Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1893-05-31


more salacious for their prize trade. Go
ing ont of Cleveland short time ago,
the newsboy On the train. after had
bought some papers from him, asked me
if l would like a very rich book-some-
thing choice which he had on hand.
told him | would like to see it. He
brought it TO me and whispered not to
let the conductor see the book. He said
that the price was IS cents; that it sold
as high as 81 and s.. 1t was alittle tract
of about 25 pages, bound in yellow pa
per, which cost perhaps a cent and half
to produce. Without any exception it
was the vilest book upon which my eye
ever rested. If the devil in hell had
written it or had appointed a special
agent to produce it for the purpose of
corrupting boyhood on earth, it could
not have been done more successfully.
1t was written with the sole purpose
of debauching the imagination of the
boy or the girl who should read it, and
its language was as direct as is the Ian
guage of the dissecting room itself.
There was left absolutely nothing to the
imagination. II was the description of
the debauchery of boy of 12 years Of age,
to describe which is impossible either in
print or in speech for the eye or ear Of
decent men or women. This book is
published in the city of Chicago, so the
newsboy informed me, and is sold upon
thousands of trains. 1t bears the imprint
of no publisher and is sold, as the boy
said, from IS cents 10 s. apiece. This
same youngster also asked me if would
like some very rich pictures-photo-
graphs of girls. told him / would like
10 see them. lie said that he had sold
out all his samples that day, but that
when / got back 10 Cleveland he would
bring me around the sample album from
which / could make orders, and he did.
Second-We see the development Of
this curse in the obscene pictures which
grow in number and in villainy appar-
emily each day. Tradition tells us Of an
artist who painted lewd picture and
after death was held a prisoner in pur-
gatory so long as the picture lived on the
earth, and his soul was never released
until by the intercession of some saint
the picture was destroyed. If some soul
answers in the underworld for every
lascivious picture now in circulation, the
chambers of hell must surely be crowd
ed by this time.
We have class of weekly newspa-
pers which have been flooding our ma
ton with filth now for nearly gener-
alton. Instead of growing fewer they
grow in number from day TO day. The
Police Gazette and The Police News now
have their scores Of rivals. There is
scarcely aday that passes DER our head
that a set of dirty scoundrels do not
originate new scheme for flooding the
world with this illustrated filth. AT
least half dozen Of these villainous pub
locations have originated in New York |
within the past year and have met, |
some of them, with remarkable sales.
A paper called Music and Drama is now
being issued IN New York which is dirtier |
to the square inch that even The Police |
Gazette has dared to be since its publica-
ton. Another villainous sheet called |
Broadway likewise touches lower
depths than The Police News. So we
might name scores Of other papers that |
seek to live as the distributors of filth.
WORSE THAN soDoM AND GoMoRRAH.
The amount Of obscene matter circu-
lated today in pictures is something in
to those who have not inves-
iigated it. The picture has come to be
4 part of literature as much as the let
iers itself. Our daily newspapers are
now all illustrated. Our weekly news
papers are using illustrations. The pow
ar of picture to bless or TO curse is as
the power of the living, vital personality
itself. We look at the frescoes of buried
Pompeii with disgust and horror and
strive in our imagination to picture the
depth Of their degradation. We look
with amazement upon the scenes at Cor
nth in which the worship of Aphrodite
was conducted. But Corinth in her deg
and Pompeii in her vulgarity
IF art. if they should rise from the
lead, would certainly find new lessons
n their art rom their modern ancestors.
The vendors of obscene matter in our
titles have gone to lower depths than the
lncient debauchee of these old world
enters. And not only so, but men who
pretend to responsibility in the business
world use these means of public de-
to advertise their wares. Every
aloon is filled with lascivious pictures.
every cigar store is full of the most
-icious prints Every whisky and beer
uses the vilest possible pic
ures which they think viii pass the
notice of the police and the district at
orney for the purpose of attracting the
rowd of boys that passes the open show
window
When l returned TO Cleveland ON the
lay referred to after the conversation
With the newsboy on the train, he |,
brought to my hotel his sample album
f pictures. If man had told me there
we're persons in America mean enough
0 take such pictures, devil enough to
ell them as business, would utterly
ave refused to credit the statement for
moment. This album represented a