Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1898-06-29
A TASTE FOR READING.
Benefits Derived from a Fondness Of
Good Literature.

oenGht9 DGF1veu from a r Ondne90 Oh
Good Literature.
Ask any hostess of your acquaint.
ance what type of guest she has found
the hardest to entertain during a pro-
tracted visit, and she will answer, 1.-The
woman who never reads" says q writer
In the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Probably you know her yourself. She
slips into your guest room some day,
with the promising assurance, Now.
don't want to be made company of. Just
let me be one of the family and look
out for myself"
You are busy woman, and you con-
gratulate yourself that your hospitality
is to be extended to one of your sex
who is capable Of making her stay
something beside a nervous strain on
the part of yourself as hostess and your
household in general.
You have fitted up that guest room of
yours with especial reference to the
hopedfor bookish tastes of its occu-
pants. There IL a goodly assortment of
current literature scattered about. Be
ing a reader yourself, you can imagine
nothing more delightsOme than an Op-
pOrtunity for cOZy companionship with
the latest magazine or novel.
You delicately allude to your thought
fulness in providing the. to you. liter
ary feasts. and suggest to your guest
that she take her pick Of all that the
family library contains. and then-well.
then comes the disillusiOnment.
Never while that woman is in your
house do you catch her with book or
paper In her hand. Days when you
run short of amusements for her she
wanders aimlessly about from room to
room: is plainly despondent over bad
weather and sets all your hOspitable in
stincts on edge by the ill-concealed fact
that she is bored.
"Ohw you sigh. "If she would only
read. Just to see her fifteen minutes
of the day with her eyes fastened inter
estedly upon some bit of printed mat
ter
a taste for reading may be as surely
cultivated as any other taste, and
healthy appetite for good literature Is
as necessary for mental nOurishment
as good food is for physical we'll being.
To get right to the root of the mat
ter. the reading habit needs to be cul-
tivatcd In the nursery. AS soon os
children are able to pick out the words
In their primers they should be taught
to consider that more enjoyment Is to
be found between the covers Of book
than among all the toys and gimcracks
~ Int hn pln M need
to make book worms of them, but q
tactful mother may implant the read
ing idea into the juvenile mind and so
carefully nurture it that in after years
it will bc:r intellectual fruits of meal
culable benefit.
Laziness is usually the foundation for
the childish request, please read to
me-" provided the youthful petitioner is
able to read to himself. The same oblig.
ing grandmother or gracious aunt who
is always ready to do the youngsters
bidding in this direction Is also respon-
sible for the fad Of spinning nursery
yarns to listeners who are old enough
and schooled enough to Gull their own
tales from books.
When there Is no personal application
on the child's part how can there be any
mental stimulus? No wonder we find
so many insipid. vacillating minds
among grownups when we remember
how little thought concentration is ex-
acted from the average child.
There would be fewer restless men
and certainly fewer discontented wom-
en- If the reading habit was made fea-
ture of nursery training.
Fortunate is the man or woman who
has discovered in books that world
which will widen the most contracted
sphere and glorify the most common.
place eXistence.-Boston Herald.