THE LITERATURE OF CRIME.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3506, 2 October 1882, Page 4

THE LITERATURE OF CRIME.

Of all our cheap literature, the worst and the most debasing is that which is provided for the especial delectation of boys. Not long ago two murders were committed afc Nottingham by a youth named Westby, who, ifc was found, had for some time previously confined his reading to tho romance of crime. The boya' "penny dreadful" is

continually figuring in the evidence given in our police courts. It is one of the distinctions of the age that it produces a literature which is distinctly calculated to foster juvenile crime. The boy with a penny in his pocket can command a special kind of literary talent. He keeps'a special printing press at work, has special publishers, and is the best customer of a special class of news agents. He is content with very little for his money, so that ifc is of the right sort. His weakness is for a book which calls a hat a " bell-topper," which talks about " tipping the wink," which pictures its hero as calling for " twenty bottles of cham," and which makes robbery, and even murder, appear in the light of misunderstood virtues which a nice morality has too hastily condemned. All this he can command for a penny a week. Pernicious literature is to be had by the armful. The boy who reads " penny dreadfuls " has an extensive field for choice. In the same enticing penny numbers be can procure the romantic story of " Blueskin," or " The Black Highwayman," or " The Scarlet Eiders of Hounslow Heath," or Tyburn Dick, the Boy King of the Highwaymen," or a score of other fascinating stories which are nicely designed to show that the ways of honesty are bard, and that a man who serves sin and is rewarded by the gallows, may be a paragon and a hero, at whose death bright eyes will weep, and fair ladies will put on crape and a look of inconsolable sorrow. The boy's criminal romance is contructed with a certain skill. The interest which is exciting throughout, must be carried on through every number, and each pennyworth must conclude in such a manner as will leave in the reader an eager expectation of the next. " Lay down those pistols," tho highwayman exclaims to the trembling officers of justice." "I'll not. take your vile lives this time. I will give you one chance of escape ; but, mark me, if you put yourselves again in our path, or are ever known to attempt the capture or betrayal of any of our band, you shall die a fearful death. Begone, now ; flee for your cowardly lives ! The last one that reaches that copse " —and the sentence is concluded in the nexfc number. Of course the man who makes a speech like this " dies game." " With a wild jerk, he snapped his manacles asunder as if they had been glass." At his trial " a lovely arm leaned over the ladies' balcony, and a very beautiful bouquet of choice flowers was thrown towards him. He caught the flora] gift with his manacled hands, and raising his eyes—fine dark eyes, fringed with long silken lashes, and thrilling with tenderness and daring fire —sought out the blushing donor from among the bevy of fair ladies that surrounded her." Every boy desires to be a hero ; why not a hero like this ? Ifc is true that this crimimal with the fine dark eyes is stained with murder; that a blow from his "iron-bound wrist" has crushed in the skull of a gaoler ; and that on afc least a score of occasions he has fairly entitled himself to the gibbet: bufc then all I hese are but separate acts of heroism, and in spite of them he is loved by a maiden who possesses " the prettiest of blue eyes, the fairest skin, and the glossiest of mermaid's tresses, added to the charms of a form that was fragile in its symmetry." How many of the boys who find their way into our gaols owe the bent of their character to such works of imagination as " Tyburn Dick ?" Here is a piece of the dialogue : —" ' Bah ! there's a gold mine distributed anywhere aboufc you.' 'Where, sir?' 'In other people's pockets, in their strong chests; plenty for them and you, to spare.' Dick's face changed colour. ' Would you have me be a thief ?' he said, angrily. ' Certainly not; come, come, don't be angry. I only spoke because I overheard your troubles. Don't mind what I've said, only remember, those who want gold must take it, or they'll never get it.' ' True," murmured Dick ; ' who would believe my story while I am penniless ?' ' Nobody, o' course ; bufc don'fc despair. There's many a bright path open to a lad of pluck, as I take you to be. Come, drink with me. Here, Fan, some brandy.'" A little later on Dick, pursued by the thief-takers, " snatching each fellow's pistol from their faltering grasp, dealt them fearful blows with the butt on their skulls, and leaping up, presented the loaded weapons at the other four. ' Now,' he cried, ' make me prisoner if you dare!' " Criminals like this are naturally befriended by girls who " remember how many a brave band o' heroes had been betrayed in the last hour by the treachery of one base dastard." The villains and the ridiculous persons of the tale are those who bring the heroes to justice, or who are charged with the administration of the law. In these boys' romances right and wrong are curiously inverted. The reader's sympathy is always enlisted on behalf of the criminal and his crime. Probably no living novelist, has been rewarded by so extensive a circulation as is easily obtained by the boys' " penny dreadful." Many news agents find the sale of these fictions the most lucrative portion of their trade. They keep files of back numbers, whereas with ordinary publications back numbers must be made the subject of a special order. There is a fortune is such books as that from which I have quoted. Some publishers grow rich on them. A good thieves' romance will run through almost; innumerable editions. " Blueskin," " Black Bess," and certain others have been re-issued at the interval of a few months for over 20 years and they are all of them announced for re-issue now. The effect they must; have exercised during that period is incalculable. No boy could rise from their persual without having suffered more injury by their means. Of course, the authors make a pretence of moral purpose. In one of the thieves' romances this pretence is kept up throughout a scene which can neither be quoied nor described. To such productions may be attributed a very large proportion of juvenile criminality and vice ; and when Londoners hear aboufc fighting and thieving gangs in New-cut, afc Bow-common, and elsewhere, they may assure themselves that they aro making acquaintance with the natural product of the thieves' romance. —Pall Mall Budget.