The little books they wrote were inspired by Erastus Beadle, and his influence is seen in the fact that every phase of pioneer life, and every historic event in which his own ancestors had taken part, is treated in the series of Beadle books. The editorship of the house was entrusted to Orville J. Victor, one of the most remarkable figures in the history of American literature. For thirty years, Victor personally studied, passed upon, and edited the thousands of publications of the House of Beadle. He insisted, first of all, that the narratives must be true and accurate portrayals, in spirit, of the pioneer times and people with which they dealt. They had to reveal wilderness life and struggle as it was, and depict the conditions amid which the pioneers did their work. These tales were not history in the literal or text-book sense, since they often incorporated incidents for which there was no authentic or contemporary proof. But such material, if used, had to be consistent with known conditions of the period portrayed. Doubtless it was the mass-realization of these facts, on the part of the public, that brought about such recognition of the so-called “Dime Novels.” The people were absorbingly interested in the earlier life of the pioneers, and when it was presented to them in the form inspired by Beadle and directed by Victor, they--as the slang phrase now goes--“ate it up.” “Here at last”--they doubtless intuitively felt--“is the real thing, not set before us as a dull task to memorize, but as a vital picture to be studied and enjoyed, and from which we may learn.” Then came the Civil War, and the soldiers literally absorbed the convenient little books by the million. The volumes were exchanged, passed from hand to hand, read to tatters, and then thrown away. Throughout the thirty or more years in which the Beadle books held ascendancy they were so cheap, and so common, that they were almost never saved. In that respect they suffered the fate of all common things. It is almost always the case that the commonest objects of one generation become the rarest objects of two generations afterward. Their very commonness is the quality that keeps them from being treasured by their original possessors. Hence they disappear. Beadle books, in their day, were as countless as the bison of the plains or the passenger pigeon of the air. Yet to-day only a few hundred bison are alive, and are carefully protected, while not one passenger pigeon is known to exist.