Smyrna times., 1857-08-26
Vicious Literature.

VICIOUS AltoIdLuAos
II must be observant to everyone familiar
with the news of the day, that the most excl
ting, sensating and preponderating subjects OF
reading and conversation, for the last several
months, have been those of crime, suicide and
murder. The telegraphs are ladened with
messages of fearful import,-the city dallles
have column after column of "Awtul Discio-
sures," Distressing Suicides" "Horrld Muir
ders," &c., and, in the weekly Police Gazettes,
whole baeess are devoted to the minutest ac-
counts of trials, which frequently shock decency
and outrage morality. Is it a wonder that we
have SO many murders, suicides and crimes,
when we have SO many schools to teach the
vicious all the mysteries and artifces practiced
by the adopts of wickedness! Is it not enough
that the leading facts were made public, instead
of going into all the secret and domestic affairs
remotely connected with the cases, and which
only serve to crafty vitiated and depraved
tastes, and the curious and unsuspecting minds
of the young! Nothing should, as a general
rule, be made public through the medium of the
press, but, what might. without the least fear,
be introduced into every family circle. The
Burdel murder and subsequent "Baby Farce "
have had an astonishing influence, from the de-
tailed accounts, in corrupting the minds of the
Young. The case of Madeline Smith, and doz-
ems of others familiar to our readers, will also
come in the same category. A certain class
are corrupted in morals and schooled in vice by
reading such secret revelations; but there are
others, and they are to be enumerated by thou
sands, who feed upon the vapid, love-sck and
blood.and thunder literature, until they almost
entirely lose sight of the duties and realities Of
life, in the dreamy, visionary, ideallc exlstences
of the heroes and heroines, in whose lives they
would faiu realize their own,-and, because
such is not the case, they are made miserable,
or led to terminate their existences with sulci-
d.. hands. An exchange says, correctly, that
the corrupt and demoralizing literature of the
day, we apprehend, has fearful account to
settle The country is literally deluged daily,
with what. under the generic name OF yellow
covered literature, operates upon the weak heads
of those who devour it as fatally and as fear
fully as the most deadly poison would upon the
physical system, if inhaled or imblbed by ply
sical appetltes and tastes, equally morbid
Tales, romances and thrilling narratives of the
intense school, all the threads of which twine
serpcnt-like, around the central idea of sentl-
mental passion, or illicit love, are found in
every school girls hand. The notions of real
life,-its duties and obligations, its tolls and
md nt
new tale, devoured after breakfast,-are not
such as to send the reader home, after the days
toll, happier or more contented with her hum
BILE lot These yellow-covered romancists deal
not with the actualities of everyday life,-but
live, and move, and have their being in an inn
agnary sphere, where men and women are
made to figure, it is true,-but only in wild,
sickly dreams, with an atmosphere of unreallty
all around. vice aud virtue fit hand in hand,
in loving embrace across the stage. Seduction
and adultery, scarcely draped, are ever 9romi-
nent, behind and before the scenes; while jeal-
odsies, reyenges and murders alternately CON-
bine to make up the grand denouemenr This
is the sort of high seasoned food upon which
thoussn nds and thousands of sisters and daugh
ters feed daily and weekly. and it is no wonder
therefore, that we are called upon to be wit
nesses of it's bad effects upon the mental SYSTEM
of those who so greedily partake CT it. Mel
and wome n, who will read and think of nothing
else but Of libidiuous roues,-of kings ant
queens, dukes and duchesses. counts and coun
tesses,-who grow familiar with pictured pro
cesses of love and murder in lower life,-me
aud women, wesay, who revel in such corrur
tion, in the nature of things. must themselve
become corrupt. How to lessen or get rid {
such {" literature" is a problem we undertak
not to solve, but solved it should be, and b
somebody, soon,--if seductions, adulteries, an
bIasphemies. with their concomitants, pOisOr
ings, assassinations and drownlngs, are not
swallow up and submerge our common ciViliz
ton and our common religion.