Wisconsin herald, and Grant County advertiser. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1844-1845, 1845-09-20
VOL. III.

which our reading population glut
their depraved appctites. Never,
since the art of printing was invented,
was the literary market flooded with
such load of proftless and loathesome
trash. The Moral Reform Journal
finds itself slowed promiscuously
amonga heap of modern licentious ro-
nance. Men, to whom the avenues
and temptations of vice are familiar,
pour out upon the town their vile pub
LEGATIONS, which are eagerly sought al
ter and devoured by the poblic.
The mischief wroughtupon the gen.
erai tone of society by this ceaseless
current Of impure and Improbable
reading, IS beyond calculation. The
bright hours of day devoted by heaven
to action. are squandered; when balmy
sleep should descend to close The lids
weary with labor, the midnight lamp
burns over the exciting page; unchaste
pictures crowd upon the fevered ina
gination, as the mind wanders on thro'
scenes OF vicious temptation, of dark
design, internal plot and criminal fru-
ition. which it would make the virtu-
Gus cheek blush to speak of. Such
are the thousand and one ephemeral
romances labelled "Love and Guilt"
"Temptation unveiled or some other
CATCH word suited to allure the eye of
the public.
Truly an Age of Moral Rcform!-
when the detection of a clergyman
from his exalted station, by the strength
of his unsubdued and unbridled pas
sions, furnishes exciting aliment for the
public taste; when every point Of trans
erosion, every minute deviation from
rectitude, every indelicate liberty ia
ken, is GENEROUSLY called for and pa
raded before the public view, teeming
from the press with all its immoral
tendencies, and circulated into the bo-
som of every family. How wise in
our day and generation are the children
of light seeking 10 preserve the vir-
gin purity Of the female mind, by ma
king it familiar with vice and tempta-
ton and immortality in every form, in
stead of shielding it unsullied from the
breath Of pollution, guarding it, free as
an Angels wing from the thoughts OF
sin, and training it up pure and un-
spotted in the temptation of virtue.
Reform societies are the offspring
Of excitement; while the fire burns the
contagion spreads. To-day with head
long zeal we rush to the conflict to
annihilate some monstrous evil. We
level the sturdy battering ram of pop
ula- reproach against it. A society is
formed for its suppression. Now then
we think to see it topple and fall be-
fore the associated force arrayed
against it. But tomorrow the war
cry has died away on the breeze. The
popular enthusiasm finds another vent.
A new reformer springs from the pur-
lieus of sin, shouting Eureka, Eureka,
throughout the land-a sin, sin dire
full, hellish and soul-destroying, and
away speed the pack Of reformers. like
hungry hounds to huntit from the world
but ere the day is over, they quit the
chase and leave the evil, with its lep-
rous touch and poisonous breath, to
spread contagion and moral death
throughout society.
Halcyon Age of Humbug! Age of
Reform that needs Reform, and of
Reformers that needs Reforming
These Moral Reform Associations, for
the most part, are among the greatest
quackeries Of the age. If men would
reform themselves, and strive TO puri-
fly their own thoughts and actions, in
stead of being so full of love and ear
nestness for their neighbors, mankind
would be benefited, and the world
blessed.
The truth is,the popular heart is cor
rupt; its beatings are not for virtue;
and so throughout the wide ramifca-
lions of veins and arteries and capilla-
ries, it circnlates full current that pol
lutes and vitiates the whole. Socie-
ties never were so numerous as at pre-
sent. Each evil has its counterpart
society. Yet when did vice ever more
abound ? When did its stencil so
much offend the nostrils of the world?
But each society in its little sphere
thinks itself triumphing and triumph.
ant, and blszons forth annually its glo-
rious prospects of success, unheardof
in its operation, except at the period
of its annual visitation. Look at them