The Point Pleasant register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, W. Va.) 1909-1939, 1909-07-28
THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER.
[publl.hed by Request. ]

newspapers are unIolueh' Inc cIllIu-
rem pounce upon the colored comic
supplements. They spread them out
upon the floor, and soon their inno-
cent laughter resounds through the
rooms. The parents beam upon
them; it is sort of new 'children's
hour, though it be no Longfellow's.
The parents turn to their own Sec
tons of the paper. They feast upon
Macbethean banquets of the worlds
assorted horrors. The little ones are
engrossed in the mishaps of Happy
Hooligan or Alphonso and CASTOR or
in the demoniacal ingenuity of the
Katzenjammer Kids.
Yet while the minds of the
adults have been dwelling upon the
murder, dishonesty, unhappiness,
and vice so entertainingly supplied
by the papers, the impressionable
minds of the children have been
saturated with debauchery of fancy,
a harmful travesty of Life and Truth
ms baneful in its effect as the black
news of reality. They have been
feeding upona hypnotic moral poison
the clownish crudities of the sup
plement. But how few parents
!: seem to realize the insidious effect of
these coarse and malignant horrors
perpetrated as Jokes upon their ten
der children!
1t has been said that in America
every story or play ends with mar
rage, while the European novel or
drama usually begins with one. So it
appears that in America all serial
Jokes must end in some one being
maltreated, blown to pieces, or bat
tered to jelly. These silly and point
less creations sink to lower and more
fatuous extremes of absurdity week
by week. The climax is unvarying
and always disastrous-somew wretch
ed human being or animal torn to
shreds or whirled about like rag.
The older folk are always the victims
of the younger; they are always
blind, deaf, and dumb imbeciles, the
youngsters always marvels of resource
and invention, with sense of the
ludicrous tremendously developed.
Years ago hue and cry was
raised against the evil influence of Il
book called 'Peck's Bad Boy 1t
was wretched stuff, and soon forgot
ten. Very young children were I'M
able to read it, so its power for tutor
ring them into disreSpect or rebell-
ion against their elders was insignifi-
cant. But the wide-reaching evil in
tiuence of these cheap and crude pic
torial representations ofcruelty, cum
ming, trickery, and brutality is mo-
mentous and immediate. 1t is, in
fact, national peril, and students of
juvenile crime can no longer ignore
its influence upon the receptive infant
mind.
1t is a well-known biological and
psychological law that the mimetic
tendency of children is particularly
strong in the domain of the repre-
henSible. To laugh ut the discom-
future of an elder person to whom af-
lection is owing, to seek revenge by
undermined means, to betray guile
less and trusting confidence, to be
selfish, untruthful, brutal, and crafty.
these are the qualities of the heroes
of the comic supplements.
Were person to enter house
hold and induce the young people to
indulge in malicious practical jokes,
he would soon be shown the door by
the irate master of the house. Yet
every Sunday morning such visitor
is received by the parents, nay, even
welcomed, for it 'amuses the chill
dren.'
Proper pictorial amusement is
easily and cheaply obtainable. The
child should never be permitted to
be merely amused. That which in