ON THE TREATMENT OF BOOKS. 73 the present day, books are cheap, is no reason why they should be cheaply estimated. 4. Some persons of our acquaintance are, we are sorry to say, grossly wanting in a reverence for books. Thus, one excellent gentleman never takes up a volume without grasping it firmly between finger and thumb of both hands, and twisting it suddenly, as it -were, inside out, by bringing his knuckles together behind. He may thus break the back of the book, especially if it be in boards, or only bound in cloth. 5. Another of our friends has a knack of pulling at each leaf, as he reads it, and thumbing and pinching it, like a man in the paper market trying the stoutness of a sample. We happened, once, to take this gentleman with us into a shop where prints were sold. While we were turning over a portfolio, in search of a portrait, he opened another, of new prints, and began looking at them for pastime. The proprietor flew for ward, and seized his arm, saying, "I will show you those prints, sir, with pleasure; but can not allow you to handle them." 6. Why not? Other gentlemen are handling prints." "Pardon me, -you do not know what you are about," said the shop-keeper, as he tied up the portfolio. "Were I to suffer you to proceed, you would do two hundred dollars' worth of mischief in a quarter of an hour. You should handle no prints but your own." 7. The rebuke was perfectly just; and, like the de linquent in question, there are numbers of inconsiderate people, whose touch, albeit with fingers of the very cleanest, is ruin to a fine print or drawing, which, when once crumpled, or "kinked," as the dealers say, can never again be pressed flat, or offered for sale as new. Books in folio or in quarto, especially when illus'trated, require as delicate handling as prints; and 74 ON THE TREATMENT OF BOOKS. those who maltreat them will find their error, should it ever become convenient to turn them into cash. 8. Some persons never lose the habit they acquired at the primary school, where they learned to spell "a, b, ab," and "b, a, ba"; and, to the end of their lives, hold their books by sheer force of thumb pressed between the margins at the foot of the page. If this class of persons read much, which they never do,—their books would perish by the tortures of the thumb screw. 9. Books should be handled tenderly. It should be remembered that their nerves and sinews are but sewing-thread and thin glue, and that they are not brickbats. They should never be forced open too wide; should not be swung by a single cover; not thumbed, like a child's primer; not folded down at the corners, to mark where the reader left off; not ground beneath the elbow; not consigned to the mercy of pitch-and-toss accidents. 10. When read, they should lie comfortably in the hollow of the hand, or rest on the table or readingstand; and there is not really the slightest necessity for dropping a spoonful or two of bread-crumbs between the leaves. If they are good books (and if they are bad, the sooner the owner gets rid of them the better), they have a solid right to good treatment, and should have it. 11. It was a habit of Sir Peter Lely, the celebrated painter, never, if he could help it, to look at a bad picture; he having found, by experience, that whenever he did so he would unconsciously get something bad from it, which his pencil would reproduce. Apply Sir Peter's rule to bad books and bad company. . "The knowledge of wickedness is not wisdom." There is no worse robber than a bad book. Pronounce glisten, glis'sn. 'T will is a contraction of it will. Do not say comin for com'ing. Mind the ng sound. THERE's a good time coming, boys, A good time coming: We may not live to see the day, But thought's a weapon stronger; There's a good time coming, boys, A good time coming: The pen shall supersede the sword, In the good time coming. Worth, not Birth, shall rule mankind, There's a good time coming, boys, In the good time coming. To prove which is the stronger; WAR'RIOR (war'yur), n., a person en- TOM'A-HAWK, n., an Indian hatchet. gaged in war; a soldier. HYP'O-CRITE, n., a dissembler. AM'BUSH (the u as in bull), n., the BULL'ET, n., a ball for a gun. place or act of lying in wait. VICT'UALS (vit'tlz), n. pl., food. DE-CEITFUL, a., full of deceit. WAR'-WHOOP (-hoop), n., the war-cry of the American Indians. DE-FEAT, v. t., to overthrow. Avoid saying pison for poi'son (poi'zn); caounci for council; caoward for cow ard; wuss for worse (the or like er in her); wite for white; wiz for whiz. The th it, with has the vocal sound as in breathe. 1. You have taken me prisoner, with all my war riors. I am much grieved, for I expected, if I did not defeat you, to hold out much longer, and give you more trouble before I surrendered. I tried hard to get you into an ambush; but your last general understands Indian fighting. I determined to rush on you, and fight you face to face. I fought hard; but your guns were well aimed. The bullets flew like birds in the air, and whizzed by our ears like the wind through the trees in winter. 2. My warriors .fell around me. I saw that my evil day was at hand. The sun rose morning, and at night it looked like a ball of fire. shone on Black Hawk. longer beats quick in his bosom. He is now a prisoner to the white men. They will do with him as they wish. dim on us in the sank in a dark cloud, and That was the last sun,that His heart is dead, and no 3. But he can defy torture, and is not afraid of death. He is no coward. Black Hawk is an Indian. He has done nothing for which an Indian ought to be ashamed. He has fought for his countrymen, against white men, who came, year after year, to cheat them, and take away their lands. You know the cause of our making war. It is known to all white men,known, to their shame. The white men despise the Indians, and drive them from their homes. But the Indians are not deceitful. The white men speak ill of the Indian, and look at him spitefully. But the Indian does not tell lies. Indians do not steal. 4. An Indian bad as the white men could not live in our nation. He would be put to death, and be eaten up by wolves. The white men who come to us are bad schoolmasters. They carry false looks, and deal in false actions; they smile in the face of the poor Indian, to cheat him; they shake him by the hand, to gain his confidence, to make him drunk, and to deceive him. We told them to let us alone, and keep away from us; but they followed op, and beset our paths, and coiled themselves among us, like the snake, poisoning us by their touch. 5. We were not safe. We lived in danger. We |