Year: 1879

a writer i'll the National Quarterly Review
for July discusses the subject of "Pernicious
Juvenile Literature" and although it might
be said that there is little in his article which
/ is new, either in its statement of facts or sug.
| gestion of remedies, it is mono the less q
healthful and encouraging symptom that this
| problem is receiving the attention which its
importance deserves among the discussions OF
the day. The number of trashy or sensation.
al papers published every week in New York
| alone is twenty five, and eight Of the most
| popular Of them have an aggregate circulation
| of 1886, 600 copies weekly. Add to this vast
number reasonable estimate of the circula.
/ tion Of the other papers, and to this again the
/ probable circulation of papers of the same
| class published in other cities, and multiply
the total by the average number of readers
say three or five to each copy of paper, nnd
we find that the number of people to whom
| these papers of the lower sort regularly cater
is well up among the millions. A large pro
| portion of the readers of these papers is made
up of girls and boys, young men and young
women, and to very many of them these story
| papers and sporting papers, records of police
news, criminal doings and what not, consti.
| tute their only intellectual food. The Review
writer classes the publications under the three
| grades, bad worse and worst, and has been
at some pains to sample specimens of each
| class


The first class do not contain that which is
obscene or profane to any considerable ex.
tent but are full of highly sensational stories.
| The titles of some of them, selected at ran
dom, indicate their character: "Dashing
Dolores, or Chincapin Dick on the Border, u
Spider and Stump the Plaques of the vii
lage, The Boy Pedestrian, or Walking for
Life etc. The staple Characteristic of
| these stories is the narrative OF adventures.
There is no real portrayal of character, no
| picturesque description, no pure sentiment
nothing but the recital of thrilling, blood
curdling adventure after adventure. Other
stories in these papers recite in appropriate
slang the tricks and practical jokes played by
daring youngsters upon their parents and
guardians. The distinction between the two
lower classes of papers is a question simply
of more or less. They have sensational sto-
ries, dealing largely with the relations of the
sexes, together with illustrations of current
events of sensational character, portraits of
burglars, murderers and other criminals and
pictures of crime. In their reports of crime,
especially those against purity, they enter in
to the minutest details, and they are spice d
not nfrequently with accounts OF the doings
in saloons and dance-halls The effect upon
the reader, the Review writer observes, is as
If he were put into constant companionship
| with criminals. Crime is not only made fam
liar to him, it is glori6ed, and his imagination
is stimulated until he is ready to initiate the
adventures which have been painted for him
in such brilliant colors


1t is scarcely necessary to draw attention to
the evils which attend the reading of the low
er class Of sensational papers. All people
with healthy minds know that the sort of stuff
which the flash story, sporting and police pa
pors of the baser sort provide is simply intel
lectual and moral poison of the most deadly
kind. But the evils which result from the
regular reading of the better class of sensa-
tlonal story papers are not so well understood
nor so generally acknowledged. Not the least
important Of them is that which the Review
writer names first-the destruction of all taste
for really good and profitable reading To
cat highly seasoned food is to lose the ability
to appreciate delicate flavor, and the same
principle holds as regards reading. But a
graver reason than this is that these sensation
al stories present totally false views of life
Their heroes are marvels of physical strength
and courage, they are dead shots, they always
succeed III what they undertake, and are for
ever turning up in the nick of time with some
fresh demonstration of their prowess but
they smoke, drink, swear and gamble, and
these and other vices are exalted as a part of
their heroism. The youthful reader finds, in
this proshic world, that it is easier to initiate
the vices than the heroic deeds of the gallant
soldiers of fortune of whom he reads, and so
in cases without number he sets out to become
a hero by making himself loafer or scoun-
drel The world becomes TO him-seen in the
false light which these stories throw upon it
not place for honest industry, but for adven-
ture success is a thing not to be won by long
and patient labor, but to be snatched as
matter of COURSE and the authority of teach
ers and parents, and even of law, is a thing
to be laughed at, evaded or overthrown 10y one
with heroic aspirations. As the Review writer
very justly says:


THE completed product then, brought
forth as the result of these publications, is q
foul-mouthed bully, cheat, thief, despe-
RADIO, libertine. Instead of clean minded
high-toned, honorable young man, not afraid
of work, and knowing that whatever is of
value in this world is gained by work-a
young man of courage i'll which the moral ell
ement is greater than the physical, a young
man respecting the law and other mems
rights, young man worthy of the love of a
good woman we should have one who when
the fictitious gloss, the stage-tinsel, the mock
heroic glamour had been rubbed off, would be
found preferring to live by his wits rather
than his labor; rotten at heart and hence
foul in speech as likely as not betrayer of
innocence a pest and plague in society"


Inc Icluttllth subBtblcI uIt, lOI Nut llObt
part already familiar: Parental vigilance /;
the supply Of books of history, of travel, of
biography. of real adventure. in place of the
trashy stuff the establishment of well-order-
ed libraries and reading-rooms; n quickening
of the conscience of publishers booksellers
and newsdealers by wise discrimination in
patronage on the part of the intelligent and
moral public, etc. of these the first two need
perhaps, to be most insisted on. Parents are
quite too careless as to what their children
read, appearing to think that if they only
have in their hands a book or paper of some
sort they are well out of mischief, when, as
an actual fact they may be in process of
preparation for mischief of a very serious
sort. Very often the taste of young people
can be diverted to good books-of history
and travels in particular-if by wise direction
they are shown that such books possess not
only enduring value, but intense interest. AS
to the work of libraries, it is to be feared that
not a few of our libraries, as at present ad-
ministered, help to feed rather than TO allay
the craving for the sensational. The gravity
of this question was confessed in long and
thoughtful discussion at the recent Congress
of Librarians, and the ratio of juvenile books
and fiction in the circulation of the various
libraries is admitted to be ominously large, in
spite of all that has been done to diminish it.
The nature of the difficulty may be guessed
from the fact that the Hartford librarian
recently reported that one boy had taken out
lO2 story books in six months, and one girl
ll2 novels in the same time. As to the in
fuence to be exerted upon publishers and
sellers, it must needs be partial, indirect and
slow of result, but in the smaller towns, par
ticularly, the booksellers and news-dealers
can very often be reasoned or shamed or driv-
en- into the abandonment of this part of their
trade The patronage of the buyers of SEN
sational or obscene literature is rarely worth
SO much to them that they can afford to for
felt the support of the real book-buyers of
the community Any remedy, and any col
lection of remedies which can be proposed,
however, seem quite inadequate to resist an
evil so great and subtle. And the worst of it
is that the evil is not only great and subtle,
but growing-and so more difficult to resist
this year than last, and next year than this
Boston Journal