MORALITY IN DANGER.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VI, Issue 287, 1 November 1878, Page 7

MORALITY IN DANGER.

The i\7-/i- Zealand Tallet, which at the present time' is so persisten in calling public attention to the unfair pressure upon Catholics by and probably the effect of, the secular system of education, contains in an obscuio corner of its issue of October 11, Hip following paragraph :■— '• The Superintendent of the House of Refuge, New York, says a large part oE the boys who come to that institution are made bad by reading cheap, sensational papers, such as the Police Gazette, and the Boys? anil Girls' Weekly, etc. These papers unsettle their minds, and fill them with a dcsiie to do some sti iking, sensational thing. They teach boys to scorn all control." The statement of the Superintendent is without doubt an incontrovertible one, and vividly brings before the mind that an educational system (other than cither secular or religions) is daily going on in our midst — which it is certain -will produce bitter consequences but one also to which little attention is being paid. The wretched man who so lately attempted the life of the German Emperor, when captured and secured, had found upon him a dated list of some thirty recent attempts at assassination of the crowned heads of the world : and how far attributable his connection with the political society to which he probably belonged may be traced to tile careful study of these darkest shades of modern history it is difficult to say. The influences of cheap scnsatioual publications on youth may be illustrated by thousands of examples. The circumstances of the attempt on the life of Qneen Victoria by the young man Oxfoi d in, if memory serves us right, IS-iO must be within the recollection of many of our readers. Briefly adverted to, it may be summarised something like the following : During the drive of Her Majesty (in an open carriage) down Constitution Hill, Hyde Park, a youth vns noticed walking up ami down dressed in cloak and slouched hat, wi h folded arms and melodramatic stop. On the carriage arriving immediately in front of him, he raited a pistol and fired twicc°at Her Majesty. Captured (for he made no attempt at escape) a crape ma k was found upon him. together uith papers in which he was apparently nominated to do the deed by a seciet society. His mother, a respectable widow in very humble circumstances, who was much distressed upon hearing the occurrence, assisted the officers in their search of hor unhappy son's room, where amongst other articles, were found another ciape mask, pistol, dapper, a variety of papers relating to the Brotherhood, and sundries. She assured the offices no such socictv existed except in her son's brain, which had become almost demented by sensational books — a fact borne out by their presence in the room, and by the prisoners examination. Oxford was declared to be insai c and has paid the penalty of his folly by incarceration in a madhouse ever since. He is now (or at least was ten years ago though v, e believe him still living) a vcp.ciablc, sober-looking man, — a capital che&s and draughts player as well as a fair water-colour amateur, and personally avers that he attributes his misfortune solely to pernicious reading. Several instances aic on record of youths as young as 13 or 14 having a bii* f career of success as bushnuigcrs and even'burirlars. It is needless here to draw the veil from the history of many a feminine life. At the present day Algernon Swinburne's poems and the novels of " Ouida' 1 have a must extensive popularity in distinguished circles. Eugene Sue, Paul dc Koch, Reynolds, and several authi.is who pi cfur to write anonymously, are read by thousands: and the youthful poition of the popula'iun revel in a cla^s of books and magazines at the contents of which their grandarccs would be astounded : whilst those too young to spoil at all may bo seen hanging around the newsvendor's shop?, feastincr their eyes upon the .suggestive pictures of American journals, or revelling in the pleasures of the illustrated Police JVeirn. Meanwhile, hawkers of all soils of degrees of apparent respectability otter for sale obscene photographs, and pins, brooches, and rings containing eiotic fictions at the very doo:s of our household*. When, to what is predicted n» the outcrop of secular education, one adds this undercurrent of filth, and considers the "seeds sown in childicn will produce a ciop at maturity,'" the morality of the rising generation must be said to be most imminently imperilled. — Wai matt' Mar.