Show A CELIBATE CENSORSHIP The newspapers the other day contained con-tained an account partly ridiculous and partly disgusting of tho tribulations I which a library at Evanston has got Into by undertaking to regulate the reading morals of that community It appeared that the chief censor was the librarian and her principle of exclusion exclu-sion was simple Any book that contained con-tained any Hontcnce even put Into the mouth of one of the characters in a work of Iletlon to which any respectable respec-table person objected was thereupon taboo At least that is the only way in which we can account for the fact that pretty much all the recent novels that amount to anything or nave anything to SLy were on thc blacklist black-list of this singular Institution or course there are In every community com-munity and In an American community commun-ity In larger numbers than In any other except a British plenty of people peo-ple endowed with a heavenborn Itch for minding other peoples business The less they know about the l business the more eager they are to mind II The Womens Christian Temperance union barf distinguished Itself by i endeavoring en-deavoring to regulate by law the morals mor-als of the United States army In opposition op-position to the opinions of nearly all Its officers An opportunity for mischief mis-chief making on that scale docs not often present Iteslf But to Interfere with the reading of other people and to insist that they shall read nothing but what you think good for them Is of which much annoyance may be Inflicted In-flicted it Is to this that the busybodies busy-bodies of Evanston appear to have devoted de-voted themselves with gieat success aldocT or yielded i l to by 1 time authorities of the jlotial library If some member of the claes happily described by Charley Rcade as the Prurient Prudes finds something a current book whjch < < a child of 10 is supposed not to know and which In the opinion of the Prurient Prudes IL would not be good for such a child to know l the offending of-fending volume must thereupon go It matters not that It may be a work of genius by a writer of distinction and bear > the Imprint of a respectable publishing house If somebody with a i cultivated scent for indecency finds It I indecent it Is doomed On such principles prin-ciples the volumes on the shelves of the Evanston library will soon he reduced re-duced to the goddy goody class which no sane soul can find Interest In read Inf Vowh hook will be a nanboat Ajiothor consequence will follow which has been pointed out by Prof Clark oC the Northwestern university Thc advertisement Hint such and such a book has been blacklisted will at once attract the attention to It oC those who might possibly be injured by It and they will eagerly seek It as officially of-ficially forbidden We are bound to say In the cases of all the novels on the Evanston blacklist of which we have knowledge such readers will be tremendously sold But what sort of protection to Ihe 1 public morals is it to proscribe any book than nny old woman of either sex and of any age may find Immoral and then to pub lishthe fact of the ProscriPtIon One wuuid rather live under the Russian ccnsorsHlp than under t that Thc Rims sion censor Is at least an adult male Philadelphia < Times |