Madison times. (Tallulah, Madison Parish, La.) 1884-1???, 1885-11-21

The queer Things Found In Them
Before They Getto the Pulp Mill.

The Queer Things Found In Them
Before They Getto the Pulp MILL.
What becomes of old school books
that are exchanged for new ones?" said
Z. C. Lane, Of Appleton & Co., echoing
the reporters inquiry. "Old school
books? They go to the paper mills for
pulp. We have sent tons of them there
during the last few years, gathered in
this CITY. You ought to see the way
they come in. The first readers are very
near pulp when we get them. In some
cases it is impossible to tell whether they
are first readers or Eastwood chips that
have been soaked. All of the printing
on the outside Of the covers has been
scuffed off, the fly leaves and some of the
others are torn out, the binding is chew
ed up, the pages are indescrIbably dirty
and full of the queerest marks you ever
saw.
Pennies made by rubbing are on near
| ly every leaf. Sometimes q two cent
piece has been used, but rarely nickel
or dime. The pict, res are enough to
make a horse laugh-men and women
with panels for bodies and set upon pegs,
animals resembling carpenters horses.
houses of exceedingly composite archi-
lecture. and locomotives and cars that
look as if they had Just come out of bad
wreck. Thaee are tho books that the
little fellows chew and finger. and lose
in the mud, and leave out in the rain,
and batter each other over the head with
| often catch myself wondering which Oh
these used-up little books started on the
road to learning cur future mayors
governors, great lawyers and editors.
Second readers are almost as bad
They are not chewed up quite so much
and, as rule, the leaves are not torn
out in such reckless profusion, showing
bit Of change from the baby tendency
to put everything in the mouth that he
can get there and to destroy everything
else. have noticed that it is in the
second reader that the practice of filling
up o's with pencil marks begins. and
that the pictures have little more
resemblance to the objects they are in
tended to represent. Johnnie Smith
his book, is a common inscription alone
here in the handwriting of the parent.
, or teachers. but johnnie Smiths reader
! fourd printed or scrawled in dozer
places
ain the fourth reader, as q rule, We
first catch sight of the poetical quota
/, tons ecribbled on the margins, these
being sometimes attempts at origina
versifica.ions. bringing in the names o.
Mary, Emma. Sadie, Laura, Nettie o.
some other girl. Here and there are thu
remnants of conversation carried on by
pencil and carefully and completely
scratched out. There is romance there
r Here also the rage for writing ones owl
name, which began in the third reader
8 is found working havoc with the whit,
! spaces Of the fly leaves. TIE books uset
by boys can be q ickly distinguished
from those used by lirls. The latter arr
generally better preserved as to binding
and the pages are not so dirty, but ther'
il more scribbling, especially of the con
versational character. Names and othel
J. words in the text are often changed b,
G scratching out or altering letters, too
e In these books one could almost follow
# the style in female wear by close ex im
:, ination of the pictures on the fly leaves
v and marQins. George, Charley Harry.
r etc, scrubbed here and there, tell of tn,
little love affairs among the fourteen
year olds.
!, "A majority of the fifth readers COM
!, in well preserved. with the owners nam
neatly written in the proper place, ant
! with an almost entire absence of scrib
bling, except that in the books used b.
|; the girls, or young ladies. as they mus
! now be called, stolen conversations hav
: been carried on and then erased b.
rubber. Not many Of the fourth or fiftl
readers are brought in for exchange, a
{ the oller pupils like to keep their book,
!. dare say that in the dusty gsrrets o
( closets of thousands of homes are the Of
1 school books between whose covers, i
$ one wa or another, began the iitti
r romances which ended in weddings, an
e in time demand for more first readers,