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 {422} 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