Year: 1873

| These are startling words, Duc tneir


meaning is well known. A short time


age youngster of some eleven summers


was asked what he thought Of a new


magazine intended for ladies and gen.


tlemen of his age, the. first number Of


which had been put into his hands, and


he replied, 'Tt is pretty good, but it has


not enough blood and thunder in it,
Bv this he characterized kind Of liter


ature upon which he had been feeding,


in which vice crime, and!profanity are


made to play conspicuous parts, and


which is perverting, poisoning, and rum
ing multitud0s of the children and youth


throughout this land at the present day.
Hundreds of thousands of Magazines
and newspapers are circulated weekly
whose influence is most deleterieus up
ON the rising generation, familiariz-
iny it with the most revolving scenes,
turning it away from all that is good,
and tanning into blaze the worst pas
sions OF fallen human nature. These are
bv no means confined to the ignorant
and the degraded; they find their way
into the households of the refined and
the pious. In some of our large cities
the venders of these publications, take
their stands on certain days Of the week
in the immediate vicinity of the public
school houses, where they sell thous-
ands of these vile productions to- the
boys and girls as they are. leaving
school. They glare at us from the news
stands, and they are thrust in our faces
at the street corners and in the cars. 1t
is useless to condemn, them and scold
boys and girls for pe-using them, unless
something better is provided. Children
and young people will read ;if they can
not have something to peruse that IS
purifying, elevating and Instructive,
they will seize upon something injurious
to the intellect and hurtful to the soul.
Parents and guardians seem to be most
singularly Indifferent concerning the
intellectual food upon which those en-
trusted to their care feed. TheyIare
alarmed at the very thought of their
children eating sour bread or tainted
meat, but they manifest little anxiety
when these same children feed upon
deadly poison to theirsouls,in the cheap
novel, the sensational magazine, or the
impure paper. We have known parents
refuse to give four cents week for a
religious newspaper containing all the
important news of the day, selections
from the best literature and discussions
of the most important secular and reii-
gious topics; while we have seen. the
ch hildren of those same persons give ten
cents a week for publications, the very
thought of which is communicating. An
urgent duty is resting upon the heads
of all households, which they cannot
neglect without guilt to themselves and
injury to their children. They must
provide wholesome instructive and ele-
waiting, or its opposite will be obtained.
Reading matter such as should be IN
every family is easily accessible and at
low price. Books of biography, his
tory science, poetry, and literature in 1t
many forms are brought to their notice
every week. And scarcely family can
be found so poor that it canrfOt afford to
paw two dollars year for first class
religious newspaper which will visit it
every week and give an endless variety
of TOPICS for thought and conversation,
and be an educator of the whole house,
hold. The man who deprives his family
of such means of instruction and en-
ioyment, is not wise. We have seen
men higgling about taking such news
paper because of the alleged want OF
money or the hardness of the times,who
chewed and smoked tobacco every year
to the amount of ten times subscription
price of the paper. In no other way can
the same rmount of wholesome reading
be secured at so small an outlay. And
this is one of the most effective antidetes
to the vile thrash which is debasing the
minds and destroying the souls Of vast
multitu5es of children.