ARE NEWSPAPERS SUPPLANTING BOOKS? .

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 104, 25 January 1908, Page 13

ARE NEWSPAPERS SUPPLANTING BOOKS? .

"Tlio reported falling off, within tho last ■few years," of- tho sales of books, and especially of fiction, has suggested as an explanation the theory that t.he actual happenings of tho'world during the'past thrco or four years, have been so dramatic, and have borne a personal relation to so many people, that the emphasis of interest has been transferred from books to life; and that peoplo have becoriie. so. absorbed in what is going on from day to. day that, temporarily, they are not reading as many books as formerly." • Tho New York "Outlook,? theref ore, asked: sovoral writers to express their views on this subject, in reply to a question thus formulated:—"ls it not possiblo that in periods of. such intenso activity the daily story ofr fact may tako the ■;place, to a tortain--extent, -.- of ■ : tho. serial.story: of Imagination. - ' Is it' not possible that there may . bo, at times, a 'rivalry in this senso be•ween literature and life?"

Tho writer who kept most to . the point •*? s - J - T. Trowbridge. Ho does not admit; the falling off in tho reading of 'current faction. It is' always "out" at the library, while the standard works aro "in." But he makes a most interesting defence of tho case for the newspaper. Ho says:— The Consolation of tfio Newspaper. I confess that it gives mo a sympathetic pleasure to soo some spcetacled'damo appear at her sitting-room window, as I pass in tho aiternoon, unfold her evening paper just picked up from tho doorstop, and settle down serenely to tho consolation it unfailingly affords. What a relief to her lonely -hours is the coming of this constant gossipy visitor! It is a yot moro touching spectacle to cnance upon a bright young girl readin" aloud,, to her rapt and placid grandfathe°tho. columns which .oven with tho help of lenses ho finds it painful to peruse. How pleasantly spent tho hour for both! If only' these columns were filled with things always worth telling and always well told, and were not- so largely taken up with everyday accidents, suicides, shootings, divorces, criminal trials, not only,' profitless to fill tho mind, particularly tho mind of that fair young' girl but too frequently related in * an exc° crablo newspaper ctylo of mingled slang and lustian, which tho vulgar admire, but which Hakes tho judicious griove! Wo Look For Life. "It is lifo wo aro.'ever looking for and *ro curious about, whether in fact or fiction, in the most ancient history or, in the happenings of to-day. Tho world was never so interesting as it is in this era of electric communication, of scientific discovery and industrial enterprise, of amazing human activity in so many hitherto uniningined "Olds. Tho records of tho past aro indeed priceless, but what is occurring in this most wondrous ago, hero and now, concerns us morn than what befell tho liomans or Greeks or Hebrows thousands.of years ago; a knowledge of tlie.past having value-for us chiefly in accounting for and interpreting tho present. , • "It naturally follows that—as tho "Outlook" suggests tho reading puhlic is turning more and moro to tho history of tho day.s doings. This tendency lias been met half-way by a class of periodicals.that aro to tlio newspaper what tho arch is to the colonnade; thoy completo and crown tho ■whole. . Tho expericnco of an elderly friend of mino will illustrate my meaning. Ho dftcs not spend very much time over tho dailv paper, but looks it through for matters of immediate importance, trusting to tho aforesaid periodicals to round out tlio information ho requires. "1 notice on his table such weeklies as the 'Out.ool;," tho "Independent." tho "Nation. ' ti:o "Spectator" of London, and stich monthlies as tho "World's "Work," the "Review of Reviews," "Popular Science."- and

Current Literature," and ho tells mo that ho relies on these to give compactness and proportion to what tho daily Press presents in the rough, to sift out what is trivial, and to supply whatever of importanco .ho may elsowhcro . have missed. Thoy, moreover, develop and'discuss an endless varioty of subjects of world-wido interest which it is hardly .within tho provinco of the daily paper to: treat. Ho reads no 'magazine through, not evon the bost—for lifo is short —but, with quick, experienced eye, ho schns tho pages and tho pictures for such' ..matters as concern hinimost; recognising tlib fact that not ovorything' in tho most judiciously edited monthly or'iveekly has value aliko for all readers. ■•.. ■ : . ■: How to keep Well informed. 1 ~ "Ho who for a similar purpoSo chooses two or three such periodicals 'as thoso named (two or three aro bettor than one, for : variety of topics and comparison, of points of view) can depend upon their keoping him well informed as .tO: what is happening in all quarters of tho known globe—m Russia, India, Korea, at, l'aris and tho \Vatican, at St. Petersburg and Tho what progress is; making • in' world "projects, social and religious movements, in' politics, : scienco, literature, advonturo; - and hp will bo guided as to tho- direction ,in which ho can best seek further onlightenmont on any special subject. Somo such method of keeping abreast with* contemporary 'ovents may bo safely commendcd, not, 'however, to the neglect of tho reading of good hooks, new or old, but as'supplementary' to'it." "Tho truth seems to bo that tho very best literature is simply a transcript of human lfe, whether shown in its highest or its lowest' forms," wrote -Mr. T. V»*. Higginson. 'As wo grow old enough to choose ourpatbs, each finds himself already enclosed in a notwork of events and influence one-tenth' •public, and nine-tenths private'in its origin. By'middle life, or much sooner, evoryono who has come much in contact with the' world knows, secrets of' human lifo which, would convulse . . tile , wliolo circle around him, if correctly told. ,Tho simplo facts would -easily -eclipse all tho novels, if the very complications of the talo did not forbid its telling." . ;