New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1903-12-20

NN
bracketing with it the new Life of loItaire,"
by S. C. Tallentyre.
a discussion on the habit of reading in bed
has been started by Lord ROsebery'S recon-
mendation to wakeful people of Cockburn's let
tiers to his gardener. Those letters, lie said, he
would put among that collection Of books
which people could enjoy by their bedside, not
as literary opiates but because they were pleas
ant and healthy to read, which they could break
Off at any minute when they felt drowsy, and
which left pleasant impression on them when
they laid them down." A number of doctors
protest that reading in bed is pernicious habit
las bad taking drugs" says one of the
guild-and is not only bad for the eyes, but
hurts the whole body, overstraining the muscles
of the neck and turning shoulders rheumatic.
THE Spectator" on the other hand, fails to see
why reading in bed should be considered dan
gerous habit proper conditions of light and
sufficient pillows being granted. Why should
it, indeed2 With a mild bright light falling
over the left shoulder, the comfortably bolstered
reader may with impunity soothe his tired mind
and his tired body into sleepiness over de-
lightful, well printed page-that is certain
that water runs down hill. AS for the question
of the right book. it is one upon which it is I'M
necessary TO spend many observations. ANY
book which the reader thoroughly likes is the
right book. 1t is amusing to see the stolid
gravity with which the contributors to this dis
cusson have been endeaYoring to pick out just
the books for the purpose. ''Sonorous, easy flow
ing poems, like those of Macaulay'' are recon-
mended, but it appears that 1.-THE most favored
bed-book of all is the Book of job" 1t is
strangely comforting to know this.
Of {bo ind Of hot
people think ought always to be read under
certain conditions, we wonder why it is that
in England your true Christmas story must al
ways be the drearieSt thing imaginable. Wad-
ing through number of the December periodi-
Gals from London we have been struck by the
positively grotesqCe gloom which prevails In
most of them. One story treats of a man and
his wife, living in the middle of vast prairie.
The husband absents himself for day or two,
in winter, having left his wife alone with money
in the house that he holds in trust He makes
her swear before he leaves that she will admit
one while he is away. She breaks her oath,
out of pity for a wounded soldier, who seeks
shelter from the snow; in the night they hear
some one stealthily breaking in; as the burglar
enters the woman shoots him dead, and, when
the mask is torn from his face she sees that she
has killed her husband. In another story two
men III the hIonulKe Joss up 10 see VINO snail
take holiday and so back, for a time, to civ
ilization. The winner agrees to bring with him
on his return, the sweetheart of his friend, SO
that they can be married without much further
delay mistake in a newspaper leads the
man who stays behind to believe that the other
has treacherously married the woman himself
In fit of pique he weds hideous sQuaw, only
to be confronted, in due time by the devoted
woman, who has braved all the rigors of the
North to come to him. The man who had won
the holiday had married her sisterI Now, is
this the sort Of thing to put before healthy
human creature at Christmas timer