The Blackpool Herald. — 1875-12-03 (Blackpool, Lancashire, England)

CRIMINAL BOYS AND VICIOUS LITERATURE.  Nine out of ten criminal boys-are usually found to ne ardent students of literature of the "Blueskin "and "Sixi een-string Jack" type. The fact that they do greedily devour such deleterious trash scarcely ever fails to afford enthusiastic moralists an opportunity of dwelling upon the necessity for substtituting such publications as those sanctioned by the Pure Literature Society for the detestable rubbish 'sold by the less reputable newsvendors in our great cities. Coupled with these, recommendations are generally to be found impetuous demands that the law should forbid the sale of literature of the "Blueskin" order. To this there is the objection that it is impossible to pass an Act of Parliament-prohibiting the publication ' of "penny dreadfuls," without including in the prohibition numbers of standard romances by very Wellknown authors, English and foreign, which may be obtained at any circulating library or any railway bookstal!. Mr. Harrison Ainsworth's "Jack Sheppard" has been denounced as an immoral work, be: ,1 cause the burglar and prison-breaker Jack is made a hero, and his follOwer, the thief and murderer Blueskin, is converted into a model of courage and , whereas,_ on. the other hand, Mr. Dickens's ' "Oliver Twist," although its principal characters are thieves, murderers, and wantons, has been declared 'to.be- an unimpeachably moral performance, because vice in its pages is painted in its true colours, and no !attempt is made to give a false melodramatic glitter to the squalid and crapulous episodes of crime. It 'happens, however, that in both these typical romances vice is punished and virtue is rewarded—Jack -Shep!nard dies on Tyburn Tree, and Blueskin is pressed to ileath nigin is hanged, and although Sikes does not actually per by the hand of the executioner, the murderer of 'Caney does incidentally undergo his well-merited doom. If, then, there be any fairness in the distribution of poetical . justice; there can be little to choose between the. moral of Mr. Ainsworth's romance and that of Mr. Dickens; but who would contemplate the possibility of consigning "Oliver Twist" to a legal Index Expurgatorius ? bcys, on the other hand, are „pften very quickwitted, and to a lad with a taste for picking pockets the adventures of Mr. John Dawkins, as narrated by -Mr. Dickens, might present so many fascinating features as to lead him at mica to sally !forth into the streets and emulate the achievements of the Artful Dodger. Nothing is so facile as to point a moral which will adorn a , tale; but it is quite another thing whether the moral shaft will touch the blot it is meant tothit. Grave' magistrates in country towns have been known to "bespeak" the play of "George Barnwell," in the hope that Lillo's doleful tragedy might act as a. solemn warning to the mis-guided youth, male and female, of the locality' yet who shall say that country 'prentices, seduced by the brief but splendid career -of crime pursued by Barnwelli-may not have been led to imitate his acts, or that silly girls may not have gazed with two envious eyes on the hat and feathers and white satin robe of Millwood'?—London-Telegraph. •