Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1891-03-14
NUMBER 81

he drew forth hand torn and man.
gled and bleeding. Oh, touch not evil
even with the faintest stroke! Though
it may BE- glossy and beautiful, touch
it not, lest you pull forth your soul
torn and bleeding under the clutch of
the black leopard. But" you say,
chow can find out whether book is
good or bad without reading ita'' There
is always something suspicious about q
bad book. never knew an exception
suspicious in the index or
style of illustration. This venomous
reptile almost always carries warning
rattle.
The clock strikes midnight. A fair
form bends over a romance. The eyes
fash fire. The breath is quick and
irregular. Occasionally the color dashes
to the check, and then dies out. The
hands trc1nblc as though guardian
spirit were trying to shake the deadly
book out of the grasp. Hot tears fall. ;
She laughs with q shrill voice that
drops dead at its own sound. The
sweat on her brow is the spray dashed
up from the river of death The clock
strikes -four, and the rosy dawn soon
after Begins to look through the lattice
upon the pale form that looks like a
detained specter Of the night. Soon in
a .nadhousc she will mistake. her ring.
lets for curling serpents, and thrust her
white hand through the bars of the
prison, and smite her head, rubbing it
back as though to push the scalp from
the skull, sarieking, MY brain! my
BRAIN Oh, stand of from that! Why
will you go sounding your way amid
the reefs and warning buoys, when
there is such vast ocean in which you
may voyage, all sail sct7
A BOOK!
We see SO many books We do not I'M
derstand what book is. Stand it on
end. Measure 1.-THE height Of it,
the depth of it, the length of it, tho
breadth of it. You cannot do it. Elk
anime the paper and estimate the prog
ress Inado from the time of the impress
sions on tho clay, and then on to tho
bark of trees, and from the bark of
trees to papyrus, and from 2apyrus to
the hide of wild beasts, and from tho
hide of wild beasts on down until the
miracles of our modern paper manu-
and then see the paper, white
and pure as an infants soul waiting for
Gods inscription.
A book! Examine the type of it.
Examine the printing of it, and see the
from the time when Solon's
laws wcro written on oak planks, and
lIcsiod's poems were written on tables
of lead, and the Siniatic commands
were written on tables of stone, on
down to Hoes pcrfecting printing press.
A book! 1t took all the universities
of the past, all the martyr fires, all the
civilizations, MI the BATTLES, all the VIC
tories, all the defeats. all the glooms,
all the briglitnesses, all the centuries to
make it possible.
A book! 1t is the chorus Of the ages;
it is Tile d1-cwing room in which kings
and queens and orators and poets and
and philosophers come out to
greet you. If worshiped anything ON
earth 1 would worship that. If T.:
easincenscs IL ida EsIswnnld=s
build an altar to that. Thank God for
good books, lIealthful books, inspiring
books, Christian books, books of men,
books of women, Book of God 1t is
with these good books that we are to
overcome corrupt literature. Upon the
frogs swoop. with these eagles. I de-
pend much for the overthrow of in
qu;tous literature upon the mortality
Of books. Even good books have
hard struggle to live.
Polybius wrote forty books; only five
If then left. Thirty books of Tacitus
nave persisted. Twenty books of Pliny
aavc persisted. Livy wrote one hun
lred and forty books; only thirty-tive
Of them remain. Nschylus wrote one
hundred dramas; only seven remain.
Euripides wrote over hundred; only
nineteen remain. Varro wrote the biog-
rapllies of over seven hundred great
Romans. All that wealth of biography
las persisted. If good and valuable
books have such struggle to live, what
must be the fate of those that arc Dis
,ased and corrupt and blasted at the
very startl They will die as the frogs
when the Lord turned bacl. the plague.
The work Of Characterization will go on
Until there will he nothing loft bnt
,ood books, and they will take the sa-
,remacy of tho world. May you and I
i've to see the illustrious day
COUNTERPART TIE BAD WITH GOOD.
Against every lad pamphlet send
FOOD pamphlet; against every uncican
picture send an innocent picture;
against every scurrilous song send
Christian song; against every bad book
end u good book; and then 1t will be
Is it was in ancient Toledo, where the
roleturn ,rissa!s were kept by tho saints
in six CHURCHES, aud the sacrilegious
Romans demanded that those missals
be destroyed, and that the Roman mis-
sails be substituted; and tho war came
On, and am glad to say that, the whole
matter having been referred to cham
pions, the champion of the Toletum
nissals with one blow brought down
the champion of the Roman missals.
So it will be in our day.
The good literature, the Christian
literature, in its championship for God
and the truth will bring down the evil
literature in its championship for the
devil. 1 feel tingling to the tips of my
fingers and through all the nerves of