The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-03-25
BY MARGAREr s. sANGsTER.

mAfhNAfth1l Ss SANNSA bAs<
 Copyright. 1906. by Joseph B. Bowleso
 am about to confess to you. Dor
 othy. a little weakness of mine. l cannot endure a book that is covered
 either with a loose paper protection.
 or tightly fitting extra garb of any
 fabric whatever. When new book
 comes into my hands the first thing
 I do. unless expect to lend 1t, Is to
 throw away the pretty outside cover-
 ing. which in these days publishers
 put on new books. If I think that
 shall have occasion to lend the book
 after awhile to a friend. or to
 girl neighbor. or perhaps to one Of you.
 to whom I am writing. take pains to
 preserve the portable cover, and l slip
 it on before the book leaves my pos session.
 Let me whisper to you that very few people love their books as love mine and that very few people care | for them as I do. enjoy the beauty | of fair type. fine paper. and choice 1 illustrations. and have great regard for beautiful binding. never hold book in hands that are soiled, or leave it~face downward and open on 1 chair or table. or hand 1t over to a child that it may keep the child quiet. I have lent books before now to very dear friends. and have had them returned in such condition of loosened leaves, spotted pages, stained bindings and degenerate condition gen. erally, that have at once thrown them
 into the fire and bought others. One
 may really wish to share the pleasure
 a book gives her with some one she
 Is fond of, and still may hesitate If she Is aware that her friend has never learned to treat a book with respect for It's worth, and regard for its cost.
 
 Take your school books, for instance, Dorothy. They are really charming books. From the mechanical point of view a good many people have in- vested time, thought, learning and skill, in thei rmaking. In the first place the author spent laborious months and years in mastering the subject of the school textbooks, and he toiled over it that he might con- dense a great deal of information into concrete and compact statement, mak- ing 1t so simple. so lucid and so clear, that the beginner in science or litera- ture could comprehend it in daily task.
 You may fancy that it is easy to write definitions and formulas and rules In reality. nothing in litera@ ture is so hard. More brains and more l and more labor go into the l of a standard school book | than into the writing of an ethic poem or a three-volumed novel
 I saw Rosamond in fit of vexation | toss her arithmetic across the room, | to the detriment of the poor book, and I felt a queer little throb of pity l for the man who had made that arith- metic A set of reading books into which have gone specimens of the best English literature, culled from many 1 fields, is a treasure well worth school | girls incest care.
 Cover your book, if you like, If 1t 1 is the custom in your school and the | teachers insist on your doing so, but | use the books so we'll that if they are not covered they may be passed on to i other classes or to younger children, | without having suffered harm.
 Besides the authors who are the | creators, so to speak of our books. | there are the publishers and the print CTS and the paper-makers and the art fists and the people who finally sell the I books. all of whom have their separate l fingers in the pie, before 1t Is ready to ! slip into your hands.
 When book is your own, where do l you keep it?
 I hope if you have your own room | that one portion of it's furnishings in- | cludes a book shelf. When you have | done with book, put 1t in it's place. There are girls who never have a place for anything; one of them once | paid me a visit, and from the moment 1 she crossed my threshold until the day l she kissed me good-bv and went mer- riIy away chaos followed in her track. | She left her things all over the house, | and kept her, room looking as if 1t | had been swept by a cyclone. and as | for books. she had not the faintest mo- ton of their dignity. I finally took | the precaution of hiding away one | or two of these that most prized, lest | Estelle should ruin them altogether be- fore she departed. I do hope that you 1 have been better started on the road | than had been the fortune of this poor |