Connecticut western news., 1879-02-19

some attention to the report of this paper which we printed, for there is nothing of higher concern for the parents of Hartford than what their children read.
 The readers of this paper will see that stress is laid not so much upon the demor- alization wrought by Ihe vicious story-pa- pers and Jack Sheppard sort of novels up- on the street boys and alrls, as upon the damage to children of the better class" from the trashy fiction which they are per mitted to read. What the writer says or hints about the Oliver Optic sort of booxs and the books that initiate baby-talk is perfectly true--they are worse than useless In fact, when we think of It, one can scarcely 90 too far in condemnation of the books written for children" in the past twenty-five years. And we are almost ready to say that no books should be writ ten for children-althou2h the writing of them furnishes livelihood to great many excellent people, and the publishing of them is the making of many book-pub- fishers. But the total effect of them has been pernicious. It would probably be a safe rule to publish no book winch will not naturally interest adults-that would let | hu oh ObO Uooh5 Wulcu WCl6 u QuuTUbT OI U century ago favorites with young people | such as the adventures of Robinson Crusoe. Children when they come to the reading age, will devour anything that IS within reach; it Is probably as easy to interest them in the best reading as in the worst. And it is safe to let them loose ID an 'adult" library. We do not mean to say that there are not books which will be hurtful to 0 ooy in many private library; but what we mean IS that boys and g,rls are not like ly to be injured by tho uuexpurgated ed.- tious of the English cass,cs. The youth has the happy shield of innocence and the ''coarseness" that he encounters ln such | reading makes no impression on him he actually sees and understands nothing that older and wiser and more sinful readers re- gard as improper. Never, we dare say, was a boy or girl injured by reading the Old Testament or Shakespeare.
 l It is the weak and wishy-washy literature that does the mischief It enfeebles the mind and predisposes it to the infection of bad liter ature. Better the strong, vigorous book with coarse words in it than the weak book with none but the most proper expressions. Let l girl begin with such books as the "Wide, Wide World. (we use this name as the type of a gem eral class of milk-and-water, though it may be | the best of the lot), and continue on reading the stories for girls that writers, mostly women have produced in the last twenty years, and I see what will be her mental condition ;see how habby it is, how averse to any reading that is Iinvigorating. The girl may never have read an improper book in her life, not even high spiced novel, aud yet she is in debilitated in- tellectual state, and the prey to a dangerous sentimentality.
 The remedy for the evils complained ofis, not easy, for most parents are little better ad- l visers of reading than their children. Most parents read little and read that which is weak if not bad. We have only to look at the class of cheap books which for some years have been most popular with ''parents"-the parents have been eating sort of grapes that have set the children's teeth on edge. In many homes the children could get good advice if the parents were not too busy, but in the majority of homes there is no one to direct their reading. Can they get any help in the public schools2 Certainly they ought to, but
 we think do not get much. And yet no part of the education of the public schools is so im- portant as implanting in the children taste
 for reading and giving them knowledge of | WnAb renulnS IS DeSV TOT them. At the SCHOOL
 the child can be reached by an intelligent and
 guiding mind.
 ! But there is one rt form that is within the
 reach of Christian people, that was not re- ) ferred to by the Social Science club. We
 mean the Sunday School library. As it stands,
 as it exists in most Sunday Schools, there is no
 more weakening and demoralizing influence
 that comes into our homes. The books, with
 few exceptions, are vapid to an incredible
 degree; they are silly stories, which are all
 the worse because thep give silly and sickly hue to all Christian virtue. The children
 read them as a sort of religious exercise-many
 good people, besides the publishers think it is
 8 religious exercise. There are little children !, in Hartford now who have read through every
 book in a pretty large Sunday school library.
 Think of it; take those books and see what utter moral ''slush" most of them are; and
 then think of the years the child has wasted
 on them, when it might have read books that
 are books. ana of the feebleness of mind that
 has ensued. This Sunday school literature,
 recommended as it is by religious sanction, is
 the open door to other weak and slckly fodder to the mind. When a child has had Q , thorough course of this Sunday school stuff,
 there is nothing he cannot take in that is feeble and bad. C0trant.
 STATE NEWS.