The Red Cloud chief., 1891-03-20

Tor some time back? Who effected IL?
Those societies for the publication Of
railroad literature gave warning 70 the
publishers and warning TO railroad COM
panies and warning 20 conductors and
warning TO newsboys TO keep the in
fernal stuff of the trains
Many OF the cities nave successfully
prohibited the most of that literature
even from going on the news stardz.
Terror has seized upon the publishers
and the dealers in impure literature,
from the fact that over a thousand ar
rests have been made, and the aggre-
gate time for which the convicted have
been sentenced 10 the prison Is over 100
years, and from the fact that about g.
900, 900 of their circulars have been de-
stroyed. and the business is not az prof
liable as il used 10 be.
How have 80 many Of the news stands
Of our great cities been purified? How
has SO much of this iniquity been
baked? BY moral suasion? O, no.
You might az well go into a jungle Of
the East Indies and pat a cobra on the
neck, and with profound argument try
20 persuade il that it is morally wrong
TO bite and to sting and TO poison any
thing. The only argument for q cobra
Is a shotgun, and the only argument for
these dealers in impure literature is the
clutch Of the police and bean soup in
the ~penitentiary.
Another way in which we are 10 drive
back this plague of Egyptian frogs is
by filling the minds of our young peo-
pie with a hcalthful literature. do
not mean to say that all tee books and
newspapers ought 70 be religious books
and newspapers, or that every song
ought 20 De sung TO the tune OF "old
Hundred" have no symnathy with
the attempt TO make the young old. j
would rather Join in d crusade 10 keep
the young young. Boyhood and girl
hood 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 10 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 chaff in a bushel meaure
which is already filed with Michigan
wheat
Why are so per cent. of the criminals
in the jails and pe~nitentiarics OF the
United States to-day under Il years Of
age? Many Of them under II. under
10, under -, under II, under -? Walk
along one Of the corridors of the Tombs
prison in New York and look for your
selves. Bad books, bad newspapers
bewitched them as soon as they got out
of the cradle. Beware of all those
| stories which end wrong. Beware Of
all those books which make the road
that ends in perdition seem To end in
paradise. DO not glorify the dirk and
the pistol. DO not call the desperate
brave or the libertine gallant Teach
our young people that If they go down
into the swamps and marshes To watch
the jack-o'-lanterns dance on IA decay
and rottenness they will catch the ma
laria and death
NY word is 70 this vast multitude OF
young people: DO not touch, do not
borrow, do not buy a corrupt book or a
corrupt picture. A book will decide n
mans destiny for good or for evil. The
book you read yesterday may have de-
| cided you for time and for eternity, or
il may be a book that may come into
your possession tomorrow.
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 inspirations for ali the rest of his
life. George Law declared that n biog-
raphy he read in childhood gave him
all his subsequent properties A
clergyman many years ago, passing 70
the far west, stopped at "a hotel. He
saw a wona copying something from
Doddridge's Rise and Progress" II
seemed that she had borrowed the
book, and there were some things she
wanted especially To remember. The
clergyman had in his satchel a copy OF
Doddridge's Rise and Progress, and
50 he made her "A present OF It Thirty
years passed on. The clergyman came
that way and he asked where the
woman was whom he had seen long
ago. They said: "She lives yonder in
that beautiful house" lie went there
and said To- her: DO you remember
i I'M SDt h1ln. W.. d w " iN
said: do you remember a man gave
you Duddridge's Rise and Progress
thirty wears ago?" 80. yes; ! remeul-
Der. That book saved my soul !
loaned the book to allamy neighbors and
they read II and they were converted
TO God. and we had "a revival cf religion
which swept through the whole com
munity. We built n church and called n
pastor. You see that spire yonder. don't
you? That church was built a. the re-
suit of that book you gave me thirty
years ago" o, the power OF n good
book But, alas, for the influence Of a
bad book.
' The assassin OF Sir William Russell
declared that he got the inspiration for
his crime from reading Jack Shcp-
pard." iiumer's ''lliad" made Alex
auder the warrior. Alexander said 80.
The story OF Alexander made Julius
Cesar and Charles MI. both men Of
blood
Another way in which we shall fight
back this corrupt literature and kill the
frogs is by rolling owes them the
Christian printing press, which shall
give plenty Of healthful reading 70 all
adults Abstain from al those books
which. while they have some good
things about them. have also an admix-
ture of evil You ave read books that
bad two elements in them-the good
and the bad Which stuck 70 you? The
bad, The heart of most people Is like
a sieve. which lets the small PARTICLES of
gold fall through. bat keeps the grea;
cinders Once in n while there Is a mind
like tombstone, which, plunged amid
steel and brass filings, gathers up the
steel and repels the brass But il is
generally just the opposite II you at
tempt 20 plunge through n fence Of
burr 20 sc; one blackberry, you viii
&c; more burrs than hlackbcrrics You
cannot afford IA read q bad book. how
ever good YOU are.
But" you say. how car ! find out
whether a book is good or bad without
reading it," There Is ALWAYS some