Year: 1879

n NaSnN1lle Advocate.


In this free (very free) country M
public censorship of the press would
be tolerated for day. a free pres


is one of our boasted blessings. The


evils of licentiousness are preferred


to slavery. While the press is free


no tyrant could feel easy in his seat


1t is a significant fact that the first


act of European usurpers and OPP
presSors is to muz7le or chain the


press. They well know that the


bayonet is powerless to uphold that


which is condemned by the unfet-
/ tered utterances of the organs of


public opinion. The American peo-


pie are properly jealous of maintain


ing the freedom of the press. They


regard free press as the palladium


of their liberties, and juries usually


err, if at all, on the side of leniency


toward such as turn liberty into IL


centiousness by perverting the press
to malicious or immoral ends. This


instinct of our people is a healthy
one. 1t is wiser to retain freedom
at the risk of its being abused than
to paddock our thoughts. All bless
ings must be taken with their at
tendant perils, this as well as
Others.


A legitimate censorship of the
press, however, is practicable, even
in this country. Every head of a
family can and ought to assume the
Office of censor. The indifference
of our people to this matter
is amazing. The extent to which
vicious reading is patronized by
virtuOus men and women is appall-
ing. What are the facts J?


1t is fact that some of the vilest
est circulation in the families of
this country.


1t is fact that you may meet the
worst newspapers in many of the
best families.


1t is fact that hundreds of thous-
ands of our youth of both sexes
have placed before them daily sort
of literature which is calculated
to teach them that lust, murder and |
theft are normal conditions of hu-
man life, and that purity, love, and |
honor, are only obsolete supersti- |
tions to be laughed at by the gay
and pitied by the wise.


1t is a fact that this literature is
sapping the foundation of social vir-
tue in this country, lowering the
moral standard of the mature, and
infusing deadly poison into the
minds of the young.


And it is fact that good men and
women seem to be asleep, doing
nothing to arrest this mighty evil,
and in many cases actually lending
it their positive aid by patronizing
these poisonous publications.


What we call for is home CEN
Let every mother and fa-
ther see to it none but clean newspa-
pers enter their houses. Let every
good citizen see to il that not dol
lar of his money goes to build up
that pander to depraved
tastes and prurient curiosity. The
by the respectable ele-
nent of society of their patronage
rom all publications save those
whose pages are pure, would at once
10 much to mitigate a great evil.
The purveyors of corrupt reading
natter would be left to be support
I'd by such as stand on then, own
Ow moral level.


If any reader of this article finds
hat his dirtiest newspaper is the
me he most loves to read, he is the
Jery man for whom we write. He
hOuld take alarm and reform his
eading habits at once. Demora- :
ized already, he should lose no
ime in seeking healthier mental
liment.
I ,onLy fO yO1r pauSpoDar apd no
iodical lists, look to your libraries,
nd with firm hand cast out from !
our home these serpents that coil !
n your book-shelves or upon your :,
enter-tahles, !