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Show REGARDING SPARE TIME AND BOOKS. V. 0. V. A short time ago the man who is acting editor of this little paper received re-ceived a communication from some bratveh of the government service, enclosing en-closing a number of questions which the xndcr requested that he answer. The questions, had to do with the bet tcring of farm conditions. The request generally was in the nature of a puzzle. Of course there were lots of blanks one could fill our easily, but the main question,-; it is the puzzler. The communication has not been answcrcdi yet but it' is going to be shortly and answered at length. The answer will have to do with only one phase of the subject, for Heaven knows it is too big to handle in detail. The writer will say to the sender of the letter that in his opinion what the farmer needs more than anything else is something to read or if not tlwit, the habit of reading what he has got. Did you ever stop to think, Mr. Utahan, what a fearfully little reading there is done on the average Utah farm. Wc are going to be honest about this and wc arc not going to mince matters a bit. The mivcragc Utah farmer docs practically no reading. read-ing. He gets as his source of news, the Dcscret Semi-Weekly and scans it. Wc don't wish to say a thing against the Semi-Weekly for wc think it is about the cleanest sheet in the State. That about completes his reading. read-ing. There are some Church works BMW n . ' in the house which arc opened off and on but not often enough. He has never cultivated the habit and docs not think it all necessary. He comes in from work, washes himself, cats a hearty supper, rcs'ts for a short tinvc if the chores arc done and goes to bed. The next day he repeats. The damage done by not reading good things-'is not confined to the parent. The largest part of the injury falls on the children. They arc brought up as strangers to reading matter, outside their school books, and if tjicir youth is spent that way they never will learn to appreciate printed matter. mat-ter. About nine tenths of us stop our education when wc finish the eighth grade; when we drop our "reader" at that time wc.drop all books. That is what makes the farmer the victim of the traveling medical quack, of the fake veterinarian. He has not kept up. Mr. Farmer, you cannot nrguc lack of time for wc know better. The writer writ-er made a personal inspection of about a thousand farms lost summer and Ive certainly was not impressed with the idea that the farmer was working himself to death. That was the busy season, too. The farmer has more time this winter. There arc hou and hours and days nd weeks that arc going to be frittered this winter, hours and days that you could be utilizing in reading good books. Hours spent that way will make you a marked man among your fellows. It will make you live longer. It will make our boy do likewise and will keep him away from the. store corner and the saloon, and will give him something to do this winter other I than to stand with his back against I the sunny side of the store and tell I and listen to stories, whose only ex- cusc for being told is their dirtiness, their vulgarity. It will help to keep I him away from the cursed' cigarette, I that clinging, stinking, limpid, wet I thing that always associates itself with I the loafer. I Never mind what the boy reads so I long as he is reading something. He I may want something sensational; give I Jt to him if he won't read anything I else. Don't be afraid of him stealing 1 the family shotgun and holding up I somebody. A boy with ginger enough I to do that is a big improvement on I the loafer, the cigarette smoker. Be- fore long he will tire of that sort of I reading and will want something more I solid, with more meat jn it. Give it I to hirm Look over the reading mat- I tcr in your home. Figure on tho I amount of time you spend in reading. Think this over. ' |