The Big Stone Gap post. [volume] (Big Stone Gap, Wise County, Va.) 1892-1928, 1894-09-06
LITERARY OERELlcTs.
&crapb0oks, Thcir vaIue and tshe Changes
IN Taste Which They Chow.

KypxAxOVO&Hv Ahc1E VSRGE &n3 taG @itsh4cH
IN Taste Which They Chow.
Who so keepeth q scrapbook keepeth
good thing, and the manner in which
it is kept is an indication of the pres
ence Or absence of certain qualities in
the "keeper," as order, perseverance,
continuity Of purpose and fixedness of
memory. A scrapbook is, moreover, an
index Of literary taste and feeling, and
scrapboolz, or series Of scrapbooks
kept for number of years, shows how
that taste may change, broaden and
rise with reading and the reception cf
new IDEAS and impressions. Could we
have ala the sosapbooks Of one lifetiHss
extending from youth to age, vs shotEd
have literary history Of that LIE.
Those scrapbooks are most interest,"
ing and valuable which may be CLASH
fed as personal; kept by some one in
dividual for personal use and behoof;
which record the workings of ono brain
and, in way, the emotions OF one
heart. These, preserved, become in
time histories and autohographies.
Next in interest to these private scrap
books are those which are kept for
purpose; to collect and preserve facts
in regard to some event in history;
some historical character, rs Washing
ton or Napoleon, or better yet, some
contemporary parsonage. From these
the biographer Of the future may col
lect his choicest material for be it
known that newspapers from which
scrapboolxs are generally made are no
longer the abstract and brief ohroni-
cles" of the time. but are extended and
even diffuse chronicles, telling ali
there is TO toll. Anyone who has
had occasion to write q post-mortom
sketch of any modern statesman has
found his facts stated at length, not In
books, but in newspapers. And yet
newspapers arc evanescent and perish
able Out of the one hundred thou
sand copies newspaper issued on
certain day. it is quite possible that
every copy may have disappeared in
few days, except the half dozen pre-
served on files. 1t Is we'll, then, that
the scrapbook keeps the cream, the
gem, the one poem, or sketch, or
speech, or story that made certain
copy Of the newspaper sought after nnd
valuable for clipping purposes
1t is fact that every reading pcxson
must have noticed, that there is not in
the world perfect book OF quotations
Complete as the work on hand may DO,
it frequently does not contain the line.
Al. -...oo ~ tsnJ/,1,npt ortra oHt Opa
is looking for. Scrapbooass. old sorapr
books, arc tho repositories of these
things: these poems BY unknown au-
thors; by the poets who wrote but one
poem each, and mover got credit for
that. These are very often resurrect-
cd from antique scrapbooks and sent
on their anonymous round through The
newspapers, to be again secured in tho
scrapbooks and again for time for
gotten.
The scrapbools, or rather the keeping
of it, is an aid to the memory. One
does not entirely forget that which he
takes time to cut out Of book or
newspaper and fasten to the receptive
page, and perhaps (as he shouldD record
in an index. He retains portion OF
it, scrap of the scrap, as it were, In
his mind, 80 that in any event he
knows where to find It, The practice
of keeping scrapboolts, considered by
many persons old-fashined, Is not the
loss an excellent fashion; preserving to
us in our youth; keep for another time
what one day made lis smile or weep;
biography, history, a journal writ
ten by thousand other hands and yet
our own.-Kansas City Star.