What Is Your Boy or Girl Reading?—What Is the Character of Their Music?—What Pictures Are Before Them?—Their Real Worth Determined by These Things
By Mary Alice Hare Loper, M. S.
“Parents, what are your children feasting upon—scum or cream?”
ONE in search of a healthful location does not choose a district where water stagnates in pools and marshes. It has long been known that in such a locality, malaria, typhoid fever, diphtheria, etc., may be easily contracted. People who settle in such districts, do so at the risk of their lives, and many die as the result.
Disease-Breeding Literary Atmosphere
But this is not so appalling as the fact that many, very many, are dying mentally and morally every year as the result of remaining in a disease-breeding literary atmosphere, surrounded by the yellow scum of the swamps of sin, where Death stalks boldly forth, and numbers his victims by thousands. Here are whispered from lip to lip revolting details of crime and wretchedness, and here are midnight orgies and drunken revelries accompanied by demoralizing strains of “rag-time” music.
It is passing strange that so many persist in remaining in the miasmatic atmosphere of iniquity, partaking of death-dealing scum, when there are so many invigorating uplands where health-giving cream may be had in abundance.
Many persons become so addicted to literary scum that they cannot appreciate anything that is wholesome and uplifting. The world to-day is largely following this trend, and the alarming results are everywhere visible in lax morals and increase of crime.
Entertainments That Produce Criminals
Juvenile literature and entertainments at the present time are of a character to propagate criminality. A public educator recently made the statement that he had attended perhaps ten moving-picture shows, to satisfy himself as to the kind of education the children were thus receiving; and in every one of these, some one was represented as killed. He considered such entertainments a great menace to childhood.
The immoral show is a veritable scum banquet, where spectators can absorb a whole story of crime in much less time than they could read it. Is it any wonder that immorality is rampant in our world, even among young boys and girls, when shows are allowed to present women in tights or nearly nude, while they are hugged and kissed by men who are thus involved in dishonorable and diabolical schemes?
Many cartoons are of the yellow scum quality. It would seem that the archenemy himself had taken up the pencil and the brush, and was doing master strokes of evil in presenting all sorts of wickedness. It is too bad that the blessed art of picture making should be so diverted from its legitimate use as to become a monster power for evil.
Children and young people are fed upon sickening travesties of love, marriage, and home life, these sacred relationships being represented as of minor importance. When unfaithfulness in the marriage relation is portrayed as a joke; when young girls are shown in intimate relationship with married men; when all that is sacred in the family circle is derided and laughed at, and such terms as “the old man,” “the old woman,” and “the kids” become familiar, how can boys and girls receive the right impressions concerning the holy and solemn obligations of marriage? The sure results of this demoralizing education are seen in blighted hopes and ruined lives.
Ridiculous Caricatures of Scripture
How can faith in the Bible be preserved when children see ridiculous portrayals of creation; when sport is made of the Flood, and the saving mission of Noah’s ark is considered of no importance; when Bible characters are ridiculed, and the end of the world is scoffed at? But we need not be surprised that these influences are abroad at the present time; for we read in 2 Tim. 3:1, 13: “In the last days” “evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.” Also in 2 Peter 3:3, 4: “There shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of His coming?”
Eve had a curiosity to know evil; but that knowledge was the downfall of the human race. Many to-day have this same curiosity; but if gratified, they are much worse off than before. One cannot really know evil without being evil. The boy or the girl who longs to know the evils of the world, becomes more and more evil as that knowledge increases. One need not attend a spiritualistic séance in order to become convinced that there is something dangerously supernatural there. All that we ought to know about it, the Bible teaches us. One need not read the sacred books of Oriental religions in order to become convinced that there is no salvation in them. The Bible plainly says there is no salvation except through Christ; and that is all we need to know about it. One need not read biographies of criminals in order to ascertain that such lives are miserable failures. The question for every youth to consider is not, How close can I go to the brink of the precipice of sin and not fall over? but, How far can I keep from it?
Music Perverted
“Ragtime” music is scum; and O, how the rising generation is fed upon it! Even phonographic records are dispensing it by the wholesale. The music of a household indicates its character; and the education received through the channel of music, exerts a telling influence upon everyday life. There is an enormous demand for “ragtime” music, or there would not be the supply that exists to-day. Sickening, silly, vulgar words, accompanied by this “ragtime” music, are a powerful factor in the demoralizing education of the present time. Parents should guard their homes against bad music, as they would guard them against every other influence for evil.
