p. 252 | The Mystery Solved by Editor

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jun 1, 1882

The Mystery Solved.

By Editor

If any have wondered at the reckless criminality of Jesse James, at the utter want of humanity and conscientiousness manifested in his career, they must cease to wonder when they read the following from the Louisville Courier-Journal.

"Jesse James' mother was of the Lady Macbeth type of woman. She is a large, handsome woman, six feet high, with a massive frame, and had no other ambition than to nurture in her sons a reckless, brave, murderous, lawless disposition. They detested school, and the little good influence that was exerted over them by their father, who was a clergyman, was soon ended. Not being able to endure her treatment of him, he abandoned her."

What else could be expected of boys reared by such a mother? And what better can be expected of those boys who daily read the "dime novel" trash which is everywhere placed within their reach, and which, in many cases, is furnished by the parents themselves?

Children will have associates, and most of them will read. How important that parents watch over them in these matters, and furnish to them, and take pains to interest them in, the very best reading which can be procured. Are there any families in our churches, having children, who have not procured the four volumes of "Sabbath Readings"? These cannot fail to interest, and they cannot fail to exert an excellent influence. See to it in time, before your children form a taste for vicious reading which will mar their whole lives.