12. GROSSNESS OF SENSUALITY.--The poor degraded harlot draws in the victims like a heavily charged lodestone; these men are found in large numbers throughout the entire community; they would make fine men were they not weighted with the grossness of sensuality; as it is, they frequent the race-course, the card-table, the drinking-saloon, the music-hall, and the low theaters, which abound in our cities and towns; the great majority of these are men of means and leisure. Idleness is their curse, their opportunity for sin; you may know them as the loungers over refreshment-bars, as the retailers of the latest filthy joke, or as the vendors of some disgusting scandal; indeed, it is appalling the number of these lepers found both in our business and social circles. * * * * * {421} Poisonous Literature and Bad Pictures. [Illustration: PALESTINE WATER CARRIERS.] 1. OBSCENE LITERATURE.--No other source contributes so much to sexual immorality as obscene literature. The mass of stories published in the great weeklies and the cheap novels are mischievous. When the devil determines to take charge of a young soul, he often employs a very ingenious method. He slyly hands a little novel filled with "voluptuous forms," "reclining on bosoms," "languishing eyes," etc. 2. MORAL FORCES.--The world is full of such literature. It is easily accessible, for it is cheap, and the young will procure it, and therefore become easy prey to its baneful influence and effects. It weakens the moral forces of the young, and they thereby fall an easy prey before the subtle schemes of the libertine. 3. BAD BOOKS.--Bad books play not a small part in the corruption of the youth. A bad book is as bad as an evil companion. In some respects it is even worse than a living teacher of vice, since it may cling to an individual at all times. It will follow him and poison his mind with the venom of evil. The influence of bad books in making bad boys and men is little appreciated. Few are aware how much evil seed is being sown among the young everywhere through the medium of vile books. 4. SENSATIONAL STORY BOOKS.--Much of the evil literature which is sold in nickel and dime novels, and which constitutes the principal part of the contents of such papers as the "Police Gazette," the "Police News," and a large proportion of the sensational story books which flood the land. You might better place a coal of fire or a live viper in your bosom, than allow yourself to read such a book. The thoughts that are implanted in the mind in youth will often stick there through life, in spite of all efforts to dislodge them.