Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 May 1886 — Books. [ARTICLE]

Books.

Moat great men are lover® of books. Fenelon said: “If aMthe crowns of the kingdom of Europe were laid at my feet in exchange for my books, I would spurn them aIL” Macaulay said of his books: “These are old friends that are never seen with new fices, Who are the same in wealth and in poverty, in glorv and obscurity. Plato is never sullen. Cervantes is never petulant. Demosthenes never comes unseasonably. Dante never stays too long. No difference of political opinion can ever alienate Cicero." Bct f Lincoln," says the New York Tribune, “had a human fondness for his books. Nothing annoyed him so much as to hear one of them fall, and dusting them, which he reduced to a science, seemed to give him real pleasure. In his last illness the sight of any of his favorites depressed him greatly. ‘Ah,’ he would say, ‘I am to leave mv books,’ and sometimes, ‘They have been more to me than my friends.’ He would ask for them one after another, till he was literally covered almost to his shoulders as he lay, and the floor around him was strewn with them. He used to say that the sight of books was necessary to him at his work; and once reading how Schiller always kept ‘rotten apples’ in his study because their scent was beneficial to him, he pointed to some shelves above his head, where he kept his oldest and most prized editions, and said, are my rotten apples.’” It should bg the ambition of every young man and woman to have a good library. For youthful readers who are beginning the collection of a few rules will not be amiss: 1. Set apart a Regular weekly or monthly sum for books, and spend that, and that only. 2. Devote a portion of your money to books of reference. 3. N ever purchase a worthless book, nor an infidel book, nor a poor edition. 4. Buy the best. Plutarch said: “We ought to regard books as we do sweetmeats—not wholly to aim at the pleasantest, but chiefly to respect the wholesomest. ” 5. Where there is a choice, buy small books rather than large ones. “Books that you can carry to the fire and hold readily in your hand are the most useful, after all,” was the conclusion of Samuel Johnson. 6. Do not buy too many books of one class. 7. Do not buy sets of an author until you have a fair library and plenty of money. 8. Take one monthly magazine and one or two weekly religious papers. 9. Make a catalogue of your books. 10. In each book write your name, the date of the purchase, and' price paid. 11. Have a blank-book in which to put all particulars ~in reference to loans. 12. “Head what you buy, and buy only what you will-read.” 'The Family Washing on the Seine. One of the latest propositions, which caused quite a stir for a time in certain quarters, was the suppression of the washing establishments in the Seine at Paris. This river has a course of over three miles within the limits of the fortifications, and in this space are twentyfive lavoirs, of which, naturally, the greater part are away from the center. But one, the largest, where the Mi Careme is celebrate 1 as a great fete, is very near the bridge of Notre Dame, and is well worthy a visit. It consists of twelve little—what shall I call them ? Not boats, but buildings, perhaps, two stories in each, and connected with footbridges, thus giving a frontage of over 300 yards, making a floating village where nearly 250 people are occupied every day but Sunday. In the center is the room for the great boiler, the numerous tubs, the packages of javelle, the sacks of carbonnate and the piles of -bar soap. Running from that are two long couloirs, where the places for each person are so arranged that as water is needed it can be easily dipped from the river; and behind each person is a a scrubbing-board and a bucket. There is room here for 240 washwomen, one-half of whom are “regulars,” and the other half wives of workmen, who take their linen once a week to wash it themselveß. The former pay forty centimes a day for their places, while the latter give five centimes an hour. In the second story are the drying rooms, divided into little squares of three or four yards of measurement, and let for fifty centimes a day. A restaurant is connected with one of the < end boats, and, in short, everything is so well organized that it is calculated that a proprietor of a lavoir of 100 places touches nearly 40;000 francs a year, from which he can clear over 15,000 francs for himself.— Cor. Boston Gazette.