The city itemizer., October 21, 1909, Image 1

About The city itemizer. (Water Valley, Miss.) 1894-1918

Image provided by: Mississippi Department of Archives and History

                
The City Itehizer.
H. A. LEE. Editor “Devoted to the Interest of the Editor, Exclusively.>D $1.00 Yeiil
VOLUME, 16. WATER VALLEY, MlSS., OCTOBER 21, 1909, NUMBER 3.
*_ ■ - -. .----—.- -.—.
The Joys of Good Books.
It is a rare thing nowadays, arid
it seems to become more and more
rare, for lis to find a boy or girl
who reads and enjoys the best
literature, It is nut hard to find
hundreds, even thousands, who
read a good deal and enjoy what
they read. But when we look at
what they read—the shallow, in*
eipid; and sentimental magazine
story, or, worse, the vulgar, pas
sionate, sometimes immoral nov
el—it becomes with us a serious
question whether or not it would
be better for them not to read
at all.
... M M sit
, - I
How few people, especially
young people, know the real joy
of reading! If the taste for good
literature has been properly culti
vated, there is more pleasure to be
gotten from a noble work of genius
and art, though it be only a short
poem, than in volumes of trashy
modern literature. What novel of
the past ten years, for instance,
can be compared in the cultured
mind to Burn’s “A Man’s a Man
for A’ That,” or to Tennyson’s
“Crossing the Bar,” or to Gray s
immortal “Elegy, or to Holmes
“Chambered Nautilus,” or to
Longfellow’s “Psalm of Lite i
The novels are read and forgotten;
the poems are read and reread and
remembered as long as memory
lasts.
There is an old and often-told
story of a noted painter who when
asked what he mixed his colors
with replied laconically: “With
brains.’’ It is the same way with
% rolling. To get the greatest joy
reading one must mix it
„„„„ brains.” We are not doing
s when we cultivate taste for
V read only the shallow novels
of the present day or the colorless
fiction of the magazines; when we
read, read, read all the time we can
spare for such pursuits and take
no time for thought aud medita
tion on what we have read-; or
when we merely pick up a book,
as large numbers of people do, and
read only fur the passing interest
which it may have for us, or to till
up an hour when v.e can find noth
ing else to do. We can never in
the highest sense enjoy our read
ing until we learn to read and
appreciate great books; and we
can never appreciate great books
until we have a serious purpose in
life arid are willing and anxious to
learn all that they may teach ns.
It is not the number of books we
read, but the quality; it is not
even what we read always, but
how we read it. And it is only
when we can begin to look upon a
book -as a friend, as a friend with
whoso every feature we are famil
iar, as a friend that will teach us
something and will share with us
alike our joys and our sorrows,
that we begin to get true and en
nobling pleasure, the greatest ot
all pleasures, out of our reading:
and, like the poet’s,
“Our hearts in glad surprise
To higher levels rise.”
“Fiction has its uses,” says a
writer; “but its abuse leads to the
destruction of intellectual vigor
and literary taste and soon defeats
the chief end of reading.” Even
the voracious novel reader becomes
so sated with heroes and heroines
and thrilling incidents and intri
cate plots, that he finally leaches
the point where he reads novels
more because it is a habit than be
cause of any pleasure that he
might get from them. With the
devotee of nobler literature such
is never the case. Is it a famous
novel? Well and good. If he has
never read it before, he opens it
with delighted anticipation; if he
has read it before, he turns to it
as an old but ever-new friend.
Is it a poem? What though it be
a perfectly familiar one? The
very title of it thrills him with
pleasure. Is it a volume of essays
or a history? Here are the no
blest thoughts of the noblest men
and the records of the world’s
greatest deeds and movements.
YYTiat though the storm roar with
out? Though the biting north
winds howl about the house and
the snow fall in flurries on the
lawn? YVithin all is joy and
peace and com fort, and we turn
with n sigh of gratitude and new
appreciation to our books as we
realize more fully than ever that
the poet knew the truth when he
sang:
“And the night shall be filled with
music,
And the cares that infest the day
Shall fold their tents like the Arabs*
And as silently steal away.'.
It is in the spiing of youth that
the taste for great books must be
gin to develop, Make the boy
and girl familiar with the best
thoughts of the best writers; teach
theiij to know and to love the
greatest; let them grow into the
noblest literature as they grow
into womanhood and manhood;
let them know that good litera
ture is
■‘Not harsh and crabbed, as dull fools
suppose,
But musical as in Apollo's lute,”
that thus, by daily association with
noble thoughts, they may them
selves become nobler and greater,
and may learn more and more as
the years go by, the joy9 of good
books and the beauty of noble
thought.—William T. M’Elroy in
Children’s Visitor.
Manj a life full of promise has
been wrecked owing (u the want
of a definite aim in life, and the
only way to insure success is to
determine upon a certain line of
action, to have an ultimate ohject
in view, and to make every effort
to reach the goal and secure the
prize.—Ex.
/