OUR LIBRARY AND ITS PATRONS

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2147, 13 May 1914, Page 8

OUR LIBRARY AND ITS PATRONS

• ♦ SEVEN THOUSAND READERS AND WHAT THEY DEVOUR y (Bv Manai.ive;) Out of the monthly average of 7000 books tiken by the reading public from the lending department of the Public Library, GOOO are novels! Such is the official return of the librarian. But it is' worse than this. Out of those 6000 iiovels much the larger proportion asked for is the novel of the light trashy order. The. inexhaustiblo and rich fields to higher literature which our library opens are explored only by a studious few; the others rush the light ephemeral novel of the American order, the 'trashy sentimentality of tho novelist of the nine-days-wonder type, tho harmful lure of tho sex problem novel, and of the manifold absurdly impossible creations which line'the windows of the bookshops weekly. The Banned Book Boom. Apparently it only needs the dictum from the pulpit to shun a. certain novel, and the next day tho subscriber breathlessly but vainly) inquires for the tabooed article, for tho "more fortunate" have arrived 'before, and arc already absorbing its harmful contents. It is not long ago since a certain minister in the city strongly advised his congregation from the pulpit against a certain book. On the very morning following it is known as a fact that six of tho same congregation, anxiously inquired at .the library for the very same volume. Apparently it is not-the slightest use for tho library to stock.the, higher class of literature' in the lending • department ; there is no demand for it. One needs only.to cast an eyo over the shelves of the library to. notice that while Thackeray, Meredith, Chesterton, and Belloo are only gathering dust, the shelves of Marie Corelli,'Joseph Hocking lV llrs. Barclay, Hall Caino, Gertrude Page, /William Le Queux, and tho like aro perpetually.unoccupied. They aro being devoured line' for lino, word for word, broadcast over the city. •,. ; • Wonm It-seems .that ...women are. the .most noticeable in this respect; For one foolish .indiscriminate male reader,-six unblushing representatives of tho other sex ,WJII inquiro fo; -: their bauble ture. It-is 'a: recognised "fact that the most' ihdiscrirniiiatc'reader'pf 'the .trashy and even harmful novel is that volatile species of femininity ' commonly' designated as "the flapper.'.' She comes in hundreds week, after week after work, and' obtains the printed -.stimulants of lightheadedness. , .' Although there is a formidable number of yourig'males of like persuasion— for ono sees many specimens of sprouting male humanity who inquire for the novel of trashy sentimentality, there is an encouraging proportion of level-head-ed young men who " will' inquire for .Dickens; Thackeray, Dumas. Scott, etc. Then there are the chosen few who deposit their £1 and aro allowed the untrammelled, freedom of;delving into the gems of literature that tho reference library offers. Many people inquire of the librarian why they do not have the opportunity of having access to' the better and more expensive type of hook. For the poor demand for the same, however, the library authorities do not consider it worth while to stock thorn : they are. procurable in tho reference library only.'.. ' | . Yot in spite of. nll y the .Tubbisliyrilovels! demanded', there is an'encouraging section of subscribers who read the fiction some pianos higher yot equally readable and interesting, those of Chesterton, Joseph Conrad, Hardy, Kipling, John Galsworthy, etc. Forgotten Treasures, Again, it is a strange reading public, that gratifies its taste, (such as it is) at the library. For instance, there is tho sublime beauty of John Oliver Hobbs , (Mrs. Craigie). Apparently this lias been forgotten. . Any of her works the library has possessed have lain untouched for tho past year—not one subscriber lias asked for her. The few gems that tho late Henry Harland left behind him too are seldom, if ever, asked for. Of course this is only mentioning what are known as the "readable." One dares not mention Lamb,' Emerson, Carlyle. or such "unapproacliables." One of tlipse days, mayhap, somepno will come and create consternation by inquiring for these. At tho present time they lay swathed in dust,' and perhaps mercifully the. touch of sacriligious hands. • After all this how much better would it be were library subscribers to follow out tho advice of Henry Fielding in the concluding passage- of his. great essay "On Taste in the Choice of Books": — "I do therefore most earnestly entreat all my young readers," he states, "that they would cautiously avoid the perusal of any modem book till it. hath first had tho sanction of some wise and learned man: and the same caution I propose to nil fathers, mothers,' and guardians. 'Evil communications cornmt good manners,''is a quotation of St.. Paul from Monander. Evil books corrupt at once both our. manners and our taste."