The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1916-01-08
INoIscRIMINATE READING

'No'scRImINATE READING.
among the sins of omission for
whlch many Catholic parents will, ono
DAY be held to strict account is tba,r
neglect to exercise careful s,,nerv;s,on
over the reading of their children. The
utter carelessness displayed on this
point by considerable number of faith.
ers and mothers who in other resnecta
give evidence OF possessing ordinary
good sense, would be incredible were il
not SO evident and SO common. AL
though the statement sounds absura
enough, it would really seem that some
parents consider reading in itself-tha
reading OF anything-a positive virtue
IN son or daughter.
A father who will very sensiblv for.
OLD his child playing with the edgea
toois OF the carpenter shop will look
on with perfect unconcern, if not with
fatuous approval, at the same child,s
careless handling of the razor.like
mental tools of the materialist. the
scept'c' the agnostic, or the anything
arlan. A mother who very properly
insists upon her daughters avoiding
the company of girls whose manners
are over-free, will TRANQUILITY observe
tnat same daughter porting over the
sugar-coated nastiness of some woman
novelist whose subtle influence will
surely destroy forever the fair bloom
OF maidenly innocence and modestv
inere is no exaggeration in saving
tnat one might just as reasonably al
low a child full freedom to EXPERT
ment at his pleasure in a chemist,a
laboratory, or to taste at will of all
the ph1als in drug store, as to con.
sent to his indiscriminate reading OF
the books, papers or magazines which
IN our day appeal to his curiosity. and
are altogether too often, unfortunate.
~, within his reach. 1t is all very we'll
10 anect good.natured contempt of
the so-called prudery which excludes
certain volumes and certain iourno,a
from the public libraries of Boston and
otner New England cities, but the
lamentable fact is that the twentieth
century attitude toward literature
whether OF the permanent or the eph-
emeral kind. is an attitude, not of ex-
aggerated propriety but Of reprehensi-
Die license. Young people of the pres-
ent day are permitted to devour any,
thing and everything on the bill of fare
provided by false philosophers, agnos-
tic essayists, erotic novelists. sa,a.
clous magazines and yellow iournal-
lists.
Even the best of our daily papers
contain, occasionally, detailed reports
OF crimes, of scandals, or of divorces.
the reading of which constitutes a gen.
uine danger for the average man or
woman, to say nothing of the impress
sionable boy or girl. Yet how often
10 parents see to it that such reports
are removed from the reach of their
children? The popular CHEAP maya.
zines, with their frequent "spicy" fic-
ton and indecent illustrations, are SUBJ
scribed for with avidity by many a
catholic who finds Catholic MAGAZINES
ana papers dry and uninteresting.
1t is no wonder that the pastoral
letters OF Bishops SO often call atten-
ton to the necessity of guarding the
young from the pernicious literature
OF the day. The printed thought is
ass'milated by the mind much as is our
material food by the body; and where
the youthful mind is allowed to take
In so much intellectual pabu]um that
is not only negatively innutritious but
positively unwholesome and poisonous.
1t Is not surprising that faith is some
times shipwrecked and morality often
undermined.
"A circumstance that aggravates the
s1nfulness of Catholic neglect in this
matter is that nowadays at least there
Is no dearth of Catholic books in anv
department of popular literature
tory, biography, essays, poetry or fic-
tlon-whether for the young or the
mature. 1t is very certainly the duty
of parents to substitute such works for
the dangerous and, often enough, fatal
volumes and magazines and journals
that are too frequently found in the
hands of their children. ignoring their
duty will not lessen their responsible
ity; and 1t is beyond all question a
heavy one.-The Ave Maria,
A number of German priests who
had been laboring in Australia for