Denton and Haughton Examiner, etc. — 1887-10-08 (Denton, Greater Manchester, England)

SENSATIONAL IN LITERATURE.  Who could estimate all the ble,sings which have resulted to us from that glorious invention, the Art of Printing 7 How impossible would it be to fill its place by anything which, in like manner would bestow upon mankind advantages specially calculated to aid us in educational pursuits, furnish us with those things by which nations and individuals become great. It had given us not only the benefit, but the charm of literature. It would indeed be a very lamentable fact if amongst all the books printed we could not select some books worth a perusal, but it was matter kr regret thatmany contained things which would have 'men better left unwritten, for they were .10.1ated to inflict harm on all who read them. He did not condemn the reading of light literature, and . ba was pre waits ad md tbe advantage of works a'  fiction. No one eurely could object to the works of such writers as Thackeray, Dickens, Elliott, Broad Scott, McDonald, Worboise, and a score of similar writers. But books which were merely written to ezeite , to tickle the palate, whilst they produced no beneficial effect (although they came op to Sydney Smith's standard) were calculated to enervate the mind, to give it unhealthy tastes, if they did not awaken evil passions and stimulate to vicious pursuits Novels, the chief incidents of which were murder, forgery, abduction, bigamy, assault and robbery, were the books that were at a premium, whilst good ones were at a discount. Sterling matter was rece'ved by the spoonful, whilst rubbish was swallowed by cart. loads The Lecturer then took under re•iew, some of the weekly periodicals, including the "London Journal," which professed to be a "weekly record of Science and Art"; the "London Reader" which claimed to be a Journal of science, art, and general information ; which were examined in detail and found to be wanting. The circulation of this pernicious literature was also as abundant as it was had, as it appeared from an investigation made some two or three years ago, that in addition to 26,000.000 Sunday newspapers, "the issuea of publications of an immoral tendency reached 20,000,e00 yearly." The worst aspect of this evil was evidenced in the effect this kind of literature must have upon our youth. Never win poor recruit so dazzled, and bewildered by the wily sergeant whooe business it is to angle for and hook men to serve as soldiers, a. was the foolish lad who was beset by the host of candidates of the penny awful tribe for his patronage. The tales in many of these serials were of the most revolting and horrible nature ; their morality of the moat pernicious kind. Ailusions were made continually to mat. tees one would wish in youth to remain entire wrwng,ers, and so worse and indecent the writing frequently became thst no person would risk its reading before a public audience. Referring to the pub. lie press and our public papers, he said they were not perfect, but must, perforce administer to the requirements of the times— Sensational leaders, articles, and advertisements He did not for a moment undervalue the benefits we enjoyed from our free press, neither did he class all public papers with those pernicious and infamdue publications to which he was about to refer, but he could not refrain from uttering his protest alainst suet, public educators as the Illustrated Police Record and the illustrious Police News, papers that perhaps developed more evil than they divulged, and that encouraged vice and crime in all its forms ; papers which produced scandalous illustrations and fed all the diabolical fire. in human nature ; papers, the letterer.s of which abounded with all the incidents of crime and horror that had contaminated society during the past week —a very choice indention of all the dirtiest and filthi rut rubbish that could be scraped out of one week'a sewerage from all the immoral gutters that flowed through the land For the sake of society, in pity to the depraved and out of compassion for our youth. let such papers be A.M./nu. .11araatha— annihilsted  EINNRATIONALIbM IN