Fremont journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County [Ohio]) 1853-1866, 1859-03-11
Mist&llan&ons.
rHn DUTY on OWNING BOOKS.


HENRY 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 tavelns
were either scarce, or, in some places un-
known, and every settlers house was
house of Entertainment" it was q matter of
some importance and some experience to
select wisely where you would put up
And we always looked for flowers. If there
were no trees for shade, no patch of flowers
in tho yard, we were suspicious of the place.
But, no matter how rude the cabin, or rough
the surroundings, if we saw that the window
held little trough for flowers, and that
some vines twined about strings let down
there was some taste and carefulness in the
log cabin. In new country, where peo-
pie 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
blossomieg out of plain and uucultivated
people is, itself, like a clump of hare-bells
growing out of the seams of a rock We
were seldom mslcd. A patch of flowers
came TO signify kind people, clean beds and
good bread.
But, other signs are moro significant in
other states of society. Flowers about a
rich mans house may signify only that he
has good gardener, or that he has refined
neighbors, and does what he secs them do
But men are not accustomed to buy books
unless they want them. If, on visiting the
dwelling of man of slender means, find
the reason why he has cheap carpets, and
very plain furniture, to be that he may pur.
chase books, he rises at once in my esteem
Books are not made for furniture, but there
is nothing else that so beautifully furnish a
house. The plainest row of books that
cloth or paper ever covered is more signi6
cant of refinement tnan the most elaborate
ly-caryed etagere or side board.
Givo me house furnished with books
rather than furniture! Both, if you can
but books at any rate To spend sevcra
days in friends house, and hunger fol
something to read, while you are treading
on costly carpets, and sitting upon luxurious
chairs, and sleeping upon down, is as if ono
were bribing your body for the sake ot
cheating your mind.
Is it not pitiable to see man growing
rich, and beginning to augment tha com
forts of home, and lavishing NOR ey on os-
tentatious upholstry, upon the ta,e upon
every thing but what the soul needs
We know of many and many a rich mans
house where it would not be safe to ask
for the commonest English classics. A few
garish ANNALS on the table, few pictorial
monstrosities, together with stock of relig
ious books of his persuasion" and that i;
ALL No range Of poets, no essayists, nc
selection of historians, no travels or biogra
lphies-no select fictions or curious legen
Diary lore: but then, the walls have paper
on which cost three dollars roll, and the
floors have carpets that cost four dollars 2
yard Books are the windows through
which the soul looks out. A house with
out books is like room without windows
No man has right to bring up his chill
dren without surrounding them with books
if he has the means to buy them. 1t is 4
wrong to his family. He cheats them =
Children learn to read by being in the pres
ence of books. The love Of knowledg,
comes with reading and grows upon it,
And tho love of knowledge, in a young
mind, is almost a warrant against the infe
rior excitement of passions and vices.
Let us pity those poor rich men who live
barrenly in great bookless houses Let u
congratulate the poor that, iu our day, book
are so cheap that man may every yea
add hundred volumes to his library 70
the price of what his tobacco and his bee
would cost him. Among the earliest am
bitions to be excited in clerks, workmen
journeymen, and, indeed, among all that ar
Struggling up in life from nothing to some
thing, is that of owning, and constantly add
ing to, library of good books. A lttl
library growing larger every year is an hon
orsble part Of the young mans history.
is mans duty to have books. A librar
is not luxury, but one Of the necessariss {
Ilife,---M Y ledger.