The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1881-02-24

books that have mad the two elements
in them, the good and the bad. Which
stuck to your The bad; The heart OF
most people is like sieve which lets the
small particles of gold fall through, but
keeps the great cinders. Once in while
there is lind like loadstone, which
plunged amid steel and brass filings
gathers up the steel and repels the brass.
But it is generally just the opposite. Ii
you attempt to plunge through a hedge
of burs to get one blackberry, you will
get more burrs than blackberries. lou
can not afford to read bad book, now
ever good you are. You say: The inhu'
ence is insignificant tell you that the
scratch OF pin has sometimes produced
the lock jaw. Alasl ii through curiosity,
as many do, you pry into an evil book,
your curiosity is as dangerous as that OF
the man who should take torch into
gunpowder mill, merely to see if it really
would blow up.
Some years ago, in menagerie in New
York, man put his hands through the
bars of black leopard's cage. The
animals hide looked 80 sleek and bright
and beautiful. He just stroked 1t once.
The monster seized him, and he drew
forth the hand torn and manged and
bleeding. Oh, touch not evil, even with
the faintest stroke; though it may be
glossy and beautiful, touch it not, lest
you pull forth your soul torn and bleed
ing under the clutch of the black leopard.
But" you say, show can find out
whether a book is good or bad without
reading it2" There is always something
suspicious about bad book, never
knew an exception. Something suspic-
ious in the index or the style of illustra'
ton. This venomous reptile almost al
ways carries warning rattle. Again, l |
charge you to stand off from all those
booD which corrupt the imagination |
and infame the passions. | do not refer |
now to that kind of a book which the |
villain las under his coat waiting for the |
school to be out, and then, looking both |
ways to see that there is no policeman
round the block, offers the book to your |
son on his way home. do not speak OF |
that kind ofliterature, but Of that which |
evades the law and comes out in polish
ed style and with acute plot, sounds the |
teCsn that rouses up all the baser pas
sions of the soul. Years aqo French |
lady came forth as an authoress 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 style ardent,
eloquent mighty in its gloom, horrible |
in its unchastity, glowing in its verbiage, |
vivid in its portraiture, damning in it's |
effects, transfusiDg into the libraries and |
houses of the world an evil that it has not |
even begun to resent; and she has her |
Copyists in all lands. To-day, under the
nostrils of your city, there is fetid,
reeking, unwashed literature, enough to
poison all the fountains of public virtue,
and smite your sons and daughters as
with the wing of destroying angel, and |
it is time that the ministers of the Cos
pei blew the trumpet and rallied the |
forces of righteousness, all armed to the |
teeth in this great battle against de- |
PRAYED literature. Again, abstain from |
those books which are apologetic of
crime. 1t is sad thing that some Of the |
best and most beautiful book bindery |
and some of the finest rhetoric has been |
brought to make sin attractive. Vice is |
horrible thing anyhow. 1t is born in
shame, and it dies bowling in the dark
ness. In this world it is scourged with
a whip of sCoi pions, but sfterward the
thunders of Gods wrath pursue it across |
a boundless desert, beating it with ruin |
and woe. When you come to paint car
nality do not paint it as looking from |
behind embroidered curtains or through |
lattice of royal seraglio, but as writhing
in the sgonies of the city hospital Curs-
ed be the books that try to make i'm.
purity decent, and crime attractive, and |
hypocrisy nobel Cursed be the books
that swarm with libertines and despera-
does who make the brain of the young
people whirl with villainy
Ye authors that write them, ye pub
fishers who print them, ye booksellers
who distribute them, shall be cut 10
pieces, if not by an aroused community,
then ut last by Divine vengenCe, which
shall sweep to the lowest pit of perdition
all ye murderers of souls. The clock
strikes midnight. Fair form bends over
romance. The eyes fash fire. The
breath is quick and irregular. 0cCas.
ionally the color dashes to the cheek,
and then dies out. The hands tremble, as
though guardian spirit were trying to
shake The deadly book out of the grasp.
Hot tears fall. She laughs with shrill
voice that drops dead at it's own sound.
The sweat on her brow is the spray dash.
ed up from the river of death, the clock
strikes four and rosy dawn soon after
begins to ,ook through the lattice upon
the pale form that looks like a detained
specter of the night. Soon in madhouse
she will mistake her ringlets for curling
serpents, and thrust her white hands
through the bars of the prison, and smite
her head, rubbing it back as though to
push the scalp from the skull, shrieking
My brain! my brainl' Oh, stand off from
that. Why will you 60 sounding your
way amid the reefs and warning buoys,
when there Is such vast ocean in which
to voyage, all sails set There is one
other thing | shall say before / leave
you this morning, whether you want to
hear it or not and that is that | consid.
or the unClean pictorial literature of the
day as most tremendous for ruin. There
is no one who can ike good pictures bet.
ter than | do The quickest and most
condensed way of impressing the public
mind is by picture. What the painter
NOOp w hAo bluph lOA q low 4hNOIllCb Jl6 |
engraver does by his knife for the mill
lion. What lhs author aCcomplishes by
fifty pages the artist does by flash. The
best part of a painting that costs $4,000
you may buy for ten cents. Fine paint
lngs belong to the aristoCracy of art. En-
graVings belong to the democracy of art.
You do we'll to gather good pictures in
your home. Spread them before your
children after the tea hour is past and
the evening circle is gathered. Throw
them on invalid's couch. Strew them
through the rail-train to cheer the trav.
eler on his journey. Tack them on the
walls of the nursery. Gather them in
albums and portfolios. God speed the
good pictures on their way with minis.
tries of knowledge and mercy. But
what shall say of the prostitution Of
this art to purposes Of iniquity.
These death warrants of the soul ere
at every street corner. They smito the