The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-09-15
ALL GREAT READERS.
How Noted MiIionares Keep Their
 Wits Sharpened.

From Tit Bits.
 All my life, ever since I learned to read at the district school at Oswego, said J. D. Rockefeller, the king or Croesuses, the other day, T have been an omnivorous reader, and this habit has not only given me one of the greatest pleasures I have known, but has contri- buted great deal to any success l have attained. 1 think 1t was Johnson who said, You can never be wise unless you love reading, and I might supplement this by saying that it is one of the finest brain sharpeners for business man.
 This love of books of MT. Rockefeller still retains-in fact he says, Reading becomes more indispensable to me every year"-as Is evidenced by the tact that he is constantly adding to his large lb- rary, and as he says, T never put book on my shelves without reading it-they are all intimate friends" His son and heir, John Rockefeller, Jr, has inherited his fathers passion for books, and spends some hours daily in their company.
 And 1t will be found that with very few exceptions, the men who make mill lions are all similar lovers of reading.
 When l was a lad the late Cecil Rhodes once said, 'my craze for reading was almost a vice. Every moment could spare was spent in boring over some book or other-not school books by any means. All was fish that came to my net, and I am afraid I read lot of rub bish; but that the habit. which is just as stronss as ever, has been most helpful haven't shadow of doubt.'
 MT. Peabodys experience was very similar. "When I was boy" he said, "my uncle. who in the course of half a century had amassed about 92Ooo, thrashed me because instead of saving my money, I wasted 1t on cheap books and magazines. I told him I could not afford to save my money until I had in- creased my knowledge and brain power, whereupon he thrashed me again." Whether or not it was due to this love of reading, Peabody at the end of his life could show more than a thousand pounds for every soverign his uncle had saved.
 Mr. Russell Sage, the reputed owner of 10000,000 sterling pleads guilty to a like passion for reading. q have never all lowed money making" he says, ito wean me from my books Even in my most strenuous days I always put in good hours reading before the rest of the world was awake, and I have found it a capital thing for getting the brain into working order for the day. My reading has been, I fear, sadly promiscuous, and I don't think much of 1t has stuck, but 1t has served its purpose in keeping the thinking machine in order.
 MT. John Wanamaker, another lord of many millions, said, not long ago, When I was a lad reading was thought ter rible waste of time for any one who had to make his living in business, and my love of It got me into serious trouble many a time I systematically read anything I could lay my hands on, and although much of 1t was worthless, I seemed to find a lot of useful gain among the chaff. Today whenever l see a youth spending his spare money on books or good magazines, I know he is laying the foundation of success
 MT. Carnegie, as the world knows. has always been bookworm, whenever he could even for a few odd moments from his work of money-making; and he has spent many millions in providing for others facilities which in his younger days were denied him. MT. Pierpont Morgan Is a book enthuiast of another type, for he has spent on many a single volume in his magnificent library sum which would provide a life's books for most of us. "I simply cannot" he has said, "overestmate the value of reading to the man who wishes to turn his brains to any kind of profitable account. To me 1t has been invaluable, and I have never known a man who has amassed money who has not also been a book lover,