32 who have started for the Northwest.
 As matter of fact, the dime novel of 30 40 years ago largely nspirational. and if the truth known has been responsible for awakening in many young the dcsire leave the slow, pod- ding life of the country for the active and broader Of the city. They did not become Old Cap Golfers but they did become solid business
 Whatever the faults of the dime novel may have been they failed 10 teach a lesson. The hero if he dteetive. always a good man, with high ideals. He honest, he loathed crime and wrong-dong in every form, and the criminal charac- ters in the books were painted such loathsome ceatures that few boys would be tempted follow in their footsteps. And if they should been the fact they always caught red-handed their crimes and finished their careers in prison acted deterrent.
 The eyer-suceesful detective, who risked his life q thousand times, bet who always escaped unhurt free to continue his fight on evel was a high minded gentlemen, the soul of honor He was always the respector and protector of vomanhood Her honcr was sacred to him and many of his most daring battles and narrow escapes prompted by determination her frora the clutches of the william.
 The old fashioned dime novel was not so bad as it printed And thing may be said of it that said of the present-day cheap litera grecdy dcvoured by many young people It never touched those intimate details of life | which the base of many of the printed in clAap magazines that bestrew the shelves of the | booksiands The true" "saucy," snap