Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-07-28
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRAcEWELL.

J eral public pricked up it's ears. II the
scholarly President of the United
States, many mother said to herself
| reads such books, there must be some
thing to them. after all.
Hieing herself downtown, she bought
/ herself a copy of the story which the
1 papers said the President had beer
/ reading to tighten the cares of state
! Mother soon discovered that she had
/ been missing something. President
Wilson was right.
| We do not put much stock in the
/ explanation sometimes given, that the
/ crime story has come into its own be-
/ cause of the increase Of crime, and the
/ spread of evil propaganda.
No. the liking for the detective story
/ IS no way near as subtle as that. Fhe
/ reading public likes a detective story
/ because it is good story that is all
/ 1t has the basic element of the man.
/ hunt, than which nothing is more in
! tereSting to human beings. If any one
/ doubts this. let him watch newspaper
readers pursuing the latest accounts OF
the reigning local detective story"
The present crop of tales is almost
machine made and for that reason
seems somewhat devoid of the true in
/ terest which the former stories OF
| Carolyn Wells and a few others pos
/ sessed, but this attitude may be re-
! Election of the old truth. that one grows
| more critical as one grows older, and is
inclined to praise former things over
later things.
The detective story, as a work of art
long ago reached its peak. 1t is diff
cult to imagine a better story than
Miss Wells -Four Feathers" as frs
printed in Argosy Magazine There
may be different acting and speaking
detectives, but the basic ingredients OF
a good story, mystery, action, suspense
in a word, interest-are there.
Like any intriguing form of art, the
| detective story carries in its constitu-
ton the seeds of its decline. The very
fact that it is interesting will cause an
OVERRIDING on the part of thousands of
readers. with an inevitable Surfeit
When that happens in big way, the
publishers will stop putting out so many
shockers, as too many of the present
crop are turning out to be.
\;
Those who know only some Of the
cheaper tales of the latest vein, perhaps,
will agree with our dictum, that the de-
tective tale is work of art, but that
will be because they are not acquainted
with the best examples of such writings.
A crime story to be a work of art,
must not be bald in its presentation
and telling Here is where the art
comes in. The reader is not crook,
nor yet detective, but just ar ordinary
human being, with enough represSed
instincts in him to enjoy a vicarious
crime or two.
The writer who can present the crime
without the blood, as it were, presents
a picture near enough to life to be
lifelike, yet enough devoid OF crudenesS
to be stomached by a civilized being.
1t is right here that some Of the
stories found in certain types OF maya
zines fall down. They present too much
detail, are too filed with facts, as 1t
were. The public expects such detail
in it's newspaper accounts, as they pre-
sent the raw facts of history, but it
gags OH them in its books and magazine
stories.
The best detective stories are those
which somehow manage TO gloss over
the bare elements, while giving the
reading public the interest which must
inhcre in certain deeds, as long as hui
man beings are human beings.
The properly told detective story,
while almost reduced to a formula, still
remains one of the most entertaining
forms of fiction writing Its place in
the esteem of the reading public is
we'll deserved the mystery of the myS-
terry story is that it did not win it long
ago,