Iron County register., 1898-02-24
WOMAN WHO NEVER READS.
Misses One of the Greatest Pleasures
of Life.

of Life.
Ask any hostess of your acquaint.
.,Rnce 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
Probably you know her yourself. She
slips into your guest room some day,
with the promising assurance: "Now,
I don't want to be made company of.
Just let me be one of the family and
look out for myself"
You are a busy woman, and you con-
gratulate yourself that your hospitali-
ty is TO be extended to one of your sex
who is capable of making her stay some
thing besides 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
hoped-for bookish tastes of it's oc-
cupants. There is a goodIy assort-
ment of current literature scattered
about. Being a reader yourself, you
can imagine nothing more delightsome
than an opportunity for cozy compan-
ionship with the latest magazine or
novel.
You delicately alIude to your
thoughtfulness in providing the, to you,
literary 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
r,R L
ders aimlessly about from room to
room; is plainly despondent over bad
weather and sets all your hospitabl
instincts on edge by the ill-concealed
fact that she is bored.
"Oh!" you sigh. eff she would only
read. Just to see her Is minutes of the
day with her eyes fastened interestedly
upon some bit of printed matter"
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 wellbeing.
To get right to 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 con-
slider that more enjoyment is to be
found between the covers of book
than among all the toys and gimcracks
that clutter up the playroom. No
need to make bookworms of them, but
a tactful mother may implant the read
ing idea into the Juvenile mind and sc
carefully nurture it that in after years
1T will bear intellectual fruits of in
calculable benefit.
Laziness is usually the foundation
for the childish request: "Please read
to me-" provided the youthful petition
=er is able to read to himself. The same
-Obliging grandmother or gracious aunt
who is always ready to do the young
sters' bidding in this direction is also
responsible for the fad of spinning
enough and schooled enough to Gull
their own tales from books.
When there is no personal applica-
tion on the child's part how can there
be any mental stimulus? No wonder
we find so many insipid, vacillating
minds among grown-ups when we re-
member how little thought concen-
tration is eXacted from the average child
There would be fewer restless men
and certainly fewer discontented
women if the reading habit was made
a feature of nursery training.
Fortunate is the man or woman who
has discovered in books that world
which will widen the most contracted
sphere and slorify the most common
place existence.-Philadelphia Inquirer