The Vashon Island record. [volume] (Vashon, Wash.) 1916-1919, 1917-03-22

/ bui tney are Few. Establish the habit
of reading good literature aloud in the
family circle. or al regularly timed
neighborhood gathering You will
hnd that the children, those anywhere
near normal at least. will take great
interest in IL. The good, old-fashioned
habit Of reading round some good
clean red-blooded fiction in schools. a
half hour daily. or for longer period
once or twice a week, cannot but he
of benefit. Not only is the school
brought into touch with good society
in the form Of good literature. but
being called upon in person to lend
his own voice and his own talent for
expressive reading to the entertain
ment of his fellows, the child becomes
more nearly normal If'inclined 10 be
diilident. he gains confidence from the
sound of his own voice
And now as 10 the choice OF that
literature. Infinite harm may be done
by well-meaning but careless parent
or teacher Many, even though OF
good education ana fair attachments,
seem totally unfit to select good, clean
literature They fail 10 discern the
beauties of literary work and are
so stolid as to fail TO see its suggest
iveness or other bad features, They
win provide anything that has brigh'
cover and costs enough money and
put II in the way OF n budding mind
and character as mental food for men.
tai development 1t is really a pity
that there is so much pernlcious lit
erature extant. Do what We will. be
as vigilant as we can; yet will We
frequently find in our own homes. or
on the reading tables of our friends
and neighbors, some OF the frothy,
cheap magazines or volumes so prev
alent on our news stands. You may
take issue with me here and declare
there are none such But stop. Think
Be honest with yourself. Are there
not many? There may not he a
filthy word nor an oath from cover TO
cover, yet how about suggesriveness.
or moral tone, or reliability, or com
mon sense?
The expurgations from Shakespeare
and much of the erotic writings of
Byron and the Scotch poets, have been
dropped by common consent the past
few years. They are no longer on the
market They were openly honest
filth, and we could place the finger Of
scorn. the heel of condemnation upon
them; but these suggestive yarns
these artfully constructed and Illus
trated tales, these publications that
seem to demand a menu OF fulsome
praise somewhere just under the title
lit Is hard to condemn these. They
must be all right, for the editor
swears they are. But they are not
despite all he may tell you. You
know and know, they are not. Older
people can perhaps skim or even read
them without harm, but to the grow
ing child, an imaginative child, they
are rank poison. Contrast if you
please, the good clean stories appear
ing in the Youths Companion or Har-
per's with some of the stuff that has
appeared the past few years in some
other publications.
Speaking of the quality of literature
IT is patent to almost any observer
that we have not today the high plane
of twenty years ago; and certainly not
that Of fifty years ago. In place of
Longfellow. Tennyson, Whittier, Low,
ELL Bryant and a score of other great
poets of those days. we have the
virile Kipling and some score or two
of ordinary scrub newspaper rhym.
sters. There are very few real poets.
DR. Henry Van Dyke probably leads
them all As to prose writer's, those
OF the last nail OF the last century
We're. in the main, greater novelists
and men of cleaner thought than those
OF today; also, men of higher aims
and loftier vision. or the juvenile
writer's of that time Rev. Elijah Kel
logg stood head and shoulders above
them all. with Trowbridge good sec
ond OF the adult literature of that
period, Dickens and Scott produced
most and best 1t was thought for
some years that Thackeray and Eliot
would live, but they seem to have
dropped out. Robert Louis Stevenson
and many others Of his class were
fairly second-rate Among those des-