Influence of Reading

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jan 7, 1903

Influence of Reading

Two boys—samples of many more of the same sort—were arrested recently in this city for burglary. Their ages were thirteen and ten. They had a desire to live in big hotels and wear prison stripes because they had read about these things in dime novels, and of course they could not live high without money, and they could not wear prison stripes without crime. Hence the crimes to get money,—and prison stripes when they were caught. Said one of them: “We wanted to live in a fine hotel, and as we had to have money we thought we would just go out and get it. That was the way they did it in the stories.” One of the great curses of the day is the overwhelming tide of fiction from the religious and historical novels shading down to the nickel terribles. They all partake so much of general badness in character, influence, or leading, as to be generally condemnable. They present unreal views of life which their devotees take as real, and so unfit themselves by such education for life's obligations and responsibilities. Let parents guard the reading and associations of the children more than they would their food and drink.