Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1918-11-03
NOW is THE TIME TO BUY BOOKS.

and winter, with its long nights and
cheerful firesides, affords special OPP
portunity and occasion for the read
ing and accumulation of literature
Yet is is a natural apprehension
that the cheapness of books is unap-
preciated by the present generation.
They neither appreciate the vastness
of the publication field nor the ease
with which good books may be OBJ
tanned One may equip library, and
an excellent library too, for what
one man spends during the year on
drinks and cigars and frivolities.
"Of all the privileges we enjoy in
thisi country there is none, perhaps,
for which we ought to more thankful
than for the easier access to books"
said the late Sir John Lub book, in his
immortal Song of Books"
"Of the making of books there is
no end" declared the moody author
Of Ecclesiastes; and if such was the
state of affairs nearly thousand
years ago, when there were no print
ing presses or typecases, what must
be the condition of the book world
now!
There was time, time even with
ir the recollection of the older citi-
zens of today, when books were prec-
ious possessions, and man with a
library was man among men. All
are familiar with the facts as to Abra-
ham Lii coin walking miles to borrow
books, and how Bjaminenuu5 aP
books, and how Benjamin Franklin
: and Horace Greedy and other great
men made such sacrifices in order to
D .ocure locks and then to secure the
time in which to pore over them. No
such sacrifices are made nowadays,
what with a public library on the one
hand and on other book store offer
ing the master products of the great
minds of all ages for a few cents.
There are none now WHO would do
as James Lackington, one of London's
wealthiest booksellers, who, in his
younger days, when he knew the
pangs of poverty, spent the half crown
given him by his wife for their Christ
mas feast to purchase copy Of
Youngs Night Thoughts When he
returned home his wife asked for the
articles for the dinner. Instead, he
produced the book. Had / bought a
DINNER, we should have eaten it to-
morrow he said, "and the pleasure
would have been over, but should we
live fifty years longer, we shall have
the Night Thoughts to feast upon"
Fortunately for him, his wife was also
of reading disposition, and no argu-
ment resulted.
Carlyle said that "the true univers-
ity is a collection of books and all
through his lectures and writings he
urged the reading Of books. Cicero
described a room without books as
body without a sould, and room with
books, as Marlowe said, is one of "in-
finite riches" Macauley and Byron
and Gibbon were inveterate readers,
who would forego any worldly pleas
ure for he sake of exploring the mine
of literature So busy man as Ma
! poleon carried a condensed library
with him on his campaigns, and in his
chest, after the battle of Waterloo,
was found thumbed volume of S.
sian, besides scores of other books.
Lady Jane Gray, one of the brightest
women of her day, would sit in her
lonely room, while the horns were
sounding and the dogs were in full
cry, with eyes riveted on the pages
of the Greek philosophers.
Books are so cheap now as to be
within the reach of everyone. Every
big publishing house sells them on
remarkably easy terms. And it
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