Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1891-03-14
REV. DR.. 7ALMAGE.
The Eminent Brooklyn Divine's Sun
day Sermon.
subject arhs pl,sus OF Bad Books


brought up frogs upon the land of Egypta
-Ex. viii, G, Z.
There is almost universal aversion to
frogs, and yet with the Egyptian they were
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 sepulchres
of Thehes. These creatures, SO attractive
once TO the Egyptians, at divine behest be-
came obnoxious and loathsome, and they
went croaking aud hopping and leaping into
tie palace of the king an1 into the bread
trays and the couchss of the people, and even
the ovens, which now are upliite1 above the
Garth and on the s de of caimnays but then
were small holes in the earth. with sanken
pottery, were filed with frogs when the
Ecusekeepers came to looz at t;ieaa. If a man
sat down TO eat frog alightel on his plate.
II he attempted to put on shoe it was pre-
occupied by frog. II he attempted to put
his head upon pill 'ow it had been taken pos
session Of by frog.
Frogs high and low and everywhere; loath-
some frogs, Shiny frogs, besiegiag frogs, in
Vulnerable frogs great plague OF frogs.
w hat made the matter worse the magicians
said there was no miracle in this and they
could by sleight OF hand produce the same
thing, and they seemed to succeed, for by
slelght of hand wonders may he wrought
After Moses had thrown down his staff and
by miracle it became serpent. and then he
took hold of it and by miracle it again be-
came staff, the serpent charmers initiated
the same thing, and knowing that there were
serpents in Egypt which by peculiar pres
sure on the neck would become as rigid as a
stick of wood they seemed to change the SER
pent into the staff and then, throwing it
down, the staff became the serpent
So likewise these magicians tried to imi-
tate the plague OF frogs, and perhaps by
of Lott att. e
them to certain point, or by shaking them
out from hidden place, the magicians some
times seemed to accomplish the same mira
Gle. While these nagiciaus made the plague
worse, none of them tried to make it better
Frogs came up and covered the land of
Egypt and the magicians did so with their
enchantment, and brought up frogs upon the
Undo Egypt"
Now that plague of frogs has come back
upon the earth. 1t is abroad to-day. 1t is
shifting this nation. 1t comes in the shape
of corrupt literature. These frogs hop into
the store the shop. the Office the banking
house, the factory-into the home, into the
cellar, into the garrett on the drawing room
table, on the shelf of the library While the
lad is reading the bad book the teachers facs
! is turned the other way. One of these frogs
hops upon the page. While the young woman
! is reading the forbidden novelette, after re-
I firing at night, reading by gaslight, one of
these frogs leaps upon the page. Indeed
1 they have Eopped upon the news stands of
the country and the mails at the postoffce
shake out in the letter trough hundreds of
! them. The plague has taken at different
times possession Of this country. 1t is one of
1 the most loathsome, one of the m ost fright
ful, one of the most CHASTITY OF the ten plaques
( Of our modern cities.
There is a vast number of books and news
1 papers printed and published which ought
never to see the light. They are filed with
! pestilence that makes the land sweltsr with a
moral epidemic. The greatest blessing that
/ ever came to this nation is that OF an ele-
/ waited literature and the greatest seourge
, has been that of unclean literature. This
/ last has its victims in all occupations and
departments. 1t has helped to fill insane
asylums and penitentiaries and almshousss
and dens of shame. The bodies of this infec-
ton Ii in the hospitals and in the graves
( while their souls are being tossed over into
( a lost eternity, an avalanche of horror and
/ despair
( The London plague was nothing to it,
/ That counted its victims by thousands, but
this modern pest has already sh0veled its
millions into the charnel house of the morally
( dead. The longest rail train that ever ran
over the Erie or Hudson tracks was notlong
enough nor large enough to carry the beast
( illness and the putrefaction which have been
I gathered up in bad books and newspapers of
this land in the last twenty years. Tho
literature of nation decides the fate OF 3
marion. Good books, good morals. Bad
books bad morals
4, | hegin with the lowest of all tho htera-
ture, that which does not even pretend to
1 be resEaetable-fr cover to cover a blotch
of leprosy. There are many whose entire
business it is to dispose of that kind Of lit
erature. They display it before the school
boy on his way home. They get the cats-
/ logues Of schools and colleges, take the
names and postoGice addresses, and send
their advertisements, and their circulars
and their pamphlets aud their books to every
one of them.
In the possession Of these dealers in bad
literature were found nine hundred thou
sand names and postofhGs addresses TO
whom it was thought it might be profitable
to send these corrupt things, In the year
1913 there were one hundred and sixty-fYe
establishments engaged in publishing cheap,
corrupt literature. From one publishing
house tsere went out twenty different styles
/ Of corrupt books. Although 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 just anger Of an
/ aroused God.
In tine year 1868 the evil had become 50
/ great in this country that the Congress of
the United States passed a law forbidding
the Transmission OF bad literature 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 1853. But in
! 1873 another law was passed by the Congress
I OF the United states against the Transmission
I of corrupt literature through the mails
grand law, a potent law, Christian law
and under that law multitudes of these
/ scouudrels have been arrested, their property
confiscated and they themselves thrown into
the penitentiarieS, where they belonged.
Now my friends how are Wa to war
/ against this corrupt literature, and how are
/ the frogs of tbs Egyptian plague to be
slain? First of all by the prompt and mex
/ CRADLE execution of the law Let all good
| postmasters, and United States district at
/ torneys, and detectives and reformers con-
cert i'll their action to stop this plague.
1 When Sir Rowland Hill spent his life in try
ing to secure cheap postage not only for
! England, but for all the world and to open
the blessing of the postoflice to all honest
| business, and to all messages of charity,
and kindness, and affection, for all health
full INSTRUMENTATION, he did not mean to
make vice easy or to ill 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
q circular or a two-cent stamp for letter to
blast man or destroy home. The postal
service of this country must be clean, must
be kept clean, and we must all understand
that the swift retributions OF the Unite
States Government hover over every viola
ton of the letter box.
There are thousands Of men and women in
this country, some for personal gain, soma
through innate depravity, some through a
spirit OF revenge, who wish to use this great
avenue of convenience and intelligence for
purposes revenselul, salacious aud ciabolic,
Wake up the law. Wa5e up tne penalties.
Let every court room on this suhisc0 be
Sinai tbUnderous and aHame. LIT the con-
voted offenders be sent for the full term to
Sing Sing OF Harrisburg
am not talking about what cannot be
cone. am talking now about what is being
done. A great many o. the printing presses
mat gave themsel Ies entirely to .{5e nnb,ica.
tioh OF vile literature have been STONED az.
nave gone into business less ohr6xiou;
w laI mas thrown off, what has kepa or tha
ran Trans OF this country for some tirno
mack mack nearly all the leprous periodically
Il!ose OF us who have been on the rail Trains
naNe houcel great change in the last few
months aud the last year OF. two. WHY hava
nearly ell those vile periodicals b5a1, keot on
Ihe raii trains for some time back Who Of
iecteI II. Ihess sec cites FOR the publication
O. railroad literature gave warning to tna
publishers and warning 70 railroad compau-
les, and warning to conductors, and warn
ing to newshoyS to keep the internal stuff
Of the trains
Many Of the cities have successfully pro
hl3itat the mos of that literature even from
going On the news Stanis Terror has seTzeI
uDon the publishers an tae dealers in il,p,lrs
literature from the fact that over a thou
sand arrests have been made. and the aggre-
gate tlma Tor which the convicted have been
sshteAc9i 10 the prison Is over one hundred