Lewiston teller. [volume] (Lewiston, North Idaho) 1878-1900, 1891-03-26

and pat cobra on the neck, and with pro-
found argument try to PERSUADE 1t that 1t
is morally wrong to bite and to sting and
to poison anything. The only answer to
your argument would be an uplifted head
and a hiss, and sharp, reeking tooth
struck into your arteries. The only 0rgu-
| ment for cobra is shotgun, and tbs only
argument for these dealers in impure liter
ature is the clutch of the police and bean
| soup in penitentiary. The law! The
law! invoke 10 consummate the work
SO grandly begun
Another way in which we are to drive |
back this plague of Egyptian frogs is by |
filling the minds of our young people with |
o healthful literature. l do not mean to |
say that all the books and newspapers in |
our families ought to be religious books |
and newspapers, or that every song ought |
to be sung to the tune Of ''Old Hundred"
l have no sympathy with the attempt to
to make young old. would rather join in
crusade to keep the young young. Boy
hood and girlhood must not be abbreviated.
But there are good books, good histories,
good biographies, good works of fiction.
good books of all styles with which we are
to fill the minds Of the young, SO that
there will be no more room for the useless
and the vicious than there is room for
chat in a bushel measure which
is already filled with Michigan wheat.
A good book-who can exaggerate its
power? Benjamin Franklin said that his
reading of Cotton Mather's Essays To Do
Good" in childhood gave him holy aspira-
tions for the rest Of his life. Geoi sc Law
declared that biography he read in child
hood gave him all his subsequent propen-
sites. Oh, the power of good book! But,
alas. for the influence Of bad book John
Angel James, than whom England never
had holier minister, stood in his pulpit
in Birmingham and said TWENTY-FIVE
years ago lad loaned to me an infamous
book. He would loan it only fifteen min
utes and then had to give it back; but
, that book has haunted me like spectre
, ever since. l have in agony Of soul and
, on my knees before God prayed that he
| would obliterate froln my soul the memory
, of it; out shall carry the damage of it un-
til the day of my death" The assassin Of
, Sir William Russell declared that he got
the inspiration for his crime by reading
f what was then a new and popular novel.
t Jack Sheppard" Homer's 'lliad" made
Alexander the Warrior. Alexander said
So The story of Alexander made Julius
Caesar and Charles XII, both men of blood.
: Have you in your pocket or in your trunk,
: or in your desk at business a bad book,
a bad picture, bad pamphlet? In Gods
8 name l warn you to destroy it..
!. We see so many books we do not under
@ stand what book is. Stand it on end.
: Measure it, the height of it, the depth Of
@ it, the length of it, the breadth Of it. You
o cannot do it. Examine the paper and es-
n innate the progress maze from the time OF
the impressions on clay, and then on to
q the bark of trees, and from the bark of
?. trees to papyrus, and from papyrus to the
10 hide of wild beasts and from the hide Of
| will until tho miracles OF
,e our modern paper manufactures, and then
q. see the paper white and pure as an in
If fant's soul. waiting for Gods inscription.
10 A book! Examine the type of it. Exam
d inc the printing of it and see the progress
% from the time when Solon's laws were
m written on oak planks, and Hesiod's poems
er were written on tables of lead, and the
,e Siniatic commands were written on tables
@. of stone, on down to Hoes perfectine
g printing press. A book! It took all the
,e universities Of the past all the marty,
III fires, all the civilizations, all the battles
IN all the victories, all the defeats, all thu
lis glooms all the brightnesses, all the cen
g. turtles to make it possible. A book! 1t il
st the chorus of the ages-it is tho drawing
rn room in which kings and queens and ora
Ia tors and poets and historians and philoso
ed piers come out to greet you. II
ey worshpped anything on earth
he would worship that. If I burned in
he cense to any idol, would bull
lis an altar to that. Thank God TO
e. good books, healthful books, inspiring
of books, Christian books, books of men
it's books of women, Book of God. 1t is witt
IS. these good books that we are to overcom
nd corrupt literature. Upon the frogs swoo
OF the eagles. depend much for the overtime,
in of Ubiquitous literature upon the mortalit
cir of books. Even good books have har
,st struggle to live. Polybius wrote fort
nd books; only five OF them left. Thirt
ng books of Tacitus have persisted. Invent
by books of Pliny have persisted. Livy wrot
las one hundred and forty books; only thirty
he five of them remain. 4Eschylus wrote on
he hundred dramas; only seven remain
he Euripides wrote over hundred; onl
oh nineteen remain. VarrO wrote the biogrs
ess plies of over seven hundred great Roman!
ZEN All that wealth of biography has persisted
he If good and valuable books have such
+ n struggle to live what must be the fate {
ad those that are diseased and corrupt an
blasted at the very start? They will d
m as the frogs when the Lord turned bac
to the plague. The work Of ChrlstianizatiC
ch will go on until there will be nothing le
ira but good books, and they will take II
lit supremacy Of the world. May you and
oil live to see the illustrious day!
ia Against every bad pamphlet send goo
the pamphlet; against every unclean pictu
md send an innocent picture; against evel
ars scurrilous song send Christian son
to against every bad book send good boo
and then it will be as it was in ancie
,ad Toledo, where the Toletum missals we
ou- kept by the saints in six churches, al
to sacreligious Romans demanded that the
BILE mssals be destroyed and that the Roms
ear missals be substituted; and the war can
I've on and am glad to say that the who
zap matter having been referred 10 cnampio
ing the champion OF the Ioletum missais WI
emit enc blow brought down the champion
yer the Roman missals. 80 II VIII oe IN nter
cen ture today. The good literature, the Chr
.es- tian literature in its championship for G
left and the truth, will bring down the evil
the erature in its championship for the dev