WANT OF COMFORT AND METHOD.

33

even without spelling our words by syllables, would feel any relish at all for the very best and latest "sensation" novel of the season, if we had to read it under such conditions?

The pleasure, for example, which Dr. Johnson used to find in perusing the backs of books, as they stood on the shelves of a large library, is a pleasure that is shared in a greater or less degree by all of us who are habitual readers. And it is shared, not by us only, but more or less by all men who can read at all. The most unlettered man finds himself better pleased in choosing or being assisted to choose a book from a shelf than in having it fished out at random for him from a dirty box full of other books. Perhaps, too, the soldier is but just learning to read. He attempts it from an humble sense of duty, rather than from any gratification he finds in it. He has painful doubts as to the meaning of many words which he thinks he has deciphered. His reading, in fact, is so far from a pleasure to him, that he needs all the encouragement he can get to induce him to go on with it. At the canteen, at the public-house, at the dancing-room, there is plenty of light, plenty of heat, plenty of room. Drinking and dancing come to him quite naturally; but reading and writing, whatever Dogberry may say, he finds certainly do not come to him naturally. The reading-room is tried and tried again; left each time more readily, and returned to each time more reluctantly.

Yet there is something positively touching in the ease with which poor Jack may after all be won to come back again to the better place. Cover the bare table with a bit of green baize; hang a clean blind and curtain inside the window; put a threepenny ornament on the mantelshelf; display a few maps and prints on the wall; range the books neatly on shelves where the men can see them; let the librarian eat his dinner and wash his hands behind a screen;-and the room so treated becomes at once a marked success in comparison with the rest of them.

Apart, however, from the discomfort and slovenliness of the places themselves, one of the most serious drawbacks to the success of many of these rooms seems to be the incapacity of the librarian. The salary paid is so small that it is only by accident a librarian can be found who knows anything of the inside of the books in his charge. Generally his recommendations of books are based on considerations of the showiness of their binding, the extravagance of their title, or the number of the pictures which they contain. The ability of the librarian is—we do not know whether intentionally or unintentionally-illustrated by the commissioners. They append to their report lists of the books in use and most in request at several of the libraries: such lists being furnished by the respective librarians. In the Woolwich catalogue we have, under the head of "History," such works as "Macaulay's England" and "Alison's Europe," followed by the entries—

VOL. I.-NO. I.

D

"History of John Steggall,

History of Margaret Catchpole,

Cobbold,

Cobbold."

Under the classification "Voyages and Travels," we have Oliphant's "Russian Shores of the Black Sea," and narratives of exploration in the Arctic Regions mixed up with such items as—

"Jonathan Oldaker, or leaves from the Diary of a

Commercial Traveller,

Sporting Tour, Sponge's

Wilson.
Smedley."

Fiction is disposed of in a tabular form, and the first entry in the list stands thus

At Chatham they have a copy of the "Arabian Nights' Entertainments," which is supposed to be by Maria Roche. At Winchester they have a book which they enter as "Currer Bell's Tenant of Wildfire Hall." At another library this book is entered under the same title, but the librarian, to avoid committing himself too positively, merely describes it as "Bell's." At Corfu, they have a work of Bulwer Lytton's called "Oneill." They have also "Don Quixote," which, it seems, was written by an author of the name of " Rutledge;" and "Gil Blas," which is said to be by "Roscoe."

It would be unfair to say that the capacity of all the librarians may be inferred from these examples of their performances, for there are evidently honourable exceptions; but it is not too much to say that there is not more than one or two of the lists appended to the report in which we could not find entries as ludicrous as any we have quoted.

On the other hand, it may be that the librarian, having some smattering acquaintance with the titles of famous works, shoots too high. A large proportion of the books in the army libraries are works which, though suitable for the officers and for men of a liberal education, are quite above the capacity of the soldier. Yet the soldier has them put into his hands with such praises that he is convinced he must be a fool if he does not like them. He finds that he cannot understand them cannot take any interest in them; and so he comes to the conclusion that he is not, as he phrases it, "cut out for reading," and he gives up the attempt to read.

LITERARY TASTE OF THE SOLDIER.

338

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What the soldier likes is a simple and not over lengthy biography of some one about whom he has already heard a good deal; a lively volume of travels in a country where he has been, or where he is likely to go; a story of busy adventure and discovery; or, more than all, a good novel with plenty of action in it, and the least possible preaching. What is given to him may be a book of much more value than any of these; but he does not find that it is a book in which his tastes and his capacity have been catered for. The Commissioners remark, very emphatically :-"We wish particularly to draw attention to the great want of books adapted to the soldier's taste and education, while the supply of other works of an unsuitable kind is superabundant. These last encumber the libraries without being ever opened."

Any change, they think, ought to tend towards a large increase in the number of volumes of a popular kind; and the expense of this change, they think, might be defrayed, in a great measure, by the proceeds of the sale of the present useless ones. Yet even as things are, let but the librarian be an intelligent man, possessed of good sense; let him make it his business to study the tastes and the capacities of his subscribers, and to find out what books really do suit them best; it is then always an easy matter to such an one to lead the men by easy stages from these lower fields of literature to higher ground. One of the best of the catalogues is that of Limerick. It has a note appended to it, as follows, signed by the librarian:-"There was no reading-room and no newspapers in this library previous to my taking charge in September, 1857. The newspaper club was formed by me, as librarian, on the 4th January, 1858. The subscriptions for members is one penny per month. There are 300 subscribing this month; they also subscribe to library."

