The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-04-30
HINTS FOR GIRLS
 ABOUT BOOKS.
PLEASURE AND KNOWLEDGE FROM
 NOVELS.
Business Girl Should Read Nature Beoks--How to Deal with Each
 Book to Make Reading It Proff-
BY MARGARET E. sANGsTER-

Copyright, 1905. by Joseph B. Bowiesl
 The first question that arises when considering what our girls shall read. is what is their motive in reading. Do they read simply for diversion. for the recreation and pastime which are legf- timate, or do they read for mental en- richment and information2 If the first is the object in view the answer seasy. For amusement and pleasure. girls like everybody else. must seek the story tellers of the world. and lose the cares of reality in the romances that make them forget the daily grind. The day for condemning novels by wholesale has forever passed. It is only a narrow and prejudiced person who frowns upon fiction as foolish and hurtful and who insists that all ones reading must be along lines Of hard and fast actuality.
 Taste for novel reading in unimag- inative persons is sometimes dormant They have had so little time to read that they have left fiction out or the reckoning. But they are in the mi- nority. The love for a good story is as old as the human race. In every age and cline, in every literature. un- der every sky, we find people ready 10 listen entranced to the man who can please them by a delightful story. Children and grown people alike iall under the spell of the story-teller. IT therefore our girls wish to read novels let them do so. They have wioe range of choice, and let it be noted that many novelists exact close atten- ton fro mtheir readers and weave in- to their narratives great deal or history, philosophy and accurate de- scription The stories for example cf Lafcadio Hearn are penetrated and in- fused with the atmosphere or Japan, and no one can fail to learn great deal about that wonderful empire ana the wonderful people who inhabit 1t, if she reads the picturesque books or this lamented writer.
 Equally, girl who would Ike 10 know something of the life Of lndia may learn great deal about 1t oy reading Kim" that masterpiece of Rudyard KipIing. or any kook on India by Flora Annie Steele, or little op- trusive book entitled The Bishops Conversation" the author of which was long a missionary in that land of mys- tery and romance. Oriental civiiizd- tions are in the strongest contrast to our own, and one may learn much more about them in the pages of novels than in graver histories. Boys read with great delight and profit the long list of historical fiction which Is generally known as the "Henty Books" A girl with little time to study might read these books with much profit. Girls as well as boys should read "Froisarts Chronicles" and thus come into touch with the chivalric days of the past. The novels of Mrs. oiiphant. of Char lotte Bronte, George Eliot and Jane Austen are good reading for girls and do more than merely offer entertain ment.
 
 and wish to take up any definite his toric period, the best way is to iet their reading focus itself about a sim gle central and conspicuous figure. Take for instance Queen Elizabeth. In studying her era one finds her sur rounded by a group of great states men and by another group of writers who are still influencing and coloring English literature. Very profitable reading, may be done by a circle or girls who meet at stated intervals and take up the different phases of life under some great ruler or other parsonage of distinction.
 If Elizabeth be chosen one girl may select the ordinary household life of that day, and let her reading turn to- ward the various ways in which It con trasts with our present day life. An other may take Sir Walter Raleigh, an-
  Mary Queen of Scots. Shakespeare and Chaucer will fall into the reading of those who study those days of his- toric England which led up to the En- gland of today.
 A very wide and interesting field for inquiry Is presented to those who wish to read about our own country. All the story of this continent from its discovery by Columbus to the present day is filled with graphic and dramatic incidents which are full of excitement, movement and charm. Every library has shelves filled with fascinating It, erature, relating to some part of the history of this new world. Let girl take, if she wishes, the history of her own state, and whether she live in Massachusetts or Kentucky, Connecti- cut. New York or Tennessee. she will find an immense amount of profitable reading about the people and the prog ress of that peculiar locality. Most of us are shockingly ignorant of the things that lie about us. Few of us know very much about our own great country. Tn a house filled with books ard occupied by intelligent people. you shall easily find nobody able to give list of the successive presidents of this nation from Washington to Roose- velt Girls cannot do better than to read American history.
 girl who Is at business all day. and who has only her evenings in which to read. must necessarily spec ialize. If she attempt to read in desultory fashion. taking a book at haphazard from the shelves, she will read to little purpose. For every one of us. 1t is a good thing to have some outside interest, entirely different from the daily routine; an interest that takes us into new world, broadens our horizon and gives us different thoughts. I knew a young woman whose life was careless round If drudgery It was her great delight erson. What do you get from those writers?" I asked. Oh" she said. q get beautiful words and beautiful thoughts, a feeling of the sky and of space to breathe" Toll did not crush her. She could forget 1t.
 Those authors who give us inspira- tion and courage and a broader view of human affairs, who make us feel that this world is not all, that we are going on to a grander life hereafter, are to us as the angels of God Girls should not be satisfied to live on a low plane. They want noble ideas. and these are found in the books of great writers. If you have to stand behind a counter and measure tape and ribbon. 1t is a good thing for you to read books about the birds and the -----~-~-----~-----~----