Fairhaven herald. [volume] (Fairhaven, Wash.) 1890-????, 1893-03-21
RAPID READERS.
Men Who Gould Gather the Meaning of a
Page Of "A Book at n Glance

"bo VI u soOh al q Glance.
It has been said Of the late Justice Lamar
that he was able to read a newspaper arti
Gle or page of book at what seemed %
the observer to be but glance. Manifest
ly this faculty or capacity gave him great
advantage over ordinary men He was
able to devour books as il he were a liter
airy glutton, with the difference that his
powerful memory enabled him TO digest at
leisure what he had absorbed in haste.
Macauley possessed the same faculty.
| perhaps, in yet higher degree. He would
take up volume for an evenings intel
iectual enjoyment, and before be retired
mad the contents fully impressed upon
his marvellous mind. Dickens was an
other Of these remarkably rapid readers
George Eliots adam Bede" came TO him
one day, Before his ordinary bedtime he
had read it and had pronou, I'D this re-
markable dictum: THAT boohewas written
by woman" Others required davs Of
leisure to read it, and the question Of au-
thorship was the riddle Of the time in liter.
airy circles. Charles Sumner wns another
man who possessed this happy faculty.
A book, whether it was Il volume of law
or of diplomatic correspondence or a work
OF fiction, passed under his eyes as if by
quick succession Of glances. 1t was the
same with Daniel Webster, who himself
stated to "A 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 IA retentive memory
was necessary to render the results of this
rapid reading available, but it is plain that
In their capacity to read rapidly they pos
sessed an enormous advantage over their
fellow men. and the question arises, is il
possible to develop this faculty and make
1t more generally useful in the vast multi
plication Of booksi
IL Is impossible for the average reader TO
keep pace with the production merely of
the best, TO say nothing Of turning back
ward to the wealth Of the past. Indeed, in
the hurry Of modern life il is scarcely pos
sible for the business 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
II they had the faculty Of grasping SEN
fences, paragraphs and perhaps pages at a
little more than "A glance No one but the
most fiiiterate now pays attention to the
i'bAcI9 VI Nhitu Il worn Is composed.
IL il not possible that by cultivation the
average reader might catch words and sen
fences as letters are now caught by the most
Indifferent readersl 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, 10
moderation, infection, emphasis-all tend
ing toward slowness rather than rapidity
in reading. What would be the result Of
the aim and consequently DELHI
erately modify the process in our public
Is II not possible that with proper
training in the more advanced grades-per-
haps in the very lowest-children might be
sent forth from tie schools with something
Of the capacity which gave Macaulay, Dick !
ems, Sumner, Webster and Lamar their
advantage over others to grasp
the meaning and the thought of an author
without dwelling upon the separate words
which expressed that thDughtg II is Ger.
tainly something worth thinking of and
discussing seriously
The burden Of the best literature alone is /
already something almost beyond the ca
Dacity Of the mind Life is short, and cares I
IRE pressing. Is not there something that /
IAN be done for the men and women who /
IRE TO come after Us, even though we have (
missed what few rare minds possessed by I
lccidentf The subject is at least worth the /
consideration Of educators, and il has here
ofore been almost wholly ignored -Au-
susta Chronicle