The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1850-11-23
From the South Carolinian.

| BAD Books AND BAD NEWsPAPEKs.--A pub
fishing house in New York, De Witt & Daven-
port, have sent US acrcullr, excusing themselves
from the guilt which might attach to them from
the publication of u novel called sThe Monk
| Knight IL grossly immoral and vicious work
They say that they trusted to the high reputa-
ton of the author that they have been deceived
with regard to its immoral tone; and that they
have stopped printing the work. The house
may be innocent of wilfully spreading the infee-
ton that will assuredly do its baeful work, but
they cannot be loosed from all responsibility.
1t was their duty to see that the work was free
from such objections, before a sheet of ii went
to press and how is the public to know but
This very card, which we perceive has been ex-
tensively circulated, is not put out for the pur-
pose of attracting attention to the work. b.. b
The literature Of the present day needs careful
watching. Parents should be assured that the
works Of fiction which find their way into the
hands of their children, are free from the in
sidious poison Of RIGHTEOUSNESS, infdelity, So
cialism, &c. The land is flooded with such
works. and to their immense issues may be
traced much of the crme-the murders, the Sc
auctions, the yillainy and swindling that polute
the larger cities of the North They are finding
their way to our latitude, and the poison will
just be as fatal here as elsewhere. The prestige
of high literary reputation avails nothing, these
publishers throw the blame of this filthy work
on the author and literary writers having the
tnste, the appetite being created, are obliged to
pander TO it. .- ....'.' ~~,.a.,. .':......' ....
But this poison comes to us in more in
sidiouS form-that of newspapers. Some of the
Sunday papers of New York are as vile sheets
as can be issued, making heroes and heroines of
the most dissolute and abandoned characters,
scoffing ut religion, and ineueating socialism and
every other ism. that can degrade man or polute
society. But it is not confined to these. Their
literary weeklies-broad sheets, beautifully
printed, filled week after week with columns of
doggrel, whole pages of trash they call ltera-
ture; every murder, rape, robbery, and arson
they can Gull from the papers of the country,
piled up under the head of "news items" and
any quantity of abolition sentiments woven in
carefully in their editorials, are served up to
Southern readers under the title of Family
Newspapers" at the loa0 price of one or two
dollars per annum Is it not so =! And yet
hundreds of well conducted papers at the South
are permitted to drag out existence marked
in every stage by unmistakeable symptoms of
want Of nourshment.
Nor do we say this from any sectional preju-
| dice or prediction. From Baltimore to Texas
we know of no paper issued that is amenable to
such structures rs the above. The entire flood
of this filth and pollution comes from the North.
| These journals make their boast of their extern
sive circulation, and we have no doubt but mil
lions of dollars go annually to New York, Bos-
ton and Philadelphia for their sustenance and
support AS we love our children the purity of
our daughters, and the integrity of our sons, rs
we value the well being of society, as we desire
the cultva ton Of sound moral literature at
home, these abominable works and newspapers
should be repudated and dropped. The moral
obligations imposed upon us by every social re-
Iation in life, and our duty to the South at the
nros,nt iunctura demond sucb 81 stem