The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1891-03-12

over thirty tons of vile literature have
Been destroyed by the Society for the
Suppression of Vice, still there is
enough of it left in this country TO
bring down upon us the thunderbolts
of an incensed God
In the year 1868 the evil had become
so great in this country that the con-
gress of the United States passed a 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 fail
ure-that law of 1868 But in 1873 an
other law was passed by the congress
of the United States against the trans
mission of corrupt literature through
the mails-a grand law, a potent law,
a Christian law-and under that law
multitudes of these scoundrels have
been arrested, their property eonfis-
Gated and they themselves thrown into
the penitentiaries, where they belonged.
HOW CAN 1T BE FOUGHT?
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 postoffice to all honest
business and to all messages of charity
and kindness and affection, for all
healthful INSTRUMENTATION, 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 a one
cent stamp for q circular, or q two cent
stamp for a letter. to blast a man or
destroy home. The postal service of
this country must be clean, and we
must all understand that the swift ret
ributions of the United States govern
ment hover over every violation of the
letter box.
There are thousands of men and
women in this country, some for per-
sonaI gain, some through innate de-
pravity, some through a spirit OF re-
Eenge, who wish to use this great
avenue of convenience and intelli-
gence for purposes revengeful, sala-
cious and diabolic. Wake up the law.
Wake up all its penalties. Let every
court room on this subject be Sinai
thunderous and aflame. Let the con
victed offenders be sent for the full
term to Sing Sing or Harrisburg
ain not talking about what cannot
be done. I am talking now about
what is being done. A great many OF
the printing presses that gave them
selves entirely to the publication of vile
literature have been stopped or have
gone into business less obnoxious.
: What has thrown off, what has kept
off the rail trains of this country fol
some time back nearly ali the leprous
| periodicals. Those of us who have
been on the rail trains have noticed &
great change in the last few month:
l and the last year or two. Why have
, nearly all those vile periodicals beer
, kept off the rail trains for some time
l back2 Who effected it? These so
cieties for the publication of railroad
D literature gave warning to the publish
ers and warning to railroad companie:
and warning to conductors and warn
: ing to newsboys to keep the inferna
3 stuff off the trains.
: PURIFYING THE NEWS STANDS.
Many of the cities have successful.
prohibited the most of that literature
even from going on the news stands
Terror has seized upon the publisher
L and dealers in impure literature, from
= the fact that over n thousand arrest
have been made, and the aggregate
time for which the convicted have beer
sentenced to the prison is over one hun
,. dred and ninety years, and from tn
u fact that about two million of their cir
- culars have been destroyed, and TIL
, business is not as profitable as it use,
= to be.
u How have SO many of the news stand
3, of our great cities been purifeda Ho,
:. has so much of this iniquity bee
II balked2 By moral suasiona Oh, nc
Il You might as wall go into a jungle @
IL the East Indies and pat cobra o.
Is the neck, and with profound argumen
Il try to persuade it that it is moral
D. wrong to bite a;ad to sting and to POI
:. son anything. The only answer t
IL your argument would be an uplifte
10 head and a hiss, and a sharp, reekin
lie tooth stuck into your al >rfc;. III
es only argument for q cobra Is :. shotgun
Of and hetonIy argument for these dea
st ers in impure litcratur> is tee clutc!l c
Of the police and bean soup il tho pen
Tertiary. The law. The law, l il
&c woke to consummata th>. wor:. so grant
I'd ly begun!
It. Another way in whiol. we are to driy
at back this plague of Egyptian frogs
al by filling the minds of cur young peopl
at with a healthful literature [ do M
IN mean to say that all the books an
st newspapers in our families ought to /
er- religious books and newspapers, or tn:
all every song ought to be sung to the tur
as of ''Old Hundred. / have no sylnp
IA thy with the attempt to make Il
Of young old. would rather join in
on crusade to keep the young young. Bo
rs, hood and girlhood must not be a
-er breviated. But there are good book
of good histories, good biographies, goe
on works of fiction, good books OF all styl
ut with which we are to fill the minds
his the young, SO that there will be no mo
its room for the useless and vicious tina
he there is room for the chaff in bush
lin measure which is already filed wi
on Michigan wheat.
.ge RrINED ny PERN4Ious HEADING