The river press. [volume] (Fort Benton, Mont.) 1880-current, 1905-03-01

BOOK knowledge. Book knowledge is but a PART
of the knowledge that constitutes power. Books are ex-
u cellent things. 1t would be high treason were 1 to deny
that. BUT A GLUTTONY OF BOOKS is JUST
AS BAD AS A SURFEIT OF ANYTHING ELSE. And there
are a great many excellent people l know in this world who spend
all their days in reading who are of no use to themselves nor to any
body else.
The fact is a appetite for reading WITHOUT DIGEsTING
is as unwhoesome IS any other form of guttony. The man Of vigor-
Gus life among men will beat the man of books always AND AT
EVERYTHING in this world. Libraries, however, give them the
tools with which they may work out their own salvation.
Mr. Gladstone, by the aid Of immense industry, was perhaps the
only man have ever known who was able to adjust the balance be-
tween his life of study and his life of action satisfactorily to himself
and to others.
But books can also be an end in themselves. The ma with a
happy taste for books can come in, tired and soured though he may
be, and fall into the arms of some great author who will raise him
from the ground and take him into a new heaven and a new earth,
where he will forget his bruises and rest his limbs and return to the
world a fresh and happy man. The best of that rcfrcshmcnt is that
IT DOES NOT REQUIRE THE ASSISTANCE OF WHISKY
or any other stimulant.
No limitation of means can in these DAYS excuse ANYBODY from
not buying books, but l wish to distinguish between books to be read
and books to be bought. READ IN ORDER TO SEE If THE
BOOK Is WORTH BUYING. There III two further classes of
books-those that arc borrowed from friends and returned and the
books that are borrowed and not returned. This nonrcturning Of
books has ended more friendships and terminated more affections
than any other cause of which am cognizant. The man who Dor
rows one volume out of a set of books and never returns it is a man
who should be treated like vernin-traplcd or shot at sight 0 r any
other of the punishments which might be extended to the lowest and
vncst of mankind.
Ny ideal index is one which will tell the best book to be read on
any subject that might be asked for, but | fear nobody will be found
to frame such an index, because his life would not be safe. But since
this is unattainable there is another index which 1 am anxious should
be found in our public libraries. l should like to Sc a committee ap-
pointed that will frame an index of books which have been superseded
AND OF WHICH THE LIBRARIES NIGHT RID THEIR
SHELVES. The great writer's of old gradually disappear under the
superincumbcnt| will not say rubbish, because l am an author my.
self-but the superintendent matter, just as Pompeii was shrouded
by the ashes and lava Of Vesuvius.
In literature we need one who shall act the part of the muezzin
on the mosque summoning faithful Mohamncdans to prayers, one
who shall raise his voice and recall the names of the good books by
good authors WHICH STAND In DANGER OF BEING
FORGOTTEN. would think the evening of my life extremely
well spent in irving to point out those authors who, in my judgment
and in that of many better than myself, arc in danger of being neg
leccd in these days.
As an instance of one of the authors who have been undulv OF,
scurcd of late years l may cite Sydney Smith, who is recollccted by
many as the saver of some bcwillcmngly funny jokes.
FEAR THAT UNDER HIS REPUTATION FOR AUMoR THE
REAL MERITS OF THIS GREAT MAN MAY BE FORGOTTEN, FOR
HE WROTE THE BEST SENSE AS WELL AS THE BEST NONSENSE
IN THE WORLD.