The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1881-11-16

and his last words to this lady who had been
his only friend were: "Warn, warn all young
people whom you know to let those foolish
books alone. They are very silly but they do
harm to many, aud they ruined me. They
take you one step on the bad road, and the
| rest comes easy.
There are great many tree-frog minds, as
somelone has expressed it, minds that take
| their color from that on which they feed.
| Among our boys and girls there are ten thous-
and of these tree frog minds, who feed on
worthless fiction and whose whole lives will bo
colored by it.
"What do you read" said the late James 7.
| Fields upon visit to the Boston boy hend
Jesse Pomeroy, convicted, as you remember,
for torturing and killing three children, 'just
for the fun of the thing" "What do you
read?' said Mr. Fields. "Mostly one kind"
was the reply ''mostly dime novels" "Aud
what is the best book you have read?"
"Well, !" he replied, 81 like Buffalo Bill best.
| It's full of murders aud pictures about mur-
ders" "Aud how do you feel after reading
| it?' 80, feel as If wanted to go and do
the same
But the great danger of these books Is not
| that few morbidly ferocious boys like jesse
| Pomeroy, or a few maudlin feather-headed
girls will be ruined by this trashy novel read
| ing. These results are probable enough and
deplorable enough, but the great danger Is
that the mass of our boys aud girls, who are
er-hesded shall be tainted by this
| mass of printed corruption. Like the
| exhalations from foul but unseen sewer it
may poison the very air our children breathe
before We wake up to the fact that the air is
poisoned.
The tendency OF all these books and papers is
| to render foul and disease-spreading the very
| springs of our national life. Are you willing,
my friends, TO return 10 the age OF Rabelais and
| Boccacio? Are you willing that your children
| should take to their hearts the reeking filth OF
| the Decameron and the Heptameron and the
| deadly smut of the tragedies of the 17th centu-
| ry?
| Just in this direction does this literature
which discussing tend. do not mean
that suppose that books like those of Rabe-
lsis and Boccacio could ever resume their sway
and occupy again the position that once they
held at the head and front of literature, but l
do mean that unless we guard, such
books may be the food of the iliterate where
they will do vastly more harm. While the ar
istocracy OF letters may be holding their virtu-
GUS high-toned noses the common people may
be devonring this very garbage with avidity.
La sister nation across the water literature is
still notoriously corrupt. This trash which
boys are reading cultiVates the very same tastes
to which Eugene Sue and George Sand have
catered. Tue most serious count which many
Frenchmen bring against the Protestant refor-
nation, now prevailing in that country, is that
it is creating demand for Puritanic litera-
ture and is supplying that demand while it is
In deadly and uncompromisng opposition to
loose morals and loose literature,
Even NJ. Taine, fair and just he usually
IS cannot repress a sneer at the morality Of
English novels. "Be moral" he says, is the
motto OF English novelists. "All your novels
must be- such as may be read by young girls.
Love is the hero of all George Sands novels.
Married or not she thinks it beautiful, holy,
sublime in itself, and she says SO. Don't be-
leve this, and if you do believe it don't say it.
George Sand paints impassioned women,
paint you for us good women. George Saad
makes US desire to be in love; do you make US
desire to be married" F"
= l.. IA. i. .
"Art suffers by it il the public gains. No mat
ter; you may console yourself with the thought
that you are moral. In Nicholas Nickleby you
will show two good young men, like all young
men, marrying two good young women like all
young women. In Martin Chuzzewit you will
show US two more good young men, perfectly
resembling the other two, marrying again two
good young women perfectly resembling the
other two In DOmbey and Son there will be
only one good young man and one good young
woman-otherwise no difference. And so on.
The reader would like to say to these eharac-
ters 'gsod little people, continue to be very
proper.
fair minded Frenchman can sneer at the purity
of English literature.
Do you desire TO exchange. our Dickens for a
George Sand our Thackeray for Eugene Sue,
our j. g. Holland for ZOIa? Toward lower
ing the tone of public morality, toward paving
the way for making justsu books the nation
al literature OF our land these exciting, pernc-
ious novels directly tend.
