OCR Text |
Show : Books and BooK Shelves. By Alfred Cecil. NEW YOIUC, Special In theso days of general eduoatlon when the poor- " JU!X r.,U Klrl '" t,l,ueht to read, it would be supposed that every hoiue would have Its library. In v, hc ears that have gone every Mi?i.f ai a,8lttlnB rom or llbrury with shelves holding standard workB. When n ght camo the family surrounded tho table, ta-ble, each member took down his or her faV. nt1.b00,k' and rcad u y 'e lamp's soft light. Hut such scenes are raro nowadays. now-adays. There are few such family groups and little Interest In standard works. As n matter of fact there arc fewer libraries li-braries to-d,iy than there wero fifty years ago, that Is to soy in proportion to popu-lot popu-lot on; nnd good books, well printed nnd well bound, wtre never cheaper. In the suburbs of large towns whero there nro many detached houses ranging In value Horn .-,UtK to 'JO,(HHl. In districts where there nre few attractions In tho evening to take people out of their homes as might bo the case In cities, there Is nn appalling scarcity of small libraries. In many tho bookshelf or bookenso Is wholly unknown, nnd most frequently whero It does exist It Is'tho receptacle of the current output of the press. To what Is the decudenco of the library due? Some persons will say that tho news-Paper news-Paper press has lllled the demand, others will say that the cheap monthly maguzlno and the occasional novel, supplemented bv the dally morning and evening pupers affords af-fords the mental food for which the busy man bus time or Inclination, If this bo true, nnd, doubtless, true It may be, tho question naturally suggists Itself, has not the taste for reading deteriorated? It vI!l bo conceded that tho natural bent of tho blind Is to bo up to date, to read only that which is coiitcmpornncous. Indeed, many will declare. It questioned, that after they have read contemporaneous publications they huvo no tlmo for nnv-thlng nnv-thlng else. It enn be easily seen that this cun be true. Hut this must necessarily result In suppressing tho desire for knowledge knowl-edge of men who have contributed their energies In making tho world what It Is nnd In withholding tho great evolutions In the conditions of mankind which have led to conditions as they exist to-day. For Instance, In-stance, what man has an nccurnte Idea of tho rights, privileges and clrLUinstances of the American of to-day who does not know how they were fought for nnd struggled for In tho past? The reading of current literature certainly cer-tainly fills the ambition of the man who peeks to be "up-to-date," but whllo It keeps him nbreast of the times, it in no way Ills his mind to go be j ond them, to sco Into the future, lie, himself, regards his Information ns superficial. Indeed, ho often distrusts It. He recognizes It does not build him up. Tho reading of standard literature, of books that have survived, belong to n period. per-iod. They Indicate something, they represent rep-resent something Poetry nnd fiction lit Into n period, they ndorn It. Shakespeare recnlls the davs of Elizabeth and the history of her ancestors! nnd reflection, the times In which they lived; Steele, Swift, Addison, tho dnvs of Queen Anne; Tennyson, Drowning, Thackeray, Dickens, tho dass of Victoria. To a mind that has been delighted by Hume, Oreen nnd Marnulay; by Motley nnd Prescntt, the writings of all these men becomo doubly Interesting. Thero la n consciousness of being built up. Our young people feet the fovcrlshness of theso dais, nnd the mere suggestion of history excites impntlence. They tnko up n volume, struggle with It nnd throw It down. They do not persevere Ions enough with history to nciulrc the taste for It. They do not renlllzo that nfter their minds become acquainted with the good and tho bid, the weak and tho strong men of history, that they will be-piitnn be-piitnn ns Interesting to them as the neonlo of whom thev read and never see in tho prints of to-day. If our young people would rend Pres-cott'a Pres-cott'a Charles V.. Philip the Second. Motley's Mot-ley's Dutch Itopubllo and United Netherlands, Nether-lands, Macaulay's or Qreono's Ilelgn of Queen Kllzabcth in their histories they would find spread before them a delightful delight-ful panorama of nn Interesting period. How naturnl It would then he to take up Prescolt's Conquest of Mexico nnd Peru and note the Spanish Influence on the American continent. To observe Mexican gold carried to Snaln to be rolned Into mnncv with Philip's portrait. Jo see this Amorlcnn money poured Into Hollnnd to nay for the support of the duke or Alvn'a soldlerB In their effort to suppress the Independent In-dependent Dutch; to see the Dutch es-caplng es-caplng to Ungland, Anally crossing the ocean to Inhabit Now Amsterdam. What n clrrtel From Mexico to Spain, from Bnaln to Kngland, from F.ngland to New York, nnd four hundred s ears later some of the descendants of these very people destroying the power of Spain In tho West Indies. What lives nil In those pages Wlut memories. What adventures und rIt"!5ur young pcoplo got back to the old-fashioned way of a good book under the light of a good I imp, nnd such pleasure will flow to them .those quiet ome evenings that the book wll Inspire awnllmen" Tho book shelf will come Ruck into fashion, and no trensiins In he house will be more valued than those which are placed upon Its shelves. |