The independent press. (Abbeville C.H., S.C.) 1853-1860, 1859-03-25
The Duty of Owning Books.-By Henry
Ward Beecher.

Ward Beecher.
We form judgments of men from little
things about their house, Of which the own
er, perhaps, never thinks. In earlier years,
when travelling in the West, where taverns
were either scarce or in some places uu-
known, and every settlers house was house
Of entertainment it was a matter of some
Importance and some experience to select
wisely where you would put up. Aud we
always looked for flowers. If there were no
trees for shade, no patch of flowers in the
yard, we were suspicious Of the place. But
no matter how rude the cabin, or rough the
surrounding, if we saw that the window
held little trough for flowers, and that
some vines twined about strings let down
from the caves, we were confident that there
was some taste and carefulness in the log
cabin. In new country, where people
have to tug for living, no one will take
the trouble to rear flowers, unless the love
of them is pretty strong-and this taste
blossoming out of plain and uncultivated
people is, itself, like clump Of hare belts
growing out Of the seams of rock. We
were seldom misled. A patch Of flowers
came o signify kind people, clean beds and
good bread.
But other signs are more significant in
other states Of society. Flowers about n
rich mans house may signify only that he
has good gardener or that he has refined
neighbors, and does what he sees them do.
But men are not accustomed to buy
books unless they want them. If, on visi-
ting the dwelling ola man Of slender means,
| find the reason why he has cheap carpets,
and very plain furniture, to he that he may
purchase books, he rises at once in my es-
TEEN. Books are not made for furniture,
but there is nothing else that so beautifully
furnishes a house. The plainest row of
books that cloth or paper ever covered is
mole significant Of refinement than the most
elaborately carved etagere or sdetoard.
Give me house furnished with books
rather than furniture3 Both, if you can.
but books at any rate ! To spend several
days in friends house, and hunger 70,
something to read, while you are treading
on costly carpets, and sitting upon luxuri.
Gus chairs. and sleeping on down, is as il
one was baibing your body for lhe sake Of
cheating your mind.
Is it not pitiable to see a man growing
rich, and beginning to augment the com
forts of home, and Iavishing money upon
ostenatious upholstery, upon the table, up
OH everything but what the soul needsi
We know Of many and many rich
mans house where it would not be snfe tc
ask for the commonest Of English classics
| A few galish ANIMALS on the table, few
pictorial monstrosites. together with the
stock religious works Of his "persuasion u
and that is all. No range Of poets no es
sayists. no selection of historians, no travels
or biographies select fctions or curl.
GUS legendary lore but then the walls
have paper on that cost three dollars a roll
and the floors have carpets. which cost four
dollars a yard Books are the windows
through which the soul looks out. A house
without books is like room without win
dows. No man has right to bring up hi
children without surrounding them with
hooks, if he has the means to buy them. II
is wrong to his family. He cheats them
Children learn TO read by being in the pre-
sence of books. The love Of knowledge
comes with reading, and grows upon it
And the love Of knowledge, in a young
mind, is almost warrant against the infe
rlor excitement of passions and vices.
Let us pity those poor rich menlwho live
barrenly in great bookless houses Let us
congratulate the poor that, in our day
books are so cheap that man may read
and add every year Hundred volumes ie
his library for the price Of what his tobac
CO and bear would cost him. Among the
earliest ambitions to be excited in clerks
journeymen, workmen, and, indeed. among
all that are struggling up in life from moth
ing to something, is that Of owning, ant
constantly adding to a library Of goot
books. A little library growing larger
every year, is an honorable par: Of young
mans history. 1t is mans iuty to have
books. A library is not luxury, but one
of the necessities Of lifs.-N. p. Ledger.
| ."- '.. S~O- 81 n,:y4... B.
Two passengers were conyersing in q
railway carriage. Said one to the other