Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1891-11-21

Libraries are reservoirs of thought.
Books constitute the golden chain that
binds all the generations of men to-
gether. A people without literature is
also without a history and destitute of
hope or aspiration. A knowledge of
books gives distinction among enlght-
ened people vouchsafed by no other
possession. In the value of their services
to mankind scholars outrank popes,
princes, and all the potentates of the
earth. The man who writes and prints
a useful book becomes the benefactor of
his fellows forever; and the benefits Of
his pregnant labor wax and grow strong
as time wahes. In these days of a Sleep
less printing press there is no reason why
any one in this country should be ignor
ant of books-or, if one has the intel
lectual capacity to comprehend them,
why he should not be thoroughly ac-
quainted with the best books. Of course
there are bad and demoralizing books,
but the danger of tlese to the young is
probably greatly ov ,rrated. A weak or
Il vile book soon loses its hold upon
healthy mind. 1t may scorch with its
fever for day on young and developing
imagination, but as the body soon re
covers from measles and mumps, the
moral system in time rights itself, and
the evolution of character proceeds.
Like every combined intellectual and
spiritual process of upbuilding, the love
Of books proceeds from the simple to the
complex. A youth of 90 rarely compre-
hends even the simplest lessons of the
great poets and philosophers. Their
striking utterances and hidden meanings
are lost in the unrest of the immature
passions and ambitions of the boy or girl.
Give the children tine. Let them gloat
over improbable love stories and impos-
Sble adventures while the morning sun
shine of life gilds the hills and mountains
that skirt and bound their distant hori-
zon if they will. 1t rests them for the
task of climbing these same obstacles to
future progress. Time is a schoolmaster
as we'll as a physician, and as the joints
of the telescope of years close into each
other the instrument ceases to magnify
beauties unreal as well as to shorten dis
tances. If the young only learn to love
honest books with a real affection the
time soon arrives when the ideal or spir-
ltual in their reading becomes the orna-
ment to beautify the actual and to carry
the practical and material in life into the
realms of art and beauty. Public libra
ries are excellent as public aids to culture,
but can never take the place of the fam
lily collection. The substantial founda-
ton of all good character is laid in the
cement of family love and mutual help
fulness at home. The atmosphere of
good books should fill the mental lungs
# every human pilgrim in every civil
,zed land, from the first wall of new born
infancy to the final restful sigh of depart
ing age.
All of the pure spirits of the great de-
parted linger lovingly around the shelves
N which the works of their earth life
,tand as guides, monitors, and friends to
hose who will partake of the banquet.
Of the great writers we only know that
hey We're weak, erring, fallible men and
women like ourselves; but their creations
ire our intimate friends and helpful COM
;panions. Of Plutarch we know absolutely
tothing, but by his magic touch we are
personally present and see Romulus as he
places the foundation stones of the Eter-
nal City. Scholarly quacks and literary
demagogues destroy with plausible
reasoning the identity of the man Shakes
peare, but it must be very cunning
,harlatan, miraculously malicious Ariel,
who can take from us Lear, Macbeth,
Titania, Viola, Caliban, and their immor-
tai lessons of pleasure and helpfulness.
Books are to be made useful accessories
in the discharge of life's duties amusing
companions in hours of rest and recupera-
ton; partners in the failures and tri-
umphs of existence. That mature man
or woman has lost the best sights and
sounds of earth's pilgrimage who has not
courted their friendship. p.-Minneapolis
Tribune,