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Show o f LITERARY JUNK. 3 Havo you ever considered tho exlst-? exlst-? ence of a book trade almost totally 4 unknown to those elements of society n w0 hav0 in mind when wo speak of ;i the "reading world." There is-, in fact, ' a distinct underworld of books; an b ii undercurrent literature; a moving, 0 M populous, overlooked "other half" of 1 'the book world; not criminal, not deslr-d deslr-d I ous to be vicious, but, as we charitably r I say in society, "Impossible." Tho - commerce of them is to tho respect-11 respect-11 able book trade as a junk business is H to its more self-complacent neighbors; I their authors are tho non-trespassing ;e tramps their publishers tho fairly well-meaning fakirs of their respec-ot respec-ot I tive callings. Ili Nor should any of us give ourselves y' I superior airs in speaking so. They B have their readers and their purchas- 10 H ers, who after somo fashion or other ls H enjoy, prize and oven prefer them, and le M these readers being not our human brethren only, but our fellow-citizens, :i II the matter, If only from the standpoint H of a selfish wisdom, deserves to bo re- n" I garded with a kinder condescension " I and a more modest seriousness than ie 1 the lovers of true literature commonly m I accord. These books havo their de- re I grees of merit and demerit, and it I might be not wholly a waste of time 10 I even for tho critics when not other- at I wise too busy to dip up somo of this v I sedimentary stratum of tho world's at I pen-product and see what lost valu- n' H ables or things of more or less luster S- I or other curious quality ho can find I In Its silt and rubbish. Nay, an oc- caslonal study of such dredglngs, duly , tempered with patience, amiability and 1 I persistence, might give the makers of et I our rea "teraturo good hints for mak-t mak-t ing tho atmosphere of their own books 'jj B rightly acceptable to those who now -a H are all too content to breathe the or I miasms of this subterranean book ir- I world; a generosity and wisdom at th I present much oftener shown and h mucl1 eas,er to show by scientific III writers than by tho producers of bolles- . Hi lettres. , K No doubt It would bo found, for one thing .that this rank stuff is the more he El readable to some sorts of people, and vc H they not always ln tno humblest social f8 H ranks, becauso few or none of Its po-1)e po-1)e H riods require tho reader to bo already or H wel1 read m or(ler to understand or st- m enoy tliem Fo another thing, when nd IS one comes to reflect upon it, there rr Vj must bo In much of our most refined 111 j'teraturo far more numerous assump- lUj VI tio,ns and implications offensive to the lie- 11 "-regard of tho Ignorant and unro- it ?ed. than tho cultivated reader is ef- to notice, or than tho accom- he "'Shed author had any conscious in- on I tentlon of oxpressig. Tho ono who ls en bespattered knows best how much st- m"d our carrlage-wheols throw. Ono Point about this nether literature Is - mat so commonly its only effort is to m entertain, it wages no crusade; It ?.a.s no quarrel with anybody or any- jning, no views to enforce, no doctrine m M 0ipreach' no uninvited information to muB8lo in, falsely invoiced as silk or nj Ugar- |