The Sunday herald and weekly national intelligencer., 1891-04-12

ciety was reading Tolstoi. Young girls went
wild over Gamma Karchina," and a Senator's
wife told me that she had taken all of the
great Russian novelist's works with her to the
sea-shore for her summer reading. Then we
had craze Of Ibsen, and what we will 60 wild
over now is yet to be seen. The "Kreutzer
Sonata made such howl among the goody-
girls that TolstoI lost caste for the time, but
the average French novel in the original is still
read, and we have more wicked books than
good ones.
What should young girl read? Is our
present habit good one? What effect is the
avalanche OF cheap foreign novels having on
our daughters? These and other questions are
those which have asked of Mrs. Gen. Sheri-
dan, Mrs. Senator Vance, Mrs. Supreme JUS
tice Field, and others of our wel-read Wash
ington women.
MRS. GEN. PHILIP SHERIDAN.
Mrs. Sheridan has since her widowhood led
quiet life here in her home on Massachusetts
avenue, surrounded by her three little daugh-
ters and her son, Phil. She is devoting her
time to the education of her children, and this
matter will soon be one of considerable inter
est to her. Said she: ''My own daughters are
still too young to be allowed to read novels, so
the question has not as yet. been forced upon
me- / do BOT, however, approve Of indiscrimi-
nate indulgence in modern novel-reading. In
the first place, it drains and enervates the
mind, it renders it unfit for more solid food
and in no way adds to the cultivation of the
heart. In my opinion, no young girl should be
permitted to indulge in light literature until
after she has attained the age of eighteen.
Earlier than this her character is not suffi-
GENTLY formed to discriminate between the
chaff and the wheat, and as the development
of character depends largely upon the style of
literature with which the mind is stored the
responsibility of parents is far greater than
they realize. Only when it is too late and the
seeds of character have developed into the per-
feet blossom or more prickly thistle springing
from the rank weeds of an uncultivated ground
are the evil effects seen. Mothers especially
should jealousy guard their sons and daugh-
ters from the demoralizng effects of careless
reading. If | were asked to advise in this
would say: Interest yourself in the amusements
OF your girls and boys and endeavor by wise
counsel and careful supervision of the contents
of their book-shelves to lead their tastes into
pure channels of thought and feeling. Neg
Letting this, you will later reap the whirlwind
of remorse in the moral downfall of your child,
even though to all outward appearing he or
she may present character of purity and
beauty Personally, was conyent-bred and
mydaily intellectual diet outside of class-books
was the indulgence in Scott's novels and other
standard works, such as Dickens and Thack-
cray. formerly no young, uniformed mind
was permitted the wide license in reading that
In the present day crowds the shelves of every
girl in her teens, and the world was all the bet
terror the restriction. George Eliot and Ouida
fascinate by the beauty of their style, and, veil
ing the evil with a mantle of choice language
and bewildering imagination, deceive the un-
suspecting reader, until he knows not the true
from the false, and therein rests the danger
The great literary merit of George Eliot and
her manly force of style tempt many to place
her works upon footing with the standard
authors, yet their moral influence is of q far
different character and less elevating while
their tendency is to corrupt, or at least to in
sert the wedge of doubt. The writings of Toll
stoT are simply not to be considered in the cat
egory, and should never be allowed entrance
into our homes. AS for the "Kreutzer Soma
ta,'' it was written with no higher aim than to
depict vice in its most vivid colors. Ii is
seemingly the outcome of diseased mind and
it should have long ago been suppressed as de
void of all literary merit and as calculated to
work much harm.'
MRS. SENATOR VANCE
Mrs. Vance, wife of the Senator from North
Carolina, is a woman of sound judgment and
of wide reading. AS to the present taste for
French literature and light novel reading she
says: "We are far to prone to condemn whole
sale the works of French authors and to class
under the head of trash the entire catalogue.
Many of our ideas upon the subject are OBJ
tanned through the medium of preiudiced
source, and translation into English destroys
much of the beauty of style and expression of
the original by the too bold translation that