Morris tribune. [volume] (Morris, Minn.) 1880-2000, 1894-09-12
pRgsERveR OF LITERARY DERELIcTs.
serapboo7ss, Their Value and the Changes
In Taste Which They Show.

| FfEo-ilVEh CF Ii EFH6f DEhELlC o.
| serapboo7ss, Their Value and the Changes
In Taste Which They Show.
Whose keepeth a scrapbook keep
eth a good thing, and the manner in
which it is kept is an indication of
the presence or absence Of certain
qualities in the keeper" as order,
perseverance, continuity of purpose
and fxedness of memory. A scrap
book is, moreover, an index of lit
Erary taste and feeling, and a scrap
book or series of scrapbooks kept
for number of years shows how
that taste may change, broaden and
rise with reading and the reception
of new ideas and impressions Could
we have all the scrapbooks CT one
lifetime extending from youth to age,
we should have a literary history of
that life.
Those scrapbooks are most inter
esting and valuable which may be
classified as PERSONAL---VERY. by some
one individual for personal use and
behoof, which record the workings
of one brain and, in way, the emo
tons of one heart. These, preserved,
become in time histories and autobi-
ographies. Next IN interest to these
private scrapbooIs are those which
are kept for a purpo5e-to collect
and preserve facts in regard to some
event in history; some historical
character, as Washington or Napo-
leon, or, better yet, some contempt
rary parsonage.
From these the biographer Of the
future may collect his choicest ma
terial, for be it known that news
papers from which scrapbooks are
generally made are no longer the
abstract and brief chronicles" of
the time, but are extended and even
difuse chronicles, telling all there is
to tell. Any one who has had occa-
sion to write post mortem sketch
Of any modern statesman has found
his facts stated at length not in
books, but IN newspapers. And yet
newspapers are cVanescent and per
ishable Out Of the 100, 600 copies a
newspaper issued on certain day it
is quite possible that eyesy copy may
have disappeared IN a few days ex-
cept the half dozen preserved on
files. It is well, then, that the scrap
books keep the cream, the gem, the
one poem or sketch Or speech or
story that made certain copy of the
newspaper sought after and valuable
for clipping purposes.
It is fact that every reading per-
son must have noticed that there is
not in the world a perfect book of
quotations Complete as the work
on hand may be, it frequently does
not contain the line, the verse, the
eloquent extract" one IS looking
for. Scrapbooks- scrapbooks-
are the repositories Of these things,
these poems by unknown authors,
by the poets who wrote but one poem
each and never got credit for that
These are very often resurrected
from antique scrapbooks and sent on
their anonymous round through the
to be again secured in
the scrapbooks and again for a time
The scrapbook, or rather thekeep-
ing of it, is an aid to memory. One
does not entirely forget that which
be takes time to cut out Of a book or
newspaper and fasten to the recep-
tive page, and perhaps (as he should
record in an index. He retains a poey
ton of it, a scrap of the scrap, as it
were, in his mind, so that in any
event he knows where to find it.
The practice Of keeping scrapbooks,
by many persons old fash
oned, is not the less an excellent
preserving for US in our
lge the fancies of our youth; keep
ng for another time what one day
made us smile or weep; a biography,
! history, journal written by a
thousand other hands, and yet our
'wn.-Kansas City Star.