Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1891-03-11

! tooth stuck into your arteries. The
= only argument for a cobra is a shotgun,
: and the only argument for these deal
= ers in impure literature is the clutch OF
the police and bean soup in the peni-
tentlary. The lawl The lawl ! in
yoke 10 consummate the work 80 grand
ly begunl
Another way in which we are TO drive
back this plague of Egyptian frogs is
by filling the minds of our young people
with a healthful literature. | do not
mean 10 say that all the books and
, newspapers in our families ought to be
religious books and newspapers, or that
every song ought to be sung to the tune
of "Old Hundred. | have no syInpa-
thy with the attempt to make the
young old. | would rather join in a
crusade to keep the young young. Boy
hood and girlhood must not be alb
breviated. 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, 80 that there will be no more
room for the useless and vicious than
there is room for the chaff in bushel
measure which is already filled with
Michigan wheat.
RUINED BY PERNICIoUs READING.
Why are so per cent. Of the criminals
in the jails and penitentiarias of the
United States today under twenty-one
years Of agel Many of them under
seventeen, under sixteen, under fifteen,
under fourteen, under thirteen. Walk
along one Of the corridors of the Tombs
prison in New York and look for your
selves. Bad books, bad newspapers
bewitched them as soon as they got out
of the cradle. Beware of all those
stories which end wrong. Beware Of
all those books which make the road
that ends in perdition seem TO end in
Paradise. Do not glorify the dirk and
the pistol, Do not call the desperate
brave or the libertine gallant Teach
our young people that if they go down
into the swamps and marshes to watch
the jack-o lanterns dance on the decay
and rottenness, they will catch the ma
laria and death.
"Oh!' says some one, II am bust
ness man, and have no time to exam
inc what my children read. have no
time TO inspect the books that come
into my household" If your children
were threatened with typhoid fever
would you have time 10 go for the doc
tori Would you have time to watch
the progress OF the disease2 Would YOU
have time for the funerall In the pres.
ence OF my God warn you Of the fact
that your children are threatened with
moral and spiritual typhoid, and that
unless the thing be stopped it will be TO
them funeral of body, funeral of mind,
funeral of soul Three funerals in one
day.
My word Is 10 this vast multitude of |
young people; Do not touch, do not |
borrow, do not buy corrupt book or
n corrupt picture. A book will decide |
a mans destiny for good or for evil.
The book you read yesterday may have
decided you for time and for eternity
or 1t may bo "a book that may come into
your possession tomorrow.
TIIE POWER or A GOOD BOOK.
A good book-who can eXaggerate
its pQweri Benjamin Franklin said
that his reading of Cotton Mather's
Essays to DO Good in childhood
gave him holy aspirations for all the
rest of his life, George Law declared
that a biography he read in childhood
gave him all his subsequent proSperi.
ties. \ clergyman, many years ago,
passing 20 the far west, stopped at
hotel lie saw woman copying some
thing from Doddrdge's Rise and
Progress II seemed that she had
borrowed the book, and there were
some things she wanted especially 10 |
remember
The clergyman had In his Sachel a
copy of Doddrige's Rise and Prog.
reSs, and 80 he made her a present Of
Il. Thirty years passed ON. The
clergyman came that way, and he asked |
where the woman was whom lac had
seen long ago. Thoy said, she lives
yonder ia that beautiful house" lie
went there and said to her, DO YOU
me" She said "No | do {
not He said, DO you remember a
man gave you Doddridge's Rise and q
Progress thirty years agor "Oh. q
YES; nemember. That book saved {
my soul loaned the book % all my q
neighbors, ahJ they road il and were !
10 God, and We had a ~
'ival Of religion that swept through the l
whole oolnmunity We built church q
and called pastor, You $50 that !
'plFo yonder don't !oui That church :
Sas built AS che r'sult OF that book YOU 9
pave me thirty years aso CA, the |
'ower of a good book But, Alas, fur I
ho Influences ~ = bad book
John Angel James than whom Eng =
and never had a hoiieF minister, stood q
u his pulpit at Birmingham Aad said
'Fwppty hvv years ago a lAd loaned H. @
ae ana infamous book lie would loan q
only fifteen minutes and then had =
D give il back but that buok has Is
,auntod mo like spsoter ever since "a
have n agony % soul. on my knces "a
'ofoN God prayed thai he would ob
touste hNap my soul tho memory Of il +"
ut Shall oarry the damage Of IL to d
be day ~ my death The assassin oi "a
liz William Russcll leslared that ho Il
~ tina inSDiratian for his .,rtt.. A.. . n