Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1907-02-09
From a Feminine Notebook.

Yes, there are books worth reading:
but they are not written in these days.
1t is Il rainy Sunday. say. one is
tired and does not wish to go out. Oh.
how one longs for a good book to lounge
over the wood-hre with.
In the bookcase is row Of the most
recent best sellers. \ member of the
household is addicted to the purchase
| of best sellers" They ere ali there
| The Fighting Chance "A Rock in the
| Baltic The Spoilers The Call of
which tongues have lately been wag-
ging.
Languidly you take one from the
| shelf, settle down before the fire, and
/ try hard to work up an interest in the
story. No use, Ii Is 100 painfully thin. 1t
offers no resistance to your teeth. There
is nothing in it to chew on. 1t was writ
ten by man more concerned with the
way he says things than with what he
has to say which can't be helped. no
doubt. because he seems really to have
nothing to say.
Another is tried This author does in
deed say Il great deal, our most of it
not worth saving. Page after page is
YEARLY skinned. with little idea what
the story is about and no desire to find
out, This best seller is Il bore. dis
tinctly.
You try another. Same result. There
/ it Il bit more spark in this. but il is
as palpably bait as are the Jokes Of
/ the lend man The machinery creaks
too painfully,
/ The main charge against all these
| books is that they don't hold your al
| tentiOn. They don't even eaten it. You
/ don't care twopence what becomes of
any of the people Either they bore you
/ painfully. or they disgust and Irritate
/ You, or you are just Indifferent.
| They are no books for a rainy day and
! a hungry Imagination.
/ But the fire still burns, and the day is
! still long
On the lower shelf is a red volume. 1t
/ is Hawthorne'S House of the Seven
/ Cables Somebody gave you that for Il
/ Christmas present ten years ago. You
/ have never yet read it,
! obviously you take it out You will
see if this amuSes you.
In ten minutes the crackle Of the wood
fire is unheard its flames unseen. You
are walking down Pyncheon street. un-
/ der the ancient elms. You are exploring
! the queer old gabled house. with its
/ brOWs beetling the street. You are bow
/ ing in turn to each of its occupants, de-
! Scending down the line from the evil old
! pynchcon who built il and was grippcd
by a ghoStly hand on the night of his
triumph. N0u watch with GREATNESS in
tereSt The matutinal preparations of the
ancient but maiden Miss Hepzibah OH
/ the morning Of the opening of her shop
/ in the old house. With her you tremble
violently when the shop bell tinkles. The
/ dispensing of the first gingerbread ele-
phant has as intense IN interest for YOU
as if you Were going to munich il your
self. What treshencd hope and JOY you
feel ut the coming of the lovely Phoebe,
And 50 on through the fortunes of
/ these people until the day waneS. and
/ the fire, rcpIenished many times by other
/ hands, glows in the dusky room, repro
ducing in its embcrs many pictures Of
/ the old New England town.
All. that is a book, And Their" are
others, Books that take us cut OF our
selves; that open up Il new world in the
/ Imagination: whose characters are TO Us
great men and women: whose style is
clear, pure classic English. Of a rare joy
4 TO read.
Bu; such books are not written now.