The Logan Republican. [volume] (Logan, Utah) 1902-1924, 1903-01-13
Books and Book Shelves.

lIEW YORK, Special--In these DAYS
Oh general education when the poor
III est boy and girl Is taught to read
Nv u would be supposed that every
mouse would have its library. In
house me me years that have gone every
shelves holding standard works. When
night came the family surrounded the Ia
favorite book. and read it by the LAMBS
soft light. But such scenes are rare now
a-aays. There are few such family
works.
As IA matter Of fact there are fewer H.
praries to-day than there were fifty years
ago. that is to say in proportion to popu-
Iation; and good books, well printed and
wei bound, were never cheaper. In the
suburbs OF large towns where there are
many detached houses ranging i'm value
rom 5000 to $4,000. In districts where
there are few attractions in the evening
be the case In cities, there is an appalling
scarcity of small libraries. In many the
bookshelf or bookcase is wholly unknown,
and most frequently where II does exist
1t is the receptacle of the current output
To what is the decadence of the library
due?
Some persons will say that the news
paper press has filled the demand, others
VIII say that the cheap monthly magazine
and the occasional novel supplemented by
the daily morning and evening papers af-
lords the mental food for which the busy
man has time or inclination II this be
| true, and, doubtless, true II may be, the
| question naturally suggests itself. has not
the taste for reading deteriorated? II
VIII be conceded that the natural bent of
| the mind is to be up to date, to read only
| that which Is contemporaneous Indeed,
many will declare, II questioned that
after they have read contemporaneous
| thing else. 1t can be easily seen that this
can be true. But this must necessarily
| result in suppressing the desire for knowl-
edge OF men who have contributed their
energies I'm making the world what It is
and in Withholding the great evolutions in
| the conditions of mankind which have led
| to conditions as they exist to-day. For in
stance, what man has an accurate idea of
the rights, privileges and circumstances
| of the American of to-day who does not
know how they. were fought for and
struggled for in the past?
The reading of current literature GER
tainly fills the ambition OF the man who
keeps him abreast of the times, 1t in no
way fits his mind to go beyond them, to
his information as superficial. Indeed he
often distrusts It, He recognizes It does
not build him up.
| The reading of standard literature, OF
books that have survived, belong to per-
iod. They indicate something. they rep
resent something. Poetry and fiction fit
recalls the days of Elizabeth and the
history of her ancestors and reflection
the times in which they lived; Steele
Swift, Addison, the days Of Queen Anne;
Tennyson, Browning, Thackeray, Dickens,
the DAYS of Victoria. To a mind that
has been delighted by Hume, Green and
| Macaulay: by Motley and Prescott, the
writings of all these men become doubly
interesting, There Is consciousness of
being built up.
Our young people feel the feverishness
OF these days, and the mere suggestion
of history eXcites impatience. They take
up volume, struggle with it and throw
enough with history to acquire the taste
for 1t. They do not realize that after
their minds become acquainted with the
good and the bad the weak and the
strong men of history, that they will be-
come as interesting to them as the people
OF whom they read and never see In the
II our young people would read Pres
colts Charles ", Philip the Second, Mot
ley's Dutch Republic and United Neither
lands Macaulay's or Greene's Reign of
Queen Elizabeth In their histories they
would find spread before them a delight
full panorama OF an Interesting period.
How natural 1t would then be to take up
Prescott's Conquest OF Mexico and Peru
and note the Spanish influence on the
American continent TO observe Mexican
money with Philips portrait. TO see this
American money poured into Holland e
, pay for the support OF tne duke OF -, AVA a.
dependent Dutch; TO see the Dutch es-
Gaping to England, finally crossing IN.
ocean TO inhabit New Ams =, sair Wh Una,
Snain 10 England. from England to New
: York and four hundred years later some
~ the descendants OF these very people
Z 9astroytnp the power of Spain in the
West West indies What lives MI in those pages
) what memories. What adventures and
!. Lei our young people get back to the
: old.fashioned way OF a good book under
the light Of a good lamp AN, and snet
I bnme evenings that the book Will inspire
! y sentiment The book shelf VIII come
back into fashion. and no ireasnr,s II
me house will he more valued than thos'
7 witch are placed upon its shelves.