Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1899-08-10

| IN my table today is Pile or BOOKS
Beth sent me, labelled Books for
Children, - across which she has written
trash. Now, | have not looked at
these books. but l agree with Beth in
her strong protest against much OF the
| specially prepared reading matter for
| children. 1t has been argued with a
great deal of spirit that the tendency
of publishers to supplant DeFoe, Haw-
thorne and Irving of the older classics
is sin against the intelligence of the
young. think parents make great
mistake in allowing children to read so
many of these So called harmless stories
for children.
Nature does not present one aspect to
| children and another to the mature
! persons. She presents the same phe-
nomena to all and child s mind is not
| like the feet, measurable at given
time. 1t presents at different moments
| definite limits Of expression, but it
never discloses its capacity for re-
ception. 1t is an open secret that the
mind can brood over and find delight
in ideas which are only dimly under
| stood. There are great many children S
books which are wholesome and
entertaining in a high degree; but
they possess high qualities which are
genuine, vital and human, and il is %
| popularity of such books that they are
as interesting to the matured as to
young readers. The years which are
given over to artificially prepared read
| ing for children are precisely the years
when the mind is being most deeply
stirred when the seeds of thought are
dropping silently down into the hidden
places of the nature. They are the
years which decide whether man
| should be creative or initiative, whether
he should be an artist or an artisan.
| This is the time when the boy who is
to write Nicholas Nickleby' is learn
ing; when the boy who is to write
| "lyanhoe" is drinking in great stories
and traditions of his race. This is the
| time when as rule the intellectual
quality is settled for all times.
Now the qualities that "Ulyses, :"
"Perseus," Thor" "Sigfried, !"
Arthur" and "Parsival" possess, are
the qualities that drop the right seed
into the receptive heart Of the grow
ing child. The Odyssey" is not only
one of the great reading books of the
race, but it is also one of the great text
books Shakespeare is not only great
STORY teller but he is an educator and
is quite as interesting to healthy boy
| as any story writer. He entertains his
young guest quite as acceptably as any
| hired comedian, but unlike most
comedians he educates him and refines
| him at the same time. There is no
need of making concessions to what is
supposed to be thu taste Of child by
giving him inferior things. Let him
grow up in the presence of superior
| things and he will take to them as
easily as he will take to cheaper ones.
Accustom child to good music and
the hurdy- gurdy will disgust him.
Bring him UP in the atmosphere of
Homer, Plutarch, Herodotus, Scott
and Irving, and the atmosphere Of the
books Of the news stand and penny
library will stifle him. The boy who
is brought up IN this society will rarely
make friends with the vulgar, he will
love truth, intelligence and honor.
But must push this pile of juvenile
literature aside and bask in the glory
of the sumptuous binding and blaze of
famous names in the much talked of
new magazine edited by Lady Ran
dolph Churchill, 1.-THE Anglo. Saxon
Review" 1t is a beautiful volume
and is a credit to the publisher. One
thing is certain: 1t may be perfectly
sure of its social position; for, as Lady
Randolph Churchill remarked, 1.-THE
book is published at price which in
| sures respectful treatment at the hands
of those who buy it. - The contents?
Well, Henry James has story andlthe
Hon. Whitelaw Reid tells of 1.-THE Con-
sequences of the Last Treaty of Paris. T"
There is three-act drama by John
Oliver Hobbs, stories by Gilbert Par
ker, poem by Swinburne, letters from
the Duchess of Deyonshire and "Im-
pressions and Opinions modestly UNI
claimed by anyone, but whose author
is thought to be Lady Churchill. The
binding and the fine portraiture and
beautiful paper, bid fair to make the
Apglo-SaXon Review q coveted possess
sion of all wealthy and ambitious book
collectors. The rest of the world can
get on very we'll without it.
| wonder how many people ever think
that there is great Jewish literature.
or If they do, how many know any,
thing about it? "Yiddish'' it is called !;
sometimes "Judesch. Teutsch. " A new
book, "Yiddish Literature in The
Nineteenth Century," has just been
published by Scribner. Loe Wiener,
the author, thinks that this language
will no longer be spoken or written
when the Jews cease to be prosecuted !;
time which, however,; the author
leaves quite uncertain. He has made
the work quite an interesting one, tell
| ing all about the Jewish folklore and
folksong of this singular people.
Blue devils; don't you over have
them? Well, Beth knows | do, and
last week she sent me what she called
an antidote. l have taken the first
volume and find it effective and its
Rough on Blues quality is not ex.
aggerated. The first volume of this
medicine by Fletcher is called "Menti-
culture" and should find a place in
everyone's library today. Helen Pitkin
of the New Orleans Times Democrat,
one of the cleverest women newspaper
writers and literary critics in the South,
says of Menticulture:
Our Mr.. Horace Fletcher has
written book which we all have read,
emphasizing the value of oalmness and
its Importance to health. Don't worry
and don't get angry, is the substance
of his message to us. 1t means to all
who will seriously undertake TO prac-
tice this cheerful philosophy a divided
increase in the worlds iollity. What
ever else we forget We must remember
to be gay. Don't forget to laugh
laugh when you are happy laugh when
you are amused; laugh at yourself for
being miserable and laugh at yourself
for being bored.
There is always something to laugh
at, and even when one is reduced to
laughing Mt one's self that ia vary