Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1911-03-09
Novel Reading Dangers

A new English sensational novel
advertised as having caused the
| ieath of a reader, the excitement of
The story producing herat failure
This is probably press agents story,
| bhe real cause of most fatalities
among the readers of modern novels
| being the result of their having been
] BORROWED to death instead of being
| Induly thrilled.
It is not the risk of their lives. but
| the ;isk of their morals and the san
| ity of their view point that endangers
| excessive novel readers, however, and
| that makes the wholesale establish
| ment of free public libraries almost
as much of a menace to the weli-be-
| ing OF the country as would be the
| opening up of free saloons or opium
| Joints.
! This seems pessimistic view %
| take of what has been considered an
| unmiXed blessing and benefaction,
| but no one who takes the trouble to
| observe what the effect of having
an unlimited supply of fictiin, obtain
| able without money and without price,
| on which to gorge themselves, has
| on women and young boys, can fail
| to see that novel reading has become
a pernicious evil that is fostered by
the free library.
| OUR REVERENCE FOR A BOOK.
In America We are still so half
baked educationally that we have a
superstitious reverence for the print
| ed page. To us "a books a book,
| though there be nothing in it," Wo-
men give themselves superior airs
| about being literary because they al
| ways read The Six Best Sellers"
and parents beam with pride and JOY
| when they see their children engross-
ed in reading, apparently unaware
| that in the book the child may be
| keeping company with the most de-
| PRAYED characters it is possible to
| conceive, and is being familiarized
| with the filth of the cutters.
Not long ago the father of a preco-
ciOus youngster of twelve boosted to
| NE that his son habitually read two
novels a day. that inasmuch as the
| public library only allowed him to
| draw out one book day, he and an
other young companion, who was also
a novel fiend, each got novel every
morning, devoured the story at a sit
| ting, and then exchanged books in
! order that they might be provided
/ with their afternoon dope of fiction.
1t never seemed to occur to the
father what the effect of all this ex-
| cessive novel reading would have up
| On the boy, or of the mental indiges-
| ton it must surely give him to cram
his little head SO full of plots and
| counter-plOts, seasoned with such
| highly spiced episodes, and soaked in
| such a sauce of sensualism. 1t were
| almost better for such a boy not to
| be able to read at all than TO read so
! much of the things ne should not
read at his time in life.
| Thiera1d is an extreme type of the
| noTel-relding youngster, but there
| arr, far too many young boys in his
GAS, hin-chested, anemic little fell
| /! VS.. who are being given a post
| graduate course in vice by reading
erotic novels that leave no phase OF
| decadence unTeyealed. We have laws
| to prevent the sale of liquor and CT
| garettes to minors 1t should be
! equally crime to put within the
reach of children books that are every
whit as demoralizing as whiskey or
! tobacco
Little account has been taken OF
the effect of novel reading upon wo-
men, but in all good truth it is every
! bit as demOralizing for woman to
get the opioum habit. or the drink
habit, as it is to get the novel habit,
| 1t is the novel; more than anything
else, that is responsible for the alb
normal woman, the divorce. the
Young girl who goes astray.
Nor is this as strange and illogical
is it sounds. Take a young girl who
! is pretty and poor, and whose days
are spent behind a counter or before
cook stove She acquires the novel
reading habit easily enough because
! it is the one cheap way by which she
! can escape from her own hard life
into fairy world. In these books
| she reads of how Nellie the Beautiful
| Cloak Model smiles upon a stranger,
| who Immediately falls in love with
| her and marries her. and takes her
| away to live in unimaginable SPLEEN
! dor, or how Sir Guy de Montmor-
| ency falls in love with fair Elaine as
she is scrubbing down the steps, and
marries her in spite of all his naughty
| kindred.
Such a girl, with mind full of i'm
| possibilities, with the idea always be-
fore her that her beauty is going to
| pave the way for her to ease and lux
| ury, is on the lookout for adventure
and is ready at any minute to throw
up her honest job and go away with
any good looking scamp who happens
| along.
Just how many girls are lured into
the evil life by the rosy pictures OF
the under world drawn by noYelists
for nIne-tenths of the divorces. There
| are tens of thousands of idle wives,
living around in boarding houses and
| hotels, with nothinfg to do except tc
devOur novel after novel Their days
are passed in a passion-laden atmos-
phere of high-pressure romance, and
| Wien they are forced to come down
to earth everything about them seems
mean and tawdry, especially their
| husbands.
The meanest thing about money Ia
how little it is when it is paid to you