The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1873-06-26
The Dangers of Fiction.

The tendency CT the age is to avoid as much
as possible hard labor and hard thought. A
large proportion of our young men and women
have an unconquerable aversion to any hard
manual labor or mental exertion, and the same
people very naturally only read to be amused.
The vast circulation of magazines filled with
trashy stories is constantly increasing. So
general has novel reading become that little
attention is ever paid to its dangers, even when
the novel-and this is rare-is the production
of conscientious writer. a great deal of the
false ideas prevailing among American youth
may be directly traced to the pernicious infu-
ence of novels on the one hand, and the read
ing of certain papers where vice and robbery
are glorifed, joked about, and made to seem
not SO bad after all" on the other. Finally
comes the theatre to finish the effect, and for
the more speedy attainment of this end, a
certain theater of this city, frequented by la
creme of that not very aesthetic class, newsboys
and boot blacks, regularly represents in drama
tized form, those tales of popular maga-
zine, which represent gamblers, hunters, rob-
bers, and all the dashing people. This class
will read "Jack Shepherd" tales as long as
such things are allowed to be published, and
will have their not very distinct ideas of NOR
ality further obliterated by their perusal.
There is another clsss, however, the young
men and women, who have received certain
education, and who persist in wasting their
time over the impossible adventures of imagg-
mary people. What would those people say
if they heard some person relate series OF
improbable, ridiculous stories during several
hours each day. They would say it was child
ish. The case is not changed when they sit
hour after hour over novels.
That certain fctions may serve good pur-
of ho writ
in the English language are novels. Unfortu-
nately however, some of these works are per-
vaded with subtle immortality which is most
pernicious. French society has been almost
completely demoralized with the food of i'm
moral writings. These very works are read
with great eagerness in many families, where
the mere fact of their being written in French
is thought to be sufficient excuse or antidote
We have hardly reached this depth, yet,
and the inherent, outspoken nature OF the
English is to some degree check on the
growth of this kind of literature. We have,
however, several magazines that circulate by
the hundred thousand all over the country,
full of wishy-washy, maudlin, morbid writ
ing. :.
There may be good deal of excellent writ
ing in these magazines, there is in fact, but it
is the grain of wheat in the bushel of chatf.
The abiding impression ever remains of any,
thing read There is nothing to be learned
from the reading of such works, not even
knowledge of the English language: One
standard author would do more good in this
way than score of the geniuses who form the
delight of factory girls.
The reading of fctions to much extent is
especially injurious to young men: 1t weakens
the memory, gives false ideas of life, occupies
valuable time that might be devoted to profta-
BILE and useful study, and engenders discomfort
When one turns from such productions as the
Extraordinary Adventures of the One-eyed
Apple Girl" or the "Trail of the Silver-Ser-
pent,". to the masculine thought and style of
frstclass authors, the mind catches portion
of the same spirit, is toned and improved.
A taste for serious reading is matter of
habit, but it is not ephemeral, and new pleas
ures, new ideas will be created continually.
1t is to those books that contribute to make
us feel happier, which enlarge our views and
improve our morals that we should give the
preference. Such works as "Dick's Christian
Philosopher" are vastly more interesting to a
healthy mind than almost any novel, and this
work is but sample of the vast range of
Christian scientific works with which good
writers and good Christians have presented u.s.
M Y. Daily Witness.