Morning journal and courier., 1891-10-16
The Reading Habit.

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 Of all the habits that can be cultivated, none is more productive of pleasure and improvement than that of reading, provid- ed the books be well chosen. Reading Is a recreation-the rest and refreshment that make one feel like a new being-but 1t is much more. It is not only the wine of mental life, it is its daily bread. The study of textbooks will by no means take the place of general and varied reading. One may be the master of several languages and yet not be we'll read. One may have many accomplishments and even be proficient in one or more branches of science, and yet be unintelligent on general subjects for lack of a habit of iudicious reading.
 The quantity of reading that may be done in a year by the employment of even small portions of time is surprising to those who have not observed the matter. It is de- light to think of the amount or informs- tion and keen intellectual pleasure obtained by those who follow the required read iugs" of the ChsutauqIan courses after spending less than an hour day upon them, and equal advantages may follow more desultory reading if it be well chos en.
 A lady whom we know is the head of a large family, entertaining much company, and doing a good deal of benevolent work. All these things leave her but little time, yet at the end of year she will be found to have read more, and to have better assi- inflated what she has read, than the major ity of men or women of leisure. In her the reading habit is very strong, and leads her to improve every chance moment. Her memory is good and her mental faculties clear, so that she can keep many separate threads of thought in her mind without dropping or tangling any. Hence she finds it profitable to have several books on hand at once. For her own "den," where she is most likely to be found when she has more than a few moments at her disposal, she has always "solid" work of some sort history, biography, travel, or popularized science. In the sewing room, where she may have to wait short intervals between 'ffittinGs," are kept volumes of selections.
 On her dressing table is always another book. In her parlor a small volumed Shakespeare is ever at hand. In the din ing room are newspapers and magazines. In a drawer in the hall table, ready to be taken when she is going out, are novels or books of short stories, to be read in car riage or horse cars. Thus she is never obliged to wait idly through even those moments
  large family.
 A very great advantage of this lady's habit is that her whole family receive the benefit of her ever-overfowing mind. Her children bring their studies, her husband his interests and she her reading to the common fund of intellectual enjoyment. Their table houfs are charming. The hus bands business is one involving unusual cares and responsibilities, and he is often too tired to read, but by his wife's flow of lively chat upon ever-fresh topics, his mind is, as he expresses it, so ''irrigsted'' that it becomes rich and fruitful instead of the arid waste which mind exhausted by bus mess and uurefreshed from without must be. Her children derive from their moth CTS varied stores countless bits of infor- nation which enable them to better under stand their lessons and are constantly stim- ulated to greater efforts. This useful and interesting woman makes no pretensions to learning, and with the exception of writing and speaking the English language with unusual purity and fuency, has no ac- complishments, but she is singularly we'll informed