66 



''"We desire to call attention to the cheap, trashy literature 

 which is demoralizing the youth of our country. In this class 

 we notice the paper named The Kew York Boys' WeeMy^ with a 

 reputed circulation of 40,000, and The Boys of New York^ with 

 a reputed circulation of 50,000. These papers contain stories 

 of the most sensational and slangy character, judging by the 

 titles, of which we name the following: 'Dashing Dick, King 

 of the Highway,' ' Yankee Claude Duval, the Dashing Knight 

 of the Eoad,' ' Corkey, or the Tricks and Travels of a Supe,' 

 ' Shorty, jr., or the Son of his Dad,' 'Bang Up, or the Boy 

 Kanchero,' etc., etc. We see not one redeeming trait in these 

 or other papers of this class. We are informed that many of 

 the advertisements in their columns are of the most villainous 

 kind. Will you not do what 3^ou can to warn your readers 

 against the peril that besets our youth? We inclose Professor 

 Sumner's article, reprinted from jScribner^s Monthly^ which we 

 beg you to use according to your judgment in whole or in part. 



Our object is not to advertise any periodical in place of those 

 we deprecate, but only to warn the public of a danger suspected 

 by few and realized by fewer still. 



Noah Porter, Leonard Bacon, 



Theodore D. Woolsey, Francis Wayland, 

 William M. Barbour, Hugh Carmody, 

 James E. English, Edwin Harwood, 



Francis A. Walker." 



" Few gentlemen, who have occasion to visit news-offices, can 

 have failed to notice the periodical literature for boys, which 

 has been growing up during the last few years. The increase 

 in the number of these papers and magazines, and the appear- 

 ance, from time to time, of new ones, which, to judge by the 

 pictures, are always worse than the old, seem to indicate that 

 they find a wide market. Moreover, they appear not only 

 ' among the idle and vicious boys in great cities, but also among 

 school-boys whose parents are careful about the influences 

 brought to bear on their children. No student of social phe- 

 nomena can pass with neglect facts of this kind, — so practical, 

 and so important in their possible effects on society. 



These periodicals contain stories, songs, mock speeches, and 