We think this worth quoting, as a proof of the result of having a man who interests himself in his work, and tries to understand it, even though, as in this case, he may not first have perfected himself in the mysteries of English grammar.

Another matter on which the report speaks out very plainly and very judicionsly, is that of the mischief which is done by attempting to introduce into these reading-rooms positive religious instruction, while they are ostensibly places of recreation and secular amusement. Some of the rooms are avowedly of a religious character, and these seem to have a reasonable amount of success. Others, which are avowedly secular, succeed still better. But where the attempt is made to combine religious instruction with secular recreation, the result is always a failure. The commissioners say plainly that they attribute this failure to the fact that the men do not like the idea of being "entrapped" into Probably the gentlemen who sign the report have not often had occasion to sell any of their second-hand books.

a religious profession beyond their convictions. The soldier will conform to all rules which it is thought desirable to enforce against the use of profane language, gambling, or offensive behaviour of any description. But if he goes to the recreation-room and finds that the recreation provided for him is of the nature of preaching, or tracts, then he does not go again. The effect, indeed, of these well-meant efforts at proselytizing is to keep away the very men whom we most desire to attract to the rooms. Yet, to show that there is no disposition on the part of the Commissioners to neglect religious wants while considering secular ones, the report says:-"It has been strongly urged by the chaplain-general that encouragement should be given to the opening of military chapels and chapel schools at suitable hours, for purposes of private devotion; and that where they do not exist a room should be appropriated for the purpose. Looking to the publicity of a soldier's life, we cannot but give our support to these suggestions."

The Soldier's Home" at Gibraltar seems to be by far the most successful of any institution of the kind yet established in connection with the British army. The Commissioners annex to their report a letter from Captain Pilkington Jackson, R.A., which enters minutely into its history and organization. Amongst its beneficial results he says that it has been the means of entirely suppressing the nightly quarrels which used to take place between the men of different regiments at Gibraltar. It has rendered unnecessary the large picquets which used to patrol the town. It has compelled the public houses to close for want of custom. In short, it has introduced an era of quite Arcadian simplicity. Perhaps, as the founder and creator of it, the gallant captain naturally paints it a little couleur de rose. Yet, though we take these very gratifying statements cum grano there can be no question that an institution so admirably conducted, and numbering as it does 2600 subscribers out of a garrison of 5000 (while in English garrisons the subscribers are under nine per cent of the number of men stationed at the several places) must have been productive of great good, and that it is the best model we have for imitation here at home.

The circumstances of Gibraltar are, no doubt, so far exceptional, that no exact parallel could be found to them in England. And it is only at some few places-such as Aldershot, Chatham, the Curragh of Kildare, and Cork-that institutions of an equal magnitude and similarly regulated would be necessary or desirable. But the success of Gibraltar seems to have been ensured by careful adaptation of the institution to the special wants of the case, and by careful study of the wants and better feelings of the men. And if we are to have equal success at home, it must be gained by acting on the same principle. Let the men feel, that though in barracks, they are, for the time, free; let there be no approach to anything like surveillance; let them see that

RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE COMMISSIONERS.

37

their comfort has been thought of and their feelings deferred to. And they who come at first, but rarely, to lounge away an hour, will by and by come more frequently, and at each visit spend their time more agreeably and to more profit.

It has not been our object at all in this paper to exhaust the subject on which we write. But as one session of Parliament has passed since the issue of the report without any action being taken upon it, we wish, now that Parliament is not sitting, to do what little we can to keep the report from oblivion, and to rescue army reading-rooms from their present deplorable condition. We conclude by quoting the chief of the practical recommendations that are made by the Commissioners—

"RECOMMENDATIONS. .

"1. That wherever garrison libraries are established, all regimental reading-rooms be supplied from them with books, for which the battalions receiving them will be held accountable.

“2. That the present library catalogues be revised with the view to withdrawing from circulation some of those books which the results of this inquiry have shown not to be applicable to soldiers' wants and tastes, and which are rarely, if ever, demanded by officers, and for increasing the supply of books which they prefer.

"3. That £2 10s. a troop or company be allowed annually on account of every regiment or battalion for the purchase of books, periodicals, and newspapers, in aid of the amount raised by the subscriptions of the men, and in lieu of the present grant of books and periodicals.

“4. That each regimental establishment consist of at least two spacious rooms, together with such accommodation for the non-commissioned officer in charge as will enable him to provide tea, coffee, and other refreshments, and to place in safety any books committed to his care. Additional rooms to be given, if possible, when required by any large increase in the number of members.

"5. That these rooms be properly ventilated, warmed, and lighted with gas, or by moderator oil lamps, and that they be furnished with special tables, chairs, forms with backs, divans along the walls, shelves, window-blinds, copies of maps, charts and plans of military operations issued by the Topographical Department, bagatelle boards, chess, backgammon, solitaire, German tactics-all at the cost of Government in the first instance."

We hope that when the legislature reassemble some influential member will, without delay, move that steps be taken for effecting the good work which Lord Herbert desired to accomplish, and which all regret that he did not live to complete.