The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1897-04-08
THURSDAY, APRIL 8, 1897.
p1JRE LITERATURE FOR THE
HOME.

PURE LITERATURE FOR THE
HOME.
Ernest and Alexander Blance, two
brothers, were hanged few days ago
in Louisiana. They were hanged tor
murder, and it was all direct result OF
reading bad literature.
The boys were working on farm
with perhaps no thought or desire to be-
come criminals or to harm any one. BY
chance they came into possession OF
the life Of Jesse James, read it and soon
resolved to become outlaws. Their first
victim was an old man who had done
them favors. His name was Bagnaud.
They found him at his store alone one
night, bound him and took SO, 800 from
him, killed him by stabbing him fifteen
times and then buried him on the
farm on which they worked.
Soon they left the farm and suspicion
pointed towards some other persons
who barely escaped being lynched tor
their supposed crime. The boys went
to France, then back to California, the
report says, and finally, after spending
the money, they drifted back to their
old home in Louisiana. Suspicion
rested upon them, they were arrested,
confessed the crime and paid the PEN
atty at the end of rope a few days ago.
On the scaffold the older OF the brothers
made speech and said his career and
sins were due to bad books he had been
accustomed to read.
Now, all this is sad story, but too
true, not only in the case of the Blance
boys, but with many others. Doubt
less these boys had read other trashy
and impure literature before they read
the Jesse James book; and the taste
for that kind of reading grew into q
thirst and the fatal plunge was taken
under the ruinous influence of bad
literature.
The readers of The COMMONWEALTH
will remember that the same book, the
life of Jesse James, was one OF the first
influences that moved the Bell boys,
Brantley and Creole to efforts at plumb
or and finally to the murder of John
B. Bonner of Aurora, this State, the
final result of which was the longest,
most noted trial of tho kind In the his
tory of the State, perhaps, and the SEN
tence OF those boys to thirty years in
State prison.
There Is no more important duty for
parents than to see to it that their chill
dren have pure and wholesome itera-
ture. The young mind needs and must
have something to feed upon, and 1t il
can not find good literature it will take
the bad.
Beware, therefore, parents, how you
allow sensational papers to come into
your homes. Too often they are filled
with lies, pictures that are suggestive
OF evil thoughts, and carry with them
an influence that, before you know it,
has poisoned the minds of the boys or
girls with thoughts and desires of evil
which otherwise would meyer have
come to them.
The same is true of books. Many
book that at first seems harmless and
innocently amusing, turns out to be
harmful to the young mind. The
State makes some appropriation for the
education Of its children, and parents
make personal sacrifices In order that
their little ones may learn to read but
nothing is moro important than that
boys and girls have the proper kind OF
literature. Better not read at all than
to read that which is hurtful.
A NOBLE BENEFACTOR.
DR.. John G. Terrell, native of Per-