The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-06-08
CAPABLE OF RAPID READING.
Men Who Could Gather the Meaning of .
Page at a Glance.

wen w no C0Oi0 Gather tno meaning OF =
Page at a Glance
The death of Justice Lamar recalled
trait or faculty which he possessed to
a remarkable degree. 1t has been said
of him that he was a BILE to read g news
paper article or page OF book at
what seemed to the observer to be but
a glance. Manifestly this faculty or
capacity gave him great advantage over
ordinary men. He was al BILE to devour
books as if he We're literary glutton,
with the difference that his powerful
memory email bled him to digest at leisure
what he had absorbed in haste.
Macaulay possessed the same faculty
perhaps in yet higher degree. He
would take up volume for an even
ings intellectual enjoyment and before
he retired he had the contents fully
impressed upon his marvellous mind.
Dickens was another of the remarka bly,
rapid readers. George Eliot's adam
Bede'' came to him one day. Before
his ordinary bedtime he had read it
and had pronounced this remarka bic
dictum: ''That book was written by a
woman" Others required days of
leisure to read it, and the question of
authorship was the question of the
time in literary circles.
Charles Sumner was another man who
possessed this happy faculty. A book,
whether it was volume of law or
work of fiction, passed under his eyes
as il by a quick succession of glances.
It was the same with Daniel Webster,
who himself stated to friend that
when in college he read ''Don Quixote'
in single night. In the case of both
these distinguished men what they read
in this way reappeared in a new dress
in their speeches and in their writings.
Of course a retentive memory was
necessary to render the results of this
rapid reading availa bic, but it is plain
that in their capacity to read rapidly
they possessed an enormous advantage
over their fellow men, and the ques-
ton arises, is it possible to develop this
faculty and make >it more generally.
useful in the vast multiplication of
books? 1t is impossible for the average
reader to keep pace with the production
merely of the best, to say nothing of
turning backward to, the wealth of the
past. Indeed, in the hurry of modern
life it is scarcely possible for the busi-
ness man, for the society woman, or
the more modest housewife to keep
pace with the newspapers and snatch an
occasional hour for the magazines. To
all of these it would be an inestimable
boon if they had the faculty of grasp
ing sentences, paragraphs, and. per-
haps pages at a little more than a
glance. No one but the most iliiterate
now pays attention to the letters of
which a word is composed.
Is it not possible that by cultivation
the average reader might catch words
and sentences as letters are now caught
by the most Indifferent readers? A
vast deal of energy is now devoted to
teaching pupils to read more or less
effectively in public. There is careful
attention paid TO articulation. to mod
uiation, infection. emphasis-al tend
ing toward slowness rather than rapid
ity in reading. What would be the re-
suit of changing the aim and conse-
quently deliberately modify the process
in on public schools? Is it not possible
that with proper training in the more
advanced grades-perhaps in the very
lowest-children might be sent forth
from the schoo. with something of the
capacity which gave Macaulay, Dickens,
Sumner. Webster and Lamar their tre-
mendous advantage over others to grasp
the meaning and the thought of an au-
thor without dwelling upon the sepa-
rate words that expressed that thought?
It IS certainly something worth think
ing over and discussing seriously The
burden OF the best literature alone is
already something almost beyond the
capacity of the mind. Life Is short and
cares are pressing. Is not there some
thing that can be done for the men and
women who are TO come after rs. even
though we have missed what a few rare
minds possessed by accident? The sub
iect is at least worth the consideration
of educa tors. and it has heretofore been
almost wholly ignored. Ca
Chronicle.