Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1900-12-27

dom seen in society circles. True
Cushmau K. Davis was neither hermit
nor recluse, neither cynic nor stole.
but the fuss and feathers" of fashion
took too much time from more ire
mendous themes. For Davis to de-
scend to the follies of fashion would
have been for a Napoleon to toy with
tin soldiers, or Hercules to play with
water-wheels. He was not sports
man. He had no taste for the sports
of field or forest, stream or shore. 1t
was his to track nobler game than an
telope or deer, in the deeds and declar-
ations of mighty men. 1t was his to
angle along the streams of classic lore
for more splendid trophies than re-
ward the fiSherman's skill. He lived
largely in his library. His books were
his brothers. No guns were hung high
in his hall No. fishing rods festOOned
his rooms. No head of deer or wing of
eagle was set up as a sign of his Stay
ing skill. But books, books, books,
were the decorations of his delight and
treasures of his taste. More than
1000 valued volumes were the constant
less man. To every room they gave
richness, and even the stable loft was
graced by their presence. Yet this
splendid statesman was no bibllomane.
He studied books, he searched them as
for hidden treasures. He dissected
them, devoured them, digested them.
He made his massive mind a store
house of superfluous knowledge, for in
superfuous information he believed.
Many a man has been content with
knowledge sufficient for the present
need. Many a lawyer has been too lazy
to study anything that was not to be
of immediate use. Not so with Sena-
tor Davis. 1t was in the quiet of his
study that he laid the foundation for
his knowledge of international law.
With no immediate need of that infor
nation, with no prospect of that need
even in the future, Davis delved day
after day for the legal lore that in IA
quarter of a century was to give him a
greatness girdling the globe.
In a lecture to a graduating class of
young lawyers the Senator once said,
"The trouble with most young men is
that they will not study after they
leave college. They think that they
know all that is necessary; but if you
are ever to amount to anything in this
world, you will go on studying; you
will sit up nights with your books.
The first ten years of your life will be
hard grubbing for your bread and but
ter. But if you work, delve, study,you
will succeed. Only one man out of
twenty studies after leaving college.
Hence, nineteen out of twenty fail to
attain success"
The teacher of this truth practiced
what he preached. He thus gave to
the world the lesson that genius is
only the offspring of effort. His own
testimony was, "Genius is the talent
for taking trouble
His lecture upon Madame Poland
was one of the finest elias sicS in the
English language, 1t was originally
intended to be addressed to- Womans'
club, not to learned society. But
the author would not call the lecture
finished until he had consulted not
only the ordinary authorities but also
seventy-five different French volumes
specially imported. Whereupon a
frivolous female in her tie ems wondered
at his taking So much trouble for
single lecture" But this trouble-tak-
ing, this history hunting, put the stamp
of scholarship upon that product of
his pen. and gave to that son of toll
the reputation of genius.
7 Al hn lnGGn1a
that, st is not the whole of life to
live:" that there is nobler aim than
the literal rendering of the declaration
"Having food and raiment, let us
Herewith be content that life is
given for something more than to
raise corn to feed hogs, to buy land, to
raise more corn to feed more hogs, to
buy more land" i'll never ending repe-
tend. A human being is not sau-
sage to be stuffed He is not chimney
to be smoked. He is not barrel to be
filled. He is being with a brain,
brain that will shrivel and starve
without food upon which to feed. Let
him therefore buy books. When a
young itinerant was asking advice of a
bishop the latter inquired: Young
man, have you Bascom's Sermons?
The reply was No sir Have you a
bed?" then asked the bishop. Yes
sir" was the reply of the young "theo-
log" Sell your bed and buy that
book" was the parting counsel of the
+, clergyman. SO. better sometimes are
books for the brain than beds for the
body, by as much as mental require
ments are above material needs. In
deed a young couple today has no more
I business to begin housekeeping with
out books than without bedding.
For some one has wi ,e said: "0ool 5
are the windows through which the
soul looks out and a home without
books is like a house without windows,
den of darkness. the abode of bats
and owls. spectres and hObgoblins.
Let the young man learn from this
| lordly lawyer the lesson of lifelong