Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 16.djvu/836

* BEADING. 736 EEADJUSTERS. and is regularly laid out. There are 72 miles of paved streets, more than two-thirds of this distance being laid with macadam. The public park system comprises 198 acres. Mount Penn, to the east, and the Neversink Mountain to the soutli of the city, which afford magnificent views, are reached by inclined and electric railways. The more important educational institutions in Reading are the Inter-State Commercial College, the lioading Classical School for Boys and Girls, and Sclmylkill Seminary. Other noteworthy fea- tures include the county court house, city hall, opera house. Girls' High School building. Masonic Temple, the public and the Berks County Law libraries, and the Reading, Homeopathic, and Saint Joseph's hospitals. The annual county fair is lield here, liandsome grounds and a race-track being maintained by the association in the northern part of the city. Reading is situated in a region possessed of much mineral wealth, in- cluding iron, coal, and limestone, and is an im- portant manufacturing centre. In the census year 1000 an aggregate capital of $27,975,628 was invested in the various industries, which had an output valued at $36,902,511. Nearly one-third of the capital and one-fourth of the output were represented by the iron and steel- interests. There are extensive shops of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, foundries and machine shops, breweries, and manufactories of cigars, hosiery, knit goods, hats, carriages, pottery, paper, and wood pulp. The government is vested in a mayor, chosen every three years, and a bicameral council, and in subordinate officials, the majority of whom are either elected l)y the people or appointed by the council. The scliool board is chosen by pop- ular vote. The city has a net debt of about $1,300,000; and the assessed valuation of prop- erty (real and personal) is about $40,000,000. For maintenance and operation, there is spent annually about $923,000, the main items being $2.'50.OOO for schools. .$235,000 for the water de- partment, $69,000 for municipal lighting, $61,000 for sinking fund and interest on debt. $57,000 for streets, $52,000 for the police department, $42,000 for the fire department, and $33,000 for sewers. The water-works, which were constructed at an expenditure of $1,937,762, are owned by the municipality. Laid out in 1748 and settled mostly by Germans, Reading (named from Read- ing, England) was incorporated as a borough in 1783, its population then being 2100, and in 1847, with a population of about 12,000, it was char- tered as a city. Its boundaries were extended in 1867 and 1869. Population, in 1890, 58,661 ; in 1900, 78,961. READING. The process of conveying to the mind by sight written or printed words or sym- bols. Almost as commonly the word refers to the vocal expression of that which written or printed symbols are intended to convey. Still more broadly, reading is used to designate the art of speaking to an audience what has been composed by another. The oldest method of teaching reading and the one that has been most widely followed is the alphabetic or synthetic method. By this a pupil first learns to identify the letters of an alphabet with certain sounds, and then to group these sounds in such a way as to produce others which stand for mental images. In the sixteenth century Ickelsamer, the publisher of a German primer, pointed out that the sounds represent- ing letters only confused the beginner when he came to combine them into words ; but it was not until the latter part of the eighteenth cen- tury that anj' other method was able really to establish its claim to superiority. Since then, the analytic method, usually sid)divided into the Look-and-Say or word method and the Syllabic method, has been constantly growing in favor. Bj' this, pupils are first taught to associate a mental image with a single word or combination of words, and only later to analyze these combina- tions into their phonetic or alphabetic elements. The reading book has been made a means of in- culcating certain dominant national ideals and principles as well as a drill book. The tendency has been to use selections from standard authors, and to provide for unabridged selections, rather tlian for extracts. Reading as the oral expression of literature differs from the ordinary reading aloud in that the expression is usually to an audience, and in that tile speaker conunonly recites from memory, instead of reading from a printed page. As an art it is to be distinguislied from oratory, where the speaker deals with that which he has himself compo.sed. Bibliography. Kehr, Geschichte des Leseun- terrichts (Gotha, 1889) ; id., Pra^jiis der Volks- schule (10th ed., ib., 1885); Laurie, Language and Linguistic Method (Edinburgh and London, 1893) ; Hinsdale, Teaching the Language Arts (New York, 1896) ; Arnold, Readinq, How to Teach It (Boston, 1896); Bates, Talks on the Htudy of Literature (ib., 1897); Stanley Hall, How to Teach Reading (Boston, 1897 ) ; 'Chubb, 7'7/c Teaching of English (New York, 1902) ; Car- penter, Baker, and Scott, The Teaching of English (ib., 1903). READJUSTEES, or Refunders. The name applied to a political party in Virginia, from 1878 to 1885, which favored the 'readjustment' or scaling down of the State debt. At the close of the Civil War the public debt of Virginia amounted to about $41,000,000, which was in- creased by the extravagance and corruption of the reconstruction governments. On accoimt of the general impoverishment of the time, the in- terest account could not be met, although the rate of taxation had been enormously increased. An act of 1870-71 to refund the debt was re- pealed in the following year, but the repealing act was not sustained by the coiirts. Still the arrears of interest increased, and by 1878 the State was pretty well divided between 'debt pay- ers' and 'readjusters.' During that year the Legislature passed the 'McCulloch Bill' which provided for the issue of new bonds to be ex- changed for outstanding bonds dollar for dollar, and to bear interest at 3 per cent, for ten years, 4 per cent, for twenty years, and 5 per cent, for ten years, making an average of 4 per cent, for forty years. The 'readjusters' organized them- selves into a political party, and succeeded in gaining a majority of the seats in both Houses of the Legislature.' Their leader was H. H. Rid- dleberger, who won notoriety by his bill declar- ing that the State ought not to pay any part of the interest upon the public debt which had accrued during the Civil War and the period of Reconstruction. The bill proposed to scale down