The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-03-09
E. S. Martin in March Harper's.

S.
 @ O read more than one can digest ((0D and turn into energy or reserve power is not much better than to eat more than can readily be managed
 or than the body requires. There are
 habits of excessive reading that rank
 hardly with excessive gambling or drink ing. for they are not so destructive-but well up in the list of the self-indulgent had habits, like excessive smoking, that
 help lazy people to neglect their reason able duties with comfort and no loss of self-esteem.
 Nevertheless, so great and honorable has come to be the reputation Of DOCKS
 and book learning that it is, prima 1ae'e, a reproach to any modern person Of lar opportunities to have it said with truth
 that he never reads a book that is worth
 reading. It leaves him in posture that requires explanation if not excuse. 1T u | appears that his daily energies are so en- crossed by his daily labors that he mas m energy left for any reading that re- | o,lires energy, that explanation will be | understood. If it appears that his mind | is fed by observation and by the constant impact of other minds, and thoroughly eA- 1 ercised in making decisions and the sow ing of hard problems, that, too, Will pe understood. In spite of exceptions men extremely active in affairs-fortune ouiid- CTS. projectors of great enterprises-aie saldom large readers of books. The pest raaders naturally, are people of more
 leisure. and especially the young and the old for if is before we get into the rusn- ing current of lfe's employments' anu after we have begun to emerge rom '' that most of us working people have most leisure to read. What we read Tn our sss
 matters not so very much, if only we Ike
 it and it keeps us happy; but we are very fortunate indeed if we can get to kho" eood hooks and something of what Is m tbem while we are still young. That IS ,u,o stor;ne corn in our granaries and
 gasoline in our tanks; we go so much ihe better for 1t when we get on the roau' And so I find it a matter or very gen eral solicitude with parents to ma some means of inducing their children to read ,mnroving books while they nave the chance. I don't find many parents whose success in this endeavor matches thelr CT sorts ar their hopes. Bookcases with glass aors and monotonous looking sets or ,,. hebind them are comparatively oonmon in American drawing rooms put tolerably we'll stocked libraries are coiii naratively scarce. Of course you may lead child to the library, and even leave It,, +hare and not be able to make nim .ooa..h,,t he is more likely to read ,ibrarv than he is to read the parior poo" oase especially if the bookcase IS loeheu haoonsa the books in 1t are so hieeis .na Eamrliarity with books-eVeh Il ,,, with the backs of them-seioonn hraeds contempt. It is much more apt .o
 breed friendship, and sometimes It o'ee' stronp affection like that TOT oear peo pie. to read put to constrain a young person to ieau -. ,,s o,dars consider profitable to nm ia nretty uphill work. It is case Ill "is ,s,,rn .,ves better results than driving. The indispensable preliminary IS ,o .,, annetite for knowledge or at ieae' " active realization of the neeo 'o h"o" soreth,np that the better sort or poohs .on+o,n The readiest means or eNci'ihs
  srcb an appetite in the young is ny con -sa.,on If children are used to hear good talk-talk that has knowleose pe- h,nd if and that is concerned with mat fore rsallv worth talking about-they may ooma to understand why it is worth wniie to know something; and how a 1alr anu growing store of book knowledge heips to eou,n them with opinions and means or oon,naris3n. and to make their ideas about things interesting to others and the ioeas of other qualified people interesting to tbem. What chiefly determines the scope and ouality of our talk is what we know, and what seems to be known by the per son we are talking with. Children that grow up in families where the talk is penerously favored with acquired knowl- edge not only pick up a great deal of knowledge from what they hear, but are lilxely-or at least liable-to develop an appetite for more. and to go to books to satisfy it. But the talk to have that result must be interesting, and of course, talk is not necessarily interesting because 1t is bookish The bookish talk of some bookish people is as dull and unprofitable as talk can well be, and not to be com pared with the gossip of lively ob- server who simply skins the newspapers and takes habtual notice of what Is go- ing on.
 The newspaper, which becomes a book If you think of it's annual yield bound up between covers. is in our day the