Elmore bulletin. [volume] (Rocky Bar, Idaho) 1889-1906, 1893-08-05
RAPID READERS
Men Who Could Gather the Meaning Of q
PaEr of Book at = Glance.

Page OF a Book at Glance.
II has been said ~ the late Justice I.amsr
that be was able to read newspaper arti-
Gle or a pnge of a book at what seemed to
the observer To be but glance Manifest
ly this faculty or capacity gave hlm great
advantage over ordinary men lie was
able to devour books as II he Were a liter
airy gintton, with the difference that his
powerful memory enabled him to digest at
leisure what he had absorbed in haste.
Macailley 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
/ bis marvellous mind. Dickens was an
other Of these remarkably rapid readers.
George Eliot's Adam Be,len came to him
one day. Before his ordinary bedtime he
/ bad read il aud had pronounced this re-
markablc dictum; That book was written
\ by "A woman" Others required days OF
/ leisure to read il, 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 IL was a volume of law
or OF diplomatic correspondence, or work
/ OF fiction, passed under his eyes as II by Q
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 eappeared in a
new dress in their speeches and in their
writings. or course a retentiye memory
was necessary To render the results of this
rapid reading available, but il is plain that
In their capacity to read rapidly they pos
] a a. a.
| fellow men, and the question arises, is IL
possible to develop this faculty and make
| It more generally useful in the vast multi
! plicAtion of booksl
! 1t is impossible for the average reader 70
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 IL would be an inestimable boon
\ If they had the faculty OF gra-png sen.
| tences. paragraphs and perhaps pages at a
| little more than glance No one but the
most illiterate now pays attention to the
letters Of which word Ii composed
! Is II not possible that by cultivation the
average reader might catch words and sen
tences rs letters are now caught by the most
| indifferent rcadersI a vast deal OF energy
IL now devoted 10 teaching pupils 10 read
more or less effectively in public. There Is
careful attention paid to articulation, to
moderation, infection, emphasis-all tend
/ ing toward siowne-s rather than rapiGity
\ in reading. What would he the result Of
changing the aim and consequently delib-
erately modify the process In our public
schoolsi is il not possible that with proper
/ training in the more advanced grades-per,
! hups in the very lOwest-children might be
sent forth from the schools with something
Of the capacity which gave Macaulay, Dick
ems, Sumner, Webster and Lamar their
tremendous advantage over others TO gasp
he meaning and the thought OF an author
without dwelling upon the separate words
which expressed that thought 1t IL Ger
tainly something worth thinking of and
discussing seriously.
The burden Of the best literature alone Is
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 haze
missed what IA few rare minds possessed by
accidentf The subject is at least worth the
consideration Of educators, and 1t has here
tofore been almost wholly ignored.
gusta Chronicle.