Weekly graphic. [volume] (Kirksville, Adair Co., Missouri) 1880-1949, 1881-01-14
THE LITERATURE OF VICE.

DO parents know what sort of liter.
a!ure their boys and sometimes girls
are reading. Time was when he
who made the songs Of a nation might
say he cared not who made its laws;
to-day he who might be able to shape
the tone and character Of nations
literature could well say the
same. Much Of the popular juvenile
literature is positively unfit to be pu:
into the hands Of our youth. The
country has been flooded with this
stuff,,n which criminals are pictured as
heroes, and border rufians held mp as
ideals Of chivalric manhood" aid the
consequence is that such monsters
as the murderer Rande. becomes
one Of the products Of what is styled
our christian civilization. There is
another class of illustrated literature
which is haunted in the face of al
comers from every news stand ii the
land, almost without exception, bought
and read principally by boys ant
youths, and sometimes even by oul
girls. AS publications they are mere
garbage carts Of all the vicious, vile
and sensational occurrences Of the
day, gathered from every section o.
the country and illustrated with sug.
gestive "cuts" IN which the suggestion
is carried as far as the publisher dare
without rendering himself amenable to
the law. People, whose excessive
modesty is shocked by the pure and
classic art Of the ancients in statuary
and painting, which though nude car
les no suggestions with ii
other than that of harmony and
beauty, permit their children to pur-
chase, or themselves purchase and
read these publications which pander
only to the lowest instincts, and is a
record Of the doings of cut-throats,
burglars, unfaithful wives and hus.
bands, courtesans and outlaws. No
wonder such schools and such text
books should have their graduates.
We note that some of our exchang-
es, and among them leading journals
ofthe country, begin to argue that ed
cation,popularly supposed to be pan
acea for crime and misery, has proven
a failure. 1t is true from crowded
prisons, filled with ignorant criminals,
who cannot read or write. We have
progressed" 10 still more
wded pris file d
with educated criminals who CAN read
and write What does it mean7 1t
means that mere text book education
is not the sort of education that will
Danish crime. For crime has its liter
ature as well as science. Teaching
the boy to read is not going to make
a moral and cultured citizen of him
If his mind is to be cultivated by
the class Of literature above indicated.
People unconsciously become more or
less like their associates, and if they
read daily the lives, do
ngs, desires, and achievements of the
vicious. they must needs have an
exceptionally healthy mental and NOR
al organization to escape contamina-
ton. Parents are much to blame. 1t
is their privilege and their duty to see
that the young minds committed to
their care are drawn into proper chan
nels Of thought, and the more active
the mind and more promising the in
tellect the greater the necessity for
watchfulness and care. In conduct
ing the GRAPHIC it has been our spec
ial aim to guard against the publica-
ton Of anything as editorial, communi-
cation, selection, or advertisement
that might have a tendency in any
way to lower the moral sense or poison
the mind of the most youthful reader.
Give your children good, pure litera-
ture, or give them none at all.