The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1890-10-05
AwAr WITH LoNarxLLows

AwAx WITH LONGrELLOWs
The Coed Work Of supprsssins His De-
moralixfng Books 0egun.
New York Tribune
A new and most hopeful turn has been
given to the long warfare against demoraiis-
ing literature. in the very place where Il VIII
do most good. Bad books anywhere are
mischievous. but especially in the hands OF
the young; and when they are Inn
pressed with the seal Of pedagog-
cal authority and introduced into schools
IS textbooks. they reach the climax OF per-
nicious influence. 1t Is therefore really
startling to discover that, while rigorous
laws have been enacted and enforced
against the public sale or circulation
through the mails Of immoral books,
our public schools have, by the c0nnivance
and actual direction Of their superintend.
ents and guardians, been literally Hooded
with the most vicious and degraded pro-
auctions of unclean pens. 1t ever there
were occasion for stern speech and IRON
handed action in behalf Of imperiled
youth, it is now; and We hail with pro-
found emotion the attitude assumed by
some Of the school principals Of Brooklyn,
a. reported In our columns yesterday. lt
y
the dawning Of brighter and more giori-
Gus moral era for the whole human race.
The revolt Of these pure-minded instruc-
tors OF the rising generation has been di-
rectly provoked BY the introduction into
the reading course OF corrupt and de-
basing poem called 1.-THE Building Of the
Ship" reputed to have been written by one
H. w. LonRfellow. But this is only the
eliminating incident in long course OF
- ~ - -
same man Longfellow have been used In
the schools against the earnest protest Of
the principals. One of them is emitted
THE Psalm of Life'-its very name indi-
eating its shockinglv irreligious character;
and 1t contains, among lines that cannot
here be quoted, this infamous passage:
"Act, oct In the living present.
Heart within aud God o'erhead-"
Words which must have led hundreds of
innocent boys and girls to forsake the ways
OF virtue for the gilded vice Of the dramatic
stage. Another shameful effusion from
the same pen. THE Bridge" pictures its
sin-steeped hero 40 saying:
show often, oh, how often,
In the years that have gone BY.
had stood on that bridge Ct midnight
Aud gazed on that wave and ekyl"
And the children of Brooklyn were forced
to contemplate the conduct Of that hard.
ened miscreant in his nightly orgies among
the puriieus Of the water-side. As though
this were not enough, the Same insidious
powers loaded the curriculum Of the schools
among which We may only mention-for
to quote them In . family newspaper u ont
of the question-such poems as Maud Null
ler," by Whittier, the '.In Memoriam" OF
Tennyson, and even that unspeakably
scandalous production commonly known a.
1--WE Are Seven, . the offspring Of the heated
and licentidus Imagination Of an English
man named Wordsworth. We have even
heard it whispered with bated breath that
the hippant and ribbed Paradise Lost" of
the notorious Milton, and the very properly
suppressed "Elegy Written In Country
Ch1rchyard. for the production of which
the name of Gray is so universally exc
Grated, have been clandestinely distributed
among the pupils in several schools. But
this we can scarcely even yet believe.
Our readers will agree with us in think
be done. There is such an abundance OF
pure and wholesome literature extant that
no excuse is possible for poisoning the
mind Of youth with such offal as that
which has now been exposed. Let US dis
card the salscious Longfellow for the
chaste innocence of Ewinburne's earlier
works and the austere decorum Of WHIT
mans Leaves of Grass" Let Whittier
and the Stygian Wordsworth give place to
the limpid sweetness of .COngreve and
and Aphra Benin. And the udaltered
works Of lola, and Catulle Mendes, and
Guy de Maupassant. not to name Dumas
and Tolstoi and the Police Gazette, shall
they not all be preferred before such writ
ers as those who have aroused the right
eous wrath Of Gradgrind and Squeers be-
yond the Bridge? We trust that such an
Index Expurgatorius" may be prepared
by these inspired principals as shall effect
q wholesome revolution in the reading of
the world. 1t is great work, and well be-
gun; and at its triumphant close the
strongest padded cells in the Flatbush
Asylum shall be the reward of its authors.