The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1896-01-25
cate health which has attended me
through life. 1.


through life. (.
! ."My grandmother encouraged my dis
inclination to play; she recognized In me
that certain seriousness of mind which
remember to have heard her say inner
tied from her, and she determined to
make of me. what she had failed to make
Of any of her own sons-a professional
expounder of the only true faith OF Con-
gregalionalism. For this reason, and for
the further reason that at the tender age
of years publicly ayowed my desire
ITO become a clergyman-ane ambition
wholly sincere at that tin1e--for these
reasons was~I duly installed as prime Ia
vorite in nay grandmother's affections.
OF course all this is written N the person
of the. old bibliomaniac. but there is SIP.
posed to be enough truth in it to make it
bit photographed. There is decided
ly an air of truth about the following:
II am so great lover of and believer
| in fairy tales that I once organized
society for the dissemination of fairy lite
| nature, and at the first meeting OF this
| society We resolved to demand OF the
Board Of Education to drop mathematics
| from the curriculum in the public schools
and to substitute therefor a four years
course in fairy literature, to be followed
If the pupil desired, by a post graduate
course in den1onology and folklore. We
hired and fitted up large rooms, and the
cause seemed to be flourishing until the
second months rent fell due. 1t was then
discovered that the treasury was empty,
and with this discovery the society ended
| it's existence, without having accomplish
ed any tangible result other than the pur-
chase of n,,rnber of sofas and chairs,
! for which Judge Methuen and l had to
| Ipay."
| There is also a good deal Of his own
point Of view in this paragraph:
eve are becoming too practical; the
| lust for material gain is throttling every
other consideration. Our babes and suck
| lings are no longer regaled with the soOth-
! ing tales Of giants, ogres, witches. and
| fairies; their hungry, receptive minds are
| filled with stories about the pursuit and
| slaughter of ltnoffending animals, OF war
and of murder. and Of those questionable
practices whereby hero is enriched and
others are Impoverished. Before he is
out of his swaddling-cloth the modern
youngster is convinced that the one noble
purpose in life IS to get, get, get, and keep
on getting of worldly material. The fairy
tale is tabooed because, as the sordld
parent alleges, it makes youth unpracti-
cal.
Perhaps but it gives him while
some appreciation of the good things OF
this life. Riches and princes and prin-
cesses are held UP as the great subjects
| in life. Get money or get a title, or get
both. I hold fairy tales largely respon-
sible for the inordinate love of titles par
ticularly conspicuous in this country"
! It was in London Mr.. Field, or the old
man, tells us. that he first began book
collecting In this connection he says:
"T1lere are very many kinds of books
collectors, bat think all may be grouped
in three classes-viZ: Those who collect
from vanity; those who collect for the
benefits of learning; those who collect
through veneration and love for books.
1t is not infrequent that men who begin
to collect books merely to crafty their
personal vanity find themselves present
! iy so much in love with the pursuit that
they become collectors in the better
sense.
| Gust as man who takes pleasure in
the conquest of feminine hearts invaria-
bly, finds himself ait last ensnared by the
very. passion which he has been using
simply for the qualification Of his vanity,
enters, to a degree, into every phase Of
| book collecting; vanity is, take it, one
of the essentials to a well-balanced char
acter-not a prodigious vanity, but pru-
Ident, well=governed- one. But for vanity
there, would be no competition in the
| world:~ without competition there would
tbe no progress. '-.-~,-.----.~---s
| "In these later days I often hear this
man or that sneered at because forsooth,
| he collects books without knowing what
! the books are about: but for my part, I
say that man bids fair to be all right; he
has made a proper start in the right di
rection. and the likelihood is that, other
things being equal he will eventually
become lover as we'll as buyer of
books. Indeed, l care not what the be-
ginning is, so long as it be a beginning.
There are different ways Of reaching the
! goal. Some folk go horseback via the
royal road, but very many others are
| compelled to adopt the more tedious pro-
| cesses, involving rocky pathways and
torn shoon and sore feet.
$50 subtle and so infectious is this
grand passion that one is hardly aware
of it's presence before it has complete
possession Of him; and have known in
stances of men who, after having associ-
ated one evening with Judge Methuen
and me, have walked up the next morn
ing filled with the enthusiasm of biblio
mania. But the development OF the pas
sion is not always marked by exhibitions
of violence; sometimes, like the measles,
it is slow and obstinate about coming
out and In such cases applications
should be resorted to for the purpose Of
diverting the rnalady from the vftals;
otherwise serious results may ensue." -
There is an amusing chapter on "Baid-
ness and Iptellectuality.'
"As for myself says Mr.. Field, II do
not know that I ever shared that derisive
opinion in which the unthinking are
wont to hold badness. Nay on the con-
trary. have always had especial rever-
ence for this mark Of intellectually, and
agree with my friend Judge Methuen
that the tragic episode recorded in the
second chapter of II. Kings should serve
the honorable purpose of indicating to
humanity that bald heads are favored
with the approval and the protection Of
divinity.
| IN my own case have imputed my,
early badness to growth in intellectual
ity and spirituality induced by my fond
ness for and devotion to books. Miss
Susan. my sister, lays it to other causes,
first. among which she declares to be MY
unnatural practice Of reading in bed, and
the second my habit Of eating welsh
rarebits late OF nights. Over my bed
have a gas-jet so properly shaded that
the rays OF light are concentrated and
reflected downward upon the volume,
which / am reading. ssst .ss Il. s4s5 4. f