The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1871-01-19
THOUGHTS ON NEWSPAPER
READING.
From the Hearth and Home.

mat pOrtlon or the primitive proVerE
which declares that "reading makes 9
full man" holds true only with qualifica
tions. The character and not the guam
tity received into ones intellectual
stomach determines the fullness. We
may consume gallons of grpel and other
liquid food, and yet be no nearer physi
cal safety. Without some more substan-
tial pabulum, we should rapidly "grow to
leanness." In like manner, the mind
may be gormandized with intellectual
cruel, and yet never receive any strength
or vigor, or experience any sense of suffi
cheney. We may absorb the contents of
thousand mental streams, and yet fill up
no more rapidly than does the sandysided
reservoir, which is never able to give out
water, though fed by unnumbered springs
and rills. 1t is, therefore, one thing to
read and another thing to read that which
will impart tone and strength to the
mind and fit it for receiving and retain.
ing valuable materials. Some have af
firmed that not more than one book in a
hundred will repay perusal. The Amer
lean Carlyle clothes the same idea in diff
ferent words when he says: "Never read
any book that is not a year old. Never
read any but famed books" However,
leaving the essayists to determine as to
the character and kind Of books needed
for imparting intellectual strength, let us
briefly turn to the more evanescent or
daily literature.
1t is the glory of the Americans that
they make more and read more newspa.
pers than any other people. We exult-
ingly point to the fact that there are fifty
fivehundred journals in the United States,
four hundred and seventyfive of which
are dailles-having an estimated annual
circulation of not less than seven hundred
and twenty-five millions While we may
justly take pride in this exhibit and its ac-
companying widely dif'used intelligence,
there is great danger of our becoming too
much newspaper-reading people.
While it is true that the daily press is
the "great educator" stimulating thought
and inquiry, it is equally true that it may
be made the great "dissipator. There
is rapidly growing tendency to confine
all, or nearly all, our reading to newspa
pers, to the total exclusion of more es.
tablished pabulum, which makes the full
man.
1t requires little or no effort to devour
the daily grist from the lightning press
mill The appetite grows on what it
feeds upon. From desire for informa-
ton, we too often lead on to curiosity in
unimportant details and per-
sonal controversies; acquire a morbid
taste for sensations and scandals, and
come in to waste many precious hours
every day in porting over extraneous mat
tiers which may be classed under the head
OF journalistic padding. eff" exclaims
Emerson, IN his essay on Books" "you
should transfer the amount Of your read
ing, day by day, from the newspapers to
the standard authors-but who dare
speak of such thing?" How many are
the individuals in all grades of life who
confine their reading exclusively to the
papers, taking them home at night and
wading through them until ed-time !
Professor Porter, of Yale College, in his
volume just published, alludes to this
tendency, characterizing it as "worse
than unwise." "The temptation he
adds, /" is very strong, and many yield to
it. Men immersed in business seem often
shut up to this by necessity. Even pro-
fessional men, who consult not a few
books in the way of duty, allow news
pers to take the place of other reading"
To yielo to such a temptation is unques-
to dissipate the mental faculties,
to impair the memory, and to become
if not superficial a
We have no sympathy with the DR..
Dryasdusts who burrow in libraries, or
with that assumption and dilettanteism
which affect to dispise the Importance of
the daily press. Had Byron. instead Of
refusing for five years, during his self-im-
posed exile, to look into an English pa
per, kept the run of affairs at home, his
heart might have lost much of its bitter
ness, and shook off many real ana imagi-
nary Woes. Had Rousseau attached more
value to the rress,his Confessions would
have contained fewer morbid experien.
ces. Had Comte not excluded the papers
from his dwelling, he would have arrived
at sounder estimate as to his own rela-
tive Importance. "For my part" wrote
Thoreau in his forest solitude, /" 1 could
do without the postssoffice. I am sure that
[ never read any memorable news in a,
newspaper" But before dying, he be-
came painfully aware that acq laintances
and the world could do without him.
Whoever shuts out the newspaper shuts
OUT human sympathy.
How shall We avoid the evils of the
two extremes By giving to each days
news the attention which it commands,
and then relying upon a weekly paper
for we'll considered summary. There are
weeklies which aim to and do take the
place of dailies by collating, classifying
and COMPRISING into convenient. easily,
digestible form the intelligence of the
week, accompanied with impartial COM
ments and observations. Such a sheet,
representing the world in nutshell, af