The gradual rise of the railway book-trade is a singular feature of our
marvellous railway era. In the first instance, when the scope and
capabilities of the rail had yet to be ascertained, the privilege of
selling books, newspapers, etc., at the several stations was freely
granted to any who might think proper to claim it. Vendors came and
went, when and how they chose, their trade was of the humblest, and their
profits were as varying as their punctuality. By degrees the business
assumed shape, the newspaper man found it his interest to maintain a
_locus standi_ in the establishment, and the establishment, in its turn,
discerned a substantial means of helping the poor or the deserving among
its servants. A cripple maimed in the company’s service, or a married
servant of a director or secretary, superseded the first batch of
stragglers and assumed responsibility by express appointment. The
responsibility, in truth, was not very great at starting. Railway
travelling, at the time referred to, occupied but a very small portion of
a man’s time. The longest line reached only thirty miles, and no
traveller required anything more solid than his newspaper for his hour’s
steaming. But as the iron lengthened, and as cities remote from each
other were brought closer, the time spent in the railway carriage
extended, travellers multiplied, and the newspaper ceased to be
sufficient for the journey. At this period reading matter for the rail
sensibly increased; the tide of cheap literature set in. French novels,
unfortunately, of questionable character were introduced by the newsman,
simply because he could buy them at one-third less than any other
publication selling at the same price. The public purchased the wares
they saw before them, and very soon the ingenious caterers for railway
readers flattered themselves that there was a general demand amongst all
classes for the peculiar style of literature upon which it had been their
good fortune to hit. The more eminent booksellers and publishers stood
aloof, whilst others, less scrupulous, finding a market open and
ready-made to their hands were only too eager to supply it. It was then
that the _Parlour Library_ was set on foot. Immense numbers of this work
were sold to travellers, and every addition to the stock was positively
made on the assumption that persons of the better class, who constitute
the larger portion of railway readers, lose their accustomed taste the
moment they smell the engine and present themselves to the railway
librarian.
—Preface to a Reprinted Article from the _Times_, 1851.