The Tiffin tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1868-1887, 1878-11-14
CDRRTPT LITERATU RE.
do Eh..! nf Reading Firtion.

tween the sexes az hoIne and IN So
ciety then yOu viii not find our girls
feeding their minds and souls upon the
corrupt and cOrrupting fiction Of To-
das. burning ont life and moral uTin-
ciple with such altar fires; nor will
you find our BOYS. thus crt on from
home. learning vice on the street cor
ncrs from the low. the vulgar and the
dehaSed. When these relations are
properly established and the home cir
Gle Is made what il ought 10 be. and so
ciety Is ordered on the same principles.
then you will not lind thai the pub
fishers Of The New York Le8geF and
Mrs. WOOdwOrth's novels are making
more money than the UNCONVENTIONAL
publishing houses of OUT land. Pure
lictiOn Is Il valuable educational intiu-
ence: but the press of our land does
not furnish pure fiction. Our news de-
/ pots are not crowded with this class of
Literature. But 90 into any news de
pot and note the sales. From the New
\ Ork Lesiger down, down past the PO-
. lice Guzette, etc, until YOU come TO the
five and ten-ccnt editions of current
stories. and the whole of them. from
beginning To end, are mighty educa-
catiOnal influences i'm our land TO
/ righteousness. From the reading of
( these papers and books are instilled III
/ To the minds of our youth low ideas of
. moral principles, and forth they 90 to
make life Il wreck and ruin. The
. marriage altar is a mOckery; the di-
. yurcr court is a success: the social evil
and tine solitary vice SOW their seeds of
death and hell broadcast. And why?
Because We refuse To honor Gods laws
made in the beginning. Nor can /
leave this subject without dwelling
more at length upon the peril arising
from the literature to-day flooding our
/ land. Let us notice here some of the
steps taken; how they gr0dt0liy go
| down at first, but rapidly increase in
speed until they end in total ruin.
{ Pick up, if YOU please one of the pa
/ perS sold to our boys and girls in our
news depOts; take any article you
( please. There is not absolutely a single
/ one in whole years publication, so
Z far as can discover, that contains 4
single noble sentiment, or which is
/ capable Of arO'sing single worthy as
I piratiOn. Even Oliver Optics books
never inculate religious truth nor a
moral principle, as distinguished from
| physical prOweSS or heroic hraYadO.
Our parents and teachers do not know
what our boys and girls are reading.
We are only beginning 10 feel the Sc
r;OuS results.
y mother not long ago congratulated
herself on her skill in raising her boys,
considering her success wonderful be
cause, fOrSOOth, they had never been
arraigned before police court. And
well she might feel so, when we con-
slider the education and training
through which boys to-day are passing.
Notice, if YOU please. some of the re-
suits. 4 New York paper recently
contained the following: Mine boys
were committed in a police court in
| this city on Saturday on charges of
| burglary and larceny, and only one of
! these precious criminals was over y
years of age" About the same time,
| i'm the same city. young man (AdOlph
| BalSchmeideTD was sentenced for high
way robbery and attempt to kill. lie
| had reached the mature age of 10.
With two other lads, who called him
their leader, he occupied a cave, fitted
up in fair style. The three, armed on
Dick Turpin principle, went into the
! business of highway robbery and shot
! 4 man in the outskirts of the city. He
/ bOasted of having been in the business
/ in Texas before coming north, and of
/ having killed a man. His sentence of
l eight years was considered by him an
/ honor TO be bravely endured. He reads
almost exclusively dime novels and
acknowledges that they formed his
career, to which his life is to be de-
voted.
Within the last two or three years
the society for the prevention of vice
in New York City has revealed won
deTful facts in this direction, concern
ing the circulation of obscene litera-
ture. Dealers in New 1-OrK nave UlIriI
secret agencies for the dissemination
of this literature throughout the entire
country. This society has had knOWl-
edge of over G.O9O different dealers in
the United States. They have by legal
process seized and destroyed more
than 100000 obscene pictures, songs,
etc. and more than 100000 licentiOuS
books. within one wear. These facts
show the alarming extent to which
this traffic is carried on. Personally ]
have watched with concern the grow
ing number of BOYS and young men
from Is to % years of age who are en-
gagged in buying and circulating this
class Of literature in all our towns and
cities.
You all may have seen Harpers car
ricatureS. \ boy holds Il paper in his
hand; a pictre-an Indian trying to
kill a white woman; a man stabs the
Indian; the shop window before which
the boy stands is filled with knives,
guns, etc. 1t is styled Immortal Long
ings.
1t is this class of literature put into
the hands of our boys, upon which
their minds are fostered, that makes it
possible for so many Of our daily pa
pers to publish whole pages of matter,
with leaded headlines, which no gen
tleman of culture would be willing to
read aloud at the breakfast table before
| his wife and daughters. Is there any
| thing less than peril to be found in all
this? | tell you nay. Look at il
moment. Put your boy under such in
| fluenceS and under such education I'M
til he becomes a man grown; allow
YOUR daughter similar privileges; per-
nit her mind to be filled with the Sen-
timental depravity found in the So
called literary weeklies; let her grow
up under such educational influences;
let Your son keep company with such
4 Young lady; your daughter with such
a young man; at some time let them
marry and be given in marriage. Tell
me, honestly, what will be the mental
! powers and The physical conditions of
! the children born in such homes? In
! the name of reason. of sound sense.
can YOU wonder if they have weak
minds. inhamed passions, corrupt
morals? / tell You Gods laws are in
| flexible, ;Uld they who heed them not
must reap the results.
But suppose these Illustrations are
| extreme. do we not realize that the
mind filled with such literature is not
l in 4 condition to receive sound inStTuc-
I tiOn and disciplme2 y son was sent
home in disgrace from public school.
| He was apparently bright enough hut
/ he could not learn his lessons. His
| father was q judiciOus man. He wait
ed and watched. He discovered at last
/ that he was continually reading cheap
/ literature. Calling his son, he said:
| NV son. / wish YOU 10 ill that basket
with sound apples from the cellar"
/ He Obeyed. Now empty them on the
/ floor; 60 fill the basket half full of
straw and chips and bring it in to me"
/ Again the son Obeyed. Now" said
/ the father, put the apples back into
/ the basket He began, but soon found
no more room for them. Put them
I in sternly demanded the father. but
/ cannot" replied the son. Put them
all in was the repeated command.
-But. father, how can II" asked the
son. "0f course you cannot said the
father; mo more can You fill your
brain with sound learning and at the
same time have it filled with dime
novels and the contents Of the New
/ York Ledger. One or the other must
stay Out-So, my son. expect YOU to
leave out the trash and put in the wis
dom 1t is not necessary for me to
I enlarge on this illustration. Its lesson
/ reveals the peril-Rer. E. 4. Stone.