Bad music and bad reading and bad pictures go hand in hand. Many printed romances are filled with evil suggestions, which awaken the passions of the youth, and subject them to temptations which may mean their downfall. It is only a step here from the imaginary to the real.
Intoxicating Novels
When a young girl becomes so absorbed in some dreamy printed vista that she cannot take her eyes from the scene long enough to gain a near view of some of the realities of life which demand her attention, and when a young boy has so far left the world that he does not even recognize his own name when called to dinner, because his reading makes him oblivious to his surroundings, it is time for parents to become conscious of the fact that their children are suffering from a comatose state of mind due to poisoning from literary scum, and seek for a remedy—if the condition has not already become incurable.
Beware of the reading room found in the garret, the barn loft, or the back alley. The reading matter found in such places is scum of the vilest sort. That which is unfit to read in the family library or living room, is unfit to read anywhere. It is deadly poison. “Touch not, taste not, handle not.” As well toy with a serpent, and receive its deadly sting, as become fatally inoculated with the virus of loathsome literary scum, which is placed within easy reach of the promising boys and girls of America.
Much Room on the Uplands
The beautiful uplands of life are not densely populated. And yet here may be found sufficient health-giving literary cream to supply the needs of the world. No one need go hungry or unsatisfied. This cream is worthy of appropriating. It will impart strength and vigor to aid one in becoming of real service in the affairs of life. The old-fashioned Bible is the purest literary349cream to be found. It does not contain a single disease germ. It is the very best mental food that any one can possibly secure. It is suited to the needs of every human soul in every country and in every climate.
No one has ever yet been harmed by reading its beautiful love story, or by feasting the mind upon its divine pictures of the glories of heaven.
Literary cream includes that which harmonizes with the Bible; that which elucidates its principles, and impresses its precious lessons. Such reading lifts the soul above all criminality, and fills the mind with such thoughts as make the world better.
Parents, what are your children feasting upon — scum or cream?
THE CHILD'S CLOTHES
By Lauretta Kress
Defectiveness and Disease from Improper Clothing—Neatness and Beauty May Combine with Simplicity—Guard Against Fostering Pride and Vanity
By Lauretta Kress, M. D.
A very important part of the mother's duty is to clothe her children so as to keep their bodies in health. This responsibility begins at the time the child is born, and increases as the days go on. Much error is taught about the clothing of children; and as a result, sickness and disease are increasing with remarkable rapidity, because of failure to understand the organization of the body.
GARMENTS SHOULD BE FITTING
Mothers who are careful to have their own garments hygienic, are careless regarding their children. They place upon them ready-made clothing, bought at a “very reasonable price” in the shops. These have been made in large lots, without any consideration as to the form of the specific body to wear them, and do not fit. They are tight in the arm-holes, often measuring the same in the front and the back, leaving no room for expansion as the child stands erect and takes a deep inspiration. All these particulars are very essential to the development of a healthy child. There must be an abundance of room in the chest as well as about the waist.
The proper way for each mother to do in making garments for her child is to allow sufficient cloth in seams and about the chest and the waist, so that they can be made larger as the child grows. Frequent measurements of the chest and the waist should be taken, in order that the mother can be sure the clothing is not binding, or hindering the growth of the body, or displacing any organs.
ALL PARTS PROPORTIONATELY CLOTHED
Great care should also be taken to have all parts of the body clothed proportionately. The arms should not be left with a thin covering over them, while the trunk of the body has many thicknesses. The legs and the knees need, correspondingly, as much clothing as the thighs and the trunk. If these are not properly clothed, the blood on its way to the extremities and to the skin is chilled by contact with the air from both the morning and the evening breeze, and is driven internally, congesting the digestive organs, also the lungs, and other organs contained in the body.
The knees and the legs, being bare, cause a great deal of disturbance with the throat and the nose. Physicians who are studying into these things have noticed, for a number of years, that there has been an increase in disease where the arms and the legs of children have not been suitably clothed, and many deaths occur that might not have been, had some heed been given to this great essential by the mothers.
In the autumn and the winter, the limbs require to be clothed with two thicknesses of flannel or wool. Long combination under-suits coming to the ankles and the wrists, with woolen stockings coming over the knees, will keep the hands and the feet warm, and increase the assimilation of food very remarkably. If children have cold hands and feet, some disturbance of the digestion will surely follow. For colder weather, it is quite necessary that the legs and the arms should be well protected.
