The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1922-11-26

day to let their children have their
own way in the selection of their
reading, and the renewed activities
all over the country of societies that
exist avowedly for the purpose of
conserving the literary purpose of
the republic. A reply in recent
issue Of my book section 10 some-
what excited correspondent who pro-
fessed hot ndignation over the seiz-
ure of coFes of the works of Soc
caccio and Rabelais Offered the sug-
gestion that the contents of the book
did not matter nearly so much as the
fitness or unfitness of the person
who read il. In other words. that
there is all the difference in the
world between the man of 40 buying
the 'Decameron' for his library, at
Scribner's or buttons or Putnam's,
and the schoolboy of IA who pur-
chases IL furtively from the leering
peddler who points out the choice
bits. Yet that suggestion does not
cover the whole question"
Continuing the writer says;
Dickens David CCpperfield' could
not be read unless a new edition re-
moving Steerforth from the story
were printed. Certain illusions to
the privileges and habits of the old
noblesse Of France before the Revo-
luton would bar A Tale Ct TWO
Cities Bleak House would be out
OF the question on account OF Lady
Dedlock. Mrs. Dombey's pretended
elopement with the smiling Clark
would keep 'Dombey & Son from
the tables of those exacting in their
demands for literary purity. divers
- - ~th
oliver Twist to the forbidden index;
and Smike's illegitimate birth and
the intentions OF Sir Mulberry Hawk
would do the same for Nicholas
Nickleby.' Charlotte Bronte's Jane
Eyre would certainly be taboo. for
did not Edward Rochester attempt to
force amorous attentions upon the
heroine when he had a wife still liv-
ing? Bulwer-Lytton's The Last
DAYS of Pompeii would be outrag-
eously Impossible with its sensuous
dance scene and its picture of what
might be termed the country cub life
OF the Romans.
ITO turn to American literature,
Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet
Letter would naturally have to be
wiped off the slate for all time. Hes
ter Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale
are no fit characters for contempla-
tiCn. When we come to think of il.
Harriet Beecher Stoves Uncle Tom S
Cabin might be regarded as a high
" immoral book. Certain newspa-
pers of the south protested to FIND
It so in the early fifties of the nine
teenth century. There are points OF
that book, the pictured relations be-
tween white men and women of
mixed blood in New Orleans. and the
designs Of Simon Legree against the
slave girl in his power, that could
be condemned as 'reeking with sem
suality.' Bret Hartes The Luck of
Roarin Camp with its Cherokee Sal,
should be burned at the public stake,
and reasons might be found for con-
signing NEST of the authors other
stories to the same fate. In Mark
Twain's The Innocents Abroad there
are phrases and words that are per-
haps. highly shocking to those who
carry prudery to the point of draping
the legs of their pianos. This method
If illustration. at once nonsensical
and serious. might be carried on in
definitely.
But to drop entirely the nonsen-
steal tone. There 10 one book that
In the mind stands out above all