The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1900-09-06

NOs ZCs
rouses up all the baser passions Of
the soul. To-day, under the nostrils
Of the people, there. il .. fetid, reek-
ing, unwashed literature, enorgh 70
poison all the fountains Of public vir.
tue and smite your sons and daugh.
tiers as with the wing Of . destroying
angel, and it il time that the minis.
tiers Of the Gospel blew the trumpet
and rallied the forces of righteous
ness, all armed to this great battle
against . depraved literature.
Again. abstain from those books
which are apologetic of crime. II il
a sad thing that some of the best and
most beautiful bookbindery and some
of the finest rhetoric have been
brought to make sin attractive vice
is . horrible thing anyhow. It Il
born in shame, and it dies howling
in the darkness. In this world it q
scourged with . whip Of scorpions.
but afterward the thunders Of Gods
wrath pursue It across . boundless
desert, beating it with ruin and woa.
When you come to paint carnality.
do not paint it as looking from behind
embroidered curtains or through lat
tice of royal seraglio, but as writhing
in the agonies of . city hospital
Cursed be the books that try to make
impurities decent and crime attractive
and hypocrisy noblei Cursed be the
books that swarm with Nbertines and
desperadoes, who make the brain of
the young people whirl with VII
lainy! Ye authors who write them,
ye publishers who print them, 70
booksellers who distribute them. shall
be cut to pieces, If not by an aroused
community, then at last by the hail
Of Divine vengeance, which shall sweep
to the lowest pit of perdition all -
murderers of souls. I tell you,
though you may escape in this world.
you will be ground at last under the
hoof Of eternal calamities,. and you
will be chained to the rock. and you
win have the vultures of despaif
clawing at your soul, and those whom
you have destroyed will come around
to torment you, and to pour hotter
Goals Of fury upon your head, and 70.
joice eternally in the outcry Of your
pain. and the howl of your damna-
ton. "God shall wound the hairy
scalp Of him that goeth on In his
trespasses."
But what shall Isay Of the prostitu-
tion Of art to the purposes Of iniqpity3
These death warrants of the soul are at
every street corner. They smits tho
vision of the young man with pollU
tion. Many young mar buying copy
has bought his eternal discontinue.
There may be enough poison in one bod
picture to poison one soul and that
soul may poison ten. and ten fifty, and
fifty hundreds and the hundreds thou.
sands, until nothing but the measuring
line Of eternity can tell the height and
depth and ghastliness and horror %
the great undoing. The work Of death
that the wicked author does in Z whole
book the bad engraver may do on !
half side Of pictorial. Under the
guise of pure mirth the young man
buys one OF these sheets. He unrolls II
before his comrades amid roars of
laughter, but long after the paper II
gone the result may. perhaps, e-seen
in the blasted imaginations Of those
who saw it. The queen Of death holdt6
banquet every night, and these period
icals are the invitation to her guests
Young man, buy not this moral
strychnine for your soul! Pick not np
this nest of coiled adders for your
pocket! Patronize no news stand thai
keeps them. Have your room bright
with good engravings, but Tor these
outrageous pictures have not one wsll
not one bureau, not one pocket. Amap
is no better than the picture he lovee
to look at. II your eyes are not pufe
your heart cannot be. At the neWe.s
stand one can guess the character ot
man by the kind of pictorial he spur-
chases. When the devil fails to get >
man to read bad book, he sometimes
succeeds in getting him to look ataA
bad picture. When Satan goes a-Ast.
ing he does not care whether It is 8
long lire or short line. II He only
draws his victim In. Beware 0f iaseiv-
ious pictoria.s,s young man. IN the
name Of Almighty God. I charge you.
Cherish good books and newspaper.
Beware Of bad ones. The assassfnl0k
Lord Russell declared that he WAS Ia
into crime by reading one vivid ros
nance. The consecrated John Angel