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WHY
I do not write to please but, in writing the truth, hope to please. A single fact is worth a shipload of argument. It hurts us to admit facts. Truth is usually disagreeable and unpleasant but it is the truth just the same. If my language is strong, it is not from a desire to depart from the landmark of polite literature but simply to drive the truth home. If you think the statement of some of the facts are horrible, think how much more horrible is the reality and how essential that something should be done.
Shrewer, the great German artist, once painted a chimney sweep. You wouldn't allow the chimney sweep in your back yard but so perfect was the drawing that A. T. Stewart of New York gave him 40,000 for it. Kraust, the great animal painter of Russia, drew an old mule, just a common mule eating hay, then right beside it he drew the comical side of that mule with his ears way above the tree tops with chickens roosting on them. That old mule on the market would hardly draw 35.00, but so perfect was the work that the national museum gave him 37,000 for it. That's what art will do.
Dickens went down in the low, dirty slums of London, got those filthy characters, put them in book form, and now we sit down in our parlor and read the work of Dickens, and most of our schools adopt it as literature.
Shakespeare went among the criminal class of Europe, selected the darkest crimes of the continent, and today we rush out to see Shakespeare's plays. But it was not that old chimney sweep, nor the old mule, nor the slum characters, nor the criminals of Europe, but it was the truth painted on canvas and the truth written in book form. When you find men like Shrewer and Kraust who can paint the truth and men like Shakespeare and Dickens who can write the truth, there is nothing that can upset them. Some may ask, why speak of
As well might you ask, “Why give the alarm when the house in which you are sleeping is on fire? Why cry aloud when the ship on which you are sailing has sprung a leak? Why wave the red flag when the train on which you are riding is rushing on to destruction?” Have you ever stopped to think of the sanctity of our homes, the sacredness of our schools and churches and society, and how immorality, like a canker worm, is eating out the very foundations of these divine institutions? Then ask me not why, everything of account in the world has to be cared for and protected. We work nine months to plant, cultivate, and gather a garden crop while weeds and dog fennel sown by accident and cultivated by chance will grow on the common highway, and the weeds, if neglected on the street side of the fence, will soon be growing in the garden. In fighting the child's battle, who cannot fight for himself, our work is never over. We are using this world for a playground instead of a schoolroom. We are making life a holiday instead of a workshop. We are keeping time and step with the music instead of the world facts and events.
We have not yet reached that stage in life where we can appreciate genuine manhood and depreciate its defects. We endorse crime by supporting criminals and encouraging dirt by supporting dirty men. The church no longer shrieks the important “thou shalt not” to certain evils, but simply points out the way and says, “be careful,” and a little later on they say, “it's too bad,” or “such is life.” Break the ten commandments, break all the rules of the church and decent society, but get that almighty dollar and pay your church dues and you are in good standing with the church and society. Because sin dresses well, looks nice, and acts so, it is not recognized as sin but is welcomed into the church and home, then we sit and sigh and often wonder why the rising generation is not any better. We need to be educated half way 'round the globe till
As you read this book, remember that I am fighting the child's battle, who cannot fight for himself. Children are malleable; grown-ups are immalleable. As this generation is made up of folks with habits fixed for life, I am transferring my effects toward the interest of the next generation.
If I can drop a thought, advance an idea, or do an act that will benefit the next generation, I will feel repaid.
Germany and Japan, the worst enemies to Christian civilization, started forty years ago to train their children for the conflict just ended.
Let us constantly ask ourselves the question, “Is the child safe?”
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