'09_]
I want to dig a little deeper through the strata of the public. Below the
actual fiction-reading public which I have described there is a much
vaster potential public. It exists in London, and it exists also in the
provinces. I will describe it as I have found it in the industrial
midlands and north. Should the picture seem black, let me say that my
picture of a similar public in London would be even blacker. In all
essential qualities I consider the lower middle-class which regards, say,
Manchester as its centre, to be superior to the lower middle-class which
regards Charing Cross as its centre.
* * * * *
All around Manchester there are groups of municipalities which lie so
close to one another that each group makes one town. Take a medium group
comprising a quarter of a million inhabitants, with units ranging from
sixty down to sixteen thousand. I am not going to darken my picture with a
background of the manual workers, the immense majority of whom never read
anything that costs more than a penny--unless it be "Gale's Special." I
will deal only with the comparatively enlightened crust--employers,
clerks, officials, and professional men, and their families--which has
formed on the top of the mass, with an average income of possibly two
hundred per annum per family.
Pages:
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95