The Washington herald., 1921-12-15

IT seems strange that books, those intellectually
i valuable records of humanity and humanness
should nccessitate the ardent advertising and press
agenting which must be theirs to promote sales
especially around the Christmas season
Such is the case, however, and it is most inter-
cstingly commented upon in an editorial IN the
New York Herald, reprinted below. To the Her
AIDS dictum we can only echo "them's our senti-
ments," and proceed:
What shall give my friend for Christmas?
"'Do you mean friend, or is it only somebody
you happen to know?
"Friendp
"Wel, nothing is too good, in that case. Give
a skyscraper or one of the Thousand Islands or
a Russian wolfhound or a grand piano or grain
of radium'
"And with all the rest, books.
"Or if you can't give anything else, give books
For in them is the magic that commands all the
treasures of the universe.
Books draw the stars from the sky and the
pearls from the deep.
Before wireless telegraphy ever dreamed
Of books carried the greatest messages of mankind
around the world and across the centuries.
Books anticipate all discoveries and keep
the precious past from the hands of thieving Time.
Moving pictures of ancient civilization fash
upon the silver screen of the readers mind. We
dead singers, but in the old poets the rhythms
of long ago sing to the inner
"Al the arts and all the sciences transmit
their treasures in print. So each new generation
finds the stored material for continual recreation
of the world.
Roosevelt once told friend that he could
remember the look of the page in one OF Stan
leys volumes that kndlcd his faith and fixed his
will to be the man he finally became. 1t was in
reading Spenser that Keats first knew himself a
poet. But poor stick of book may feel
the divine fire. Lincoln felt the heart of American
history beat in him as he read Weems Wash
ington The world laughs at Parson Weems now.
"But the world does not laugh at Lincoln.
"He who gives book touches the springs of
life, plays upon the keys of organ whose notes
will sound perhaps in other lands and in other
centuries.
"The giver of books may be a consprator
with genius. Next to the great writer is the
who finds for him the right reader.
Books carry the seed of life. Scatter them
widely in the hope of harvest. Plant them one
by one in the most fertile soil you can find.
Books are at once the most exquisitely nt-
mate and the most broadly universal means Of
expression In them is restoration and repose.
In them is the irresistible call to go
There are plenty of good books and there
will be more. What the world needs is better
use of them.
Business men declare that invention and pro-
duction have outrun effective merchandising, that
is bringing the right thing to the right person.
In no field is this so true as in literature.
THE OF people know by hearsay that
there are such things books.
an population of Ios.ooo,ooo a sale OF 10000
copies is called good, 100000 is amazing. Not the
sale but the situation, is amazing
part of it is the fault of authors, publishers
and booksellers. But the greater lack is in the
reader or in him who might be reader, in him
who might create reader by well-chosen gift.
Libraries good, but what need is
individual ownership and OF books-not
much paper and ink and binding, but as
means of life
Books food to eat books air to
breathe, light for the eyes, path for the feet
and hand to clasp in the dark.
"Give booksw