The Saint Paul globe., 1900-03-18
LITERATURE AND CRIME.

that crime, when it is not the outcome
of congentaI disposition, inherited ten
| dency or vicious surroundings, springs
from evil association or evil habits Of
thought The operation Of the mind
coors the entire life and character The
reading and thinking about crime pro-
duce their inevitable effect on the mind.
1t is not always long step from deep
thought on crime to its commission.
The evil influence of the yellow press
in it's narrowing details. literary and pic
torial,. of contemporary crime is uni
versally recognized. The reading public
is slowly but steadily getting to realize
the pernicious Influence which that sort
of literature exercises especially on the
young, and it is being banlshed from
the tables of all intelligent families. Just
as the dime novel exercised it's influence
for evil and was driven from the hands
of youth, so are we now in the process
of driving the yellow newspaper, with
its enlargement of unhealthful reports,
from the position which it occupied. But
when we have succeeded in doing this
there will still remain an influence to
deal with which is productive of the
most harmful results and which does not
carry the warning with it which we
have read to us every day through the
since through the dime novel It is
the influence of the book, thought to be
in every way harmless, which makes
the criminal plot the central point around
which is woven a story more or less COM
pllcated and exciting.
There are many such accorded a rec
ognized place in English literature. Will
kle Collins produced many such books
in his day His Woman in White" is
a good sample of them. Charles Reade
is another very popular writer of stories
who has wrought much evil in this d.
rection, and not few of whose stories
are clearly capable of producing an evil
effect on certain minds. Among the ac-
cepted authors of our own time, Conan
Doyle, in a restricted way, has this re-
suit All detective literature is of the
same general order. 1t brings the mind
to concentrate itself on some story Of a
crime, its commission and it's detection.
The fascination which such relations
bring to the unbalanced or to the weak
mind is not easily realized by the reader
who is of healthy mental temperament
and desire. The only reason the men,
tally and morally depraved confne Them
selves to the stories of crime, which are
told in print and picture in the yellow
press or to the yellow-covered literature
of detective stories. is that their literary
enable them to enjoy the class of litera-
ture which is represented by writer's of
the Willlie Collins. Anthony Trollope,
Emile zola or DR. Doyle variety.
Any movement which will lead to the
discontinuance and Encouragement Of
story books which deal with crime in any
of it's phases will, in the course of time
prove of the highest social value.
ne Iildn OF woman OF criminal tendency
who can read represents a far more diff
fcult problem for society than the other
of the same tendency who cannot read
Fifty years of social advancement has
brought all civilized races face to face
with the serious proposition that where
as in the past the criminal was usually
the unlettered burglar and footpad, or
the hungering sneak thief, who perhaps
never saw the inside of a book of any
kind, all classes, whatever their inherited
| moral tendencies, are now at least able
to read. and the state Is able or willing
to exercise but very little control over
the question as to the kind of literature
which is placed at their disposal or to
| guard itself against the consequences of
the use or abuse of the reading habit.