The morning call., 1893-11-12

When the women of California shall
have brought their campaign against I'M
clean Journalism to a successful close
and there can be no doubt but that the
present campaign will terminate in VIC
tory for decency-tbey will find, close at
their hands, another similar piece OF work
all cut and waiting for them. We must
have literature for girls.
Our newspapers are, for the most part.
bad enough, we all know. They come into
our homes, day after day. laden with trash.
with filth, with all the horrid fiotsam and
ietsam collected through industrious pad
ding about amid the wrecks of human
character along the social sea, and full of
what to the weak and the immature can
but prove instructio in if not incentive
to folly and crime.
The newspaper, like the poor, we have
with us always. and it is absolutely essen
tial tor the good of the community that it
should be clean and whole some in tone.
1t Is necessary, also, for the credit of the
community. One need not wonder at the
singular impression many people in the
East and abroad receive of our civilization
when we reflect upon the character of the
newspapers that 60 out from among US,
posing as crlterions of that civilization.
But. leaving the newspapers. what shall
we say OF another sort of reading that is
flooding the country and making possible
the terrible occurrences with the reports
of which no enSation-mOngering news
papers afterward offend our mental nos
trilsI
[ stood several days since and read the
titles of row of books displayed for sale
al one of our news-Stands. Struck by the
shocking nature of most of them, l made a
study for several days OF this newsstand
literature. | call it newsstand literature.
but honesty forces me to admit that much
of it is to be found In almost any one of
our leading bookstores, and inquiry
among dealers developed the sad fact that
it sells rapidly and Instantly in circles
where we would naturally suppose it would
never find entrance. OF many of the
books, one seller confded to me, the title
is the worst part. Like the headlines in
our sensational sheets, the captions are
merely to attract attention. and an erotic
title often serves to sell what is otherwise
very tame book indeed.
| asked the dealer what class of people
buy these books and he told me principally
young girls, women and few young men.
Boys don't care for such stuff as rule"
he said.
This is not surprising. The Boy, some
years ago, was knocking loudly at the
gates of Society, demanding that some
thing be done for him, and Society, awak-
enlng to the fact that the Boy was getting
in bad way. bestirred itself to devise some
means to win him therefrom. Boys clubs,
boys brgades, boys branches in the Z.
Nj. G. A. sprang up on every side, all prose-
cutting, with great vigOr, the commendable
work of saving the Boy.
With all these Movements has arisen, as
WE'LL a literature for boys. A good deal of
it was nonsense at first. The Oliver Optic
and Harry Castelman stage of the boys
book came near to softeniug the brains of
the present generation of men who are
just passing their first youth. but even
Oliver Optic was beginning and paved
the way for something better, so that now
the question for the boy in search of some
thing to read is not so much what to choose
as what he can afford to pass by In the
wealth of good. wholesome literature
awaiting him. He can roam through a
world of adventure by land or sea {;
he can enter into history in COM
pany with his favorite heroes; he can
build a boat or an electrical machine
in fact, the whole healthy world OF human
achievement has been brought to him
throu h books adapted to his understand
ing and interest. From the time he can
read at all. until, arrived at mature taste
and judgment, he enters into his inheri-
lance of the worlds thought and the
worlds iterature-the boy is provided for.
1t must be granted that he does not always
accept this provision. There is enough,
heaven knows, that is bad, to tempt him to
excursions into the realm Of the vicious in
literature. but at least the good has been
provided for him.
Not so is it, with the girl. When she
has been graduated from st. Nicholas and
the Susie books, or whatever corresponds
to them in her :ime, and has read Miss
Alcotrs delightful stories, and those few
books that one or two dear girls women
n haO 70 Ito thar hi
for her but the wide open, unhealthy realm
of sentimental fiction. Even the few noble
books that have been written for girls erI
along these lines. The inevitable lover
appears, and the book ends in a wedding,
just as surely as it ends at all. There is no
such thing as healthy literature for the
girl between the ages of IL and 49, such as
exists for her brother between those years.
1t is not because the boy scOrns such,
primarily, that ne never delves into senti-
mental fiction. lie has, it is true, hearty
and wholesome contempt for the love story,
at All age when his sister is eagerly follow
ing the fortunes of AlonZo and Ara bella,
or maunderlng half comprehendingly
through the plotter's pages of a modern
novel of the analytic school. but it is be-
cause he has something better to read,
while she has not, that he so promptly
rejects that with which her starving young
mind is fain to satisfy itself.
why dlQ you not go, with the girls on
their picnic. Dick?" asked friend of
mine recently of her 17-year-old son, who
stayed at home and did chores" rather
than accompany party of young friends
on an excursion.
"Oh, cause" was the reply. there's no
fun in the girls. They won't play anything.
All they want to do is to take your arm
an walk an talk an quote poetry"
Every schoolteacher knows that the main
theme of conversation among her girl
pupils after they enter their teens is the
prospective lover. The boy, in his day
dreams, builds castles in Spain to be won
by adventure and achievement The girl
VIII have lover
Riding a steed OF steeds.
Not because these are the natural dis
tinctions between the masculine and the
feminine mind, but because the mind of
the girl is forced into the romantic chan
mel by the outward presence Of education,
environment and reading. Don't you
think IL would be lovely 10 be married.?
asked a dainty, beautiful. ladylike 16-year-
old girl of me the other day. For answer
/ reached forward and took from her
hand the book she was reading. 1t was a
paper-covered thing. the title, if l remem-
Der rightly. THE WoOing of Maiden" or