The Kinsley graphic. [volume] (Kinsley, Kan.) 1890-1940, 1891-03-13


sion OF vice. still there Is enough OF II
left IN this country 70 bring down upcn
as the thunderbolts OF an incensed God
In the year 1863 the evil had become
so 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 a
dead failure-that law Of 1868 But in
1873 another law was passed by the con
gress of the United States against the
transmission of corrupt literature
through the mails-a grand law, a
potent law, a Christian Iav-and under
that law multitudes of these scoundrels
have been arrested, their property con-
fiscated and they themselves thrown
into the penitentiaries where they be
lOnged-
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 inexorable execution of the law.
Let all good postmasters and United
States district attorneys and detectives
and refOrIners concert in their action to
stop this plague.
It ought not TO be in the power of
every bad man who can raise a One-cent
stamp Tor a circular or a LNFO-CSElU stamp
for letter TO blast a man or destroy
home
am not talking about what cannot
be done 1 am talking now about what
is being done A great many of the
printing presses that give themselves
entirely to the publication OF vile liter
AZURE have been stopped or have gone
into business less obnoxious What has
thrown of, what has kept of the rail
trains Of this country for some time
back nearly all the leproUs periodicals?
Those OF US who have been on the rail
trains have noticed great change in
the last few months and the last year
or two. Why have nearly all those vile
periodicals been kept OFF the rail trains
for some time back? Who effected it?
Those societies for the publication of
railroad literature gave warning TO the
publishers and warning to railroad COM
panies and warning to conductors and
warning to newsbOys to keep the in
fernal stuff of the trains
How have so 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 as well go into jungle Of
the East Indies and pat cobra on the
neck, and with profound argument try
to persuade 1t that it Is morally wrong
to bite and to sting and to poison any
thing. The only argument for 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 to drive
back this plague of Egyptian frogs is
| by filling the minds OF our young PEG
| pie with a healthful literature. I do
not mean to say that all tee books and
| newspapers ought to be religious books
! hot
ought to be sung to the tune of '4Old
| Hundred" I have no sYmnathy with
the attempt TO make the young old I
would rather join in a crusade to 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 to fill the minds of the young, SC
that there viii be no more room for the
| useless and the vicious than there il
room for chan in a bushel meaurt
which is already filed with Michigan
wheat.
Why are so per cent of the criminals
in the jails and Penitentiaries of thu
United States to-day under Fl years o.
age? Many of them under II, undel
10, under Is, under Il, under IS? Wall
along one of the corridors of the Toni
prison IN New York and look for your
/ selves Bad books, bad newspaper
bewitched them as soon as they got on
of the cradle Beware of all thOs'
stories which end wrong Beware o
all those books which make the rOa'
that ends in perditiOn seem TO end il
! paradise Do not glOrify the dirk an
| the pistol Do not call the desperate
brave or the Hbertine gallant Teael
our young people that if they go dow
into the swamps and marshes to vvatcl
the jaclz-O'-lanterns dance on the deca,
and rottenness they viii catch the ma
iaria and death
Ny word Is to this vast multitude O
: young people: Do not touch, do no
borrow, do not buy a corrupt book or
: corrupt picture a book viii decide
: mans destiny for good or for evil
I = good bOok-whO can eXaggerate 1t
Power2 Benjamin Franklin said tina
his reading of Cotton AIather's Essay
: To Do Good IN childhood gave mir
4 holy inspirations for all the rest of hi
: life George Law declared that q biOg