The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1881-02-24
CHERISH GOOD BOOKS AND RE.
JECT BAD ONES.

JECT BAD ONES.
Touching what it is proper tc
read, Talmage says: ... ''
Abstain from all those books
which, while they have some good
things about them, have also an ad-
mixture of evil. You have read
books that have had the two ele.
ments in them, the good and the
bad. ........
WHICH STUCK TO YOU?
The bad! The heart of most peo-
pie is like a sieve which lets the
small particles of gold fall through,
but keeps the great cinders. sOnce
in a while there is mind like load
stone, which, plunged amid steel
and brass filings, gathers up the steel
and repels the brass. But 1T is gen.
orally just the opposite. If you at
tempt to plunge through a hedge of
burs to get one blackberry, you will
get more burs than black berries.
You can not afford to read bad
book, however good yousare. You
say: "The influence is. insignifi-
can't" tell you that the scratch of
pin has sometimes produced lock-
jaw. Alasi if through curiosity, as
many do, you pry into an evil book,
your curiosity Is as dangerous as
that of the man who should take a
torch into a gunpowder mill merely
to see whether 1t really would blow
up as". .y5a H499If
Some years ago, In a menagerie in
New. York, q mans put his hand
through the bars of q black leopard's
cage. The animals side looked SO
sleek and bright and beautiful He
justlstroked it once. The monster
seized him, and he drew forth the
hand torn and mangled and bleed
ing. Oh, touch not evil, even with
the gentlest stroke; though 1t may
be glossy and beautiful touch it not,
lest you pail forth your soul torn
and bleeding under the clutch of
the black leopard. "Bnt,0 you say,
how can i find out whether q book
il good or bad without reading itT'
There Is always something sUspi=
cious- about a b Id book. I never
knew an exception. Something sus-
picious in the index or style. of illus
tration. This venomous reptile
almost always carries a warning
Again I charge you toistand off
from all those books which corrupt
the Imagination and infame the pas
sions. l do not refer now to that
kind of a book which The villain has
under his coat waiting for theschool
.fo beIout, and, then looking, both
ways to see that there Is no police.
man round the block. offers the
book toSyour son on his way home.
Il do not speak OF that kind of liter
fature, but of that which eyades the
.aw and comes out in polished style
and with acHte plot sounds the toe
sin that rouses up all the. baser pas :
sions of the. soul. Years ago q
French lady came forth as an au-
fhoress under the assumed name of
George Sand. She smoked cigars.
She wore gentlemen's apparel. She
stepped OFF the bounds of decency.
She wrote with a style ardent, elo-
quent, mighty in its gloom, horrible
in its unchastity, glowing in its
DAMNING IN ITS EFFECTS,
transf sing into the libraries and
homes of the world an evil that has
not yet ev;n be IN to relent; aud
sire las here pyists in all lands. To
day, under the nostrils ofiyonr city,
is a foetid, re. king, ,'unEashed iiter;l-
ture, enough to poison all the 1uunr
tains of pubic virtue, and spits
your sons and daughters as with the
wing of a. destroying angel, AMI It is
time that the ministers of the gos-
pei blew the, trumpet and rallied the
forces of righteousness, all armed 70
the teeth, in this great battle sgainit
depraTed literature. ia.g l9s9 -.t,
Again, abstain from those, books
which are apologetic of crime. Ii
is a sad thing that some. of the best
and most beautiful bookbinding and
some Of the finest rhetoric have been
brought to make sin attractive.
Vice is a horrible thing anyhow. II
is born in shame. and dies in the
darkness. In this 5Yorld it is scourg-
ed with a whip of scorpions, but af-
t.rward the thunders Of Gods
wrath pursue it across a boundldss
dessert, beating it with ruin and
voc. When you come TO paint car
nality do not paint 1t. .as looking
from behind embroidered curtains
or through lattice of royal seragiio-
but as writhing in the agonies of a
city hospital. Cursed be helboots
that try to make impurity decent,
and crime attractive and 1hypoc-
risy noble! Cursed be the books
that swarm with fibertines. and des-
peradoes who make the brain. of the
young people whirl with .yillanyf
Ye-authors who. write them, ye
publishers who print them, ye book
sellers who distribute them, shall
be cut to pieces, If. not by an arous-
ed community, then at last by the
aid of divine vengeance, which -
SHALL SWEEP 10 THE LOWEST PIT
of perditfon all you murders of souls,