Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1913-01-18
CUSTER CITY. SOUTH DAKOTA. sATURDA
LITERARY INrLUEN CEs.

LITERARY In FLU EN CES.
A close student of human nature once
said: "Givs me the making of ma
tion's ballads, and care not who make
its laws" He might have said the same
with equal truth, not only of nations,
ballads, but of its literature generally.
among the influences that affect our lives
most powerfully that tend to make or mar
character, few are more active or domi-
nant than reading. And if this is true
of the average man or woman, it applies
much more forcibly to those who are
naturally susceptible or impressionable.
To many persons, especially those en-
dowed with WHY'D Imagination, the
heroes and heroines of fiction seem
almost as real and tangible as if they
were living realistics. They are the
patterns after which the admiring
reader endeavors to shape his views
and conduct. Hence the transccndent
Importance, particularly for these latter,
of choosing none but the best, and es.
chewing, above all, the silly novels that
trade in mawkish sentimentalism. Ones
favorite, habitual reading matter is a
pretty safe gauge of his mental and
moral calber, and We cannot be very
far astray in judging ones character by
his literary ideals. Persons of noble
minds and high aims have no relish for
trash. Some of course-such as book
reviewers and those who are called
upon to direct others--are obliged by
their Office or duty to wade through a
lot of this stuff; and in their case, it is
to be presumed that they have sufficient
sense and judgment to keep them from
contamination. Their position is like
that of the physician or surgeon who
must of necessity come in contact with
things corrupt and revolving, and who
endures them, not because he likes
them, but in order to do away with
them eventually, and promote purity
and cleanliness. For the rest, if they
value their moral welfare, it is not only
admirable, but absolutely necessary, to
become of the literary sewage of free
love and unbridled licentiousness. The
Sacred Scriptures inform us that "he
who loves danger shall perish in it,
Those who put their hands in the fire
must expect to be burned. He who in.
dulges in immoral reading may escape
for time, but sooner or later he is sure
to be caught in the meshes. Someone
has said: Throw enough mud, and
some of it is bound to stick" And Ger.
tainly those who wallow and revel in
the mire must inevitably be smirched
by it. 1t is foolhardy in the extreme tc
count on emerging spotless from such
moral cesspools or the obscene, degrad.
ing novels that has come to US in the
past few years from across the water.
Prudence demands that we refrain from
even naming the wretched productions
we have in mind, less the bare mention
of them arouse curiosity and incite to
their perusal. The wonder is that theil
degenerated authors-those apostles o.
dirt, those corrupters of youth, and
would-be destroyers of domestic purity
are not in the penitentiary. They are
worse than ordinary murderers, for they
kill human souls. Ills pity the Law
has mas not made it a gravely crimina
offense to write, publish or sell those
wantonly suggestive works which tent
to undermine and sap the moral life o
the reader. They want to depict life al
it is, forsooth the actual, the real, in
stead of the ideal But it is necessary t
60 into the sewers and cutters anC
brothels to find real life. The truth il
that far from painting life as it is, they
Invariably give it to us in its most alb
normal and morbid phases,
Bacon tells us that "some books ar,
to be tasted, others swallowed, and som,
few to be chewed and digested." Hat
he known or foreseen the products o
the modern school of filthy realism, h'
might have added: "and some are to b,
cast into the flames unopened, and th,
sooner the better" However, there il
another and brighter side to the literar.
picture. For, if the literature of tn
decadents works incalcuiable evil, 80
too, high-class, sound, healthy literatur,
is source of untold good. Presentin,
morality not in the abstract merely, bu
in the concrete, personifying or EN-
bodying it in characters who live up t,
high ideals. it is interesting as we'll a
profitable, and thereby has a decidet
advantage over the set moral discourse
and frequently accomplishes as much, i
not more good. In the event of a doub
as to the wholesome or unwholesom
influence of a book, the poet Louthe,
gives us a fairly safe guide: "Woult
you know whether the tendency of
book is good or evil? Examine in wha
state of mind you lay it down." Ii
other words, judge of 1t by its effects
1t is the text given US by the Master lonI
ages since: "The tree is known by it
fruits"
REV. FIR. MOONEY.