As far as possible know _who_ wrote it, who
illustrated it, who published it, who sold it.
Young man, as you value Heaven, never buy a book from one of those men
who meet you in the square, and, after looking both ways, to see
if the police are watching, shows you a book--very cheap. Have
him arrested as you would kill a rattle-snake. Grab him, and shout
"Police! police!"
But there is more danger, I think, from many of the family papers,
published once a week; in those stories of vice and shame, full
of infamous suggestions, going as far as they can without exposing
themselves to the clutch of the law. I name none of them; but say that
on some fashionable tables there lie "family newspapers" that are the
very vomit of the pit.
The way to ruin is cheap. It costs three dollars to go to
Philadelphia; six dollars to Boston; thirty-three dollars to Savannah;
but, by the purchase of a bad paper for ten cents, you may get a
through ticket to hell, by express, with few stopping-places, and
the final halting like the tumbling of the lightning train down the
draw-bridge at Norwalk--sudden, terrific, deathful, never to rise.
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