The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1905-06-23
by MARGARET L. sANGsTeR.

IA AAAk AAA8kAAA hAAN ~ AWNn WILL
considering what our girls shall read, Is
what is their motive in reading. DO they
read simply for diversion, for the recrea-
ton and pastime which are legitimate,
or do they read for mental enrichment
and information? II the first is the OBJ
Ject in view the answer is easy. For
amusement and pleasure, girls, like
everybody else, must seek the story tel
lers OF the world, and lose the cares OF
reality in the romances that make them
forget the daily grind. The day for con-
demning novels by wholesale has for
ever passed. II is only a narrow and
prejudiced person who frowns upon hc-
ton as foolish and hurtful and who in
sists that all ones reading mus< be along
lines of hard and fast actually.
Taste for novel reading in unimagina-
tive persons is sometimes dormant.
They have had SO little time 70 read that
they have left fiction out Of the reckon
ing. But they are in the minority. The
love for a good story is as old as the
human race. In every age and cline, in
every literature. under every sky. we
find people ready to listen entranced TO
the man who can please them by a de-
lightful story. Children and grown peo-
pie alike fall under the spell of the
story-teller. IL therefore our girls wish
to read novels let them do so. They
have a wide range of choice, and let il
be noted that many novelists exact close
attention from their readers and weave
into their narratives a great deal Of his
tory, philosophy and accurate descrip-
ton. The stories for example OF Laf-
cadio Hearn are penetrated and infused
with the atmosphere of Japan. and no
one can fail to learn a great deal about
that wonderful empire and the wonder
full people who inhabit it, if she reads
the picturesque books OF this lamented
writer.
Equally. a girl who would like TO know
something of the life of India may learn
g great deal about it by reading kim"
that masterpiece Of Rudyard Kipling, or
any book on India by Flora Annie Steele.
or a little unobtrusive book entitled
The Bishops Conversion" the author
of which was long a missionary in that
land OF mystery and romance. Oriental
civilizations are in the strongest con
trast 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 we'll as boys should read 'Frois-
sart's Chronicles and thus come into
touch with the chivalrlc days of the past.
The novels Of Mrs. Oliphant. Of Char
lotte Bronte. George Eliot and Jane Aus
ten are good reading for girls and do
more than merely offer entertainment.
If girls desire more serious reading,
and wish to take up aIy definite historic
period, the best way is TO let their read
ing focus itself about a single central
and conspicuous figure. Take for in
stance Queen Elizabeth. In studying
her era. n finds her surrounded by a
group of great statesmen ard by an
other group of writers who are still
influencing and coloring English litera-
.ure. Very profitable reading may be
done by a circle of girls who meet at
stated intervals and take up the differ
ent 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 toward the
various ways in which ii contrasts with
our present day life. Another may take
Sir Walter Raleigh. another Philip of
Spain. still another Mary Queen of Scots.
Shakespeare and Chaucer will fall into
the reading CT those who study those
days Of historic England which led up
to the England of to-day.
A very wide and interesting field for
inquiry is presented to those who wish