The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1874-12-16

! thing that will make ones hair stand on the
end---is purely American so also to great
extent, is the flood Of light literature thar al
most shapes an ayeiRge Anierican mind. This
appetite for books that are thrilling, startling,
and even horrible, calling into action the very
worst phases of human nature, controls us al
most as completely to-day, as the passion of
what is sensual and immoral does the French
nation. y. ,, ss9
The masses of the people seem to be run
ming mad over blood and thunder stories
They are their only mental meat and drink
nothing else viii satisfy their unnatural and
ravenous appetite. 1t grows with startling
rapidity by simple Indulgence, and deadens
every pure and substantial taste. There Ii
scarcely home SO isolated, or a family 80
poor, that does not receive into it's midst ev-
cry week some one of that class of papers,
whose star contributors are the most execrable
imitators that WELD pen, and whose closely
printed columns are utterly destitute of cul-
ture and true sentiment.
/ The very heroes are mere tinsel, and only
pander to a taste already corrupt the morals
are loose and the language abominably stit-
cd the plot an impossibility and the scenes
completely overdrawn. The whole is unnatu-
raj and acts as ~ timulant, leaving the mind
weakened and unsatisfed when it is with
drawn. 1t is SO delightful, SO indescnbably
entertaining to revel in all the gold and glitter.
of a sensational story, but when it is finished,
when the dream is vanished, how dreary the
world looks, how repulsive and intoleably
commonplace our everyday life has suddenly
become The temptation is to try to forget
ones existence in another exciting novel,
and the appetite, now fully aroused, knows
no safety, as the enormous and almost in
credible sale of cheap story papers proves,
This branch Of our newspaper SYSTEM
which has grown SO popular and becoming
SO lucrative, has almost entirely supplanted
all pure and healthy literature among the
masses of the people +; and the tendency is
undoubtedly to drag the standard still lower
1t is the only kind of reading that the fac
tory girl the apprentice boy, and nearly all
the laboring class indulge in. 1t is a false ed
ucation, and tells terribly on their after lives
Those many hours dreamed away over such
papers by the lamp-light, when the body is
tired and the mind weary and the heart heavy,
might make noble men.and true women, in-
stead of wrecking them, If they only had the
-companionship of authors who are pure and
eleyating, and those who, since they them
selves were once street boys and hard working
apprentices, know how TO sympathizc with
them, and who appreciate their many trials
and wants.
The great authors have not taken hold of
the minds of the laboring classes in the Unit
ed States; the nearest approach is a class of
imtators, who often please the public, but are
worse than worthless Tho great themes that
could stir every human heart and awaken
noblest sentiments, too often come to the
people second-handed, and after they have
lost the masters touch and inspiration by be-
ing turned over and over and distorted in
| vulgar minds.
This evil will not die except Of its own ex-
cess or else an American Dickens must por-
tray American common life, and thus lead
the people to purer tastes and educate them to
an appreciation of cultivated and instruct
| i've literature.
Lie WOiiu 10 luli VI uoOhs 40 ~ Wcits w.
day, but not of books that are worth reading.
To an unsophisticated reader, entertaining
| larse library of books, piled tier upon tier
from aoor to ceiling, hiding the walls and
darkening the windows there seems before
him an almost endless task to wade through
and digest these huge volumes-some fresh
from the printer, and others covered with the
i IA - 80
However, few months hard reading and
research in the library, teach him that one
fourth of the books were never intended to be
read; that another fourth had better be in
| ashes than in the form of books; and that
| still another fourth are too intolerable prosy
and out of date to either interest or instruct
any one. said that the reader will learn this
fact, but fear that too often this Is not true;
for there are hosts of well educated people,
who display the most lamentable taste and
| Judgment in the selection Of their authors and
works.
The selections often made seem about as
foolish as 1t would for person, going into an
orchard where the trees are laden with golden
fruit. to stoop and pick up that which has
Idiieu 70 tnt BTOuuu, Tpttti ~ tiic cViC uiiu
stung by insects, instead Of reaching up and
taking off that which is sound and healthy.
1t takes us all a long time to learn that books
are not infallible, and that most authors are
only common smortals after all, who wrote
that they might keep starvation from their
doors, or revel in luxury, rather than to
please and instruct us and u takes us still
longer to learn that it Is not SO much the facts
and fancies that we CLEAN from books that
profit us, as it is the influence and incentive
to true and concentrated thought, and the ac-
quirement of well assorted vocabulary Of
words, without which our thoughts must be
comparatively meagre and restrained.
4 To attain this maximum, of course we must
go to the fountain head, where the waters are
the purest we must go to the best authors,
men OF pure lives, whose books are an embodi-
ment Of all the good that was within them
when they wrote--men,t whose companionship
in the body would have been worth immeas-
urably more to us than few written legacies
4. they have left to us.