CARELESS CLOTHING AND ILLNESS
For out-of-door wear, there is need of extra clothing for the limbs as well as for the trunk. Many a serious illness has resulted from lack of care in this respect. Whatever degree of warmth is required for comfort for any portion of the body is necessary for other parts as well. Therefore a child's out-of-door outfit should be such as will secure an equal additional increase of warmth to the entire body proportionate to the severity of the weather.
“It is the clean, smiling face . . . that should be the chief attraction.”
Many other points in addition to that of healthfulness require consideration in the question of clothing for children. No child ought unnecessarily to be required to wear unbecoming garments. Many a little one has been made self-conscious and unhappy by being obliged to wear some article of clothing so out of harmony with beauty or good taste as to make the wearer a target for comment and even ridicule.
GRACEFUL AND ARTISTIC
Healthful garments are not, as many seem to imagine, of necessity so peculiar in design as to be ungraceful or inartistic. God has clothed the flowers of the field in beauty and loveliness, and it was certainly not intended that human flowers should be clad in ugliness. Not all the vagaries of fashion should be followed; but when purchasing or making children's clothing, the mother may aim to choose that which is adapted to the peculiarities of the intended wearer, and so to combine harmony in color and simplicity in style as to make an unobtrusive garment answer every hygienic requirement and also satisfy the innate love of the beautiful.
To dress a child simply is always in good taste; and while all the clothing should be made neatly and well, for ordinary wear it should not be of such delicate material as to subject the little wearer to the slavery of constant care lest he spoil his clothes. Not only does such a bondage of thought and care concerning dress mar the happiness and curtail the freedom of the child's activity, but it so emphasizes the subject to his mind as to foster vanity and a love of dress.
Children's attention should be called as little as possible to dress as an adornment. Teach them early in life that it is the clean, smiling face, ruddy cheeks, and upright, healthy frame that should be the chief attraction; that dress is simply the setting for the jewel; and that while it should always be whole and tidy, it should not be the thing in itself to attract admiration. Teach the principle that it is the sound body, the perfect poise, the near approach to God's ideal, that gives the charm, and not the furbelows of a fashionable attire.
The Influence of the Bible
MORE than ten thousand soldiers on Salisbury Plain alone have joined the Pocket Testament League, agreeing to carry a Testament with them and read a chapter daily. This is the outward and visible sign of what seems to be a genuine revival, which is the outcome of a short mission led by Mr. Charles M. Alexander. The rush to join the League and obtain the handsome little khaki-bound Testaments has been extraordinary. The behavior of the troops in many of the tents has completely changed. “When I came here, the tent was a hell upon earth,” says one soldier. “Language was so dreadful and behavior so wretched that we could not go to sleep. When some of them came in, we got up out of their way. Every one has joined the Pocket Testament League, and now there are hymns and Bible readings.”—Missionary Review.
The Universe Interested in Us
By Joseph Clarke
Not heaven alone, but the universe, is interested in us. Do we take an interest in the daily and weekly news from foreign parts? And do not all the intelligent beings in the universe of God take an interest in us? How closely and with what interest they watch the work of God in this sin-cursed earth, it is not for us to determine; but we may very safely conjecture that no one is an uninterested spectator.— Joseph Clarke.
The Deadening Effects of Sin
By A. D. W.
Pain becomes less, or wholly ceases, in the advanced stages of many ailments. Likewise, through persistence in wrongdoing, the moral sensibilities are deadened, and the transgressor becomes more and more self-complacent. A. D. W.
Why Don't You Quit
Eating meat? Doctors tell us that it is the chief cause of cancer; of rheumatism, too.
There are ever so many better, cleaner, even more nutritious things to eat.
Vegetarian Cook Book
Written by a chef who has prepared and served healthful, palatable vegetarian dishes to the public for years.
Get a copy, and learn to live right and well. $1.00 postpaid to any place in the United States; $1.10 in Canada. Our depository in your state (see list on page 15) will fill orders promptly.
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Mountain View, California
Wanted for Missionary Work
Mrs. O. J. Corwin, 2101 Webster Street, Waco, Texas: a continuous supply of late issues of Signs OF THE TIMES, weekly and magazine, and Watchman.
Emma Kincaid, 6906 Highland Avenue, St. Louis, Missouri, (correspondents please note new address): clean copies of Signs, weekly or monthly, Watchman, Youth’s Instructor, Review and Herald, Little Friend, and tracts. Prepaid orders of back issues direct from publishers appreciated. (Reduced rates obtainable).
