Daily Kennebec journal., 1895-11-25
Pernicious and False Ideals.

awaiting tIldi loF NitShAhS N 'A"''' NNNA~
| by killing two people and jeopardizing
the lives of many others. So far as has
| been learned their parents are law sbid-
ing people Nothing has yet appeared to
show tnat the young men had committed
crime before. Nothing indicates that
they have by nature what is termed a
wicked slant" The sloyenliness Of their
III cshods suggests the idea that they were
unskilied in crime. that they had not
long premeditated this appalling deed.
But it does appear that these young men,
or young fends a. they appear TO be, hal
no regular employment; that they had
| JUS. been deyoting a great deal Of time to
the perusal OF the life OF Jesse James ard
| his band Of cutthroats. They had become
| thoroughly imbued with the imaginary
ideals Of "a desperado's life to the exclu-
/ sion of other ideals And this fact sug-
gests how prevalent are the opportunities
| for others to acquire just this diseased
appetite for notoriety in criminal annals,
this craving for abnormal ideals.
Once the boys natural inclination to
exciting ideals finds its nourishment in
the highly colored tragedies of crime, there
are on every hand unlimited means for
gratifying his taste. He will find many
Of these in the sensational newspaper,
which inculcates these ideals, because Of
the profit there is in 50 doing. Those
New York youths would not have to 20
outside the columns Of some OF the metro
politan ncR Rspapcrs in order to receive the
impression that criminal is much more
OF public attraction than statesman,
that to leap into the glare of publicity at
one bound 1t is only necessary to become
a criminal. They cannot help scsing in
their fayoritc newspaper how great a
proportion Of its space is given to criminal
accounts, written up in sensational,
aliuring style however dingy and dis
gushing the realities may be- 1t is not
that these publications report crime; they
distort It. To rcpor5 crime truthfully,
giving the shocking with the other details
and not imagining the alluring, IS one
thing. But that is not what is done
Seductive romance is interviewer with
repulsivc reality. The wonder is that
the harvest is not greater, Just now the
police are In DOUBT whether II boy in New
York City, who recently confessed to a
murder, did not make the confession for
the sake of notoricty. Instances are not
lacking where innocent people have done
just this sort of thing. There has Of late
been Il tendency to laugh at the outcry
against pernicous literature; nor would
it he wise to conclude that it is wholly
responsible for the wrccking of that train
1t did however, beyond question play an
important part, and the sooner such facts
be for all concerned
The instances of disaster following upon
this incubation of false ideals are too
numerous to be overlooked. There are in
the Hancock comfy Jail two boys, both
of highly respectable families. They had
read this cheap literature until they came
to the conclusion that life would not be
worth living unless they could attain to
some of those criminal ideals. They broke
into the grange store and stole. Initiating
Dare Devil Dick" has brought them to
grief as it is sure to all, who have the
energy to undertake some of the fcatS
about which they have read and pondercd
until their conceptions of right and wrong
of life rs it is really lived, are badly
warped They may have j tendency to
dCpravity at the commencement, but they
cultivate that to the sacrifice of their 9th
er attributes until 1t has the mastery
of them. 1t is about time that the
wholesome side of life should receive
greater consideration. The mischief from
setting up false ideals does not always
result in wrccking trains or robbing
stores; it destroys the delights of home,
nerves the hand with suicidal intent
These ideals are not set up alone by
writers of trashy novels nor are all born
in the fcverish inaginations Of rival re-
portcrs Some of the greatest writers OF
fiction have found profit Of late in
degcncrative pcssimism, have seemed to
derive pleasure in exposing to public gaze
and gloating over social sores. that they
make no pretenss of healing and for
which, when discovered, they can suggest
no remedy. The physician may come to
regard his hopelcssly sick patient of more
general interest than vigorous manhood
and womanhood; the specialist on insan-
ity may find more delight in watching
the workings of a diseased, an abnormal
mind, than in noting the fruits of the
clear headed and wholesome majority of
human beings. But the world at large
can i'll afford to look out upon mortal
existence continually through the specta
ces of these eccentric specialists.
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