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WHAT BOYS AEE READING. 



A timely appeal to tlie public has just been made, bearing 

 tbe signatures of eminent citizens of New Haven who repre- 

 sent both political parties and the Baptist, Roman Catholic, 

 Congregational and Episcopal churches. I welcome this warn- 

 ing, as I have had occasion to observe widely the pernicious 

 influence of bad books and papers. Finding ten years ago that 

 such papers as the Boston Illustrated Police Neivs^ the New 

 York National Police Gazette^ and Pays Poings were freely sold 

 in the cars, I addressed a letter to the President or Superintend- 

 ent of every railway in Connecticut asking if I might announce 

 autlioritatively in my next Report that " the sale of immoral 

 papers is not permitted in the cars or stations of your railway." 

 Cordial replies came promptly from the officers of every rail- 

 road of our State expressing their earnest purpose to do their 

 part in the suppression of this great evil. One reply shows the 

 spirit of all. "I fully appreciate your views and most heartily 

 concur in your wish, and will do my utmost to prevent the 

 circulation of such papers. " Obscene books, papers and pictures 

 are the worst of outlaws. The most indecent of this class are 

 sold clandestinely. But there are others, sold openly, like those 

 named in the following " appeal," which though less filthy, are 

 more corrupting, if not more infamous than the most lecherous 

 issues of the Parisian press. The poison which nauseates by an 

 overdose, may be its own antidote. Professing to be illustrated 

 histories of the week, these papers are in fact chroniclers of, or 

 contributors to, the bar-room and the brothel. The safety of 

 our youth now demands the utmost effort for the exclusion of 

 such contamination. In behalf of the children of the State, I 

 earnestly invoke the aid and cooperation of all parents, the 

 officers of justice, the public press, and of all good citizens, in 

 efficient measures for the suppression of the evil so well set 

 forth in the following appeal and extracts from the paper of 

 Professor Sumner. 



