The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1893-03-24
Rapid Readers.

The death of Justice Lamar recalls trait
or faculty which he possessed in remarkable
degree. n has been said of him that he was
able to read newspaper article or q page Of =
book at what seemed to the observer to be
but glance. Manifestly this faculty or ca
pAc ty gave him great advantage over ordinary
men. He was able to devour books as it he
were q literary glutton, with the difference
that his powerful memory enabled him to
digest at leisure what he had absorbed in
haste.
F Macaulay possessed the same faculty Der
haps in yet higher degree. He would take
up volume for an evenings intellectual en-
ioyment, and before he retired had the con-
tents fully impressed upon his marvellous
mind. Dickens was another Of those remark
ably rapid re .ders. George Eliot's "Adam
Bede" came TO him one day. Before his ordi
nary bedtime he had read it, AID had pro-
nounced this remarkable dictum. "That book
was written by woman" Others required
DAYS of leisure to read it, and the question OF
authorship was the riddle Of the time In litera
ry circles. Charles Summer was another
man who possessed this happy faculty.
A book, whether it was y volume OF law
or of diplomatic correspondence or work Of
fiction, passed under his eyes - II by quick
succession of glances. 1t was the same with
Daniel Webster, who himself stated to .
friend that when in college he read '.Dou Quix
ote" in q single night. In the case Of both
these distinguished men what they read in
this wy reappear In new dress in their
speeches and in their writings. OF course
retentiye memory was necessary to render the
the results of this rapid reading available, but
it is plain that in their capacity to read rapidly
they possess an enormous advantage over their
fellow men, and the question arises, Is it pos
sible to develop this faculty and make 1t mere
generally useful in the vast multiplication OF
books? 1t is impossible for the average read
or to keep pace with the production merely OF
the best, to say nothing of turning backward
10 the wealth Of the past. Indeed, in the hur
~ of modern life it is scarcely possible for
the business man, for the society woman, OF
the more modest housewife to keep pace With
the newspapers ard snatch an occasional hour
| for the magazines. To all of these it would
Be an inestimable boon il they had the faculty
| of grasping sentences, paragraphs, and perhaps
pages, at little more than glance. No one
| but the most illiterate now pays attention to
the letters of which word is lcomposed.
| Is it not impossible that by cultivation the
average reader might catch words and SEN
tences ~ letters ale now caught by the mos
| Indifferent readers? A vast deal Of energy Il
now devoted to teaching pupils to read NOR
or less effectively in public. There Is careful
attention paid to articulation, to moderation
infection, emphasis-all tending toward SLOW
ness rather than rapidity in reading. Wha
would be the result of changing the aim, AMI
consequently deliberately mocify the process
In our public schools? Is It not impossibl
that with proper training in the more advan
eed arades-perhaps in the very lowest-chil
dren might be sent forth from the school
with something of the capacity which gav
Macauley, Dickens, Sumner, Webster AMI
Lamar their tremendous advantage over 9th
en- to grasp the meaning and the thought
an author without dwelling upon the sepaiat
words which expressed tbst thought? It
certainly something worth thinking Of an
discussing seriously. The burden Of the bes
literature alone is already something alnoa
beyond the capacity Of the mind. Life 4
short and cares are pressing. Is not the'
something that can be done for the msn An
4 women who are to come after US, even thoug
we have missed wha: few rare minds POI
; sessed BY accident? The subject 10 at lea
worth the confederation of educators, and
has heretofore Deen almost wholly ignored.