Jeffersonian Republican. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1840-1853, 1850-02-14


style, and suited to the age and capacity of the
young readers.
But this costs money says one so does bread
and butter. And the one is second only to the
other. The expense need not be great, iC YOU
make careful and well selected purchases But
even if it were, it is an objection of no weight in
a matter of such strong necessity. Heathful ali
ment for the minds your children is as essential
as wholesome food for the nourishment of their
bodies; and that is mistaken economy, which
would hoard up money at the sacrifice of its most
valuable uses. If you do not take pains to Instil
into their minds useful knowledge, and nculcate
pure morality, they will seek for that which is
baneiul and pernlclous. And in this age of print
ing and cheap literature, you can not, by any
other course. hedge them in from the evil infuen-
ces that prevail around them. They will gloat
over the worst class of novels and the histories of
pirates, and highway robbers with which the
country is flooded. and will, and do, avail them
selves of other channels to procure publications of
incompatible greater depravity. Such papers as
the Weekly Despatch" and others we could
name, should not be tolerated, still less be patron
lied, in any moral community for under the garh
OF literary journals they are in fact Only adveris-
ing mediums for the sale, through the nviolable
sanctlty of the mails, of demorazlng books and
pamphlets that could not be publicly sold in any
village in the United States, without exposing the
venders to legal penalties.
We can imagine that many parent will say,
" Well, this may be so but am sure ny children
don't do this" Don't deceive yourselves upon
this subject. Some of the very parents who con-
scientonsly strive most to educate their children
properly, and who shrink with unreasonng abhor-
renee from much of our best and most wholesome
literature, because it happens to be in the shape
OF dialogue Tor tale, if you please) would find,
If they could but get at the truth, that their chill
dren are making up for all these restrictions by
secret sureit of the most pernlcous writings that
ever cursed the world. If you don't believe it,
just try the experiment (Which we admit would
be in great measure useless after this public no.
tice) of directing the postmaster to deliver over
into your hancs all packages that come by mail
addressed to your sons--and you will find such
proofs as would compel your belief as we'll as
shock your hearts.
Results ale always the effect Of corresponding
causes and like causes produce like effects. 1t
Is generally believed to be very mysterious why
the children of worthy and pious parents, who
have received strict and careful training, should
exhibit characters in after life totally the re-
verse of what was expected. In such cases we
think It will generally be found that either the pa
rental discipline was so ill-judged and severe
to cause reaction, or that the children themselves
nulhhed the excellent precepts and example of
their parents by the concealed perusal of books
that corrupt the heart, deprave the mind. and
ploIable consequences that afterwards ensued
The last number of the Knickerbocker tells the
following story:
A colored gentleman preaching to black audi
ence at the South said
II s'pose, s'pect, dat de reason de Lord made
US brack men, was case he use all de white men
up fore he got to de brack men and he had to
make him brack. But dat don't make no odds my
brederen; de Lord look after de brack men too.
Don't de Scripture say dat two sparrer hawks are
sole for farden, and dat not of em shall fall
to de ground without dar fadder Well, den, my
brederen, if your hebbonly fadder care so much
for de sparrer and de hawk, when you can buy
two ob dem for farden, how berry much more
he care for you. dat is wuf six or seven hundred
dollars piece :"