The Washington herald., 1921-06-24

and. as a punishment, the magis-
trste before whom he was tried SEN
fenced him to read SO many chapters
Of Dickens and Scott every day for
six months.
Probably the type Of young man
who holds UP street corners anu
leers at the nappers who go ey
would Just as soon serve thirty days
An jar at hard labor as six months
In a library at hard reading, but
there can be no doubt as TO Nnich
discipline would have the most De-
nehcent effect The jail term wouiu
leave the boy brutalized. The IL
brary sentence will leave him maze
over. IL there is any good materlal
IN him.
Certainly the cure for about three
fourths of the moral ills that all So
ciety Is to teach the young to read
The idle youths who loaf on the
street because that is the only
place they know in which to seeA
diversion; the girls who parade up
and down in front of the store win
dows, and who find their greatest
thrill in imagining how they would
look in the gorgeous garments DIS
played in the shops; the married
women who are bored to death De-
cause they have to stay at home
with their husbands and children, All
are victims of not having been
taught how to read.
For people who like to read never
know a dull moment. They never
lack for good company. They never
need an occupation. They have only
to take down a book. and they can
summon a genie to bring them ro-
nance. sentiment, laughter or tears,
adventure, or to spread for them the
magic carpet that will take them to
the uttermost parts of the earth, and
open for them every door, from the
hoyel of the peasant to the palace
of the king.
Boys and girls who like to read
are seldom gangsters, and hoodlums,
or among those youngsters who
stumble into the downward path in
bad company. for books make
mighty wall of defense between the
young and temptation.
The wise magistrate who SEN
fenced the street loafer to read
certain number of hours a day be-
lieved that he could turn the boys
punishment into a never-ending
blessing to him. and that the lad
could not fail to get an inspiration
toward a better life from the new
characters with which the book
would bring him in contact.
The idea is one that parents with
unruly children will do well to
adopt When Johnny and Mary do
the things they should not have
done, and leave undone those things
they should have done, instead of
thrashing them, or sending them
to bed without their suppers, why
not try the literary cure-aIl on
them?
They may look upon having to sit
in the house and read a certain
number of pages in a book, when
they want to be out playing. as a
cruel and inhuman punishment, but
if you enforced it, you will fasten
the reading habit upon them. which
is one of the most unbreakable
habits in life, and that. of itself, is
a safeguard. Furthermore, you will
subject your child to the subtlest
and most powerful influence in the
world, which is the influence of the
printed word.
OF course to get the greatest
benefit from this mode OF disciplin-
ing the young the punishment must
be made to fit the crime, and the
book the child is given to read
should be something that deals di-
rectly, or indirectly. with the fault
the small sinner has committed.
Suppose, for instance. a child Is
given to telling falsehoods, and
seems to lack a high ideal of honor
and honesty. Can you imagine any
youngster being put through a
course of Tom Brown at Rugby
and Kipling without being cured
No average boy will ever tell a
falsehood. OF whine after he is thor
oughly imbued with the spirit OF
heroes who scorned a lie as some
thing unclean, and who shut their
teeth and carried on. no matter how
hard was the task to which they had
set their hands.
Suppose a boy is constitutionaIIy
lazy and inert, can anything rouse
him from his lethargy more effec-
lively than to be made to read fifty
pages of red blooded literature q
day about the men who started from
the bottom and fought their way up
or the bold adventurers who Jared
forth into the wilds to seek theiI
fortunes? Certainly such tales must
put pep and vim into the soggiest
human vegetable, and make 1t wan
b 10 do a mans part in the world.
suppose boy is an impractical
dreamer. Could you do anything
better to wake him up than to make
him read about Mr.. Micawber and
Col Sellers until every episode IL
their careers Is a red lantern OF
warning to him?
Suppose your daughter Is silly
and frivolous. and vain. See to Il
that she reads and rereads Dicken,
and Thackeray until IL is Rrouns
into her consciousness how IN,
Becky Sharps come to grief in TN,
end. and the butterfly Doras ar,
broken on the wheel. and that n 4,
only the true, and steadfast, anC
womanly .Agneses and Lauras t.
whom men turn at the last.
suppose your daughter Is oyerl,
romantic, and Is one of those mis-
guided girls who prate of freedom
In love and the right to follow thefl
hearts. Make them read the storie,
that show that the wages of sin Il
death to a woman, and that n,
guilty love ever endures.
Try the book cure on your way
ward children. They may not Iiste,
TO you They cannot choose bu
listen to the voices that have bee,
echoing down the corridors of time