IL would take long evening TO recount the
sins of this pernicious reading will not weary
you further with their evil tendencies but 81 m
ply say in a word, these stories from beginning
to end, from caption TO finis, are direct inciIe-
ments to guilt, and tend to debauch the mind
of every young person who reads them.
II is important to consider the cause of this
evil. IL is more important to consider its ten
deacy. 1t is most important OF all to consider
its cure.
1 will not detain you to speak of the great
consuming force which q healthy, vigorous,
seIf-asserting public sentiment may exert in
Gripping if not totally disabling this demon;
nor of our duty in the line of counteracting the
bad by snpplanting it with the good; nor will l
dwell upon the mighty corrective force OF wise
and watchful parental authority, for in other
deliverances have dwelt upon all these reme-
dies.
Let me simply refer you to some things which
think the law may do if backed by the right
sentiment If he lawmakers felt that they had
the best men of the community behind them.
/ have already said the men aud women of
Portland would not allow for a single hour an
outrageously lewd and shameless picture in
auy of our shop windows; why should they al
low the scarcely less harmful stories, unrs-
buked to tempt our youth from Monday morn
ing TO Saturday night? You would not allow
a prize fight or bull fight to take place within
the bounds of this municipality. Why should
you allow scenes of greater cruelty and shame
lessness to be exhibited to our boys and girls
every day in different form without protest?
You would not allow Leadville Luke or Rat
ting Rube to ride through these streets of ours
shooting and robbing to their hearts content.
Why should you allow th em, decked in all the
pleasing colors of romance to roam through the
imaginations of your children? Leadville Luke
running muck seven times week through
our streets undisturbed would not do as much
harm as at present he and his class accomplish
in the minds of the young. M
If we have law enough to shut up drunken
man simply because he is noisy and boisterous,
is there not law enough to shut away from the
sight of our boys and girls those books and pic
lures which will do them more harm than q
regiment of druuksrds? III we have law enough
to incarcerate behind the heavy bars of an asy-
lum a man who is insane, on the mere possiOil-
ity that he may become dangerous and injure
his fellow men in life or limb is there not law
enough to burn every bad book, every vile pa
per which we know, just as surely as 1t is sold
aud passes into the hands of our young people,
cannot fail to harm them more than the blow
of lunatic? Ii we have law enough to COM
pei the cleaning out of filthy sewers that may
poison the physical health Of the community
have we not law enough to clean out these
d,tchwater books and papers which will surely
poison the morals of the community? How
long, We fathers and citizens of Portland, would
you ALLOW a reeking, filthy ditch OF corrupsiug
nastiness in the most frequented and busy
streets of this city? And yet you allow books
and papers to which the same adjectives may
be applied without abatement to infest the
shop windows on dozen streets.
1 think we exaggerate the difficulty of deal
ing with this evi. A mere threat OF legal pro-
ceedings would often accomplish the good re-
suits aimed at. This club has already been in-
strumentsl in Kidding the city of one Of the
worst of these nuisances. Perhaps the facts
may not be known to all of you. Some months
agp word came to me from friend in Lewiston
that a vile, filthy sheet called the Phonograph
had lately been driven out of that city aud had
established itself here found that it was so,
that it was one of the lowest of the low, that it
was being hawked about our streets, that large
editions were sold, that it was taken to our
schoolhouse doors and offered to our children
as they came out. acquainted some of the
members of this club with these facts, and we
secured, as far as possible the cooperation of
legal and municipal authorities, which was
readily given. A committee was appointed
from this club to prosecute aud If possible stop
this publication. One more issue, full OF brag
and bluster and abuse, was all that came from
this press, for as soon as this editor and publish
er saw thai this committee meant business, ar
rant coward that he was he ran away.
What has been done can be done. l am not
a visionary enthusiast in this matter. / do not
know as public sentiment is yet ripe enough to
sustain the law in prohibiting the blood and
l.. a..