Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-03-09
on THE PLAQUES OF THE CITIES
NEED FOR THESTRONG ARM OF THE LAW


ESPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE DIsPATCu,l
NEW YORK, March S.-The plague OF
pernicious literature formed the subject OF
DR.. Talmage's sermon to-day, which was
the third of the series he IS preaching on the
'Ten Plaques of the Cities" The Brook
lyn Academy Of Music Was filled in the
morning bv a dense crowd eager to hear ii,
and at night at the services IN the New \ ork
Academy of Music, the doors had to be
closed long before the hour of service there
being no space available within the build
ing for more hearers So large is the num-
Der Of those every week disappointed of
gaining admission that the project o: hiring
the Madison Square Garden has again been
revived. One citizen has offered TO pay all
the expenses if the Garden can be secured.
and Dr. Talmagc can be induced to preach
in il. The text of the preachers discourse
was taken from Exodus vili: 81: "And the
frogs came up and covered the land Of
Egypt. And the magiclans did so with
their entertainments, and brought up frogs
upon the land of Egypt"
There IS almost universal aversion 10 frogs
and yet with the Egyptian they were houored
they were sacred, and they objects of
worship while alive. and after death they were
embalmed and Today their remains may be
found among the sepulCherS of ThebeS. These
creatures. so attractive once TO the Egyptians
NJ divine beheSt became obnoxious anu loath-
some. and thev went Croakiug and hopping
and leapinc into the palace of the king. and
irfo the bread trays and the coucnes o. the
people. and even the ovens. which now are
Upli;ed above the earth and on the side OF
CiimEpvS, but thcn were small holes III me
earth win >uuken pottery, were filled with
igogs when the hoUsekcepers came to look at
them. If man SAT down to eat, frog dllChted
on his plate. II he attempted to put on a shoe,
ItNyas peoccumed by frog If lie attempted
to nut his head upon pillow. il had been taken
possession % by frog Frogs high and low
and everywhere; loathsome frogs, Shiny frogs.
be>icG.uC frogs. lnnumerahie frogs. great
plague Of frogs What made The matter worse,
the magic'anS said there was no miracle in this,
and rhey could hy slelght-0f-hand produce the
same lAin-, and they seemed 10 succeed, Tor
Il ,lcIEht-0l-hInd wonders may be wrought
The Plague of the Frogs Again.
After Moses had thrown down his staff and
hy miracle it became a serpent, and then he
took hold of 1t and by miracle it again
became a staff. the serpent charmer5
initiated the same thing, and knowing that
there were serpents in Egypt which by pecu-
liar pressure on the neck would become as
rigid IS a stick Of wood. they seemed to change
the serpent INTO the staff and then. throwing il
down. the staff became serpent. SO likewise
these magicians tried 10 initiate the plague
Of frogs. and perhaps bv smell of lOod attract
ing a great number of them to a certain
pulut or by shaking them out from hidden
TlaCe the magicIans sometimes seemed TO ac-
rumplish he same miracle. While these ma
,ciaus made the plague worse, none Of them
tried 10 make 1t better. Frogs came up and
covered the land Of Egypt, and the magiclans
ID pOgllOTmput.
Up frogs upon the land Of Egypt"
Now that plague OF frogs has come back upon
the earth. Ii is abroad to-day. 1t is smiling
tuis nation. it comes in the shape of corrupt
literature. These frogs hop into the store the
shop, the Office, the banking house, the fac
tory-into the home. into the cellar. into the
garret on the drawing room table, on the shelf
OI the library. While the lad is reading the
bad book the teachers face is turned the other
way. One Of these frogs hops upon the page.
" bile the Young woman is reading the forbid
Geu novelette, after retiring at night, reading by
gaSlight, one of these frogs leaps upon the page.
LuGeud, they have hopped on tie news stands
OF the country. and the mails at the pOstotfce
shake out IN the letter trough hundreds OF them.
The plague has taken at different times pos
session of thi, country 1t Is one of the most
loHthsume. one Of the most frightful. one o f
the most CHASTITY Of the ten plaques OF our mod
cTn CItle.. There is vast number of books
and newspapers printed and published which
oUghJ never to see the light They are filled
win pestileuce that makes the land swelter
with moral epidemic.
Tne greatest blessing that ever came to this
nation is that of an elevated literature, and the
greatest scourge has been that of unclean litera-
turc. This last has its victims in all occupa-
tiCus and departments. 1t has helped to fill
insane asyumS and penitentiaries and aims
houses and uens Of shame. The bodies of this
infection lie n the hospitals and in the graves,
while their souls are being tossed over into
lost eternity, an avalanche Of horror and de-
snRir
Worse Than the London Scourge.
The London plague was nothing to it. That
counted its victims by thousands, but this
modern pest has already shoveled its millions
into The charnel-house of the morally dead.
The longest raiI-train that ever ran over the
Erie OF hudson tracks was not long enough nor
large enough to carry the beastliness and the
ruucfacton which have been gathered up in
bad books and newspapers of this land in the
last 20 years. The literature OF a nation de-
Cidcs the tate OF q nation. Good books, good
morals Bad books, bad morals.
! begin with the lowest of all the literature
that which does not even pretend to be re-
specialization cover to cover a blOtch of lep-
rosy. There are many whose entire business it |
is 10 dispose of tEat kind of literature. They /
display II before the schOolboy his way |
home. They Get the catalogues of sch"Dls and |
colleges, take the names and postofice ad- /
dresses, and send their advertisements and |
their circulars and their pamphlets and their 1
books TO every one Of them.
In the possession of these dealers in bad lit |
CiaJurc were found 300 600 names and postofficc |
addresses to whom il was thought it might he !
profitable to send these corrupt things. In the /
year 1873 there were l65 establishments ell /
gagged IN publishing cheap, corrupt literature. |
From one publishing house there went out 20 !
different styles Of corrupt books. Although !
over 80 tons Of vile literature have been de-
sTroyCu by the Society fO- the Suppression Of :
ce stll there Is enough of it left in this coun-
try TO bring down upon us the thunderbolts of !
al InccuSed God. In the year 1865 the evil had |
become so great in this country that the Con !
gTeSS OF the United States passed a law forbid /
ding tile transmission of bad literature through /
tile 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 1868 But in 1873 another law was |
passed by the Congress of the United States |
a-ainst the transmission 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 cOntiscated and they them-elves
thrown into the penitentiaries where they be-
lDnEed.
Now. my friends. how are we to war against
this corrupt literature and how are the frogs
of thi, Egyptian plague 10 be slain? First of
all, hv the prompt and ineXorahlc execution of
thc law Let all good postmastcrs and United
States district attorneys and detectives and re-
formers concert in their action 10 stop this
plague. When Sir Rowland Hill spent his life
Iu irving to secure cheap postage not only for
England, but for all the world and open the
Blessing OF the pOstoffice to all honest business
and to all messages OF charity, and kindness
ana affection, ior an healthI al lntercommunl-
cation. he did not mean to make vice easy or 10
fll the mail bags Of the United States with the
sc1bs Of such leprOsy.
Right Use of the Mails.
thought 10 be IL the power of every bad
man who can raise a l-cent stamp for a cir
GUAR or a 2cent stamp FOR letter. to blast
q man OF destroy home. The postal service
Of tiIis country must be clean, must be kept
clean, and we must all understand that the