The Gavelyte, November 1908

1 I l paµPr, tht> rn;:ig-azine and the novel have a fa. cination for them th~t they do not have for merr. ThP imnwnse cirL"ulation whieh such magazine as the Womans' Home .Journal have show thP vast demand there is for this light reading matter. Th novel readers in th,.• str(-'et cars and publie µlaces are wn111Pn, not nwn. They devonr with avidity the. ensational tuff with which t ht-> market i:,; flooded. Our Puritan forefathers would have put the ban up– on this kinrl of literaturt>. They deemed it a wa~te of time ancl money, ancl of immoral tendency in th\ way of filling ~he mind with the unreal in tead of truth, leading to fol 'e living and neglect of truth. How far thP Puritan idea was right is clifficult to , ay . That all fictinn i:,; immoral ancl bad for the mind cannot be maintained . Rut. it mu t be said. that t.he habit of clevonr; ing novels should not UP ~neonr.:,gecl in the young. There is rio time for reading unprofitable "yarns", such as are usually found in the dime novel. This reading matter has been found to lead i11 thou anclP of cases to criminal practice. which are suggesteJ by the novel. Our public, libraries, great and small, are filled with hooks of fiction. not of the classic order either, but the- trashy kind also. Sad to say, these are the books most called for of all. On thi' account, it i questionable whether the Public Free Library i. a benefit to ociety, or an injury. The bad book i:o clevoured eagerly, white the u l-'fQl one remains on the shelf. Thus, through the library bad habits are formed, because the books cost nothing, whereas, if the people had to pay for them, they would not for a moment he putting money into them. It is like the offering of free beer with lunch . Some will drink and come to like it who would not have bought it at fir t. There can be little room t,, doubt, that tihe tim~s are getting away from the old religiou8 id Pa. that truth i, more enjoyable than fiction, and that it is nec•essary to tell a whole pack of storie~ in order to imp-re a )jttle truth. In orcler to point out ol,jPctionahle things in late novE!ls, it would be nPCPssary to read them and \\e haven't time for that,: ThP mine! is like fallow ground brokPn up and wp must be careful h0w we p{\rmit tares to be sown \\ hiC'h . p, irg up and c·hol<e t hr good , eed. The depraved mind catc-hPs and rPtains t h;1t ,,·hieh fped~ depravity,, rvore , emlily than that which yields goorl fruit:-. A foul . tory ,, ill be difficult to banish from memory, when that which is pure \\'ill he forgotten, as many will able to testify from thPi r own experiPn<'P.