The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1874-01-23
Communications.

investigate the foul charge of gOdleSsneSs
that has been uuiustly urged against
/ them by the enemies of the system This
! Investigation has put me in possession of an
! array OF facts which should effectually put
a stop to their clamor.
/ Since the advent of the public school svs-
J rem, murders, rnbberieS, suicides, forgeries,
/ detaIcationS, and other crimes mentionable
and unmentionable, have become quite rare
/ The honesty and purity of our public men
are beyond reprOach, and are the admiration
of the world. Vice President Wilson Ex-
Nice-President Colfax, Oakes Ames, Boss
Tweed, the immaculate Murphy and New
York lncorruptible Judges, are only a few
B OF the bright particular stars in pOlit-
/ lc@l frmament that could be mentioned.
, The honor and honesty of our business men
/ are proverbial. No shOddy cloth is manu-
1 factured, and the adulteratiOn of liquors, spi-
ctS, drugs, dye-StuhS, artificial fertilizers,
etc, etc, is no longer practised. No more is
. deception in vogue among that very useful
! class, the patent medicine men, while vend-
/ ing their delectable compounds. Inn coun-
! Try Is dishonest speculation or illegal means
/ so little used for the obtaining of wealth as
among our people. Jim Fisk, Jay Gould,
/ the Credit Mobiiier, and other examples,
! might be cited in proof of this, if it were ne
cesSary. Bribery and other improper influ-
! enceS are no longer ut work at our elections
! or in our nominating conventions. Voters
/ nowadays only look TO the good of the coun-
/ try, regardless of all other considerations
/ The morality of our people is illustrated bv
! the sanctity with which the marriage vow
/ is envirOned, thus rendering divorces exceed
/ ingly rare and making us model for other
/ lands TO copy after. The modest dcmeanor
and chaste language of our young men are
admirable beyond description. No blaSphe-
nous oaths unbccomlng expressions ever
pollute their tongues; no vile whisky or other
incbriating compounds are pourel down
! their immaculate throatS; gambling heils are
closed for want of customers, and rowdyiSm
| and similar offences may be claSsed among
the things of the past. But the crowning
glory of our young men is the respect and
reverence which they show for their parents
/ and other aged people. Great improvement
/ in this particular il also noticeable among
/ persons of larger growth. In these latter
i days the stage has become quite pure as for
/ instance note the lnnumrrable times that
} great moral drama ''rhe Black Crook" has
: been presented in our cities and large towns
/ to the infinite delight and edifcatiOu of so
many thousands of their intelligent and
+ mOlal citizens, while still more recently
Wilkie Collins play, "The New Magdalerl" "
/ so remarkable for its exquisite purity, has
/ been received with unbOunued applause by
/ large and appreciative audiences. Former
/ ly such plays as Hamlet, King Henry VIII,
/ and other vile trash, of which Shakespeare
and other dranatistS of the same kidney
J were the authors, were too commOn-in fact
} We're all the rage The literary productions
/ IN greatest demand among thinkers nOw-a-
/ days are the works of such Christian writers
/ as Reuan, Strauss, Darwin, (author of the
! sublime and noble theory of mans descent
ITOiu Jne ape,) INuaII, famous 1Of ms prayer
guage,) the much lamented John Stuart
/ Mill, lately deceased, 7. II. Huxley, Her
/ bert Spenser, and other sound philosophers.
/ For young persons as well as for those of
! more mature years whose cast of mind is not
| so intellectual, mental pabuium of a whole
SOme character is not laCking-in proof of
! which L need only mention the numerous
| translations of such pure productions as those
OF George Sand, Dumas, and Sue, from the
French, and the works OF such eminent Eng
liSh and American authors as Miss BratIdun
| Mrs. Wood, Reynolds, Ned Buntline and
! Sylvanus Cobb, not forgetting that edifying
! aud instructive series of thrilling romances
known as ''Dme Novels" and many other
! works fully good but too tedious To emu
/ Inerate. Our glorious weekly periodical lit
/ erature is well represe ted 10y The National
/ Police Gazette The Muck Rake, The Week
! ly SCaVSnger, the Never Ending Story-Tell-
/ er, Harper's Weekly, and PomeToys Dem
! ocrat. (The names of these papers may not
! be exactly correct, as / regret to say l have
none of them by me to refer to. These
! and others of like ilk, with their great moral
! and instructive essays and their most edify-
/ ing and strictly pure tales and TUmanccs for
/ the instruction and entertainment OF young
! and old, are thick rs leaves in NalamhrOSa;
! and that the efforts of their publishers TO
! provide wholesome reading matter for the
! people are not without their reward, is amply
! proven by the WIDE diffusion Of this class of
| literature throughout the country. No long
! er DO our great dailies defile their pure col
umns with long reports of disgusting trials
and helm Gus crimes; no longer are their adj
! vertising departments made Il source of con-
! taminatiOn to the young and pure of mind.
No sectarian schools, be they ably
! CONNECTED, could have advanced the cause
of morality and religion TO the same extent
our godly (I use the word defantly) schools
have done.
Our beloved State Superintendent, ever
mindful of the duty he owes to the young
calls attention in his last report 10 class OF
our citizens who, unmindful of their awful
Z - Il
their obligations to the State, fail to send
their children to school, because, forsooth, it
is necessary for them to work in order to
earn their daily bread; and that the blessings
of the school system may not be lost on these
maIefactOrs, he proposes a scheme Just as
il is practicable-that is TO erect prisons
workhOuseS for the Incarceration of such di-
abolical children, where the great boon of
knowledge can be hammered into their skulls
nOleT1s rOielS, the cost of their maintenance
mean while to be squeezed out of their most
criminal parents, if possible. For further
particulNfs see the report itself.
Oh Liberty, Oh, Progress! how beautiful
thou art, Thou hast only to be known rs
Wickersham knows thee, to be loved and
revered throughout the land. IVAN.
MORALITY OF OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
To the Editor Of the Cambria Freeman:
SIR-Since the publication of my brief ar
ticle in your valuable paper, your CORES
pondent ID. E. II. has pursued the subject of
the morality of our public schools at length,
and as he seems to have completed his ar
gument, l would like the liberty of few re-
marks on this important topic.
Your correspondent ID. E. H. takes the
position that. because our public schools give
no positive instructions in ''religiom,' they
are consequently goddess, - ''immOral' and
pagan" In proof of this position he brings
to bear great deal of rhetoric and decama-
ton, but very little III the way of facts or
sound reasoning. a proper way to go about
II l,s.r., II
to have informed what he means by Ere
ligion'' and religious instruction 1t is
quite impossible to guess from his lucuhra-
tions Just what his ideas of these things are.
For example, he Says Learning and recIting
a formula of belief is. not religion" Again,
he is opposed to 'Bible reading and prayer
in the schools. He says of this practice that
at is II violence offered TO very many con /