Weekly graphic. [volume] (Kirksville, Adair Co., Missouri) 1880-1949, 1882-12-08
/. PIE, FOR LIGHT LITERATURE.
tContributed.)

receives more abuse from the press
pulpit and lecture rostrum than what /!
| popularity denominated Light Litera
ture. This is usually understood to bt
| the class of stories published in stor,
papers and in pamphlet form, ranging
all the way from five cents to twenty II
price. Usually the men who attach
this class of literature know the leas
about it. 1t is called sensational
blood-and.thunder, and every othel
name gwen it, calculated to advertise
it to the young. There is no class o
literature about which so many unblush
ing falsehoods have been told ale
written, as about this. The newspaper:
and pulpit orators tell us of the host O
bandits made by this class ofltelature
it makes the youth of the land outlaws
they run away from home and break
hearts. and do terrible things to the
country.
There is not word of this true. No
one ever heard of a boy running away
to "join the pirates" save readlngls IN
some sensational newspaper far more
dang erous than the literature they at
tack. To know whether light literature
or blood. and-thunder literature makes
bandits or not, let US look at some of
our noted outlaws. The favorlte read
ing OF Jesse James was newspapers
and political speeches. The favorlte
reading OF Frank James is said to be
the Bible and Shakespeare.
Now, would it be policy to drive the
Bible and Shakespeare from society
because Frank James chose to read
them7 There is as much reason in
saying they make outlaws as there IS
in saying lighter fiction did. A Ger.
tain newspaper in this town and GER
tain speaker on the rosuum has stated
that the Brookfeld bank robbery was
the outgrowth of reading blood-and-
thunder fiction. This told a hundred
miles away from here might be believed
but the men who captured the robbers
say they found instead of light itera-
ture, a Bible, Shakespeare, complete
set of medical books, and Webster's
Unabridged Dictionary. The news-
paper and the speaker above referred
to arc either guilty of recklessness Of
speech or downright falsehood.
1t goes on thus 10 the end. Facts
will not bear out the assertions made
against light. even blood-and-thurdcr
literature, and did it possess some O.!
the evils charged to it, will the sup
preston of it justify newspapers, pro-
fessors and even ministers of the gos-
pei to wllfully lie in regard to it. We
think not. Our Bible says, Thou
shalt not lie. There was a sad acci-
cident happened in our town few
months age.
A little boy shot another. Instantly
blood and thunder literature was at
tackled by these high and holy men.
Later it was discovered that they were
going through play they had learned
at school when the gun accidentally
went off.
Ifthese newspaper men, College pro-
fessors, and Ministers were as well ac-
auainted with history as they should be,
they would know that there were more
outlaws, runaways and pirates before a |
novel was ever written than now. Was
t novel reading that made Cain kill
lis brother Abel2 was it reading blood
md thunder stories that filled the north
ern seas with Danish pirates? Was 1t
novel reading that filled the great Sa-
hara with robbers Was it novel
eading that made Capt. Kidd pirate
The only book history records him as
,aving was bible and he burned that.
Vas it novel reading that filled the
Vest Indies with Buccaneers and so
rippled the commerce of all nations
n those waters that they were compell-
d to send armies and fleets against
hem. Who knows that John A. Muir
ell, the noted Mississippi outlaw was a
ovel reader. He was before the
lood and thunder novels day, and the
ames Boys and their gang are not re-
orted as readers of light fiction.
There is no prof that even the blood
nd thunder novel ever made an out.
w. On the other hand if We put any
18th in the blographers of James A.
arfield. we must believe that it was
,adlng a pirate story which first I'M. ;
elled him to be a man whose name
lould be spoken with praise by every ,
alton.