Audubon County Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Audubon Co., Iowa) 1885-1894, 1891-03-12
PERNICIOUS LITERATURE
DIR. TALMAGE COMPARES IT TO
THE PLAGUE OF FROGS.
Evils Resulting From the Perusai OF
Bad Books, and How They May BE
Overcome.-A Good Book and Its

OF DIR. Talmage's sermon today, which was
the third of the series he is preaching on
the Ten Plaques of the Cities" The
text of the preachers discourse was taken
from Exodus s. 81: And the frogs came
up and covered the land of Egypt And
the magicans did so with their enchant-
ments, and brought up frogs upon the
land of Egypt"
There is almost an 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 scpuchres of Thcbes. These creatures.
so attractive onco TO tho Egyptians, at
divine tehcst became obnoxious and loath-
some, and they went croaBing and hopping
and lcaping into the palace of the king,
and into the bread trays and the couches
OF the people, and even the ovens, which
now are upliGtcd above the earth and on
the side of the chimncys, but then were
small holes in the earth with sunken pot
terry, were filled with frogs when the
housesccpers came to look at them. If n
man sat down TO cat, a frog alightcd on
his plate. If he attempted to put on a
shoe, it was proc cupcl by a frog. If he
attempted to pat his head upon a pillow, it
had been taken possession of by a frog.
Frogs high and low and everywhere;
IOathSOmo frogs, Shiny frogs, beseging
frogs, innumCrablc frogs, great plague of
frogs What made the after worse, the
Mag.CianS 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 sleight-of-hand wonders
may be 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 became staff. the
s-rpent ,harmerS initiated the same thing
and knowing that there were serpentS in
| Egypt which by peculiar pressure on tho
neck would become rs rigid as stick of
| wood, they seemed to change the serpent
into the staff, and then, throwing it down,
the staff became the serpent. So likewise
these mlgicians tried to initiate the plague
! o. frogs, aud perhaps by smell If food at
| tractuE great number of them to 4 GER
tain point, or by shaking them out from a
hidden place the magicians sometimes
! seemed TO accomplish the same miracle
| While ttcSe ma@icians made the plague
| worse, none OF them tried to make il bet
ter. Frogs came up and covered the
! land of Egypt, and the mag clans did 50
!
! frogs upon the l&ui of Egypt"
Now that plague of frogs has conc
back upon the earth. 1t is abroad today.
1t is shifting this nation. 1t comes in the
! shape of corrupt Literature. Thes2 frogs
. hop into the store, the shop, the office. the
J Danking-hOusC, the factory into the home.
! into the cellar. into the garnet, on the shelf
| q the library. Wh.lc the lad is reading
! N" bad book the teachers face is turne1
! the other way. One of these frogs hops
| upon the page. While the young woman
! is reading the forbidden novelette, after
! retiring at night, reading by gaslight, one
! OF these frogs leaps upon the page.
| Indeed, they have hoped on the news
| stands OF the country, and the mails at the
| poSt-OliCc shake out in the letter trough
| hundreds OF them. The plague has taken
| al different times, possession of this
! country. 1t is ono Of the most louthsomo,
one Of The most ir.ghtlul, one Of the most
| EHdSliE "i the ten plaques Of our mOndcru
ctl s. There Is 4 y-st number of books
and newspapers printed and published
! watch ought never to SEQ the light. They
are filed with a pcstiience that makes the
! land sUrIc" with \ moral epidemic. Tho
| greatest loss ~ that ever came to this
! nation is that Of an elevated literature,
! and the greatest auOurgo has been that of
| unr.c-n literature. This last has its
| wet US in all occupations and departments.
| II has helped TO Ill insane asyums and
! ? uiCHuarleS and aimshousc5 and dcns Of
! shame. The bodies OF this mft ct on lie in
tie hospitals and in the graves, while their
! souls arc being tossed over into 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 shoyeled its millions into tho
chanel-house OF the morally dead. The
Tor gest rail train that ever ran over tho
Erie or Hudson tracks was not long enough
nor large enough to carry the beastliness
and the pItrofaction which have been
gathered up in tho last twenty years. The
literature of nation decides tho fate of
nation. Good hooks, good morals. Bad
books, bad morals.
begin with the lowest of all the litcra-
ture. that which does not even pretend to
be respecta0le-from coverto cover 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 cata-
ioguc5 of schools and colleges, take the
names and POstOffiCe addresses, and send
| their advertisements and their circulars
and their pamphlets and their books to
every one OF them.
In the possession of these dealers in bad
literature were found nine hundred thou
sand names and postoifice addresses. to
whom it was thought it might be profitable
to send these corrupt things. In the year
1873 there were one hundred and sixty-fve
establishments engaged in publishing cheap
corrupt literature. From one publishing
| house there went out twenty different
| styles Of corrupt books. although over
thirty tons o. vile literature have been
| destroyed by the Society for the Suppress
sion Of Vice still there is enough of it left
IN this country to bring down upon US the
EhunderDohs of an incensed God.
IL the year 1868, the evil had become so
! 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 GRIM
lnals could crawl out, and the law was
dead failure-that law Of 1868. But in
! 1878, another law was passed by the Con-
! gress of the United States against the ad-
mission of corrupt literature through the
mails-a grand law, a potent Law. n Chris
! tan laW-and under that law multltudeS OF
scOundrcls have been arrested, their prop
erty conGscated, and they themselves
thrown into the penitentiaries where they
/ belonged.
! 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 in
/ eXorable execution Of the law. Let all good
! postmasters and United States district-at-
torncys, and detectives and reformers con-
cert in their action TO stop this plague.
How have so many of the pews-stands
OF our great cites been purified? How has
SO much Of this iniqulty been baked?
By moral suasjon? On, no. You might
as well go into jungle Of the East Indies
and pat cobra on the neck, and with pro-
found argument try to PERSUADE it that It
Is L orally wrong TO bite and TO sting and
10 poison anything. The only answer TO
your argument would be an uplifted head
and hiss, and sharp, reekng tooth
struck ntO your arteries. The only argu-
ment for cobra is a shotgun, and the only
I - urIFF IaTFf F,s.s H