Evening star., 1929-01-04

| jured from reading such print. Such
type seems particularly applicable to
poetry, since the majority of people
| find it difficult to read at the best, and
since true poetry lovers always feel that
the best is none too good for its pres
entatlon.
The majority of books printed, how
ever up until the past five years. were
| in the smallest sized type At the height
/ Of popularity of the novels of Charles
Dickens an atrociously minute type was
| used to set his works. Usually these
were in shilling editions printed on thin
paper, with colored covers and plenty
| of illustrations.
Bibles nave been set in small type al
most to the exclusion of any other. Ii
was the accepted thing Perhaps an
edition or two was got out for elderly
people, but always somewhat apologet-
ically, as if reading were an athletic
! feat, or the task had to be softened to
fit dimming eyes. "Old peoples Bibles
made use of - or IA point.
X x 4
| Only recently we saw one-volume
edition of the short stories of Guy de
Maupassant. The type was clear
| (which doesn't mean much, after all
most type isl. but was very small. and
the page was broken into two columns
! to the page.
The result was that many of the
stories only required one page turning
before completed. A few began and
ended without turning page. Thus
| the sense of action was lest to the read
er Not only was he hampered by the
physical size of the type. but also by
| the fact that he got nowhere iIr the
stories because he physically was not re-
quired to go anywhere. 1t must never
be forgotten that the average book, as
| little as we may think of this phase of
| the matter, is both physical and mental.
| 1t makes certain requirements Of the
| reader in both fields Suspense, the
heart of narrative writing, demands that
something be concealed. If the reader
is able to look like an eagle on noun
| tain top, at the entire landscape of the
story before him, he has lost something
which a longer form, requiring more
pages and larger type, offers.
X X X
AS we come back to the late editions
of biographies (such as "Voltaire," +"
"Zola and His Time" Meet General
Grant" THAT Man Adams" etc. we
realize that their type dress and general
makeup has something, at least, to do
Will bllCA kOPuldA CA1JOyAllCAlb
Recent changes in some of the mag
azineS, such as the Worlds Work, Re-
view Of Reviews, the Golden Book and
others, show the same thing going into
effect. Not only is larger page size
being adopted, midway between that of
the great womens magazines, but the
type and spacing has been generously
increased in size to fit.
1t is good business. The world IS
tired of squirting at its reading matter
Even the greatest writing in the world
must suffer from being too crowded to-
gether. There is deterrent effect about
solid printed matter, such as involved
in long paragraphs, which is not strictly
in the spirit of the times.
May the good work go forward.
Large type, generously spaced, Is an
eyesight conserver, above all things, but
this is not all. 1t benefits the message
of any one who has message to offer; {;
it makes more entertaining the words
of him who seeks to entertain. The
time will come, we predict (Which we do
not often do), when there will be no
type used in general publications less
than or 10 or even IL point.