The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1896-12-15
OBSCENE PICTURES
Rev. DR.. .Simns Says They Will
Not Be Tolerated.
CHRISTIANS MUST PROTEST
Pleads For Higher a Ideal of
Public Thought.
The ALDERMEN ARE CRITICISED
The History of the "EarY- Closing" Or
dinance Given Newspapers
Also Come in For Their
Share of Criticism.
Share of Criticism.

Also Come in For Their
Share of Criticism.
Rev. DR.. Simms preached a sermon OF
more than usual interest Sunday night
at the Tabernacle. The large auditorium
was crowded with people to hear him
talk on How to Awaken Better Moral
|. Sentiment in the Community
The preachers text was the thir-
teenth and fourteenth verses of the fifth
chapter of Matthew: ''Ye are the salt of
the earth. Ye are the light
of the world"
This text, he explained, lays upon every
Christian responsibility they cannot
shake. At the same time that it places
upon the Christian this responsibility it
lends him encouragement. You can never
get the best out of men and women unless
you encourage them in their efforts. Ye
are the ight-that gives life-and the
salt-that saves. These words are Just
as true Of Christian men and women to-
night as they were the day they were
spoken.
IF this town is ever to be saved, if our
daughters are to be saved from a life Of
sensuality and degradation, it must be by
the Christian men and women in it, They
must rise to the solemn responsibility.
DIR. Simms then referred to the obscene
pictures displayed on the bill boards and
in the shop windows and to the theatrical
performances here recently. What
shall we do in regard to this matterg'
he asked. 'How shall we stop. the flow
of vile literature through our town?
How shall we put a stop to these indecent
exhibitions and shows?
First Of all, be pure yourself Be a
pure man in your thoughts, in your life's
relationships, pure man in your speech,
pure man through and through, not
only on the Sabbath, but on Monday and
on Saturday night. BE pure yourselves.
You cannot make others pure until there
is purity in you.
You must make your home life pure
and drive out of it everything that is
unclean and impure, everything that
would smutch your own life when you
criticise another. You must make your
home pure from cellar to garret.
Make your business life pure-in your
trades, in your transactions, in all of
your commercial relations. You can't
make man feel the sting of reproof
unless you are pure yourself"
de told his audience that it was the
business of every Christian man and wo-
man to press high ideals into public life.
The voice of 1000 ministers, he said,
was worth nothing, if 10000 church
members negatiyed it. The whole Chris
tian element must be active.
Then he talked about the newspapers
and their influence on public thought,
saying that the great dailies of this coun-
try are run for the money that there is in
them, and not for the purpose of creating
higher ideals, or teaching what is right
This, he said, was a position that he had
taken long ago.
A pure press, a pure weekly press,
pure daily press, swept of all it's un-
cleanness-use your influence for that If
you would prove the salt Of this earth
and the light Of the world. The deepest
scheme that was ever laid against
the moral integrity of this world was
laid by Voltaire, ia all sorts of literature,
carrying into homes books filled with a
deadly poison and destroying moral senti-
ment Every book that went out of that
press was absolutely befouled with in
fidelity and poisoned the moral sentiment
of the people. This is what the press
many q christian editor and staff-man
there is an unseen hand Of darkness
writing for the devil. You could not get
those obscure and vile pictures upon the
pages unless there is an unseen hand
behind your work, for moral degradation.
Purify the press. How many Of you are
reading good literature?'
Obscene pictures next claimed the
preachers attention. He urged christians
to strive for higher ideals by the illustra-
tons in their business places.
There is moral degradation by the
cart-load going out OF our business
houses, through christian business men,
in the vile pictures that you exhibit in
your stores and business places-that
you send out on cards-as evil as sensu-
BUSINESS and lust can make them-sent out
by christian merchants and staring you in
the face when you go in to buy the
necessaries of life. Take an illustration.
Some OF you christian Business men are
selling cigarettes. The chief OF police
and the mayor OF this town tell me that
in every package of cigarettes, bought
by the young men of this place, there
are pictures just as obscene as they can
be. They are sold by christian men,
many of them put up by the hands of
christian young women, working for
small daily wages. If / were running
a tobacco business in this town 7 would
write to Mr.. Duke to send me so many
cigarettes and no pictures in any OF them,
1t is your duty as christian men TO do
it, your duty to these boys, your duty
as a God-fearing man. Send your orders
for clean cigarettes. II you do not, you
nre worthy to be laughed at by the most
angodly man and scoffed at by the vilest
woman"
Another way TO press high Ideals into