`` You have just shown us one of the chief evils , and that is slang , '' answered their mother quickly . `` Must have it , ma'am . If these chaps talked all right , there 'd be no fun in 'em , '' protested Will . `` A boot-black must n't use good grammar , and a newsboy must swear a little , or he would n't be natural , '' explained Geordie , both boys ready to fight gallantly for their favourites . `` But my sons are neither boot-blacks nor newsboys , and I object to hearing them use such words as ` screamer , ' ` bully , ' and ` buster . ' In fact , I fail to see the advantage of writing books about such people unless it is done in a very different way . I can not think they will help to refine the ragamuffins if they read them , and I 'm sure they can do no good to the better class of boys , who through these books are introduced to police courts , counterfeiters ' dens , gambling houses , drinking saloons , and all sorts of low life . '' `` Some of them are about first-rate boys , mother ; and they go to sea and study , and sail round the world , having great larks all the way . '' `` I have read about them , Geordie , and though they are better than the others , I am not satisfied with these optical delusions , as I call them . Now , I put it to you , boys , is it natural for lads from fifteen to eighteen to command ships , defeat pirates , outwit smugglers , and so cover themselves with glory , that Admiral Farragut invites them to dinner , saying , ` Noble boy , you are an honour to your country ! ' Or , if the hero is in the army , he has hair-breadth escapes and adventures enough in one small volume to turn his hair white , and in the end he goes to Washington at the express desire of the President or Commander-in-chief to be promoted to no end of stars and bars . Even if the hero is merely an honest boy trying to get his living , he is not permitted to do so in a natural way , by hard work and years of patient effort , but is suddenly adopted by a millionaire whose pocket-book he has returned ; or a rich uncle appears from sea just in the nick of time ; or the remarkable boy earns a few dollars , speculates in pea-nuts or neckties , and grows rich so rapidly that Sinbad in the diamond valley is a pauper compared to him . Is n't it so , boys ? '' `` Well , the fellows in these books are mighty lucky , and very smart , I must say , '' answered Will , surveying an illustration on the open page before him , where a small but virtuous youth is upsetting a tipsy giant in a bar-room , and under it the elegant inscription , `` Dick Dauntless punches the head of Sam Soaker . '' `` It gives boys such wrong ideas of life and business ; shows them so much evil and vulgarity that they need not know about , and makes the one success worth having a fortune , a lord 's daughter , or some worldly honour , often not worth the time it takes to win . It does seem to me that some one might write stories that should be lively , natural and helpful tales in which the English should be good , the morals pure , and the characters such as we can love in spite of the faults that all may have . I ca n't bear to see such crowds of eager little fellows at the libraries reading such trash ; weak , when it is not wicked , and totally unfit to feed the hungry minds that feast on it for want of something better . There ! my lecture is done ; now I should like to hear what you gentlemen have to say , '' and Aunt Jessie subsided with a pretty flush on the face that was full of motherly anxiety for her boys . `` Tom Brown just suits mother , and me too , so I wish Mr. Hughes would write another story as good , '' said Archie .
`` You do n't find things of this sort in Tom Brown ; yet these books are all in the Sunday-school libraries '' and Mrs. XXXXX read the following paragraph from the book she had taken from Will 's hand , '' ` In this place we saw a tooth of John the Baptist .
Hughes Jessie boot-blacks counterfeiters neckties newsboys ragamuffins right vulgarity years