“PENNY DREADFULS.”

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 6383, 4 December 1907, Page 9

“PENNY DREADFULS.”

It is the ambition of most boys to wear a big hat and carry a revolver. The romance of being a " bad man” appeals to every boy ot high spirits. Tho writer of that class of fiction known generally as the " penny dreadful" understands this, and it is the standing instruction of the publishing firms who turn out this class of stuff by tho million copies that there must be a sensation on ©very page. Naturally enough, authors of “penny dreadfuls '*■ usually have no intimate knowledge of the horrors they describe, and their only object in writing is to obtain the five-pound note which a “work” of the “Deadwood Dick” type,' running into 40,000 words or eo, null bring. It was alleged that a party of Gisborne boys had gone in for systematic breaking and entering as a result of reading these books. There aro very authentic instances of boys having committed even greater crimes after soaking in the ghastly details of tho lives of those dreadful persons who are the heroes of such romances. With the object of finding out something about the sale of r ‘ penny ' dreadfuls, - ” a “Times" reporter yesterday visited many booksellers' shops in town, desiring at each to purchase one. It was a little surprising that a large number- of the booksellers hadn't any " penny dreadfuls” at all. It is frequently at shops where books are not generally sold that the small boy one secs so often in the lunch hour poring over tho doings of some outlawed hero gets his store of literature. Uue seller informed the reporter that hm customers were quite ■' regular ” cues. One particular boy* for instance, bought a new horror every two days, and a largo number of boys .Sl>ent their penny or twopence every Saturday. Not long ago, it may be remembered, some boys who were doing mg a little housebreaking in 'Wellington stole, among other things, many bundles of this class of literature, evidently looking upon it as valuable loot. Cases m which the doings of 11 i load wood Dick ’ and the whole army of ruffians (Whose misdeeds are extolled between tho vivid pages of the “dreadfuls" have been proved to have been the influence loading to crime are many. Both Now Zealand and Australia supply instances. A few years a couple of boys in Victoria, who desired to emulate the deeds of their pictured heroee, departed on a bushraugiug expedition. The first act was to steal tho gun of an aged fisherman who was sleeping outside his hut. They shot* him in the head as he lay, and, thus wounded, the old man pulled across the nver Murray, staggered to the nearest police office, and died there. The bushrangers were caught next day. Another case in which a boy had been beaten by his father occurs. The boy, feeling that his hero would have bed revenge, emulated him, and as his father came home to tea, he rested a rifle in the crack of a door and shot him dead. In Court it was elicited that this boy had been a persistent reader of the pernicious ■•penny dreadful.". It is not only the complete “ novel of this type that sets the minds of youth afire, for there are numerous periodicals specially devised for boys that have all tho worst elements of the complete story. A particular catalogue of crime may rim through a whole year's issues of these periodicals, and are, of course, eagerly looked for. The Wellington boy or (ho Wellington girl is as fond of the reasonably probable “boy" story ns the boy or girl of any other town, and inquiry from booksellers shows that Ballantyne, Hcnty, Moyne Reid, Captain M rryat, Fenimore Cooper, and many of the authors who at least did not prior fy crime and sought to point a moral occasionally, are greatly read. It is a little inconceivable that tradespeople should continue to sell ‘“dreadfuls ” and periodical papers that contain “dreadfuls," for the profit is not great, the doings of one particular ruffian, excluding, of course, the infamous '“Doadwood Dick," soon become - unfashionable, and the seller has the knowledge that he is assisting boys to form ideas that frequently lead them into the hands of the pdSice.