Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1886-09-25

soner. For a young lady told me since my
adventure that as she was going up Duke
street one of the same Kind OF fellows stepped
up TO her. in broad daylight, and thrust his
miserable sheet at her. She, in a perfectly
polite and ladylike manner, simply declined
to take the trash, and passed on; whereupon
the villain, with an insClent leer, said, ooh,
you're good girl, are you ~ Surely there
is too much freedom in our country when
such things are possible Too much freedom,
If our wives and daughters are not any longer
to be safe from open insult in broad day on
our main streets! is IL no. enough already,
and too much, that our hDues are TO toe
openly and with utter impuuity attacked by
these moral pOisoners May we not even
refuse 10 take the poison without in addition
mourning insult and bold defiance? Oh,
long, suffering Lancaster, all too patient, how
long will you meekly endure such tyranuous
freedom
DOES any one still doubt that this moral
poison of which l am speaking really poi
sons? | know that it doesn't directly sicken
and kill the body-though ultimately it
does that too as a general thing. But also
know just as certainly-who does not that is
at all acquainted witt. our criminal records
and statistics-that it NOes sicken. deform
aud utterly ruin the minds and characters OF
those who indulge IN it 1t does also demOr-
aliZs and degrade Just in SO far the character,
the intellectual and moral condition and
standing of our whole social body, Of the
community in which it i done. How large
proportion of our criminal classes confined
in prison and penItentiary owe their condi-
ton, directly or indirectly, to their minds
having been drugged by the leYd, sensation
al, tlashy literature with which the land il
Hooded, this is a fact that has been pretty
definitely and quite iucontrOvertibly estab-
lished. The still greater mass OF undetected
and unpunished crime, to say nothing of the
vice and evil that have not yet rIpened into
crime, owe their existence in the same or
even larger degree to the same baneful cause:
the early deyOuring OF the trashy detective
stories, dime novels Police Gg-s,fes and
other worse sensational books and periodicals.
This Is not mere theory. 1t is clearly as
certaned and fully established fact. 1t is
just as certain and true that whisky and
opium indulgence ruin the bodily health, or
that arsenic Kills at once.
THE only possible reason | can think of
why most people shun these latter physical
poisons more than the other, moral ones, why,
in fact, so many seem to be utterly careless
in regard to the latter, is that these are little
more gradual and slow in their effects, and
can often be hidden for a long while. Arsenic
Kills the body in a few hours: but bad litera-
ture first depraves the intellect, dedtens con-
science, ana prostitutes all the sentiments
and emotions OF the heart, before il finally,
alter years perhaps, Kills the soul, leaving
the body 20 live or die as may happen. For my
part, would almost as soon let a child OF mine
contract the opium or whisky habit, or take
an arsenic pill at once a. have it bluat and
inflame its heart and inevitably X i'll the very
germs of manhood or wOmauhuOd in i~ char
scter, and so lose its soul, by feeding on the
vile literature Of which our city and the whole
country Is so full.
ff
greatest aud most constant anxiety tn every
right thinking parent Is how to keep our
children from being fatally poisoned in this
respect. For parents have no protection nor
aid from the law. The poison is artlully laid
in every possible place where the attention of
the young may be caught Dy it. With brazen
boldness it il spread out on nearly every
newsstand; much of it is ''dramatiZed" and
served up a. theatrical performances, or the
suggestive promise Of IL j. plastered all over
town in glaring show bills; the vile stuff one
finds displayed ON the tables of too many
barber shops makes one think twice before
taking a child there; and as | said before, the
poison is even thrust at Us as we walk along
the street, j. distributed To our children a.
they come out OF school, is thrown into the
windows and slipped under the doors OF our
homes. Where il one safe az ainst it? How
are We to protect our children, the Young,
the needless, the ignorant everywhere, against
this soul murder?
THE danger from it is not 10y any means a
merely imaginary one. | am convinced that
right here in our city ii Is breeding private
evils innumerable, and future harm and dis
grace to the community that cannot be calcu-
lated. 1t is sowing the pestiferOus seeds Of
immortality such as we have more than our
share OF already, as our courts abundantly
show, OF drunkenness, rowdyism, incendiar-
ism, robberies, and the whole host OF vices
and crimes which cost millions Of our money,
and II allowed to increase must bring dis.
grace and ruin upon the good naue and
character Of Lane lster.
l SAY it is dong TINS because / happen TO
know. Let me give you Just one instance
out Of many even worse ones that might be
adduced.
lT Is only the other day that four little
boys averaging, perhaps, fourteen years OF
age, were overheard cOnversing together at a |
place and time when they did not dream of |
having an auditor Their language was in |
the regular Ne1C lDrE Weekly stvle, in.
terspersed with abundant profanity after the |
Jesse James manner. Three OF the boys |
were evidently trying to persuade the fourth |
to join their shantv." They were telling |
him what daisy times " they had there |
every Sunday, smoking, playing cards and |
beer and ,chtSEv. Then thew de- |
,cribed the shanty's " furniture and equip |
nents 1t cOrrespOnded with the descrip- |
tons OF burglars dens aud robbers roosts |
you can read in any Of the publ ications be-
tore referred to-
" Where'd you get ali tho stun ?D asked
Ibe desired recruit, in tones OF wonder aud
al dmiratiOn.
We git it cheap you bet ? Don't We,
mn = was the reply with knowing wink |
Then the last speaker mentioned a whole
llst OF articles that had been stolen directly
rom stores The method of their shop.lift-
ng was described in proud detail Other ar
.icles, he said, were stolen from private
houses and yards, stables, factories, work |
shops and so on. While still others thew
Dought with money gained from selling |
stolen IRON scraps, lead pipe and such ike |
piunder. IL appears that the shauty - was |
in organized gang of thieves A band of |
niue boys In active training for burglary,
robbery, drunkenness, gambling and the |
" hole category of aG5om mpanying vices and
,rimes
THE above is not fiction, but actual fact.
My informant who overhead the conversation
'f the young thieves is person for whose
1eraclty can youch. The conversation took
llace here in our city not more than a few
weeks ago And the boys were not street
,amins, as might, perhaps, be supposed.
)he oil them, at least, WAS recognized as ths
'on OF wealthy and highly respectable pa.
,ents What is more, the shanty " repre-
TAIL -.