The Lexington dispatch. [volume] (Lexington, South Carolina) 1870-1917, 1903-08-19
sea and con an egg. But Ireckon this
is enough about dog days.

was Lady Montague-said: There ls
no entsinment so cheap as reading
and no pleasure as lasting. Especi-
ally is this true now a-days when
there is so much to read that is cheap,
instructive and interesting. In fact
reading is now the best part of lib
eral education. A we'll read person
is wiser, happier and better fitted for
the duties and trials of life than the
scholar who has graduated at the top
in the arts and sciences. OF course,
mean good reading-such as history,
ancient and modern; biography, where
We get both example and precept;
good story books and standard novels
that teach good morals; good maya
zine literature and good newspapers
whose editors are conscientious and
feel their responsibility. Gas man
SOW, 80 shall he reap" and We might
as truly say what a child reads, 80
will his or her moral and emotional
character be. The schools educate
the intellect only, but reading affects
heart, the emotions and passions, and
establishes the character of the young
for good or for evil. Man has been
defined to be a bundle of prejudices,
and those prejudices most generally
come from the books, magazines or
newspapers that We read.
Little stories like "Androcies and
the Lion" or damon and Pythias'
have moulded the character OF thous-
ands of children, and just to have
Robinson Crusoe" and Young
Maroons" and the "Swiss Family
Robinson" established the charac-:s
ters of children of a larger growth
Whether man dispises or admirers
Napoleon depends on whether he
has read Scott or ABBOTT. Whether
man was Whig or a Democrat
in the old times depended on the
newspaper he took. As great a man
as DR.. Miller, who was an old line
Wing, had a contempt for Thomas
Jefferson because he was par go the
founder of the Democratic party.
Jefferson must have been a very
great man." said I, s.for he wrote the
Declaration of Independence" ''And
what is that" said the doctor, "but a
series of ungrammatical platitudes
that any school boy might have writ
ten. The first sentence is ridiculous,
for it says decent respect for the
opinions of mankind. A decent re-
spect! Whoever heard Of an inde-
cent respect7 Why didn't he say
respect for and leave out the decent"
and he scarifed the whole document
from Whig standpoint.
Well, I was ruminating about this
while reading Percy Gregg's high
toned, merciless criticism of Harriet
Reecher Stoves "Uncle Toms Cab.
in" Gregg had sojourned in the
South during slavery times and knew
the book was lie when written to
infame the Northern mind and pre-
cipitate a collision. That Beecher
family was smart, unprincipled and
malignant. It was Henry Ward
Beecher who melted Old John Brown
to his reckless deeds and daring, and
who declared from his pulpit that
Shsrp's rifles were better missionaries
than Bibles, and that to shoot at
Shareholder and miss him was q sin
against heaven. It was that same
Beecher who, while a preacher, Sc.
duced the wife of one of his mem-
bers and broke up the family, and af-
ter weeks of mock trial got a white.
washing verdict from packed com.
mittee.
But I was ruminating about the
far reaching influence and effect of
that book and how it fred the North
ern heart and the English heart
against US, and how it was a lie and
wholly misrepresented our people,
and how the Lord cursed Shemaiah,