THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



57 



books, it makes anything- like mental 

 application impossible; it weakens the 

 moral fiber as any vicious indulgence 

 weakens it. as any habit which masters the 

 individual weakens him. And having thus 

 debilitated mind and character, this "lit- 

 erature" adds to its evils effects by all sorts 

 of immoral and vicious suggestions. 

 Science of late years has taught us more 

 than we ever knew before of the subtle 

 power of suggestion; better than ever 

 before, consequently, can we realize the 

 mischief done by unwholesome books, 

 periodicals and newspapers. Those who 

 print fascinating stories of fast life, of 

 thieves, confidence men, and race track 

 gamblers and all that disreputable crew, 

 incur a heavy responsibility. Their 

 Satanic literature makes fast boys and 

 girls, and of fast boys and girls, some are 

 sure to become criminal men and women. 



READING IS COMPANIONSHIP. 



Contrast with the young people with 

 whom reading has degenerated into a 

 vice the boys and girls whose taste has 

 been trained and strengthened. There isno 

 greater benefit than a sound taste for 

 reading, a cultivated love for what is 

 best. For what is reading in its highest 

 form but companionship with the best 

 informed, most learned, most moral, 

 most cultivated minds in the world? It 

 is to have the character strengthened, 

 the efficiency increased, the mind 

 "suppled" and exercised, the spirit re- 

 fined and exalted. It is to have efB- 

 cient mental power— the ability, that is, to 

 concentrate the mind. 



Not many boys and girls probably will 

 reach either the lowest degradation of 

 reading or its most exalted plane What 

 we wish to make sure is that what steps 

 they do take shall be not down but up. 

 The question is how that may be best 

 managed. We believe that the key to 

 the problem lies in the right choice of 

 fiction. Every now and then comes a 

 boy whose natural bent toward me- 

 chanics, or botany, or travel, or elec- 

 tricity, or what not, is so strong that he 

 will read instructive books from the 

 start. Happy are that boy"s parents, 

 for the task of making his reading use- 

 ful to him is easy— they have only to 

 see that he does not grow mentally lop- 

 sided by too exclusive attention to his 

 hobby. But not many boys, and perhaps 

 fewer girls, have such strong natural 

 bents. But there never was a child 

 since the dawn of time who did not beg 

 for a story. The love of a story is deeply 

 implanted in human nature, and is uni- 

 versal; and through this taste for fiction, 



the writer and editor can reach the 

 nascent character and do a useful work — 

 nor need he disdain or any parent fear 

 an instrument which He Who told the 

 parables did not despise. 



A HIGH PURPOSE NECESSARY. 



The writer for the young, whose aims 

 are really high, must first of all make his 

 fiction interesting. Then into his fiction 

 he must inject the salutary influence. 

 This he may do in a great variety of 

 ways. He may, for example, utilize his 

 tale of adventure to awaken a taste for 

 natural history, an interest in foreign 

 lands, people and customs, or to give an 

 interesting lesson in geography, or to 

 instruct in the wonders of some coura- 

 geous trade like bridge-building or rail- 

 roading. Again, he may utilize his story 

 of temptation and moral struggle to 

 awaken admiration for the nobilities of 

 character. It is possible for the story 

 teller to start a thousand impulses 

 toward reading of a higher grade; the 

 actual transition from fiction to the litera- 

 ture of instruction is what he cannot 

 manage. 



A GOOD PERIODICAL A LIBRARY IN ITSELF. 



That, the parent, the librarian and the 

 editor can do. The parent may assemble 

 a library for his children, can guide, help 

 and suggest, say the word in season 

 which encourages the leap from good 

 fiction to better fiction, from the hunting 

 sketch to the book on nature, from the 

 historical tale to history. But not many 

 parents have the money to buy books or 

 the leisure to do the teaching, and some 

 have not the tact and knowledge, and 

 public libraries and libraries are not 

 omnipresent. 



It is the editor who can do most. The 

 periodical costs infinitely less than the 

 private library; it is not fixed, like the 

 public library; at small expense it can be 

 brought into the remotest home. But 

 what is a still greater advantage is the 

 fact that it can print the instructive and 

 the entertaining, fiction and fact in juxta- 

 position — where the most thoughtless 

 young reader will some time be prompted, 

 having read the one to read the other. 

 The editor can grade his reading, and 

 vary it, and so provide a constant in- 

 ducement to readers to take a step up- 

 ward. The ideal periodical for the family 

 will be one so edited and arranged as to 

 provide what may be called a graded 

 school of reading, which can take the 

 youngest child and lead him up and on 

 until he reaches maturity, and then — still 

 interest him! For since the parent, as 



