Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1893-03-31
RAPID READERS.
Men Who Could Gather the Meaning of &
Page of n Book at Glance.

Men Who Could Gather the Meaning of .
Page of n Book at n Glance.
IL has been said of the late Justice Lamar
that he was able to read newspaper arti-
Gle IA page of book at what seemed to
the observer to be but glance. Manifest
" this faculty or capacity gave him great
advantage over ordinary men. He WAS
able to devcur books as if he were liter
airy giutton. with the difference that his
powerful memory enabled him to digest at
leisure wha, he had absorbed in haste
Macauley possessed the same faculty.
perhaps, in a yet higher degree. He would
take up volume for an evenings intel
lectual enjoyment. and before he retired
had the contents fully impressed upon
his marvellous mind. Dickens
other Of these remarkably rapid readers.
George Eliot's Adam Bede'' came to him
one day. Before his ordinary bedtime he
had read it and had pronounced this
markable dictum; That book was written
by woman Others required days of
leisure to read it, and the question of au-
thorship was the riddle of the time in liter
airy circles. Charles Sumner was another
man who possessed this happy faculty.
A book. whether it was volume of law
or of diplomatic correspondence. or work
of fiction, passed under his eyes if by a
quick succession of chances. 1t was the
same with Daniel Webster. who himself
read Don Quixote' in single night. In
the case of both these distinguished men
what they read in this way reappeared i'll
new dress in their speeches and in their
writings. OF course 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 it
possible TO develop this faculty and make
it more generally useful in the vast multi
plication Of t7oOSSS
1t is impossible Tor the average reader to
keep pace WIKI the production merely Of
the best, to say nothing of turning back
ward to the wealth of the past. Indeed, III
the hurry of modern life it 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 il would be an inestimable boon
If they had the faculty of grasping sen
fences. paragraphs and perhaps pages at a
little more than Il glance. No one but the
most illiJeTaJc now rays attention to the
letters of which a ~ is composed.
Ii il not possible that by cultivation the
average reader might catch words and sen
fences As letters are now caught by the most
indifferent readers: \ 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
moderation, infection. emphasis-aI tend
ing toward slowness rather than rapidity
in reading What would be the result of
changing the aim and consequently delit-
erately modify TIE process in our public
schoolst Is it not possible that with proper
training in the more advanced grades-per-
haps in the very lowest-children might he
sent forth from the schools with something
of the capacity which gave Macaulay, Dica-
ems, Summer. Webster and Lamar their
tremendous advantage over Others TO gasp
the meaning and the thought of an author
without dwelling upon the separate words
which expressed that thought: II is Ger
tainly something worth thinking of and
discussing seriously.
The burden of the best literature alone i
already something almost beyond the ca
pacity of the mind. Life Is short. and cares
are pressing Is not there something that
can be done for the men and women who
are TO come after Us, even though we have
missed what a few rare minds possessed by
accidents The subject i ut least worth the
consideration of educators. and it has here
;ofore been almost wholly isuored.-Au-
gusta Chronicle