The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-01-09
A QUESTION FOR PARENTS.

Note-Barometer corrected for temperature
and elevation p. f. Lyons Observer
A QUESTION FOR PARENTS
A question that has been before the
library board for some time, as to the
propriety of permitting very young
children to draw out books, Is not prop
erly one for that body at all, but for
parents. That it could be possible for
1t to arise is only another proof of the
growing decay Of home influence. home
responsibility and home interest in the
growth and education of children.
which is the most alarming symptom
of our time. AS far as the public II
brary is concerned, it hardly seems
necessary that it should add to its
many legitimate duties those others
which belong to parents, and which
they have neglected. The books upon
its shelves are carefully and conscien-
tiously chosen. They include the best
literature of the day and they do not
include, as far as the librarian and
the board can make sure of this by
the most rigid scrutiny, anything that
is deleteriOUS either mentally or moral
ly to young or Old. Even the story
books in which children reveI are sub
ject to close examination, and moth
ing with a tendency to turn young
impulses in a wrong direction would be
tolerated in the library collection. AS
far, therefore, as direct influence for
evil is concerned, there is no danger
whatever in permitting all the children
of the city old enough to read to
browse at their will among the books
of the public library.
There is an evil and a danger how
ever. of another kind, against which 1t
is the business and the duty of parents
to guard, and Of which they appear
to be altogether unmindful That
danger is the requirement by quite
young boys and girls of a habit Of
hasty and omniVerous reading, without
memory or reflection, and an appetite
for books of light adventure that grows
with what it feeds upon. 1t seems to
us that parents are singularly oblivious
to this influence, which is likely to
leave its mark for evil upon the minds
of their children for all time to come.
There is such an appetite, just as there
is an appetite for stimulants and
narcotics, and it Is not unlike that in
the chains with which it binds it's vic
tins, and in its deadening effect upon
tastes which are at once more useful
and more elevating. In the child mind
true culture encourages and feeds this
without stimulating it. 1t needs good
diet, and it is also particularly suscep-
tible to indigestion.
The inclination of the child for the
story book is perfectly natural and
wholesome. 1t should be gratified by
a moderate amount of the best litera-
ture of that kind in existence. For
example it is doubtful if anything else
in the world can take the place to the
normal boy or girl of a welI-thumbed
copy of the ARABIAN Nights" The
appeal to the imagination is effective.
and the gorgeousness Of the coloring
leaves rich tints upon the mind and
affects thought and education through
after life. Nothing could be more
wholesome than the works which Kip
obi SC,
Jungle Books are a delight to young
and old; and his Captains Coura-
geous," while thoroughly charming as
book of adventure is so strengthening
and enrolling in its unspoken moral
that it ought to be in the hands Of
every boy in the country.
The other side Of the picture is too
frequently seen. The shelves Of libra
ries are encountered and the tables Of
the book sellers are burdened by thou
sands of children's books that are
designed and are fit for nothing
but to occupy an idle hour. They fill
the place among children's literature
for the appetite of the summer travel
er. These books constitute the food Of
most young readers. They have no
means whatever of exercising a judi
cious selection. They love to read sto-
ries, and, as rule, their elders neither
know nor care what is their mental
pabulum 1t is satisfaction enough for
the average father or mother that the
children are quiet and out of mischief
in their leisure hours. If they are con-
tent to sit down with book, and that
book is known not to be positively
vicious, it is enough. Indeed, they will
tell you not uncommonly, with an air
of pride, how fond the boy or girl is
of his book; when that book may be a