Akron daily Democrat. [volume] (Akron, Ohio) 1892-1902, 1899-12-27


Gated the pub
lie. or a portion of 1t, to an apprecia-
tion Of the wealth of material which
is every day supplied by the daily
press and which is almost surely lost
II not clipped out at the time of first
reading and preserved in the shape of
what used to be called scraps (see
"scrapbook" in the dictionary Almost
every newspaper reader is familiar
with the annoyance and frequent loss
consequent upon passing some valua-
BILE paragraph with only mental note.
A search for 1t next day or next week
is often like the proverbial search for
q needle In n bottle of hay, and yet II
often seems imperatlvely necessary
that such search should be made. and
the unlucky wight who has to make II
10 likely to curse the cnrelessness
which prevented the prize from being
seized when 1t was at hand. The noun
tainous masses Of printed matter sup.
piled daily by the printing press
abound In nuggets Of pure gold. but be
who passes a nugget without grasping
It instantly will have a Klondike jour
ney when he retraces his steps to find
1t again.
Yet even the press clipping bureaus,
enormous as their business has be-
come, have only scratched the surface.
They have not yet turned the sod In
the cultivation of their field. The day
Is coming when children will be taught
In school as well as at home the value
Of SCRAPS" and their education will
be supplemented by this peculiar and
varied teachings of the newspaper
not, indeed. the prurient outpourings
Of yellow journalism, but the healthy,
valuable and interesting reports of cur
rent history recorded In the daily news.
paper and often recorded nowhere
else.
An Indication, II one be needed, of
the growing appreciation of the impor-
tance Of this thing may be observed In
an appeal made and repeated by the
editor Of the official organ Of the Min
nesota boards of education. He asks
that the clerk or, secretary Of each
board Of education throughout the
state shall keep him supplied with
newspaper clippings from the local
press containing matter bearing upon
the public school Of each particular To-
cality. A moments consideration of
the value which such clippings would
have after few years. aggregation
will show how valuable similar collec-
tions on almost any subject may come
to be.
The appeal of the Minneapolis editor
Is one that corresponds to a desire,
even necessity, that has been felt by
every reader and thinker of this gener-
alton, and this desire will grow stron-
ger and more frequent as the output of
the printing press continues to in
crease. Already 1t has been reported
that the Kansas state board of educa-
tion has recommended the use of news
paper clippings in the public schools.
and this, SO far as 1t goes, is step in
the right direction.
A further and In many respects wis
er step would be to teach children to
make collections for themselves. A
habit of doing this would be vastly
more profitable than the inane custom
Of keeping diary or the greatly over
rated notion of setting down the daily
expense account in petty cashbook.
A few years Of agreeable application
will give any one valuable textbook
on any subject he may select. and the
very effort to keep and to classify the
clippings intelligently will lead to a
tolerably thorough education on that
subject,
All this is not theorizing. The value
OF scrap collections has been put to the
sevcrest test known to modern civiliza-
tlOn, They have been thrown upon
the market and bought for thousands
Of dollars In hard cash, not as curIosl-
ties, but for working material. re-
member one notable case. G. 4. Lani-
gan, the wit, poet and exchange editor
Of the New York World before Pulit-
ger bought It, had remarkable collec-
ton. He was the first omnivorous col
lector ever knew. When he died,
there was little of his estate outside of
his collection, hut his widow sold 1t for
number OF thousands of dollars and
was engaged at living salary to con-
tinue tho work.
Since his time, possibly because of
his example, the habit of collecting and
classifying newspaper clippings has
been formed by great number of
writer's In America. Charles Reade is
said to have had the most noteworthy
collection Of bis day In England. But
few Of the individual collections have
reached anything like the size and val
ne Of those which are to be found in
we'll equipped modern newspaper Of
fees. In fact, few individuals would
care to make the investment Of hun
dreds or even thousands of dollars that
is made annually In many Offices. The
scraps" form book Of reference that
is practically Indispensable in newspa-
per work, and business houses as well
as professional people are learning ev-
cry day Of the Importance that similar
collections have to them.
DAVID A. CURTIS.