Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-03-12
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRAcEwELL.

/ the days when he FIRST read Little Red
Ridinghood" for himself.
r. ~
Pernicious anemia of the brain, Is we
call it, is q development, Of middle age
which often overtakes man who really
cares for books, or at least thinks he
! does.
It is the other factor which viii pre-
vent reading from becoming the main
hobby OF q man. The initial use Of
| the eyes and mind in the happy CO.
operation of reading will be sufficient,
with such men, to carry them well
past the age Of 80.
Up until that time they will eagerly
read, and fondly fancy themselves as
born booklovers. They may collect
largely, and have bookshelves filled TO
overlooking.
Everything may cooperate in their
lives to make them put a premium on
reading and writing, writing and read
ing. But in truth they are not book
lovers. They are imitation booklovers,
and the perniciouS anemia of which
we speak finally shows them up at
last.
Let no one worry over this strange
disease. Books are but part of life,
after all. They are not, even for the
true booklover, all there is to life The
dawn is a greater book than ever has
been written. Life and love have no
substitutes, when We get down to
| brass tacks.
But this pernicious anemia can DO
q great harm to a man, even when
1t reveals the truth to him. Its ordinary
| form is a growing distaste. Not the
ordinary enEui which arises from time
to time, but plain and persistent re-
| ,1t1 fok1
| give up books altogether.
! Once it has q grip on reader, he Is
finished-as a reader. He may be q
splendid fellow, great golfer, real
| sportsman, fine polo player, a
scientist, moraliSt, mathematician. He
may be all things to all men, but he
Is no reader. The disease from which
he suffers sees to that. Holding q
book in the hand, going to sleep on q
book, piling books on the end table
these pleasant things do not show a
reader, but past reader, q reader de-
parted. even If he does not know 1t
himself.
The real reader finds books growing
| more and more necessary to him as life
passes and he with 1t. Whereas, in the
| flush of youth, they were exciting, and
later took on the mad pride of intel
lecCuallLy, as roe put IL, now as ne aQ-
vances into the shadowland they be-
come dear friends, the steadiest and
truest in the world.
And they are an inexhaustible COM
pany, the minds of the ages, the minds
of the ages now land to Gomez, minds
which dreamed and wrote 5000 years
ago. minds which glowed with happi-
ness and told 1t, minds which suffered
from sadness and told 1t, minds which
struggled, and lived, which put down
the struggles and the living as well as
they can be put down.
This is the supreme hobby. When
you see him going along the street,
with q precious pile of books under his
arm, you will know that there goes
happy man. Religion and science, and
all the other aspirations of mankind,
are his by right Of possession, always
nine points of the law.
His books hold everything, and he
holds them. He is the only king In
the world whose dominion is undis-
puted. His republic of letters knows
no dismay. AS long as he has a
good book, he has himself When he
no longer has himself, nothing matters.