The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1910-04-16
ALAS, FOR OUR BOYS AND GIRLS

The influence of evil associations and the de-
moralizng effects of thrilling stories in the cbean
publications intended for young people, are every
day becoming more and more evident So fragrant
have the outrages and rascality of manv of the
youths OF our city become, and so Haunting is the
defiance of law and decency among them, that the
pulpit is protesting loudly and our daily papers
sounding note of warning. It is noticeable that
the victims of the craze for exciting reading are
found In our public and high schools Nor is the
evil confined to any one city. The Los Angeles
Times recently published an account of a love af-
fair between girl pupil and boy pupil of one
of the public schools of that city The bow had
told his love- in sentences from the story paper
The girl, who lived in a land of Dreams listened in
raptures to the bosh and when the boy left her and
forgot all about her, she tried-folowing the ex-
ample OF her favorite heroine-to poison herself
Her foolish father wrote to the boy accusing him
OF treahery ancd baseness, and threatening ven
geance after the manner that the silly father of
silly girl might be expected to act The idea of
spanking the young Salome does not seem to have
entered the foolish fathers head: he at once eIe
waited his daughter to the heights of the martyr
instead of whipping the maudlin sentimentalty out
--0@' 1900 NJPN
Not long ago, another boy, one of group Of
gay youths >of our own city, was accused of gross
immortality HIS father went into roars of laugh
ter at each revelation of the young dogs vicious
1t was only the "smartness" of the youngster
that had gotten him into trouble and this type of
father is always willing to wink and chuckle over
smartness; he is of that class which buys and
laughs at the compound of immortality and coarse
ness which makes up the publication of the cbean
novel If his boy be Smart he does not care how
vicious immoral he may be. The grandsons of
such these will be acceptable citizens of tbe
Sodoms and Gomorrahs yet to be DESTROYED Our
morning papers gave US, not long ago, the doinos
of a band of young thieves who had their head
quarters in almost within our city Thew
were inspired in their devitries by reading the his
tory of western desperadoes. And now from OGDEN
comes an account of a band of lads whose npro
lesson" was burglary. In a school at Kansas Citv
had been organized another band known as ~R;l1v
the Kid" gang. Brought into court, they confessed
their crimes and admitted that thew launched into
the career of burglars by the reading of wild west
literature. The purpose of both gangs was 70 rob
dwellings,
'0iS 1o" INSTANCES OF the horrible results of
bad reading get into print. The poison is circu-
lated so quietly from hand to hand that its exist
ence is very often unknown to careless parents and
teachers And the American humorist has such .
funny way of treating suicide murder and sudden
death, such catchy manner of dealing with treacb-
cry, adultery and theft, that the public mind is
more inclined to be amused than Mortified by the
examples of depravity of lewdness and of moral
delinquency in general daily happening in our