Morris tribune., 1905-09-16
READING.
Concluded from page 2.

,aa1ot keep up with the market.
Must Lowells Apprehension be realized, and
surplus authors be driven into the public
sauare and shot? What shall we read. The
sailors with Ulysses took bags of wind for
sacks of treasure, but we need not choose the
useless The Indians bought the musket that
Ykicked hardest, and that which completely
,prostrated it's purchaser supposed to be
the best. We need not choose the book which
kicks hardest against the laws of society or
aprostrates purity, murders morality. Shall
we buy moral pesti1ence2 Do we want light
touches of literary leprosy? Between the
xhome and school turks a human devil, and
when the teacher is not looking he offers the
child cheap edition of yellow fever. Catch
him by the collar, call the police, kick him till
Ahe police comes. Sunday School Superin-
&endent wrote to Dr. Vincent, "Send library
of pirate and Injun stories to interest the
.>children." These stories of popular pirates
and <rellicking robbers and dashing dare devils,
made the James boys almost popular enough
for presidency. They have sent little urchins
running away from school, with half of a
pair OF shears for dagger toy pistol and no
food, to become robber chieftians, and kill
Indians and to become pirates on the Spanish
main. How can the clerk work? He has been
reading literary day dreams till he is dreaming
that he becomes millionaire the inventor
of Stones mouse trap, or of Parleys painless
pills, or wealthy Young lady falls in love with
him and whispers be mine, or an uncle he
never heard of dies and wills him fifty millions.
How the girl work. She is reading how
1.-The great Count Splosh single handed and
alnne killed twentv Villains avery one If then,
and married the young lady he had rescued.
The Cinderella ,slipper will fl no foot but her
own The romance reader is sitting up all
night prisoner detained from sleep. Her
*<caaeek hushes or pa1es. Her eye spa rk1es or
weeps Her house is a horrible hurly burlyI
Her husband is dinnerless aud desperate. See
in the tunatic asylum the large number of
,ero4,iance wrecked people, waiting for the
Sl'rince Charming who never comes. See out
side. of a 1unatic asylum how few want a wife
who is all romance and no common sense. The
who feeds his cattle on mouldy straw is
raising scrub stock So is the parent who feeds
, the aa,inds iof his children on the work of
:, authors whose minds sick for want of
morals and religion. The necessity of sharp
discrimination is upon US. Which shall we
read?
The question is vital. With books as with
} men; "He>that walketh wise shall be wise but
the companion of fools shall be destroyed"
There is more reason for reading every new
i book than for becoming intimate with every
tramp. The Spanish rule is "Seasoned wood
( to burn, seasoned friends to trust, seasoned
books to read" The wiser people in this world
are like Emerson, who would not read book
at 1aas oil |
ut had been strongly commended by learned,
moral and religious reviews. The "review" of
rruens paper magazine sits at the fountains +
of thought, and commeuds The worthy, but lets
\ the chatf ,heas down stream without mention
; lie ~lss S,f~.rary tanning nfll whose work is to
= aafss rate the chaff the whest. There is |
- survival of the fttest among books and men,
The ages have buried the linsy work, and the
worthy remains Let travel the we'll worn |
road of the critics ullAing the usual "seven
points"
1t seems to that we s'i5uld read first
what will give full knowledge of our own life
work We should know all that has been
discovered about calling, all that pertains
to our business If we are farmers, there are
.p,enty of books every department of agri-
course of correspondence study, which will
saise our wages to a hundred dollars per
month