The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1905-10-29

their lives. Inc feelings dWdk-
ened, the impulses stirred by a
particular, book are either lost sight of
altogether or else only dimly seen I'M
the maze of emotions that result from
much reading. Once in a. while a book
will fash r-to-be-forgotten light
upon some crucial hour or period OF
stress, but even that is often dimmed
by time. In the old days, before the ar
Of printing with movable type. doubt
less. it was different. One can imagine
that in those days there were men who
had libraries which consisted OF per-
haps some one cherished scroll, thru
much reading of which their lives were
given wholly different direction. Such
q case would make an interesting study
but in these days of the much making OF
books one is not able to find such cases
to study. -. -. :,
A near approach to a case of the
kind, however, is found in Martha
Baker Dunns Cicero in Maine. There;
in attPlea for the Shiftless Reader is
told the story of a Maine farmer, who;
as boy with hunger for books, had
had few opportunities to satisfy his
craving, because /, his father thought
reading waste Of time. His mother,
when he was about II, one day brought,
him from Bangor book of Walter
Scott g poetry. What he says of the
result, rs told by Mrs. Dunn, to us is
exceedingly interesting. The book al.
fected his choice, OF wife, ana iater
lines buzzed in his head on the field OF
gettysburg. Doubtless the book did much
else for him This in part is the way
he tells it:
rye thought a good many times that
book made difference in my whole life
.t#*
T s'pose I had naturally more Of a 70
mantle streak In me than most farmers
boys, an it jest needed such a book as
that to wake it up. I'd always noticed
the sky and mountains and the like a
good deal. an after that mother m
begun to pick out places round here an.
name 'em for places in the book.
I'm pretty sure picked me out dit +
ferent kind of a wife from what I should
have if hadn't fallen in love with Ellen
Douglas for my first sweetheart. l
didn't choose her jest because she was
pretty or smart, or could make good but
ter an cheese. An when Ted got her,
mother liked her, an they lived happy
together Then pretty soon the war
broke out We lived way off here where
we didn't hear much, an we didn't get
newspapers very often, an father thought
the main thing was to stay here on the
farm an raise a good crop O. potatoes an
apples; but was uneasy. -. -
One day had to go part way up Cedar
mountain, there, to hunt after steer I
had strayed off, an when I looked away
off an saw the mountains all around the
sky. an the sun shinin' on the fields an
ponds, an the trees wavin' their tops as
if they were banners, I broke right out
an hollered: ..-.-.
Where's the coward that would not dare
To fight for such land?
That settled it. I enlisted, an stayed
in the army till the war was over
'Twan't all poetry, but there amt any
part O. my life It I feel any better salts
fed with I was lucky. I didn't get
= hurt to speak Of till the rebs put a. bull
let into my shoulder at Gettysburg,-an
that reminds me O. somethin'. The thirc
day O. the fight when our boys were wait
in for orders, an we could see the regl:
ments all round us goin' into action
there was somethin' goin', thru, my m1n(
over m over as If it was wound UP an
went by machinery; an that night wher
was layin' there wounded an mighty
uncomfortable. it. come to me like {
fash what it was = -" I was sayin
to myself: -@.i 4f''~,. ~.
The stubborn spearmen still made good
Their dark, impenetrable wood,
Each stepping where his comrade stood
The instant that he fell. ::
A good deal of an influence that, TO!
a book to exert over man; one, too
that ought to be sufficient answer t.
good Sir Walters detractor's, as vel
as to those who decry the reading O.
wholesome romances.