News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1885-03-12
AFTER THE BOYS AGAIN.
NJ. QUAD TALKS TO THEM ON THE SUB
JECT OF NOVEL READING.
Says that Good Books Are All Right, but
Dime Novel Indinn Stories Are Bad.
from the Detroit Free Press. 7

From the Detroit Free Press.1
"Does it hurt boy to read novels ?"
Take clean sponge and dip 1t into
running gutter, and what is the result
The sponge can be cleaned and purified
again, but only after much labor.
The human mind, my lad, is a sponge,
and it soaks up the good; bad and indif-
ferent with the same relish.
The great trouble with novels is the
false ideas and vicious theories. It is
the same with all serial stories in the
so-called boys papers, and it is so to a
certain extent in many OF the boy books.
In the first place the boy, no matter
what his age, is always made to perform
feats of valor which common sense
teaches you are impossible. He never
acts or talks like boy. His adventures
as hunter, detective or runaway are too
improbable.
Nevertheless, as you read you find
yourself half believing, at least, and the
be hero. The story makes you feel
family government, and the first thought
is to run away or plan some adventure.
Even if you say to yourself that you
mind will still soak up many of the false
theories and absurd ideas, and later on
in years it may cost you something to
get rid of them.
If a stranger should tell you that, as
he was passing over certain bridge
spanning creek, he saw gold watch
lying in the water, but was in too great
hurry to stop, you would probably be-
ieve the story. If you had positive
proof that the man was brazen liar
you would still find yourself wondering
how deep the water was, who lost the
watch and whether any one had secured
it. Your common sense tells you there
are no such beings as ghosts, but you
have read and heard of them, and prob
ably expected to feel them clutching at
your throat.
A story which is put forth for boy
to read should, although it may be
purely fiction, contain nothing exagger-
ated or improbable. The hero may be
brave without OVERRIDING the thing. You
may find in the papers almost any day
instances where boys have displayed
great heroism at fires, or have risked
their lives to save others. These things
are possible and probable, but this max
ing boy drive away band OF Indians,
or break up gang OF robbers, or cap
ture a ship-load OF pirates, Is against
common sense.
Let me instance some other evils. In
book recently published by very re-
spectacle Eastern house, and having Tor
its author person with 'ReV. before
his name, he tells about sailor falling
down the ''middle companionway. He
meant hatchway, but some day some
of his boy readers will say something
about the "middle !companionway" and
find himself the butt OF ridicule. The
same author speaks OF sailor IN his
hammock. Hammocks are never used
aboard of merchant vessels, but the men
have berths. He has the crew gather
around the man at the wheel to sing
and smoke and yarn it, when every boy
who ever heard of discipline aboard ship
knows that no sailor is permitted aft un-
less called there by strict duty.
In another book, put forth by an
equally respectable house, the length of
the Mississippi River is wrongly given.
Arkansas is put on the wrong side of that
river, and the distance from Vicksburgh
to Baton Rouge is not correct by thirty
miles.
Such instances as I have related befog
a boys mind and lead him into error,
and he had better have spent his time in
playing marbles.
Let me ask you how much better off
you would be to sit down in grocery
for three hours each evening and listen
to some man telling lies, knowing all the
time they were lies? Would that i'm
prove your mind? Many of the novels
are no more improving than such grocery
tales.
Now let me ask you what makes an
intelligent, wel-posted man? School
education, to begin with. If we learned
nothing after we left school the world
would slip backward. His mind goes
on, day after day, week after week,
picking up scraps of history, politics,
travel, botany, astronomy, and SO forth,
and by and by he is human ency-
clopedia. He may read love stories and
adventures all his days and be no better
off. Indeed, he will be far worse off.
"Well, what shall boy read"
There are one or two boy papers of
good moral tone. The heroes are not
exaggerated, and the adventures are not
improbable. If the story is of mining,
the author gives some valuable informa-
ton in regard to minerals and how to
mire. Ii it is of hunting you are taught
how to make snares and traps, and are
given the principles of taxidermy. If it
is of boating you are taught the prin-
ciples of sailing and rowing. If it is of
the sea, you are given the correct names
of ropes and yards and sails, and the
habits and traits of the people of other
countries are correctly stated.
There are few boy books which are
true to everyday life. Read these, and
if you have further time take history, or
something else which is certain to re-
turn some benefit-a daily paper-with
its news from every foreign country
its home happenings-its discussions of
all matters of interest-its incidents and
accidents, is geography, history, gram
mar and photography combined.
Think of these things, my boy. If
you were going to be boy forever the
case would be different. No one would
expect anything great of you. But, as
the years roll on, you have got to pick
up the colleges and factories and rail-
roads and general business of the world
and keep them moving. Will such
trash as Buffalo Bills Last Shot" or
The Demon of the Gulch" aid in fitting
you to carry out the trusts which will be |
turned over to you by and by? Your
excuse that you read them to pass away
time is poor one. You have no right |
to pass away time to the detriment of
your future.