Editor of Skandinaven.

Dear Sir:

I have with both interest and amusement of late read the columns for the young people in your paper. To introduce a new subject, and yet one that is closely related to those that have been discussed, I wish to submit the following for the consideration of the young people of the country. But before I go any further, however, let me state that I am not in sympathy with the young people who want to discard the Norwegian language as soon as possible. Far from it.

The subject I wish to introduce is books, books in general, books of fiction, and, in particular, what we, as Norwegian-American young people, should read of modern American fiction.

A book that is worth reading is worth keeping; in other words, a book that is not worth keeping is not worth reading. Good books are true friends that do not desert one in need or in adversity. Good books are faithful companions, always at hand, always ready to entertain. Good books are teachers and guides, always willing to instruct. As such they are worthy of our love.

Let us look at books from another point of view. We do not like to have our little brothers and sisters appear with besmeared hands and faces, and in soiled and ragged clothes. Or supposing the girl you had asked to be your companion at the circus or at church should present herself with dirty hands and face, with hair disheveled, and in a soiled and ragged dress when you come to fetch her! Would you invite her again? Or let us compare two houses. They are of the same size, but one is unpainted and unsightly, built of logs, part of the roof fallen down, inside the naked walls and the rough floors dirty, the furniture partly broken and uncomfortable, while the other is painted and ornamented outside, and inside the papered walls are decorated with pictures, the floors carpeted, the furniture elegant and comfortable, and everything is clean and neat. Which would you rather have for a home? Or, supposing you 3are going to town. You have two vehicles, one an old dirty rickety affair with an old umbrella to keep off the scorching sun, while the other is an elegant, polished top buggy. Both will take you to town, and yet--what a difference!

Now, although the dress does not make the girl, nor the house and the furniture the home, nor the polish and top the buggy, yet no one will say that these things are inessential. So with books. Although good print and paper, ornamented covers, and fine appearance do not make the book, these things help to make us love them, and cherish and enjoy their company. A book with almost illegible print, broken and soiled pages, and a torn paper cover is not an ornament to our bookshelf and we are prone to seek other companions and other modes of amusement in preference to them.

I have myself as a young man spent several years on the western farms and I am acquainted with the lack of topics for conversation and forms of 4amusement among the young people, but I feel confident that the love of good books and even a little familiarity with good literature would to a great extent remedy this, and would be of great benefit both to individuals and to society at large.

If the boys and girls could learn to like and appreciate good literature, there would be less drinking and less dancing in close, hot, and dusty rooms on bitterly cold winter nights. Gatherings at which reading and conversation prevailed would take their place.

I shall close with a few suggestions as to the choice of books from modern American authors. Books that deal with life with which we are acquainted, farm and city life, should have our first attention; likewise, books dealing with the life of our people, whether here or in the old country. Then books dealing with typical American life in our eastern cities.

Such books as cheap dime novels, which are cheap in more ways than one, we should avoid.

With the editor's permission, I shall return to these columns later.