Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1877-08-29

The late Fletcher Harper aud the late
Gen. Bartlett were both of the opinion
that it is better for men to read impure
books than not to read at ALL However
wise their opinions may have been as ap-
piled 10 men we are quite sure they are
unwise as applied to boys.
Carlyle says that books accomplish
miracles" in influencing men-a statement
that no thinker will dispute,- we feel
sure that over the impressible mind of
child they hold an almost omnipotent
sway.
What living persons have left so deep
mark upon our minds as the heroes of the
books of our earliest readingP You who
have forgotten the name of "Daniol Der
onda,n who have dim idea that Major
Pendennis married Becky Sharp, and that
Mantaalini and Micawber moved in the
same circle of society, have you any doubt
which of the sisters in the fairy tale had
the foot which fitted the glass slipper9
And have you forgotten the name of II
certain mythical young gentleman who
spent portion of his time in rubbing Il
miraculous lamp? No. The Crusoes, Ali
| lJlOlS, IlllS M lilulSS III lDu IlttlNlG-
uses of our childhood are our real, warm
friends still; while the worthless and un-
worthless of our later reading are the half
forgotten actors in II dream.
1t would then seem to be self-evdent
that the greatest care should be taken to
provide our boys with pure literature
But what are the facts9
We do not suppose that the adult litera-
ture of our times compares unfavorably
for purity with that of any previous age.
If writer should smut his pages to-day
as have Shakespeare, Stone, Fielding, By
ron and the Christian Addison, classical
and popular representatives of various
ages of English Literature, he would be
arrested by the police. Imagine William
Cowper, Christian poet, reading "Jona-
than Wild 10 company of young ladies
in the year of our Lord 1877, and realize
that we have made progress in the direc
lion of purity in our adult literature. But
the unwholesome atmosphere from the
school of unclean hinters who represent the
nastiness of this age, the subtle delineation
of an unreal life by class of writer's pecul-
lar to the day, whom we know not how to
characterize, seem both to have had intlu-
ence in making up the popular stories that
our children read.
The Boys Weekly, having the largest
circulation in the Union, is issued by the
proprietor of the Days Doings, and par
takes or did partake year or two ago.
of that cesspools character.
We know publisher who has accepted
and paid for book for publication where
in is glowngly set forth the adventures of
Il boy and girl about fourteen years of age,
who run away from home together, and
whose adventures would find fit companion
ship in the Police Gdaette.
We know Of at least three instances
where boys have been influenced to run
away from home, by the books of a writer
for children, whose name is household
word in the homes of the land
Now these are representative facts
They mean something. They mean that
parents are careless about the reading
that they put into their children's hands
And our whole object in writing this arti.
Gle is to plead with parents MOTTO rush int
IL bookstore and buy for the children the
book that is the most profusely advertised
or that the bookseller recommends; but tC
give the subject us much attention, at least
as they give to purchasing butter and su.
gar, to the end that their children may bC
saved from the contamination of baC
books, or even from what Blanchard Jer
rold calls the inellable stufage OF the
mind. - GolIcn Rule.