The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1891-03-11
down upon us the thun,lcrbolts Of an

incensed God.
In the year 1868, the evil had become
80 great in this country that the con-
gress of the United States passed law
forbidding the transmission of bad lit
erature through the United States mails;
but there were large loops in that law
through which criminals might crawl
out, and the law was dead failure
that law Of 1868. But in 1878, another
law was passed by the congress of the
United States against the transmission
of corrupt literature through the mails
"a grand law, a potent law, Christian
law-and under that law multitudes Of
these scoundrels have been arrested,
their property coniiscated, and they
themselves thrown into the penitenti-
aries where they belonged.
Now, my friends, how are we to war
against this corrupt literature, and how
are the frogs Of this Egyptian plague to
be slain? First of all, by the prompt
and memorable execution of the law.
Let all good postmasters and United
States district attorneys, and detectives
and reformers concert in their action to
stop this plague. When Sir Rowland
Hill spent his life in trying to secure
cheap postage not only for England,
but for all the world, and to open the
blessings Of the post Office to all honest
business and to all messages Of charity,
and kindness, and affection, for all
healthful ntercommunication, he did
not mean to make vice easy or to fill
the mail bags of the United States with
the scabs OF such leprosy.
1t ought not to be in the power Of
every bad man who can raise one-cent
stamp for a circular, or a two.cent
stamp for letter, to blast man or de-
stroy home. The postal service Of
this country must be clean must be
kept clean, and we must all understand
that the swift rctributions of the United
States government hover over every vi
olation of the letter-box.
There are thousands Of men and
women in this country, some for per-
sonal gain, some through innate deprav-
ity, some through a spirit of revenge,
who wish touse this great avenue ofcon.
venience and intelligence for purposes
revengeful, salacious and diabolical.
Wake up the law. Wake up all its pen
alties. Let every court room on this
subject no q Sinai thunderous and
ailamc. Let the convicted offenders be
sent for the full term TO Sing Sing or
Harrisburg
am not talking about what cannot
be done. am talking now about what
is being done. A great many of the
printing presses that gave themselves
entirely 10 the publication of vile lit
erature have been stopped or have gone
into business less obnoxious. What has
thrown off, what has kept off the rail
trains Of this country for some time
back nearly all the leprous periodicals.
Those ofns who have been on the rail
trains have noticed n great change in
the last few months and the last yea
or.two. Why have nearly allthose vile
periodicals been kept off the rail trains
for some time back? Who effected III
These societies for the publication o.
railroad literature gave warning to pub
fishers and warning to railroad com
panies, and warning to conductors, ant
warning 90 newsboys, TO keep the in
fernal stuff off the trains.
{ Many OF the cities have successfully
prohibited the most of that literature
even from going on the news stands
Terror has seized upon the publisheri
and the dealers in impure literature
from the fact that over thousand ar
rests have been made, and the aggre
gate time for which the convicted hav,
been sentenced to the prison is over on,
: hundred ana ninety years, and from thu
fact that about two million of their cir
culars have been destroyed, and th'
business is not as profitable as it useC
to be.
How have 40 many Of the news stand
of our great cities been purified? How
: has so much of this iniquity beer
balked? BY moral suasion? o, no. Yor
might as well go into a jungle Of the
East Indies and pat cobrn on the necl
: and with profound argument try TO per
suade it that IL is morally wrong to bitC
and TO sting and TO poison anything
The only answer TO your argument
would be an uplifted head and u hiss
and sharp, reelsjng tooth struck iut'
, your arteries The only argument fo
; a cobra Is d shotgun, and the only ar,u
mcnt for these dealers in impure iteru
ture Is the clutch OF the police an bear
J soup in penitentiary. The law! Tn,
1o,-t 4 inwolya 90 ,arg,,v,, ,otn tl,n ytt.ft
: so grandly begun.
J Another way in which we are TO driv,
} back the plague Of Egyptian frogs is b.
, filling the minds of our young people
with q healthful literature. | do mo-
, mean TO say that all the books ant
! newspapers in our families ought TO b,
! religious books and newspapers, or tina
every song ought TO be sung to the tun'
: OF "0ld Hundred" / have no sympath,
: with the attempt to make the younl
old would rather join in crusade
J 20 keep the young young. Boyhoot
! and girlhood must not. be abbreviated
Buttherc are good books, good histories
! good biographies, good works Of fiction
| good books of all styles with which WI
are TO all tho minds Of the young, S,
! that there will be no more room for tn,
! useless and the vicious than there Il
room for chaff In q bushel measur,
which Is already filled with Michigan
wheat.
Why are fifty per cent. Of the orimi
nails In the jails and penitentiaries o.
the United States to-day under twenty
one years Of age? Many Of them under
seventeen, under sixteen, under four