The Florence daily tribune. (Florence, Colo.) 1898-1903, 1898-10-03
a TASTE FOR READING.
Benefits Derived From Fondness For
Good Literature.

Good Literature.
Ask any hostess of your acquaint-
ance what type of guest she has
found the hardest to entertain dur
ing protraeted visit and she will
answer, the woman who never
reads, says a writer in the Phila-
dolphia Inquirer.
Probably you know her yourself.
She slips into your guestroom some
day, with the promising assurance;
Now, don want TO be made COM
pany of. just let me be one Of tho
family and look ont for myself"
You are busy woman, and You
congratulate yourself that your hos
pitality is to be extended to one of
your sex who is capable of making
her stay something besides nerv-
GUS strain on the part Of yourself as
hostess and your household in gen
eral.
You have fitted up that guestroom
of yours with especial reference TO
the hoped for bookish tastes of its
occupants. There is goodly assort-
ment of current literature scattered
about. Being reader yourself, you
can imagine nothing more delight
some than an opportunity for coy
oompanionship with the latest mag
azine or novel.
You delicately allude to your
thoughtfulness in providing the, to
you, literary feasts, and suggest 10
your guest that she take her pick
of all that the family library CON
tains and then-welI, then comes the
establishment.
Never while that woman is in
your house do you catch her with a
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 de-
| spondent over bad weather and sets
all your hospitable instincts on edge
by the i'll concealed fact that she is
bored
"Oh," you sigh, "if she would
only read Just to see her ] 3 min
utes of tho day with her eyes fasten-
ed interestedly upon some bit of
printed matterr'
a taste for reading may be as sure
| ly cultivated as any other taste, and
a healthy appetite for good htera-
ture is as necessary for mental nour-
ishment as good food is for physical
well being.
To get right at the root of the
matter, the reading habit needs to
be cultivated in the nursery AS
soon as children are able to pick out
the words in their primers they
should be taught to consider that
| more enjoyment is to BIO found be-
tween the covers of book than
among all the toys and gimcrachs
that clutter up the playroom. No
need to make bookworms of them,
but taotful mother may implant
the reading idea into the juvenile
mind and go carefully nurture it
that in after years it will bear intel
1 lectual fruits of incalculable 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 oblieing grandmother or
gracious aunt who is always ready
to do the youngsters bidding in this
| direction is also responsible for tho
fad of spinning nursery yarns to lis
teners who are old enough and
schooled enough to Gull their own
! tales from books.
When there is no personal appli-
cation ON the child's part, how can
there be any mental stimulusa No
wonder we find SO many insipid,
vacillating minds among grown ups
when we remember how little
| thought concentration is exacted
from the average child.
! There would be fewer restless men
and certainly fewer disconnected
women if the reading habit were
made feature of nursery training.
Fortunate is the man or woman
who has discovered in books that
world which viii widen the most
contracted sphere and glorify the
most commonplace existence.
/