The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1900-08-03

hooks that swarm with hhertines and
desperadoes, who make the brain OF
the young people whirl with viii
lainyl We authors who write them.
We publishers who print them, We
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 ye
murderers of souls. 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
will have the vultures of despair
clawing at your soul. and those whom
you have destroyed will come around
20 torment you, and to pour hotter
Goals of fury upon your head. and re-
joice eternally in the cutlery of your
pain. and the howl of your damna-
! ton. God shall wound the hairy
scalp of him that goeth on in his
btrespasses."
The clock strikes midnight. A fair
| form bends over a romance. The
eyes fash fire The breath is quick
and irregular. Occasionally the color
dashes 10 the cheek and then dies out.
The hands tremble as though a guar
dian spirit were trying TO shake the
deadly book out of the grasp. Hot
tears fall. She laughs with q shril,
voice that drops dead at its own
sound. The sweat on her brow Is the
spray dashed up from the river OF
death. The clock strikes four. and
the rosy dawn soon after begins 20
look through the lattice upon the
pale form that looks like a detainek
specter Of the night. Soon in a mad.
house she viii mistake her ringlets
for curling serpents and thrust her
white hand through the bars OF the
prison and smite her head. rubbing
4; back as though to push the scalp
from the skull. shrieking; MY
brainl My brainl" Oh. stand of
from that Why will you 60 sound;
ing your way amid the reefs when
there is such a vast ocean in which
you may voyage. all sail set?
Much of the impure pictorial litef-
ature is most tremendous for ruin
There is no one who can like good
pictures better than do. The quick
est ard most condensed way OF inn
pressing the public mind Is by pic
ture. What the painter does by his
brush for few favorites, the en-
graver does by his knife for the mil
lion. What the author accomplishes
by 50 pages the artist does By a fash.
The best part of a painting that costs
$4,000 you may buy for ten cents
Fine paintings belong 10 the aris-
tocracy Of art. Engravings belorg 10
the democracy of art. You do well
TO gather good pictures in your
homes.
But what shall I say Of the prostiin.
tion Of art TO the purposes Of iniQuitk |
These death warrants Of the soul ~ |
every street corner They smit the
vision Of the young man with poilu-
ton. Many a young man buying a copy |
has bought his eternal discontinue.
There may be enough poison in one bad |
picture 10 poison oae soul and tia,
soul may poison ten. and ten ifty. 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 Of |
the great undoing. The work OF death |
that the wicked author does In a whole |
book the bad engraver may do on a
half side Of a pictorial. Under The
guise of pure mirth the young nan
buys one of these sheets. He unrol,s Il /
before his comrades amid roars OF
laughter, but long after the paper is /
gone the result may, perhaps, be seen
in the blasted imaginations Of those
who saw 1t. The queen OF death holds a
banquet every night. and these period
icals are the invitation TO her guests.
Young man, buy not this moral
strychnine for your Soull Pick not up
this nest OF coiled adders for your
pocket Patronize no news stand that
keeps them. Have your room bright
with good engrayings, but for these
outrageous pictures have not one wall.
not one bureau. not one pocket. A nan
is no better than the picture he loves
20 look at. II your eyes are not pure
your heart cannot be. At the rews-
stand one can guess the character OF
man by the kind OF pictorial he pur-
chases. When the devil fails 10 get a
man 10 read bad book, he sometimes
succeeds in getting him TO look al a
bad picture. When Satan goes a-fsh-
ing he does not care whether II is a
long line or a short line. IL he only
draws has victim in. Beware OF lasciv-
ious pictorials, young man. in the
name of Almighty God, charge you.
Cherish good books and newspapers.
Beware of bad ones. The assassin Of
Lord Russell declared that he was ed
into crime by reading one vivid ro-
nance. The consecrated John Angel
James, than whom England never pro-
duced a better man, declared in his cid
age that he had never yet got over the
evil effects of having for IS minutes
once read a bad book. But need not
go so far of. | could tell you Of com
rade who was great hearted, noble aud
generous. He was studying for an hon
orable profession, but he had an infdel
book in his trunk, and he said 10 me
one day: DE Witt, would you like 10
read it?" ! said: eyes. | would" I
took the book and read IL only for a
few minutes. ! wer really startled
with what / saw there, and I handed
the book back TO him and said. ayou