The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1879-12-20
The Effects of Dime.Noyel Reading.

Willie Elliot was his name III was
ten years OF age and lived in New York
He was bright boy, fond of reading,
of his parents, he was able to read ali
the dime novels he could find Filled
with the spirit of adventure naturally
excited by such thrilling literature, he
ran away from school one day last sum
mer and disappeared. AT night he did
not come home. Search was instituted
and vigorously maintained for two or
three days, but no ti1ings were received
of the missing boy. The police were no.
titled and the detectives set at work to
invent theories and imagine clues, but
nothing came OF w The boy had van.
ished as completely as if the earth had
opened and swallowed him. His be-
reayed parents finally gave up the
search and mourned him as dead
BY accident, not long since, the
mother learned that a little boy resem-
bling hers had been arrested in Septem-
Der for larceny. Investigation showed
that this was indeed the missing child /;
and by following up the clue the par
ents scevered that he had been ar
raigned in October for petty larceny +;
that he made no revelation as to his
identity or that of his parents, and that
upon trial he pleaded guilty and was
sentenced to three months imprison-
msntin the Protectory. There the pa
rents found him serving out his sem
tenee.
The story he told illustrates, in a way
that can hardly fail to reach the heart
of the most Indifferent parent, the evils
of the literature referred to. When he
ran away from school he met some
youngsters who pursuaded him to spend
the night with them in barn. The
novelty of the situation attracted him,
aud the subsequent proceedings were so
much like what he had read about that
he readily consented To all that his new
found friends asked of him. They were
all older than he, and had formed them
selves into band, with oaths and pass
words, and grips and other parapher-
MALTA of mystery and secrecy. Into this
baud they solemnly inflated the little
ten-year-old lad, who was then told that
the object OF the organization was plum
der. Being a new member, he was given
excep ional opportunities of distinguish
ing himself; and it was while engaged
in stealing for the society that he was
caught, with the result already mar
rated. Young as he was, and tenderly
as he had been nurtured, he refused TO
betray his companions, or to disclose the
name OF his parents, lest by that means
the gang" should be injured. With
pluck worthy of an older heart and bet
ter cause, he chose rather to go to prison
Jhan--as he himself put tito "squeal."
The story might almost be accepted as
one of the dime novel yarns, the in
iquity of which it so strikingly shows,
were it not for its having the hero in
prison. In the genuine tale the hero
never comes to grief, but always to glory
or gain, whether his career is that of
hunter. sailor or thief. 1t is this feat
ure of the Infamous literature which
commends it so thoroughly to the juve-
nile imagination, aud secures for itsuch
enthusiastic perusal. Units baneful eff
fects upon the community, and especi-
ally upon the youth of the country, it is
worse, if possible, than the literature
which, is receiving just now such signal
condemnation. And it is so because it
is read openly and without any remon-
STRANGE from parents or guardians,
while the other, if read at ALL must be
read secretly