The free press. (Poplarville, Miss.) 1890-19??, 1900-08-09


ties of to-day who spent last night wadlns
through brilliant passages descriptive OF
magnificent knavery and wickedness. Inc
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 VIII
not find her, and he will be dissatisfied.
A man who gives himself up to the indls-
criminate reading of novels will be nerve
less, nane and a nuisance. He Will be nj
neither for the store, nor the shop. nor the
field. A 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 dis
heveed. countenance vacant. cheeks pale.
hands trembling. bursting into tears at
midnight over the fate of some unfortu-
nate lover; in the daytime, when she
ought to busy, staring by the half hour at
nothing; biting her finger nails into the
quick. The carpet that was plain before
will be palmer after having wandered
through a romance all night long IN tessel-
lated halls of castles. And your indus
trious companion will be more unattrac-.
tive than ever, now that YOU have walked
plumed princesses, or lounged in the arbor
with polished desperate. Oh, these con
firmed no. 1 readers! They are untitled
for this life. which is tremendous dis
cpline. They know not how to go
through the furnaces Of trial through
fitted for world where everything we
gain we achieve by hard and long continu-
ing work.
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 elements IN
them-the good and the bad. Whey
struck you? The bad. The heart of mosA
people is like sieve which let's the small
particles of gold fall through: but keeps
the great cinders. Once in awhile there ~
a mind like a loadstone which, plunged
the steel and repels the brass. But 1T is
generally exactly the opposite. IT you
attempt to plunge through hedge of
burs to get one blackberry, you will get
more burs than blackberries. You cannot
afford to read bad book. however good
nifcant." l tell you that the scratch of
pin has sometimes produced lock-Jaw
Alas, if through curiosity, as MANY do
you pry into an evil book your curiosity
is as dangerous as that of the man who
would take torch into guDpowder mill
to see whether it would really blow up
or not!
In menagere in New York a man
put his arm through the bars Of black
leopard's cage. The animals hide looked
so sleek and bright and beautiful. He Just
stroked it once, The monster seized him,
ana ne drew IOrCn a mana COTH anu illdH-
gled and bleeding. Oh touch not evil
with the faintest stroke! Though it may
be glossy and beautiful. touch it not lest
you pull forth your soul torn and bleed
ing under the clutch of the leopard.
But" you say, chow can | find out
whether a book is good or bad without
reading it," There is ALWAYS something
suspicious about bad book. | never
knew an exception something suspicious
in the index or style of illustration This
venomous reptile always carries a warning
rattle.
Much of the impure pictorial literature
is most tremendous for ruin. There is no
one who can like good pictures better
than | do. The quickest and most con.
densed way of impressng the public mind
is by a picture. What the painter does
by his brush for few favorites the en-
graver does by his knife for the million.
What the author accomplishes by fifty
pages the artist does by flash. The best
part of painting that costs $4,000 you
may buy for ten cents. Fine paintings
belong to the democracy OF art. You
do well to gather good pictures in your Z
homes. ~
But what shall I say OF the prostitutiNaS|
of art to purposes of iniquity? ThBeI
death warrants of the soul are at every
street corner. They smite the vision of
the young man with pollution. Many
young man buying copy has bought his
eternal discontinue.
There may be enough poison in one bad
picture to poison one soul, and that soul
may poison ten and fifty and the fifty
hundreds and the hundreds thousands
until nothing but the measuring light of
eternity can tell the height and depth and
stiffness and horror of the great undo
ILg.
The work of death that the wicked
author does in whole book the bad en-
graver may do on a half side of a pic
torial. Under the guise Of pure mirth the
young man buys one of these sheets. He
unrolls it before his companions amid
roars of laughter, but long after the paper
is gone the result may perhaps be seen in
saw it,
The queen of death holds banquet
every night and these periodicals are the
invitation to her guests.
Young man, buy not this moral strych-
nine for your soul! Pick not up the nest
of coi!ed adders for your pocket! Pat
ronize no newsstand that keeps them!
Have your room bright with good en-
cravings, but for these outrageous pictori-
ais have not one wall, one bureau, not
one pocket. 49," >--~-s@
he loves to look at. Ii your eyes are not
pure, your heart cannot be. At news
stand one can guess the character OF a
man by the kind of pictorial he pur-
cha5es.~ ~ Il SZsn, - - ~ --.<as-sasr-
When the devil fails to get a man ~
read bad book, he sometimes succeed
in getting him to look at bad picturA
When satan goes a-fishing. he does not
care whether it is a long line or short
line if he only draws his victim in Be-
ware of lacivious pictorials. young man,
in the name of Almighty God, I charge
you!
Cherish good books and newspapers;
beware of bad ones; The assassin of Lord
Russell declared that he was led into
crime by reading one vivid romance. The
consecrated John Angel James, than
whom England never produced better
man, declared in his old age that he had
never got over the evil effects of having
for fifteen minutes once read bad hook
But | need not go so far off / could tell
you of a comrade who was great hearted,
noble and generous. He was studying for
an honorable profession. but he had an
infdel book in his trunk, and he said to
me one day. DE Witt. would you like
to read it?' l said, Yes l would"
took the book and read it only for few
minutaS I was rea 1iv ctartlad with r,,hat