The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1910-09-17
EFFECTS OF BAD READING.


lips and the love of Him in their hearts, and the
men today, the sturdy, virtuous men, whose arms
and brains are Americas strength have these
words upon their banner: "In God trust.
The gallant hearts and the hands of the oden
day, and the gallant hearts and stout hands of this
our day, were and readers of that vile I'M
moral infdel stuff that enervates the brain and
enfeebles the body They had all of them sound
mind in sound body.
We still in one of the many American
homes IN which is the plague spot and see there
boy of nine or ten years. A book is in his hand.
Surely it is of his school books and he is learn
ing his lesson for the morrow. We look over the
boys shoulder and To- there is the penny dread
full, with its chapter after chapter on the dark
deeds of outlaws, shooting and gambling in saloons,
and yes, a touch of sickly love here and there to
add more darkness to the already dark and bloody
pages. What a feed for a young boy 5 mind All,
many young boy owes the first step in his down
ward career a career which ended in the peniten-
tiary at the end of the hangman's rope, to the
reading of those sheets which make little of life
and mock death, to those sheets which make the
base adventurer a hero and the low adventures
heroine. Blghted women of the underworld I'M
faithful women of the divorce court hopeless be-
iugs of the penitentiaries, raving maniacs of the
asylums, blinking drunkards of the street corners,
come forth this morning and let us ask you all
question, What was the cause of your now
dark and hopeless life~ and in tones of bitter
ness and despair nine out of every ten will answer,
at was bad reading" Without God, His truth,
His justice and His morality, what are we? We
are but straws carried down the dark whirpOos
of time to a destruction which is eternal, and any
thing that tends to blot out God, His truth justice
and morality is the direst enemy that ever struck
at humanity, Bad books do this, they pollute the
home, the most halowed place upon this EARTH they
vitiate honor and those other fine feelings which
make men brave and good and true, and women
constant and gentle and loving. They blot out God
from the human soul, and place there the seven
unclean spirits. Bad books, thy darkness is of hell
and thy stencil arises therefrom. Yes, of bad
books we may well repeat the description given
by the Holy Ghost of a deceitful woman. Her
lips are like a honeycomb dropping, and her throat
is smoother than oil. But her end is bitter as
NORWOOD and sharp as two-edged sword. Her
feet go down into death and her steps go in
far as hell
As nothing is more injurious to the individual
and the nation a filthy press, immoral book,
so nothing is more conducive to their well being
as healthy press a good book good paper,
good book entering home is like an angels visit.
There is in both of them instruction. there is lii
both Of them lessons which conducive to clean,
upright living and peaceful, holy dying. We
want not the dregs of the divorce court, want
not the siclly loves of those who have never known
the beauty, the strength and the holiness of love
as it springs from Gods right hand. We want not
the opinions of self-conceited philosophers who
fan would tear truth from its eternal pedestal and
give us the hotten fabric built upon lie. We
want not the recital of social sins and social in
facilities; no, want none of these things Let
them all lie hidden in that darkness to which they
belong, but, oh, give us the beauty of virtue the
strength of honor the constancy of love. Give us
these, | say, set them down in newspaper and book
that the boy may read and be a man, that the
may read and be boy, that the aged may read and,
reading, may thank their God that there is still
upon this earth simplicity, truth, justice, can
,,,l 10
pages of a pure newspaper, Gods whisper runs
through the pages of good book.
Fathers and mothers upon you today devOlves
a solemn duty, and it is to guard your home and
your little ones against that plague of bad read
ing which today pervades America.
What father in America today is there, who if
he knew an enemy was coming in the stiffness of
the night kill his manly boys that lovingly call
him father, and those girls the sweetness of whose
kiss is to him than the sweetness of the sun
shine, what father is there, ! say, who would not
stand in the doorway and with all the strength and
grace which God gives to a noble man, defend his
little ones from the enemy!
mothers love is stronger than a fathers.
Holy Scripture has these beautiful words: IF the
mother forgets the child of her womb, | will not
forget thee" Christ the Great Master has likened
His love to mother s. Though His love is in
finite still a mothers love for her children the
comparison He chose to take, from which infer
IlaJ aller COu love the nlOUuerS rove comes ueXl
1t is So and being so, the mother gathers her boys
and girls into her embrace to shield them from
the enemy, to shield them though her hearts blood
gushes out hot, warm and loving upon their bodies.
Fathers and mothers, the enemy in the shape
of bad books is at your door, nay, may be inside,
the enemy that will not only kill the body of your
boy and girl but their immortal souls and deprive
them forever of the God for whom they were ere
ated. Fathers and mothers, stand IN your door
ways and repe the enemy and if he is inside rest
not sleep not, until he vanishes from home, the
purity, the faith and the peace of which he is
blasting. Catholic fathers and mothers, [ know
you will do your duty. Duty well performed has
Gods smile upon it. Duty well performed has the
applause of angels and good men. Do your duty
to your boys and girls. Keep away from your
homes rich poor they may be immoral lit
erature, and then when the shadows fall and the
night winds sing requiem above your mortal re-
mains, your children will come after you to carry
your name bright, pure and unsulied through the
heetng days of this world and home to God One