How shall a young girl fit herself to enjoy and to afford enjoyment in
general society? Certainly the first requisites are intelligence, a good
knowledge of standard literature, a general knowledge of the more
important events that are taking place in the world, and such a
knowledge of the best current literature as may be obtained from the
regular reading of one or two of the standard monthly magazines.

And here it may help you if I particularize a little in regard to a
knowledge of important events of the day and also of general and current
literature. Of course the main source of knowledge of the more important
events that are going on in the world is the daily or weekly newspaper;
and yet there is scarcely any reading so utterly demoralizing to good
mental habits as the ordinary daily paper. More than three-fourths of
the matter printed in the "great city dailies" is not only of no use to
anyone, but it is a positive damage to habits of mental application to
read it. It is a waste of time even to undertake to sift the important
from the unimportant. The most that any earnest person should attempt to
do with a daily paper is to glance over the headlines which give the
gist of the news, and then to read such editorial comments as enable the
reader to understand the more important events and affairs that are
transpiring in the world so that reference to them in conversation would
be intelligent and intelligible. But if one should never see a daily
paper, yet should every week carefully read a digest of news prepared
for a good weekly paper, one would be thoroughly furnished with all
necessary knowledge of contemporaneous events, and the time thus saved
from daily papers could be profitably employed in other reading.

The field of literature is now so vast that no one can hope to be well
acquainted with more than a small portion of it. Yet every well-informed