HOME AND FIRESIDE by Mrs. L. D. Avery-Stuttle

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Dec 10, 1912

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 39, No. 48.

HOME AND FIRESIDE

By Mrs. L. D. Avery-Stuttle

Reading in the Home

“Of making many books there is no end.” These words of the wise man, written so many centuries ago, were never truer than now. And not only “many books,” but to-day the dailies and weeklies and monthlies and semimonthlies and great quarterlies accumulate on our tables and shelves, until we are driven to kindle fires with some of them in self-defense, lest they overrun every room in the house.

So it is not a question of finding plenty and a variety of reading-matter for homes; but the question is, to be able to choose wisely and well, among such a heterogeneous mass, that alone which will instruct and edify and minister to the spiritual needs of the various members of the family.

Many people imagine it quite out of the question to do without the daily paper. And indeed, the daily newspaper, with its shameful records of public wickedness, and its careful and elaborate account of the latest scandal, is about the extent of the literary food of some families. Too bad!

Not so very long ago, a bright little boy called at my home, on an errand. After a while, he grew communicative, and announced: “When I get to be a man, I shall be a prize-fighter!” And the small boy looked up with pleased confidence into my face.

Now this little laddie was very anxious to gain my approval; and hence he was considerably grieved when I expressed my entire disapprobation: “O Eddie! I never would do such a thing! A prize-fighter! Why, my boy, you want to become a good and noble man, don’t you?”

“Yes, ma’am,” very meekly.

“Well, then, tell me what put such a dreadful idea as that into your head, Eddie.”

Then the poor child admitted that he had been feasting upon the pictures on the sporting page of a popular daily, and had listened to the reading of the accounts of the fistic battles of the champions of the ring, until even in his innocent young heart had sprung up a desire to become a man, so that he might do the same!

O, I tell you, it is a dangerous thing to place such literature where our boys and girls can have free access to it, and to the disgusting, nauseating, and repulsive pictures which always go with it! One can scarcely open a newspaper of any kind, daily or weekly, but his eyes are greeted by these brutalizing, soul-hardening pictures. Ah, it is “by beholding” that “we become changed”!

“Well,” protests some voice, “how are we going to become posted regarding the daily happenings of the world, without the newspaper?”

Do not misunderstand me. The daily newspaper is not without its value, of course. It is well in its place. But its place is not in the hands of our boys. Especially should they be guarded from the sporting columns, as we would shield them from the plague.

“I destroyed our paper this morning,” said one of our neighbors — a good, sensible woman, tho not a Christian. “I was afraid it would fall into the hands of my son; and, really, I wouldn’t have him read some things in to-day’s issue for any money.” And this mother’s course is to be commended.

Do not forget, either, that newspapers do not need to be studied. If the sporting page holds a sort of fascination for our boys, no less does the society column fascinate the girls. They linger over the bewildering description of the latest ball, and study the costumes of the elegant society ladies, till almost unconsciously there is born in their hearts a desire to imitate them. The latest performance of some immodest and indecent dance is fully illustrated, commented upon, and approved of.

I have been astonished and indignant to see, even in what would be called our best magazines, such pictures as one would not expect to see outside a brothel. And worse still, the editor comments very favorably upon them, because, forsooth, they are “so graceful”!

Those things which shock the moral sense of decent people, are written up in fascinating style, and the young are attracted toward them, like moths to a candle. I would rather place the cheapest kind of a yellow-covered dime novel in the hands of the boys and girls, than such soul-wrecking literature as this.

But when the heroines of our popular magazine stories are silly charlatans, and the heroes are represented as indulging in such blasphemous and sensual language as to shock any right-minded person, and all without a single protest either of the author or the editor; and when criminals are made to pose as heroes, and even murder is apologized for, under the name of “unwritten law,” it is high time to guard our young from its baleful influence. How can we expect them to develop into noble manhood and womanhood, with their brains fed on such an intellectual and spiritual diet as this? I am not saying that all magazines are entirely unprofitable, nor that any of them are wholly given to evil. But when there is plenty of the choicest literature to be had — literature that is not only deeply interesting, but instructive and edifying as well — why should we waste precious time on that which profits little and perverts much? If James and Kate were hungry, would we place before them a basket of rotten fruit, because by choosing carefully enough, they might be able to find a little which was fit for food? Would we not rather provide them with good, wholesome food? And how much more necessary it is to provide good food for the soul than for the body!

“Well, then, what shall we bring into our homes, for the young to read?” is a question which is shaping itself upon many lips. We can not in reason expect Johnnie and Bertha to enjoy the deep theological treatise which father studies so diligently. But they will sit quietly and happily studying the book that tells all about animals and their habits. One might think that a natural history would be rather a dry volume for a young boy to enjoy; but not long ago I knew two little boys, belonging to different families, who were very eager to borrow this book, and who chose it in preference to anything else.

“Well,” you say, “I suppose that the principal thing is to be sure that all which my children read is true — something that actually happened; surely then I can make no mistake!”

But, my friend, if you are governed by this rule, without exception, I should not want to answer for the morals of your boys. Why?

Some years ago there fell into my hands the true story of the ringleader of as lawless a band of robbers and ruffians as ever terrorized the West. Now this book, as well as all others of the same kind, must be looked upon, by all right-minded people, as exceedingly dangerous literature. And the more truthful they are known to be, the more insidious and terrible their effects upon the young.

Whatever will make us better, wiser, purer — let us choose such reading as this, and place it in our homes. We are apt to let our thoughts dwell upon that which we read — and if the reading be good, this is right. So if we can discover what it is best to think about, it will help us in our choice.

When the inspired orator of Mars’ Hill was in the Roman prison, he gave us an excellent program to follow:

“Finally, brethren, . . . whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.”