The Forrest City times., 1891-03-13
TENACIOUS LITERATURE
DIR TALMAGE COMPARES IT TO
 THE PLAGUE OF FROGS.

Evils Resulting From the Perusal Of
 Bad Books, and How They May Be
 Overcomc.-A Good Book and Its
 Influence.
 NEW YORK, March 8, 1s9i.--Thc plague of pernlcious literature formed the subject or Dr. Talmages sermon today. which was the third of the SCI ics he is preaching on the ''Ten Plagucs of the Cities" The text of the preachers discourse was taken from Exodus 8. 8-7: And the frogs came up and covered the land of Egypt And the ma2icians did so with their enchant- ments, and brought up frogs upon the land of Egypt"
 There is almost an universal aversion to frogs, and yet with the Egyptian thoy wero honored, they were sacred, and they were objects of worship while alive. and after death they were embalmed, and to- day their remains may be found among the sepulchrcs Of Thebes. These creatures, so attractive once to the Egyptians, at divine behest became obnoxious and loath- some, and they went croaking and hopping and leaping into the palace of the king, and into tho bread trays and the couches of the people, and even the ovens, which now are uplifted above tho earth and on the side of the chimncys, but then were small holes in the earth with sunken pot tery. were filled with frogs when the housekecpers came to look at them. If man sat down to cat. a frog alighted on his plate. If he attempted to put on a shoe, it was preoccuped by frog. If he attempted to put his head upon pillow, it had been taken possession of by frog. Frogs high and low uni everywhere; lOatlSOinp hpc eeip frogs. innumeraole frogs. great plague of frogs What made tho natter worse. the magiclans said there was no miracie in this, and they could by slcight of hand produce the same thing. aud they seemed to succeed, for by sleight- of hand wonders may be wrought. After Moses had thrown down bis staff and by miracle 1t became serpent. and then he took hold of 1t and by miracle it again became Il staff, tho serp,nt eharmers initiated the same thing. and knowing that thcre wcro serpcnts in Egypt which by Il peculiar pressure on the neck would become us rigid as a stick of wood, they seemed 10 change the serpent into the staff, and then, throwing it down, the staff became the serpent So likewise these magicians tried 10 initiate the plague of frogs, and perhaps by smell Of food at tracing great number Of them to a ccr tain point or by shaking them out from Q hidden place, the macicians sometimes seemed to accomplish the same miracle. While these Iuagieians made the plague worse. nonc of them tried to make it bet ter. Frogs came up aud covered the land Of Egypt, and the magIcians did so with their enchantment. and brought up frogs upon the land of Egypt"
 Now that plague of frogs has come hs ri is ahr It is smiting this nation. l, comes in the shape of corrupt literature. These frogs hop into the store. tho shop, the office. the bsnking- house, the factory, into the home. into the cellar. into the garrct, on the shelf tf the library. While the lad is reading the bad book the teachers faco is turned the other way. One of these frogs hops upon the page. While tho young woman Is reading tho forbidden novelette, after retiring at night, reading by gasiight, one or tbese frogs leaps upon tho page. Indeed. they have hopped on the news stands Of the country. and the mails at the post-oasce shake out in tho letter trough hundreds of them. The plague has taken at different times, possession of this country. IL Is one Of the most loathsome one of tho most friehtful, one of the most ghasly of tue ten plaques of our mondern citieA There is vast number of books and newspapers printed and published which ought never to sec the light Thcy are filled with pestlence that makes the land sweitcr with moral epidemic. Tho greatest blessing that ever came to this nation is that of an elevated literature, and the greatest scourge has boon that of unclean literature. This last has it's victims in all occupations and departments hua hs.Jp md en {noa penitoatiarics and almshouscs and dcns of shame. The bodies Of this inf. ction lie in the hospitals and in the graves, while their souls are being tossed over into lost eternity. m avalanche Of horror and despair. The London plague was nothing to it That counted its victims by thousands, but this modern pest has already shovelcd it's millions into the charnel-house of tho morally dead. The Tor gcst rail train that ever ran over tho Erie or Hudson tracks was not long enough nor large enough to carry the bcastliness and the patrefaction which have been gathered up In the last twenty years. The literature of q nation decides the fate of nation. Good hooks, good morals. Bad books, bud morals.
 begin with tho lowest Of nll the litcra- turc, that which does not even pretend to De respoetablc--fromco cover to cover biotch of lcprosv. There arc many whose entiro business II is to dispose of that kind of lt- erature. Ttey display it before the school boy on his way homo They get the cata- logucs of schools and colleges. take the names and rostonice addresses. and send their advertisements gnd their circulars and the.r pamphlets and their books to every ono of them.
 In the possession of thcso dealers in bad literature werc found nine hundred thou sand names and postofiice addresses. to whom t was thought il might lc profitable to send these corrupt things. In tue year 1875 there were one hundred and sixty-iivo establishments engaged in publ shing cheap corrupt literature. From ono publishing house thcro went out twenty differeut styles of corrupt books. although over thrty toas of vile literature have been destroyed by the Society for the Suppres- sion Of Vice still there is enough Of 1t left in this country to bring down upen Us the thundcrbolts of an incenscd Goi.
 lG the year lsGS the evil had become so great in this country that the Congress of tue United States passed law ioroiddng tho trans mission of bad literature through the unted States mails; but there were iGrga !aops iu that law through which crim- 'Nals ollld crawl oat and tAe law was . dead laiiure--that iaw Vs las.>. Eat in 1878. ano her law was passed by the Con gross of ,ae United States against the aa ,,4faa AT, ..o,ss.,ft ft.g.ayt,., th-n.tssl