Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1900-08-03


charge upon II the destruction OF 10000
immortal souls. ard bid you wake
up to the magnitude OF the evil.
hooks 60 Destroy.
l shall take all the worlds literature
good novels and bad. travels true aud
false. histories faithful. aud Incorrect.
legends beautiful anu monstrous-all
tracts. all chronicles. all poems. all
family. city, state and national H.
braries. and pile them up IN a pyramid
of literature. and then I shall bring TO
bear upon ii some grand. glorious. in
fallible. unmistakable Christian prin.
ciples. God help me to speak with
reference to my last account. and help
you to listen.
charge you, in the first place, to
standaloof from all books that give false
pictures OF life. Life is neither a trag-
edy nor a farce. Men are not all either
knaveS or heroes. Women are neither
angels nor furies. And yet. IL you de
pended upon much of the literature of
the day. you would get the idea that
life. instead of being something ear.
nest. something practical. is fitful and
fantastic and cXtravagant thing. How
poorly prepared are that young man
and woman FOR the duties of today
who spent last night wading through
brilliant passages descriptive of mag
nificent knavery and wickednessi The
man will be looking all day long for
his heroine, in the office. by the forge.
in the factory, in the counting room,
and he will not find her. and he will
be dissatisfied. \ man who gives him.
self Up to the indiscriminate reading
OF novels will be nervelesS. inane and
q nuisance. He will be fit neither for
the store. nor the shop, nor the field.
woman who gives herself up to the
indiscriminate reading of novels will
be untitled for the duties of wife.
mother. sister. daughter. There she
is. hair disheveled, countenance va
cant, cheeks pale. hands trembling.
bursting into tears at midnight over
the fate of some unfortunate lover: in
the daytime, when she ought to be
busy, staring by the half hour ut
nothing; biting her finger nails into
the quick. The carpet that was plain
before will be palmer after having
wandered through n romance all night
long in tessellated halls of castles.
And your Industrious companion will
be more unattractive than ever, now
that you have walked in the romance
through parks with plumed princesses,
or iounged in the arbor with polished
desperate. oh. these confirmed novel
readers! They are untitled for this
life. which is a tremendous discipline.
They know not how to go through the
furnaces of trial through which they
must pass. and they are untitled for q
world where everything we gain we
achieve by hard and long continuing
work.
Dangerous Curiosity
Again. abstain from all those books
which, while they have some good
things. have also an admixture of evil
You have read books that had two ele-
ments I'm them-the good and the bad.
Which stuck TO you? The bad. The
heart Of most people Is like n sieve
which lets the small particles of gold
fall through. but keeps the great Gin
ders. Once in awhile there is mind
like loadstone which. plunged amid
steel and brass filings. gathers up the
steel and repels the brass. But IL is
generally exactly the opposite. IL you
attempt TO plunge through hedge of
burs 10 get one blackberry. you will
get moro burs than blackberries. You
cannot afford to read bad book. how
ever good you are. You say. The in
huence is insignificant" tell Won
that the scratch OF pin has some
times produced lockJaw. Alas. II
through curiosity. as many do. YOU pry
into an evil book your curiosity is rs
dangerous as that OF the man who
would take torch into n gunpowder
mill merely TO see whether Il would
really blow up or not,
In n merageric I'm New York n man
put his arm through the bars of a
black leopard's cage. The animals
hide looked so sleek and bright and
beautiful. He just stroked IL once.
The monster geized him, and ne drew
forth a hand torn and mangled and
bleeding. oh, touch not evil even with
the faintest strokel Though IL may be
glossy and beautiful, touch il not lest
you pull forth your soul torn and bleed
ing under the clutch OF the leopard.
But" you say, "how can | find. out
whether book is good or bad without
reading itT There is always some
thing suspicious about bad book. l
never knew an exception-something
suspicious in the index or style OF IL
lustration. This venomous reptile al
ways carries warning rattle.
Again. charge you TO stand off from
all those books which corrupt the inn
agination and infiame the passions. 1
do not refer now TO that kind OF book |
which the villain has under his coat
waiting for the school TO get out and |
then, looking both ways to SEQ that |
there is no policeman around the |
block, offers the book 10 your son on |
his way home, | do not speak Of that |
kind of literature, but that which
evades the law and comes out in pol |
ished style and with acute plot sounds
the tocsin that rouses up all the baser
passions OF the soul. Today under the
nostrils of the people there is a fetid.
reeking. unwashed literature enough
to poison al the fountains of public
virtue and smite your sons and daugh-
fers as with the wing OF q destroying
angel, and IL is time that the ministers
Of the gospel blew the trumpet and
rallied the forces OF righteousness, all
armed to this great battle against a
1epraved literature
Accursed Books
Again, abstain from those books
whicb are apoiogetic OF crime 1t is a
sad thing that some OF the best and
most beautiful bookbindery and some
" the finest rhetoric have been brought
o make sin attractive. Vice is horri-
de thing anyhow. 1t is born I'm
shame, and it dies bowling In the
darkness. In this world 1t is scourged
With whip OF scorpions. but after
ward the thunders of Gods wrath pur-
ne II across a boundless desert. beat
ng IL with ruin and woe. When You
'ome to paint carnality, do not paint
as looking from behind embroidered
curtains or through lattice of rovol