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Show I A WELCOME CHANGE. ' V hat has become of the muck-raker j No more .-:;-e the American magazines filled with stories of 1iie v:ci.u rich and sweat-shop misery. Has the . nation ean-ed itself or white-washed its dreadful j .' ''""I 'inncrs. or docs it look in more pleasant I fields for its facts or fiction '. Has our business I r.nd our politics become purer, or haye we tired of I the hysteria and decided we are not so bad, after I - ! aii; I Those are interesting questions. However we I . : 'nay answer them, it is plain that we can now buy a I ! magazine with the positive assurance that no tales of -luni life, no confessions of thieves or murderers, ', no vweat shop mysieries. no political jobbery or j 1f,lrs o!" ''is'1 finance or other lugubrious subjects will be presented. The portrayal of sordid miserV I has become a thing of the past. For three or four I ' years we could read of nothing but graft, fraud and I corruption. In vain could we seek for honesty in bnsinos.-. or purity in polities, or the social realm that is. in the magazines. At first it was all very interesting to see how wicked we had been; then the recital of alleged iniquities became tiresome, and then disgusting. Whether the light purified the dark places, or whether the American people have refused longer to gaze upon the filth uncovered, it has now become possible to pick up a magazine in which there is no reference-to the downtrodden or the criminal rich. The reaction has set in. Indeed, In-deed, the reaction amounts almost, to a revolution in that class of periodicals which a short time ago were "exposing" wth each issue. And it makes better reading. The exposing usually told only one side of a story, which was very black. The public didn't have time to hunt up the other side, and there were many facts and allegations al-legations which were accepted without even a'grain of salt. The muck-raker has told his story, and now the magazine writers are disposed to be more cheerful, to see a littlo humanity in the world and charity and love. One may even essay to do a humorous hu-morous yarn now and have it accepted by the magazine maga-zine publishers. All of which reading is more entertaining and inspiring probably even more truthful in its depiction de-piction of the world. It is at least more cheerful. The change no doubt indicates a demand for more hopeful literature, which the editors were quick to supply. The nation is to be congratulated upon its quick recovery from its season of muck-raking, and so are the magazines. The world, no doubt, needs betterment, and the magazines can aid very much in the work. The taste for the horrible, the tragic and the wickedness of the rich has been satisfied. The far-seeing periodical is now printing some things less lugubrious, and the change is satisfying, to say the least. |
