Rensselaer Standard, Volume 1, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 June 1879 — Sensational Literature. [ARTICLE]

Sensational Literature.

A New York judge, recently interviewed, traces a great deal of the current crime to the influence of flashy and sensational story papers, of which it.is said that over twenty-five are published in New York Citv with a circulation of over 375,000. ’This does not include the dime novels, cheap*song books, et id omne genus, which are turned out by the ton and are equally unhealthful for the morals of the young. These papers give wrong ideas of life in their enticing stories. The hero is usually a man who would not stand much of a chance in a criminal court. He always goes armed, sWears like a pirate, makes unbounded use of his fists, and whips out his pistol or dirk at the least provocation. Human life is regarded as about the cheapest thing in the market, and his disregard for authority, either of parents or the law, is treated as a thing very heroic and grand. The judge says if there is any Justification for a censorship of the press it would certainly find warrant In the existence of such publications. Parents and teachers need to watch carefully and continuously for this pernicinws literature.—[Bpringfield Union.

Landor: “The damps of Autumn sink into the leaves and prepare them for the necessity of their foil; and thus insensibly are we, as years close round us, detached from our tenacity of life by the gentle pressure’of recorded sorrow.”