River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1885-03-05

| a consideration OF the causes which made
| the collection of this little library ne
| cessity the material composing it and our
means of securing the same, the work il
| is doing, and what through its instru-
| mentality we hope to accomplish, with
| finally citation of a few of the reasons
why it will shortly be necessary for every
teacher to give this subject considerable
thought. II these may be topics of i'm
portance to you as teachers, | shall not
have taken your time in vain.
When it became painfully evident that
many of the boys and girls in these
schools were reading much trashy litera-
ture and especially where the effects OF
the practice were beginning to show in
what seemed both moral and intellectu-
al weakening, the study of remedy be-
came a necessity. Having been for a
long time of the opinion that the pupil
who reads most bad books is also the one
who will read most good books if oppor-
tunity offers, quiet investigation was
made with view to discovering some
thing of the amount of general informa-
nation possessed by the pupils Of the
high school. The result was conclusion
that the best read pupils had devoured a
large share of this pernicious stuff and
that many who were wide readers
all the good books that came within their
reach. Where pupils had devoted them
selves wholly to this vicious class of pub
LEGATION it was found as a rule that they
had access to few or no suitable good
books. Having arrived at this conclusion
it became necessary to test again the ac
cUracy of the opinion that the trouble lay
not in the pupils desire for something
bad to read, as in his desire for some
hinq to read To do this a library was
needed and the first problem was not the
difficult one show TO get the llbraryP'
but the difficult one "what shall consti-
tute the library if we can secure the
means of purchasing it," Desiring to
gain light on this, correspondence was
opened with a number of eminent edu-
Gators who had given this subject much
attention and who, judging from reports
of the educational press had attained
many of the ends sought for. Three
points were touched in every letter. LIST,
Will YOU send me catalogue of the
books in the reading library of your
schools? 2nd. Will you give me the
names of a dozen of the most and best
read books in that library? 3rd. Can
YOU recommend to me ten other books
destined to create in young people love
for good reading and which will take and
hold their interest from the beginning?
with the results of this cor
respondence the results of our own eXpe-
rience list of one hundred volumes was
made. The next step was in the direction
ofobtainingmoney Withwhich to purchase
The school-board had been called upon
to make SO many other needed eXpend
lures that there was no money IN the
treasury which might safely have been
to this use But taking a sub
scription list one Saturday morning and
visiting the citizens and friends of the
school money enough to purchase the Sc
lected lot was secured. The list was
sent to a number of houses with requests
for bids and then we purchased OF the
lowest bidder. When the books were
received and numbered the pupils who
had looked forward to their arrival with
expectancy, were simply told, There are
the books take them and read and they
needed no second bidding From that
day to this our only difficulty has lain in
the fact that the property OF lndlvlslbllty
is common to well kept books with all
other objects. Prof. Guernsey who has
charge of the library assures me that he
has constantly on hand twenty-five or
thirty advance calls for the books, and
let me say right here we are more than
ever convinced that the great evils which
seem to follow lack of attention to the
reading of young people are all due to
the absence of really suitable reading
rather than a love for the valueless.
The books included in this first pur
chase are all prose works, some of which
are designed especially to excite an inter
est in the great poetical masterpieces.
The pupil who has read Lambs Tales
lal
peare Stories,p is sure in due time to read |
with interest the immortal verses of Mac |
beth 9th clio and Lear and come to know |
the matchless bard of Avon as he was |
''the one within that magic circle where, |
none burst walk but he" So too the |
persual of Stories from the Had and
stories from the Old |
World prepare the pupil for the loftiness
Of thought peculiar to the "blind old |
bard of rocky 0hios." The captivating
stories from the Aeneid" will make the |
bov who reads them feel that it is an old |
friend who tells him "Armd UiruDaqle |
cano." etc, and instantly the poet speaks |
Of the ancient city of which the Tyrian |
eolonists held possession, he is keenly alert |
to all the beauties which the Mantuan
bard has poured about the mystic city OF |
Troy. "Stories from old English Poetry
and "Y esterdays with Authors" point in
the same direction, and will pave the waV !,
for the poems which we hone 10 add to
the list at once.
Neither time nor space will permit me
you a full catalogue Of our lit |
tie library but ! must ask your conde- |
scension while ! enumeratea few books |
in addition to those already mentioned |
which can rarely or never be obtained
without a yUriffao aJUanca rp1uiCittor Gu l
are the calls for them, in the |
grades below the high school. "The |
Seven Little Sisters" "In Classic Lands"
Zach and All, 'Zigzag Journeys in Eu-
rope" Sin the Orient, ""In the Occident,"
I" Knox's Travels in Japan and China"
In Siam and Java, I'm Ceylon and In |
dia, :" Little Men, n'Iittlo Women" "Boy
"Tom Brown at Rugby |
Uncle Toms Cabin" Dickens Child's |
History of England" Young Folks His |
tory of the United States" Collins |
Story of Liberty, ""Old Timesin the Colo |
MES" Boys of 81, "Boys Of 70" and |
others are constantly in demand among |
the very pupils whose acquaintance with |
ii literature had become proverbial in the |
schools and we have faith that those pu-
pills who continue through their school |
lives to drink in the inspiration which is to |
DtlQullQ WlbIill VI bllt DODlNS bIldL I
are and are 10 be in yonder little library, |
will go forth to the battle of life blessing |
5he good people who spread before us |
This royal feast. N all the other work |
done for them in school beof no practical |
ltility III after life, further than to teach |
5hem hOW to use books and the habit of |
reading fixed here shall but teach them
10 lore books, then have they been given |
4 royal legacy which can never be eX-
1austed, and which in the natural order |
If things must go on increasing to the end |
Of life. With them will grow up a gen
Grafton of fathers and mothers who will |
be able to carry out the work which we |
can but begin. They will put in the |
hands of the boy thifsting for an Indian |
story the weird old legend of Mogg |
Megone and make him straightway a |
over as well as a reader of our dear old |
Quaker poet. They will give to the girl |
who longs for one ofthe much-abusedsenti- |
mental love stories, Longfeliow's beautiful |
story of Evangeline and make her the |
friend and admirer of the New England |
master, and for such as these, the litera- |
ture which we must fight to-day, will |
have no charms. But one thing more |
and / have finished, and that is this; |
The time has come when teachers can no |
longer afford to be unfamiliar with this |
subject of reading as a means Ct school |
culture. There is pending in our legisla- |
ture at present bill which will undouht-
edly become law, providing foF the an
nual setting apart of one fifth of the in