J. H. Downes, Y. M. C. A., Cornhill, London, E. C. England: a continuous supply of Signs, Watchman, Life and Health, and other denominational literature.
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C. S. Fee, Passenger Traffic Manager
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SOUTHERN PACIFIC
Forty-Five Acres Near Laurelwood Academy
For Sale—Forty-five acres across country road from Laurelwood Academy, four miles from Gaston, Oregon. About eight acres bottom land, balance mostly south slope. Eighteen acres cleared and under cultivation. Nearly all of balance easily cleared—now good pasture. Church and church school property joins on the west. A good general merchandise and grocery store on academy property opposite. Small house, good barn and chicken houses. Spring water on the property ample for stock, household purposes, and irrigation the entire year. For full particulars and price, address W. V. Sample, Pacific Press, Mountain View, California.
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German, Danish, and Swedish Tracts Complete Lists Topically Arranged
The recent reduction of almost 50% in the prices of tracts in the German, Danish, and Swedish languages ought to encourage all to circulate them by the thousands. Furthermore, the lists have now been made almost entirely uniform with the English, making it very easy to select and order just the tracts desired. Our English-speaking people will find this a great advantage. In the topically arranged list below, price in language columns indicates tract in that language. Slight difference of price on any one tract is due to the difference in number of pages. Send your order to your tract society. On orders for less than ten cents, include two cents extra for postage.
General
Ger.
Dan.
Swed.
Eng.
How Esther Read Her Bible
.01
.01
.00½
The Bible—Its Origin
.01
Topical Bible Studies
.02
.02
.01½
Have Faith in God
.00½
.01½
Sufferings of Christ
.02
.02
.02
.02
The Name
.01
.01
.01
Baptism
.01
.01
.01
Word Eternal
.00½
Return of Jews
.01
.02
The Way to Christ
.01
Sanctuary
.01½
Second Coming and Prophecy
Ger.
Dan.
Swed.
Eng.
Can We Know?
.00½
.00½
.00½
.00½
We Would See Jesus
.01
.01
.01
.01
Is the End Near?
.01½
.00½
.00½
.00½
Signs of Our Times
.01½
.01
Second Coming of Christ
.02
.02
.02
The Millennium
.01
.01½
Waymarks to the Holy City
.01½
.01
.01
.01
The Gospel Message for To-Day
.01
.01
.01
The Sabbath
Ger.
Dan.
Swed.
Eng.
Who Changed the Sabbath?
.02½
.01½
.01
.01
Without Excuse
.00½
.00½
.00½
Why Not Found Out Before
.00½
.00½
Which Day and Why
.00½
.00½
New Testament Sabbath
.01
.01
.01
Elihu
.01
.01
.01
.01
From Sabbath to Sunday
.00½
.00½
.00½
The Perpetuity of the Law
.01½
.01
.01½
.01
Ceremonial and Moral Law
.01
.01
Relation of Law to the Gospel
.01½
.01½
Jewish
.00½
.00½
Seal of God and Mark of Beast
.01
.02
.02
.02
Waldensian on the Sabbath
.01
Two Laws
.01
Immortality
Ger.
Dan.
Swed.
Eng.
Is Man Immortal?
.01
.00½
.01
Spiritualism
.01½
.01
.01
Rich Man and Lazarus
.01½
.02
.01
Thoughts for the Candid
.00½
.00½
The Christian Sabbath
For a thorough understanding of the Sabbath question, read the above-named 48-page tract, by H. W. Cottrell. Presents every phase of the subject—Sabbath on a round world, the nine texts mentioning the first day of the week, our Lord's observance of the Sabbath, the attempt to change the Sabbath. Many New and Old Testament scriptures quoted.
One of our best publications on this important theme. Recommended for a generous circulation. 3c a copy. On orders of less than 10c, add 2c extra for postage.
Our depository in your state (see page 15) will attend promptly to your wants.
Pacific Press Publishing Association
Mountain View, California
Liquor Dealers Alarmed
“Formerly we were called upon to oppose town and county option. To-day we must combat state and nation-wide prohibition. Originally our opponents were few and scattered. To-day they are many and united.”—Statement of a delegate to the Wholesale Liquor Dealers' Association, recently in session in New York City.
Give Them Another Broadside
Let the good work go on. Victories for prohibition have been won with the aid of temperance tracts and papers.
25¢ Temperance Package. Ask for it. 9 varieties, 41 tracts, 400 pages. Yes, the price includes postage.
Order of our depository in your state.
Pacific Press Publishing Association, Mountain View, California
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