The Progress., 1893-05-27

stands. Il i evident that the business
should even &c lower. Nowsboys accus-
tomcG 10 Aa IT, tliis class Of puhica-
tious go -y-c.ssfUliy s,rk matter even
Eyre s2!"-.. De- icr Their prize trade. Gp-
ing out q l.yclaId q short time ago.
the ncy-~to; Ga the tram. after ! had
bought so,..- lSpcTs from hiru. asked Iac
If | wOuld Ike " very rich bo"k->ome-
thing cEriCc which he had 81. hand. |
told him : woUld like To- see II. He
brought IL L. me and whispered not to
let the conductor see the book. He sad
that the irlcc was - cents; that IL SOLD
as high ~ - and -. Ii was q little tract
of about - pages, bound in yellow pa
per. which cost perhaps a cent and hall
to produce. Without any exception 1t
was the vilesi book upon which my eye
ever rested. If the devil III hell had
written il or lad appointed "a special
agent to produce it for the purpose of
cOrruptinS boyhood cn earth. IL codld
not have been done more successfully.
1t was written with the sole purpose
of debaTcning the imagination of the
boy or the girl who should read il, and
its language was as direct as is the Ian
guage of the dissecting room itself
There was left absolutely nothing 10 the
imagination. Ii was the description of
the debauchCrv Of a boy Of ~ years of age.
to dcscribe which is impossible either III
print or in speech for the eye or ear Of
decent men or women. This book r.
published III 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. frolI - cents to 81 apiece. This
same youngster also asked me if wOul /
like some very rich pictures-photo-
graphs of girls. told him j would like
to see them. He said that he had sold
out all his samples that day, but that
when | got back TO Cleveland he would
bring Inc around the sample album from
which | could make orders. and he did.
Sccond-We see the development of
this curse III the obscene pictures which
grow i'll number and III villainy appar
emily each day. Tradition tells rs of an
artist who PAINTED lewd picture and
gatOry so long as the picture lived on the
earth. and his soul was never released
until by the intercessiO: Of some saint
the picture was destroyed. II some soul
answers III the underworld for every
lascivious picture now in circulation, the
chambers of hell must surely be crowd
ed by this time.
We have a class of weekly newspa-
pers which have been flooding our ma
ton with filth now for nearly a gener-
alton. Instead of growing fewer they
grow i'll number from day to day. The
Police Gazette and The Police News now
have their scores of rivals. There is
scarcely day that passes DER our head
that 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 i'll 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
Broclway likewise torches lower
depths tn Tne Police News. So VIC
might name scores of other papers that
seek to live as the distributors of filth.
woESE THAN soDoM AND GoMoRRAH.
The amount of obscene matter circu-
lated today in pictures is something in
calculable to those who have not inves
tigated it. The picture has come TO bc
part of literature as much as the let
tiers itself Our daily newspapers are
now all illustrated. Our weekly news
papers are using illustrations. The pow
c &c picture 70 bless or to curse ic :
tie poy, er of the living, vital personality
itself. We look at the frescoes of buried
Pompeii with disgust and horror and
strive III our imagination to picture the
depth of their degradation. We look
with amazelnent upon the scenes at Cor
inth in which the worship of Aphrodite
was conducted. But Corinth in her deg
radiation and Pompeii in her vulgarity
Of art. if they should rise from the
dead, would certainly find new lessons
in their art from their modern ancestors
The vcnders Of obscene matter in our
cities have gone to lower depths than the
ancient debauchee of these old world
certers. And not only so, but men who
pretend to respectability in the business
world use these means of public de-
bauchery to advertise their wares. Every
saloon is flled with lascivious pictures.
Every cigar store is full of the most
vicious prints. Every whisky and beer
manufactory uses the vilest possible pic
lures which they think will pass the
notice of the police and the district at
torney for the purpose of attracting the
crowd of boys that passes the open show
window.
When returned to Cleveland on the
day referred to after the conversation
with the rewsboy on the train, be
brought to my hotel his sample album
of pictures. If man had told me there