New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1878-06-06
DINE NOVELS AND BOY BANDITs


AdolDh Baldschmieder has been sent by tbs
General Sessions to the State Prison 10,
eight years. for the mature offences of hob-
way robbery and attempt to kill He Ia.
achieved this distinction at the tender age of
sixteen years. There is something positively
startling in Master Baldscameiders felonious prs.
eocity. He may be called the Infant Phenomenon
Of the Tombs. Before doing business in New-York
he Dractised. pistol in hand, as highway-bov
IN Texas Had he staid there he might
have achieved the bonOrs Of a lynching. Returns
ing to New-YOrk when not at home, he, with two
other lads who called him leader, has occupied
cave near Macomb's Dam, for all the world like
cave in Gil Bias. The precious trio, on the 18th OF
May, took to the road armed and equipped az trad.
ton directs. They actually shot traveller on
ne-hundred-and-seyenty-f rst-st. and then re-
tired to the cave sagain, which they
had fitted up with a bed and kitchen
conveniences. When sentenced Adolph did rot
appear to be much distressed. He evidently re-
garded the judicial PROCEEDINGS quite the regular
thing and as a natural episode IN the drama Of
brayO's life.
Being Intercepted, young Baldschmeider attrib-
uted his fall from grace and his morning deprayity
to a constant perusal of Dime Novels, in which the
exploits of robbers and burglars were set forth as
and chivalrous character. 1t must be admitted
that the fault was in the book rather than in the
price. Excellent tracts the merit Of which nobody
disputes, and the morality of which Is
undoubted, are sold for a much smaller
sum of money. Again, it must be al
lowed that many boy might have swallowed
the entire contents of the Baldschmeider
collection without injury to his moral diges-
ton. But when such books are read by
lads surrounded by cOunteracting influences of no
better character they confirm, even if they do not
originate, evil propensities Really they are not
much better than many of the uncomfortable publi-
cations which are under the direct ban Of the
law. They find readers prepared to be de-
luded and misled. They cooperate with cOlsti-
tutiOnal propensities, neglect, deStitutiOn evil
associations of all kinds. They work
their mischief accordingly. Those who sell
them cannot in many cases be held
amenable to the law. There is nothing absolutely
indecent in the stories. If Fagin should set mp q
school in New-York for the purpose Of teaching
the mysteries of pocket picking to Artful Dodgers
and to Charley Bateses the discovery of his acad-
envy and his arrest would be simultaneous. But
nothing can be done with those who for the
sake of gain teach friendless boys that
larceny is little thing, and that highway robbery
is a chiYalrous vocation. 1ney are qme
at liberty to sell in the streets and at
the stalls their badly conceived. badly written,
badly printed and badly illustrated books How
much mischief they do. it Is impossible exactly to
state Nobody who knows anything of the matter
thinks it to be insignificant
Already this evil has engaged the attention OF
some of our first philanthrOpists. We have received
many communications on the subject asking ifthere
is no remedy for this species of moral contagOn.
The readest one, 1t appears to u.s. is the mutipca-
ton Of books at the same time harm
less cheap and instructive. good book
can be az well printed for ten cents as o
bad one. A moral story can be made as
entertaining as an immoral one. lad, if 1t were
thrown IN his way, and sold at price within his
means would as readily read a well-written volume
of travels as a. The Pirates Own Book" What he
wants, and lie is entitled to it, is intellec-
tual excitement which might be made whole
some instead of deleteriOus. Perhaps if greater
pains were taken by the charitable TO supply this
undeniable want, the sO-called " Dime Novels
might in time become much less numerous, and DO
in much smaller demand