Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-03-03
FREEDOM IN THE
LAND OF BOOKS
A Boys Experience With "Ten
Nights in a Barroom"-Guid-
ance by Indirection
Is Best
By ROBERT HILDRETH

| THERE is one thing that ! will not per.
| l. nit anybody to do for me- and that ia.
| boss my reading. ] insist on choosing my
own list Of the best six. sixty or a hundred
| books. or the worst as the case may be.
| | refuse to he told how to read and when
| l am reading. comfortably disposed in the
| big leather armchair. shns roasting before
| inc open fire, ! usually object TO inter-
! rupttons, as my wife can testify. In short
| reading is my own business
| Unfortunately, however. | have sneak
| ing regard for the opinions Of other people.
| When callers come--or vsitors-anh look
| over my bookShelVes, like them to under
| stand that there are many fine books IN
| the world that | have read but haven't
| been able to buy. or haven't bought And
! ! also like them to imagine that ! am on
| terms Of more or less intimate acquaint-
| ance with every volume I own. I want
them TO think ! know n lot, and ! don't
| want TO be beaten at book talk in my own
| library, \ good many of us are pretty
sensitive on the book side Of our lives
Certain books, that under the law are
! mine, will not he discovered by the visitor.
| one OF them is novel by Chambers.
| bought II IN my-what do they call it,
| Salad days. Maybe SO ANYWAY the book Is
| up in the attic, and not only is it up in
! the attic: 1t Is also hidden away IN the
/ attic, where nobody ever goes. This also Is
| a matter Of pride.
The Wicked Borrower
Then there are certain other books OF
! mine that the visitor 10 our house will not
! see, the reason being that he would have to
| visit the homo Of Harry +. Lynch of Hart
| fora, Conn, in order TO see them. They
! are liorne's Psychology of Education"
| BaGley's "EduCative Process" and Nuen.
| sterberE's Psychology and the Teacher"
| uiartford papers please copyD In the last
| four or five years I have had freauent oc-
casion to use these books. | am reminded
| of tho quotation that appeared in my
| fathers bookplate. n comes from the Rible
! It read as follows: THE wicked borroveth
| and payeth not" 7 have seen another book
| plato that reflects the experience Of all
| owners of books. This one bears the in
scripton;
| I'm stingy grown,
| What's mines my oUn.
0'he printer will please underline the last
/ word following copy, as I am doingD
| should take drastic action against Mr.
| Lynch but for the fact I might saw con.
solation-that ! am the possessor of sew
eral books of which he is the owner. pre-
| sumably.
| Thts question Of the private ownership OF
| DOCKS presents many interesting aspects A
| privately owned book is incomplete with.
| out bookplate; also a bookplate is con-
! Nenlent for certain purposes Of converse
! tlon My bookplate-drawn by the best
| cartoonst in AmeriCa-shows a certain shin
! known to history as tho Mayhower It's al
ways easy enough to show q visitor the
| nookpiate. Any excuse will do. lie sees
| the ship and What does that sipuifv >"
! says he. That's the Mayflower" saws
| !. Then he knows that ! am descendant.
| You see now why it took cartoonst to
draw bookpatc like that, don't YOU? A
| good cartoonist Is always satirist or hu.
| morist both
AS ! said in the beginning. hate all at.
| "A tin ttI-,s.
| 10 college and by reason partly. of some.
! thing the psychologists call counter-sue
| geSuon, ! read mostly in hooks not pre-
.scribed by the faculty. Good books too I
contend. Some of them were about Dante
| though to this day | have never read The
| DIVINE comedy Maybe one of the reasons
| FOR my literary dgressons in college was
| the example of Carlyle and Lowell and
| Beecher and some other great men who re
| FUSED to he bound by the curriculum. Lives
or great men are not only an excuse. they
are even consolation. The consolation
| Is an afterthought.
Regulation OF reading is not aIvavs ovart
Indeed it usually is indirect, subtle dIf1cuIt
! OF analysis. NY father. as a bow. read
| Arabian Nights" in the hayIoft Nobody
had ever told him that ARABIAN Nights,
was Improper reading for youth He simpIv
| telt the unspoken prohibition So he read
| Arabian Nights" in the haylort
| ! had an experience in my own bovbood
| DAYS that may Serve to illustrate a good
| many of the natural laws of reading was
| twelve or thirteen years old when one
| evening ! Spled in the village library the
| utle OF a red-covered little book which
| felt AZ once was hardly the right sort of
| book Tor minister's son 10 read Bashf,llv
| yea, shamefacedly and guilty, ! asked the
| librarian for that book Cor weeks after
ward, as ! well remember / could hardly
| look the young woman in the face) I
| smuggled the terrible volume into tho house
| read 1t on the sly. kept il hidden when not
| in use in the secret places of my room I
| thrilled nightly as | read the vivid de-
scrlptlOns or barroOm scenes the violent
| deeds of rough men. True my sympathies
| were with the right people and not with
| ruffians and drunkards. but if | realized
| that fact, as ] probably did not at the
| time | certainly lost nothing of NV sense
| OF gulltiness while reading that story with
| the fearful title of Ten Nights in a Bar-
| room" Afterward. | discovered with soma
| CONSERVATION this same classic of the
| temperance crusade reposing yespectablv on
| the shelves of Sunday school library Now
| I'm not blaming the author for this curious
| little experience of mine. but am only hint
| ing at the psychological righteousness OF
reading, as we might say, and letting il go
| at that.
Read What Is Natural to You
Deliberate regulation of reading is going