Show fiCKLE FICTION READERS I Changes of Taste Among the Headers of Novels One of the Topics of the Time discussed dis-cussed editOrially In the July Century is Changes oc Taste In Fiction j Tho story of action or romantic novel appears for the time to be Incomplete In-complete possession of the popular Held of llctlon After sporadic advances over n considerable space of tneit hIS finally carried the citadel of public fancy with a rush I has come Into its own without any battle ot the schools such as we arc told followed the youthful challenges of Hugo and I Dumas pere some seventy years ago But the latter were more truly I prophets proph-ets and therefore more worthy of being be-ing distrusted in their own cpuntry And Indeed the authority which they wiQstcd from the rending world Is virtually vir-tually tho royal grant on which i the present band of conquering romancers have come into power It Is n little singular however that these now storytellers have gained the front rank in the lists of popular reading read-ing without some opposition from the sturdy band of realists and humorists who were on the ground They havo not even suffered harassment from the critics who have been wont if not to defend the established order of things ntl least tp picket the debatable ground against wholesale Invasion The reason rea-son for nil this peace may be found perhaps in the confusion of styles and qualities which has prevailed In the realm oC fiction for at least a decade 1 I and also In the fact that during the same period the occasional brilliant I foray of a historical novel has accustomed accus-tomed l the critical world to the romantic roman-tic standard I It has made for peace also that these dashing romancers who are so blood I thirsty in the sphere of their imaginations imagina-tions are so unostentatIous as men and women on the common plane of brendan brend-an butter They harry nobodys sport e ewe lamb they seek to gore nobodys ploughox They will not even pose as geniuses While their books aro I selling by hundreds of thousands they look Innocent having done anything I they accept lionizing If at all In a I spirit of helpless martyrdom and preferably pref-erably go quietly about the disbursement I disburse-ment of their profits in the ways that I promote their jjersonal comfort and private pri-vate dignity They are as unlike the children of romance as the most sensible sensi-ble and commonplace of mortals Truly I they have the art in every sense of being artless I may bo suspected that the juvenile air and vigor of the novel of action has had anD mollifying effect on the introspective Intro-spective and analytical realists who by their silence seem to say These enfants terribles are not of our family it Is not for us to suppress them let l them romp without hindrance that the ruthless hand of ennuI may the sooner fall upon them There can be no doubt that In the long run the romancers have the greatest great-est success with the most people a the continued vogue of Walter Scott and the elder Dumas amply proves Vogue which tho lasting merit of those writes as amply justifies The mass of the readers of the world are opportunists they read for the hour and take what the hour affords they prefer an objective objec-tive story in which men and women have rapid and exciting experiences if stories in the preferred romantic mold come from tho press faster than they can be generally read as has perhaps recently happened they are prone to catch up with the press by Ignoring maybe the greatest success of its kind in order to feast on the novel of the hour When a writer who Is prospecting prospect-ing for a new field produces a novel lOt great and commanding merit yet of a different character his book is taken ta-ken up with more or less avidity by the mass of novelreaders Other writers follow in a similar vein and a new taste seems to obtain The great novels of tho world no matter the school to which they may be referred satisfy n universal taste and survive to nourlh the minds of new generations One argument offered employers of the North and accepted many colored persons as conclusive is that white men will not Work by the side of colored mena proposition as cowardly cow-ardly as It Is absurd I doubt iC there is one white man in a hundred who Is so prejudiced against colored men that he would absolutely refuse to work with them if It came to a practical test testAgain employers often say to colored people You have not enough skilled mechanics among you you have not enough educated men to compete with white labor Educate and train your men in the trades and then come to us and if our white employees refuse to work with you we will discharge them and put on entire forces of colored men I Is my candid opinion that I such advice and promises arc seldom given in good faith And even if such employors would do all they promise I I believe the theory is wrong The thought of a semiwarfare between colored col-ored and white workingmen Is extremely extreme-ly distaslcfuj to me What I should f like to see Is this l two colored col-ored men are given employment in a large establishment and twenty white men say hl those negroes work here we will quit instead of raising the cry Where can we find twenty colored I men to take their places there should 1 be such a spirit of justice and love of fair play fostered between the two races that it would be easy to find I twenty more white men who would be 1 willing to work with the two colored I j men and thus prove to the world that It is the height of folly to have entire forces of colored men in one establishment establish-ment ad entire forces of whlto men In another The only way to create such a sentiment Is through the Christian churches Lls the work of a church to unlock the doors of manual labor to the colored coors In the North The church is the one earthly tribunal before be-fore which oppressed humanity may confidently plead for justice and sympathy sym-pathy James Samuel Siemens |