The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1893-02-27
Men Who Could Gather the Meaning q;
II Page Rt "A Glance.

Men Who Could Gather :he Meaning %.
~ Page at "A Glance.
The death of Justice Lamar recalls e.
trait or faculty which he possessed in a re-
markabls degree. 1t has besn said oil Kim
that lie was able TO read q newspaper arti-
Gle or a page OF a book at what seemed to
the observer to DO hut a glance. Mani
festly this faculty or capacity gave him
great advantage oyer ordinary men. He
was able to devour books as if he we're Il
literary %alutton. with tho difference that
hia powerful memory enabled kim to digest
at leisure what he had absorbed i'll haste.
Mucaulay possessed the same faculty lcr-
hnps in n yet higher degree. Ife would
take up a volume for an evenings intellec~
tual enjoyment. and before lie retired had
the contents fully impressed upon hls mar
vellous mind. Dickens was another OF
these remarkably rapid randers. George
E.iot's adam Bedsf came to him ono day.
Befor. lis ordinary bedtime he had read it,
and hat pronounced thi8 remarkable die
tum: THAT book was written by II wonnn.'
Others required days OF leisule to read it,
and the question of rutho ship was the
riddle of tho time i'll lita nty circles.
Charles Suainer wa9 another man who DOS
sessed this happy faculty.
A book, whether 1t WAS Il volume of law OF
OF diplomatic respondeues or a work OF
fiction, passed undor hia eye M If NV q
quick euccesRlon OF glances. 1t was tho
aame with Daniel Webster, who himself
stated To a friend that when in college he
read "Don Quixoto' III y single night. In
She case of both these distinguished mon
what they rend in this way reaupeared in a
new dress IN their speeches and their writ
lnRs. or course II lctentlye meino.y was
necessary TO render tho results of this
rapid rending available, but it 10 plain that
in their capacity TO read rapidly they pog-
sessed IN enormous advantage OF there fell
low men, and tho question nriees, il it los-
sible to develop this faculty and mako
it more generally useful in the vast
multiplication of books? 1t is impossible
for the average reader TO keep pace with tho
production merely of tho best. to say moth
ing of turning back wnld to tho wealth of
the past. Indeed, in the hurry of modern
life it is scarcely possible for the business
man, for tho society woman, or the more
modest housewife to keep paoo with the
neTst apera and snatch an occasional hour
for the magazines. 10 ali OF these it would
be m inessimabicb boon ii they had tho fac
uity of crasptng sentences. paragraphs,
and, pei maps pages, at Il little more thnn ~
glance. No one but tho most illiternte now
pays attention to tho letters of winch n
word IL composed.
10 1t not possible that by cultivation tho
average reader might catch words and son-
tencos MS lettcrs ara now caught by the most
indifferent readers? A vast deal of energy
is now devoted TO teaching pupils to read
moro or less effectively in public. There IL
careful attention paid to articulation, to
moderation. Infection. Cmphasis-all tend
ing towGtd slowness rather than rapidity in
reading. What would be tho regult OF
changing the aim, and consequently delib.
arRtely modify the process III orr public
schools? Is il not possible that with proper
training in tho more advanced CrndeS-
perhaps in the very lowest children might
be sent forth from the schools with
something OF thu capacity which gave
Macnuley, Dickens. Sumner. Webster aud
Lamar their treInondous advantage over
others TO Qrnsp the meaning and tho thought
of All author without dwelling upon tho
acparate words which expressed that