The Brownsville daily herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1897-1910, 1905-01-17
READING
By w D. cowLnY

their readings being on the sand
il runs in and runs out and leaves
no vestige behind; a second IS like
a sponge, which .mbibes every
thing, and returns it in the same
state, only little dirtier; a third
is like a jelly-bag, allowing all that
/ is pure to pass away, and retaining
only the refuse and dregs; the
fourth is like the slaves in the dia-
mond mines of Golconda, who,
casting aside all that is worthless,
obtain only pure gems.
Ones reading is, usually, a fair
index Of his character. The temp
tation 90 corrupt reading is usually
strongest at the period when the
education of the school-room IS
about closing. IF the mind be now
awakened to a manly independence,
and start on a course of vigorous
self-culture, all will be well. But
If on the other hand, it sinks into
q state of iuaciion. indifferent 10
its own needs, and to all the high
est ends and aims of life, then woe
to the man. For few, very few,
ever rouse themselves in mid-life
10 new intellectual taste. and to
an untried application of their time
and powers to that culture for
which the Creator formed and in
bowed them
The advice in regard TO reading
only the best selected works, leads
me to say, read slowly We some
times rush over pages of valuable
matter, because, at a glance, they
seem to be dull, and we leap along
to see how the story, if it be a story,
is to end. We do everything in
this age in a hurry; we demand not
only fast" horses, but fast writ
ers, fast preachers, and fast lee
turers. Said a noted preacher in
one OF our larger cities: work
in a hurry; / sleep in hurry, and,
if / die, expect to die in a hur-
ry." This is the history of much
of the present reading.
No one can too highly appreciate
the magic power of the press, or
too deeply deprecate its abuses.
Newspapers have become the great
of that intelligence which
exerts a controlling power over
our nation, catering the every day
food of the mind. Show us an in
telligent family of boys and girls,
and we will show you a family
whose newspapers and periodicals
are plentiful. Nobody who has been
without these private tutors can
know their educating power for
good or evil.
A child beginning to read be
comes delighted with a newspaper.
Why? Because he reads of names
and things which are familiar, and
he will progress accordingly. A
in one year is worth a
schooling to a child.
Take away the press, and the vast
power of the school and
the college would soon come 10 an
end. Or, look one moment at the
immense influence a single writer
has had upon an age, or upon the
the world, Shakespeare is Great
ing the drama; or Bacon in found
ing different systems of philosophy.
Who may estimate the influence
of Charles Dickens upon society,
when, by the magic of his pen, he
he touched the under world of
poverty and want and sin, over
which the rich and the gay glided
on, not knowing or thinking what
was beneath their feet, and march
ed all this CHASTITY array of ragged
and hunSy children and sorrow
ful women and discouraged men,
and the famished forms from the
poorhouse, and the ugly visage OF
the criminal, into the parlors OF
wealth aud culture, and there had
them tell the story of their woes