Democratic Sentinel, Volume 9, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 February 1885 — Western Literature. [ARTICLE]

Western Literature.

The production of this literature does not depend on the writers alone. If it is ever produced. Western publishers must encourage Western writers, Western writers must encourage Western publishers, and Western readers must encourage both; not in a spirit of sectionalism, but on the principle of encouraging home productions. And truly, if there are any productions of the West which do her credit and which should be heartily encouraged, they are her publications. The press is to some extent the voice of the people, and if they want a voice which can be heard they should support the press. It is nnadvisable to send east of the Mississippi for periodical literature, if as good can be had nearer home; and how attractive are some of the Western periodicals, how excellent both in regard to the mechanical execution and the matter with which they are filled! The greater the patronage given to these, the greater they may become. Not only for transient literature and for works of fiction should the Western people hook to their own writers, but also for writing of a more solid and practical character. There is no reason why text-books should not be produced by Western educators for Western students; there is, indeed, some necessity in that direction now. In short, there is no reason why any mental labor performed in the East should not be performed in the West.— St. Louis Magazine.

“I suppose few drinkers of whisky,” said a wholesale dealer in the fluid, “realize how little of original value they get for their money. The cost to the distiller of making the best possible whisky is only about forty cents a gallon. Now, a gill is a fair quantity* for a drink, the charge for which at the most stylish bars is twenty cents. That is to say, a thing costing the producer a sixth of a cent in Kentucky is retailed at nearly forty times as much. Of course,-the Government tax takes some of the enormous profit, and the wastes of storage ahother portibn. / The gains of the handlers remain astounding. I know of no more solid temperance argument than the ridiculously high prioer, charged for liquors by the glass. ” A 4-year-old skiter is the attraction at a rink in Pittsfield, Mass.