42 The Bulletin. 



refusing to subscribe to some good agricultural journal, to take at least a few of 

 the best magazines. One of these should be the best obtainable on household 

 economics. 1 say best, for they are always cheapest, though their subscription 

 price iiin up into the several dollars per annum. As you cannot atYord to give 

 your children other than the most wholesome food, you cannot atl'ord to feed 

 their minds on aught but the purest literature. 



Be waiy of the book agent, for often yoii will pay him the price of a small 

 library for a worthless book. Beware of the clieap novel, tlie so-called "light 

 readinir" for the lonjr sununer afternoon. Do not allow maudlin, sentimental 

 stories to find their way into your home. Often these by their unreal situations 

 and morbid atmosphere are more harmful to youthful minds than open delinea- 

 tion of crime. Some books, although they contain nothing that is actually harm- 

 ful, are a sad waste of time. Such books can form only waste matter to clog 

 the brain. 



The Rural Free Delivery, as great a blessing as it is, is not without its attend- 

 ant evil. Countless numbers of patent medicine sheets and advertisements of 

 various swindles are being dumped into the rural letter-boxes. The reading 

 matter in these are as pernicious to men's minds and characters as is the medi- 

 cine they advertise to their bodies. I beg you, kindle the fire with these as soon 

 as they arrive. 



Rightly has the Good Book said : "Of making books there is no end ; for 

 countlegs are their numbers." We who would admit only the good into the 

 sanctuary of our homes must choose wisely. There are many books that have 

 stood the test of time, that have proven tlieir truth by their immortality. Choose 

 these rather than "the latest book," which may be dead by the time the printer's 

 ink is dry upon it. Biography furnishes a most wholesome stimulus to character 

 development. The boy who is familiar with the lives of Washington, Lincoln, 

 and Lee can but be a better American citizen because of this knowledge. Nature 

 stories and stories of animal life will serve to open the eyes of the country child 

 to the things about him. I know of no better way of correcting tlie seemingly 

 inherent cruelty of the growing lad than to teach him the place each animal 

 occupies in the economy of nature. The child's mental horizon should be 

 widened by books of travel and adventure. For the development of the finer 

 sensibilities and to get that glorious vision of truth clad in the rainbow hues of 

 language one must read the poets. Wholesome fiction has its place in any well- 

 balanced course of reading, but we must never forget that it is the "sugar" of one's 

 mental diet, and that taken in too large quantities it destroys the mental appetite 

 for the tissue-building forms of literature, even if it does not disorder one's mental 

 digestion. Unnatural or morbid fiction read at a certain stage of character 

 development can but prove disastrous. 



As no dietician could prescribe diet for the several families of your community 

 without kno\ring the age and peculiar physical needs of the members comprising 

 eacli household, just so I would not presume to offer you a list of books that 

 would be the best mental food for every household in your commimity. I have 

 with me, however, a list of books that will bring into your homes many time- 

 honored sages, many charming companions for both old and young. I beg that you 

 do not refuse them admission, for many of this princely train may be entertained 

 at a very small cost ! Tlieir presence in your liome will help to exclude idle 

 gossip, banish dull care, and enthrone hope and good cheer. When once your 

 children have learned to hold sweet converse with these at home, they will no 

 longer frequent the questionable places of amusement in which our young people 

 are too often found. 



