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Show CIRCUS BILLBOARDS. c Highly resolved to protect the youth of their city from the insidious in-sidious allurements of the west as held out by bill board posters of Wild West shows, the Washington police have issued an order prohibiting pro-hibiting all display of such pictures within the city limits, says the Pocatello Tribune. The dashing cowboy and the befeathered Indian, the snorting buffalo and the screeching bobcat, will no longer be allowed al-lowed to decorate the walls and fences of the national capital. These daredevil portrayals of life in the west urge boys onward to desperate desper-ate careers and parts unknown. There may still be lads in the more remote and provincial sections sec-tions of the cast who believe that the west is principally inhabited by bears and Indians, whom it is the duty of the intrepid white settlers to slay with eagerness and enthusiasm in countless hordes. The picture pic-ture of a wild, free cowboy, mounted on a mettlesome broncho, his belt full of revolvers, each hand grasping a gatling, and his face seared with determination to do or die, may appeal powerfully to the imagination of the rustic youth of Washington. But before utterly condemning the Wild West poster pictures, it may be permissible to inquire ns to the' truthfulness of certain billboard illustrations issued by the United States government. How about the fascinating representations repre-sentations of army life used as a means to secure recruits for the ranks? Nothing else in pictorial art can compare to the nonchalant ease and grace of the officers astride their proud and prancing btceds; or to the beaming satisfaction and delight depictWl in the countenance of the handsome, neatly-uniformed private as he salutes his superiors; or to the general air of dignified gayety and glee pervading per-vading the entire bright and buoyant scene. The truth is, the imagination of a few bos gets intoxicated by the poster picture on the wall, fence or barnside. The spirit of adventure ad-venture is strong in some hoys motion and other pictures doubtless influence their thoughts to a degree; but the youth of this country is not devoid of intelligence, and the more idealistic the picture, the farther removed from truth and realism, the less its potentiality for harm. |