1. OBSCENE LITERATURE.--No other source contributes so much to sexual
immorality as obscene literature. The mass of stories published in the
great weeklies and the cheap novels are mischievous. When the devil
determines to take charge of a young soul, be often employs a
very ingenious method. He slyly hands a little novel filled with
"voluptuous forms," "reclining on bosoms," "languishing eyes," etc.
2. MORAL FORCES.--The world is full of such literature. It is easily
accessible, for it is cheap, and the young will procure it, and
therefore become easy prey to its baneful influence and effects. It
weakens the moral forces of the young, and they thereby fall an easy
prey before the subtle schemes of the libertine.
3. BAD BOOKS.--Bad books play not a small part in the corruption of the
youth. A bad book is as bad as an evil companion. In some respects it
is even worse than a living teacher of vice, since it may cling to an
individual at all times. It will follow him and poison his mind with
the venom of evil. The influence of bad books in making bad boys and
men is little appreciated. Few are aware how much evil seed is being
sown among the young everywhere through the medium of vile books.
4. SENSATIONAL STORY BOOKS.--Much of the evil literature which is sold
in nickel and dime novels, and which constitutes the principal part
of the contents of such papers as the "Police Gazette," the "Police
News," and a large proportion of the sensational story books which
flood the land. You might better place a coal of fire or a live viper
in your bosom, than allow yourself to read such a book. The thoughts
that are implanted in the mind in youth will often stick there through
life, in spite of all efforts to dislodge them.
5. PAPERS AND MAGAZINES.--Many of the papers and magazines sold at
our news stands, and eagerly sought after by young men and boys, are
better suited for the parlors of a house of ill-fame than for the
eyes of pure-minded youth. A newsdealer who will distribute such vile
sheets ought to be dealt with as an educator in vice and crime, an
agent of evil, and a recruiting officer of hell and perdition.
6. SENTIMENTAL LITERATURE OF LOW FICTION.--Sentimental literature,
whether impure in its subject matter or not, has a direct tendency in
the direction of impurity. The stimulation of the emotional nature,
the instilling of sentimental ideas into the minds of the young, has
a tendency to turn the thoughts into a channel which leads in the
direction of the formation of vicious habits.
7. IMPRESSIONS LEFT BY READING QUESTIONABLE LITERATURE.--It is
painful to see strong intelligent men and youths reading bad books,
or feasting their eyes on filthy pictures, for the practice is sure
to affect their personal purity. Impressions will be left which cannot
fail to breed a legion of impure thoughts, and in many instances
criminal deeds. Thousands of elevator boys, clerks, students,
traveling men, and others, patronize the questionable literature
counter to an alarming extent.
8. THE NUDE IN ART.--For years there has been a great craze after
the nude in art, and the realistic in literature. Many art galleries
abound in pictures and statuary which cannot fail to fan the fires
of sensualism, unless the thoughts of the visitor are trained to the
strictest purity. Why should artists and sculptors persist in shocking
the finer sensibilities of old and young of both sexes by crowding
upon their view representations of naked human forms in attitudes of
luxurious abandon? Public taste may demand it. But let those who have
the power endeavor to reform public taste.
9. WIDELY DIFFUSED.--Good men have ever lamented the pernicious
influence of a depraved and perverted literature. But such literature
has never been so systematically and widely diffused as at the present
time. This is owing to two causes, its cheapness and the facility of
conveyance.
10. INFLAME THE PASSIONS.--A very large proportion of the works thus
put in circulation are of the worst character, tending to corrupt
the principles, to inflame the passions, to excite impure desire,
and spread a blight over all the powers of the soul. Brothels are
recruited from this more than any other source. Those who search the
trunks of convicted criminals are almost sure to find in them one of
more of these works; and few prisoners who can read at all fail to
enumerate among the causes which led them into crime the unhealthy
stimulus of this depraved and poisonous literature.
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