National Republican., 1884-02-25
DOWN ON NOVELS.
DR.. s. K. Cox Thinks Light Literature Has a
PerniCiOus Effect on The Mind.
Hc Unspnringly and Justly Condemns
the Flash Fiction of the Day.

Rev. DR.. Cox, of the Mount Vernon Place
NJ. f. church, preached last night on tho
text, l Tim, iv 10, 5--"Givo attendance to
reading"
The introduction was upon the history of
printing and printing presses, the toll, time,
and energy expended, and the costly sums
paid by noted personages for volumes which
in their days were considered priceless treas.
uros. Tho wonders of the printing press of
tho present day were commented on, apart
from the publication of the various daily
newspapers weekly periodicals, story papers,
magazines, aud reviews. Not less than sew
onty new books are daily issued from
the American press, an aggregate
of 2j,550 year These books must be read,
or they would not DO published. What Is
their character? Good reading, like good
food, supplies the mental faculties with health
iul stimulus. If it be unwholesome it cannot
fail to disorder the system. The Americans
are cOnfessedly q nation of readers But what
do we read? Everybody reads the papers
These have become so cheap as to come into
the homes of both rich and poor. They con-
tain the current history and literature OF the
day. The newspaper has its indispensable
place in our general literature. Its
universal circulation gives it u wide
spread power for good or evil.
That its influence is sometimes on tho side
of evil cannot bo denied. The too prevalent
practice, not simply of reporting criminal oc-
currences as matters Of fact but minutcly
dwelling upon them III all their disgusting
details, tends to that familiarity with vice
which robs 1t Of its enormity and encourages
Its repetition. Often, too, tho perpetrators of
crime are invested with mock heroism that
throws. glare over their evil deeds
which, If it does not excuse thom, at
least tonds to conceal their atrocity.
Prominence is given to every utterance
and every act of notorious criminal
during his Incarceration or upon the scaflold
which magnifes him into undue Importance
and induces the belief in some minds that the
greater the crime the greater the glory. So
far as tho newspaper does this IL takes on the
character of the sensational novel, and in one
direction at least is productive of the same
pernicious effects. A very large proportion
of tho books published are works Of fiction.
The public libraries show that from 6S to IS
per cent. of the books taken out to be read
are novels. Light reading supplapts the
heavier literature Statistics show that three
fourths of the novel reading is given to the
lowest attainable class of literature.
Not only is the novel uninstructiye but
vicious and harmful. The imagination is
fed with illusive visions until the actual be-
comes insipid and distasteiul. The passions
are excited by appeals until they defy re-
straint. Many of tho women of America find
their mental diet and exhilarations in the
novelettes Of certain weeRlies or monthies
and the long line Of fctions written by ex-
perts of the Mrs. Southworth school, wherein
the suppositious characters and scenes result
in terrible revolts against social safety.
Marriage is virtually ignored and treated US
conventional and tyrannical restraints to be
set aside at convenience or choice He
would not say how far this agency
played Its. its +. part, but it was
about a sad condition of affairs. The most
serious attack Of this prurient and pernicious
literature is upon the youth Of the country
Its avenue of thought is through the flash
newspaper and the dime novel. Their gen.
eral uniform is illustrated by sensational
headlines and tawdry wood cuts. Twenty
five of these papers are published in New
York, and it is estimated that they have
100000 readers week. The Police Gazette,
The Boys 0lcn, buffalo Bill" and kindred
publications OF a degraded press, with their
viCousIy sensational titles, their ideal and
impossible characters, the spice of
hair-breadth adventure, their blood curd-
ling narrative. and utter disregard
OF long settled social laws, their low speech
and licentious amours, are doing an amount
Of damage to the youth of the country that
cannot be estimated. Another class of litera-
ture is published in which the fou!est sensual
ism is portrayed. Catalogues of schools and
colleges arc gotten hold of and the students
are sent circulars and catalogues of such works
in order that the curiosity Of the student may
be aroused to the unscrupulous trafiicker.
The dime novel was pernicious element The
court records in the case Of the boy murderer,
Pomeroy, had shown it. 1t was SO, after the
publication Of Jack sheppard" in London,
that highway robbery and burglary occurred
to such an extent that the book was sup
pressed. Another class OF novels, esteemed
Of higher order, are published, in which
skepticism and lccntiousness lurk in covert
forms. He had known young girls read
novels by the cord without knowing what
they read. They gulped them down as chill
dren would sweet meats at a single sitting,
and repeating the feat six times q week. In
thirty years he had never seen in one in
dozen of these devourers of fiction thought
or turn Of expression gained from tho best of
the stories that they had read. The sermon
ended with copious extracts from prominent
writers showing tho value of u good choice in
reading and exhortation to parents to guide
their young to proper step in this moment
Gus matter.