The New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, AUGUST 27, 1908. SCHOOL PRIZE BOOKS

New Zealand Tablet, 27 August 1908, Page 21

The New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, AUGUST 27, 1908. SCHOOL PRIZE BOOKS

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-♦ HE longer the world lasts (says ' Mr. ' Dobley" 1 ) ' ihe greater the volume of books that come tumbling out of the press. ' Day "be, day,' he adds, M read in th' 1 papers announcemints iv new publications .that look like th' dilinquent tax-list. They's a.'jaublisher in ivry block, an' inthousan's iv happy, homes some wan is pluggin' away -at th' romantic novel or whalin' out a pome on th' type- writer up-stairs. '

In this growing pile of books there will be every variety, from the good or merely harmless down to the more or less hurtful stuff that reaches its superlative degree in foetid lucubrations that might have been ' edited by a lost' t sojul. ' Elsewhere in this issue,, we have had occasion to emphasise the warning that a secular daily contemporary- recently issued in connection with certain malodorous forms of fiction — mostly written by women — which are being placed indiscriminately -within 1 each of even 'the young person,' -and which are highly calculated to* stain the fair 'flower of maidenty, innocence and -reserve.

A grave -duty devolves, in this connection, upon . all . that arc responsible for' the moral upbringing of the rising, generation. It touches,. in its measure, those who are responsible, for- the selection of prize-books for our Catholic schools. . The time is-npwiqppor-tune for renewing the protest and " the. warning ■ .that :we_: have more than, once made against a slipshod and rhapbazard.<meihod of selection' that has obtained in some of our Catholic; schools Unless .our information is very much at fault, we fear ~that, even still, a very appreciable, percentages of * school prize-books is selected on no better principle than, the glint of a gaudy cover

or the attraction of a catchy title. We have personally seen « distributed to Catholic children -florid volumes of vapid tract- - fiction that was published for non-Catholic homes by such associations as the Religious Tract" Society ; or the' Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge. -We have seen Kingsley's Westward Ho! presented as a premium to a lad oL fourteen. And in 1899 a zealous New Zealand priest showed u's'an indecent No-Popery 'shocker' that" had "been selected in the slipshod fashion referred to above, and placed in the "hands of an innocent child as a 'reward' for 'good conduct ' at a Catholic school in this Dominion of New Zealand ! The book in question was fit only to be burned by the common hangman: ' This may be — we believe it is — an extreme' case. "But we refer to it here in order to illustrate a danger that is inherent to so loose and culpably careless a method of selection as that which is under consideration here. •"-" - - "-'-""-"'

According to Byron's English** Bards, . ' A book's a book .although there's nothing ig*t.'

And any agglomeration of - printed paper and garish binding seems to some people good enough to place as a prize in the hands of school children. The mischief that may be perpetrated by a slipshod mode of selection of book rewards is, however, a matter on which the conscience of teachers cannot well .be too tender. ■ It is not, however, sufficient merely to eliminate from the prize distribution the risk of positive moral harm to children. This annual, feature of our 'school, life should be made the occasion for circulating good, sound. Catholic 1 " literature in our homes, and fostering a habit of good leading' that will be a blessing in the after life of the chilcl. ' We venture, at this opportune time, to make the following suggestions to those responsible for the selection of this year's prize-books :—: — 1. No prize-book to be selected merely because of its, title or binding. " _

2. No prize-book to be given to' a p child trniess character and contents of such book are well known to the responsible heads of the school. Don't trust the opinion of the first-comer in estimating the literary value or the moral ' Status of a book, or its suitability for presentation to, and perusal by, children. In case of doubt, consult your pastor. 3. We may here repeat a word of advice given by .us in this connection nine years ago :—: —

'Boycott unmercifully the following: Books with ' Catchpenny titles . . ; works on history and popular science, the authors of which are not known to be, from -the -Catholic standpoint, reliable; morbid, hysterical, sensational', "problem," and undesirable novels of every kind ; the latest novels ; books about which " society " prattles and .the secular press and the non-Catholic pulpits gush— there is generally a codlin moth" in that sort of fruit ; books, magazines, tracts — no matter how heavily gilded — that are published by, or in connection with, any Protestant association ; a certain class of namby-pamby, flaccid, spineless devotional or ascetic works — chiefly translations — that find favor chiefly with the more emotional of the lady members

of religious Orders. . . .' 4. Have a glance at the name of the publisher. 5. Select books that will serve a useful purpose — not books of the kind that made ' Mr. Dooley's ' friend, Hogan, ' wan iv th' best read an' mos' ignorant men I know.-' - ~ 6. Above all, let the books be CATHOLIC— not Catholic merely in their authors, but in their tone or theme. Make the prize-distribution an occasion for the spread of Catholic literature. The other kind has practically all the rest of the year. -

* ■ Give the boys and girls books of history, biography," fiction , adventure, written in a^Cafholic spirit by Catholic authors ; give them devotional and ascetic works suited for their years — the work of clear, "sunny, sensible,- orthodox writers .who are sane in spirituality and do not set up to be wiser than the, Church. The name of such books is legion — from "Wiseman and Canon Schmidt to Dr. Barry and Canon Sheehan and Father Their works are easily procurable, and there is in them] plenty of solid meat, and not merely -frothy^nothings or unwholesome sensation. On the prize-lists' of Catholic schools th'eVe should also figure the works of Cardinal Moran, Archbishop Carr, Father Finn's delightful boy-stories, the writings of Father John Talbot Smith,^the novels of such -Catholic' writers as Christian Reid, Marion Crawford (a selection- only), Katherine Tynan, Sir F. C. Burnand, Lady Gilbert, Clara and Rosa Mulholland, E. L. Dorsey, Katherine Conway, Mary E. Mannix, Maurice Francis Egan, Mary Catherine Crowley 4 Lady Fullerton, Lady Herbert, Mrs. Cashel Hoey, Cecilia Caddell, Julia Kavanagh, Fanny

Taylor, • Theo. _Gift ' (Mrs. Havers), 'Kate- O'Meara (Grace JRamsay), Anna T._ Sadleir, Charles J. Kickham, Father. Hickey's Innisfqil, the translated works of Manzoni, Veuillot, Conscience, Fernan Caballero, and Edmondo de Amicis.'and the whole" lock, stock, and barrel of the publications of the Aye Maria press land of the London Catholic Truth Society and the Australian Catholic Truth Society* The catalogues of these" two Societies; .-a'ncl of all .the ■ leading Catholic publishers, should be.- in - the hands of those, lesponsible for 'the selection of , prize-books for our schools.