Newspaper columns calling for limitations on reading novels in the late 19th/early 20th century

AGAINST READING IN BED.

“Boys and girls under eighteen should be strictly forbidden to read in bed,” says the “Lancet,” on the authority of Dr. Hugo Feilchenfeld, of Berlin, who declares that in the case of young persons whose eyes are not fully developed the practice is likely to induce myopia.

While young people run the greatest risk, the “Lancet” thinks that reading in bed is undesirable for person of any age, and states that “in the case of aged, anxious, worried, and bedridden people, to whom it would seem cruelty to deny what may perhaps be almost their own luxury, for fear of inducing some slight error of refraction, care should be taken that the light is sufficiently brilliant, the eyes being shaded from it, and that the patient lies on his back with head and shoulders raised.”

Source: Kerang New Times (Kerang, Victoria, Australia), December 15, 1908, p. 6

I couldn’t find the original Lancet article, but I do see multiple newspaper articles referencing Dr. Feilchenfeld’s work.

JAZZ BOOKS BLAMED FOR YOUTHS’ SUICIDES

New York Senator Tells of “Brood of Conceited, Insufferable Prigs”

NEW YORK, March 6 (AP).—To “jazz literature” that is producing a “brood of the most conceited and insufferable little prigs that ever happened,” was laid the blame for the wave of youthful suicides by State Senator William L. Love, in a radio address today.

“Boys and girls with undeveloped minds, ‘lop-sided’ because they have in many cases skipped classes and have missed the ground work that our conservative educators intended them to have, are delving into the mysteries of philosophy and psychology without knowing what it is all about,” he said.

“Kids of 14 to 16,” the senator continued, “are developing the ‘argumentative complex’ and are hailed as budding geniuses. Admiring and hard-working parents, in many cases deprived of the early education that they are bestowing on their progeny, sit around the family circle to applaud and admire.”

Source unknown (Associated Press, based on the “AP”)

INJURIOUS MENTAL HABITS

It is now stoutly contended that children read too much fiction, also that they are compelled to carry so many studies that no stable impression results. Images are blurred, the child becomes tired, then nervous. The grill of study becomes repulsive and he seeks surcease in the stimulating narcoitc0 of poor fiction.

An old Baltimore school teacher who retired a few years ago has been studying the reading habits of young men and women in particular, with some general attention to the reading of older persons. He concludes that much of our modern reading is injurious rather than beneficial.

We believe that almost any person of ordinary patience might soon verify this finding by making rather careful inquiry among his friends.

Reading thoroughly is an art that requires training. Is it not true that the overwhelming majority of those we know scarcely possess a dictionary? Those who chance to own a fair one seldom use it. We know hundreds0

“Devouring” a book, a magazine, or even a newspaper, is to clog the brain and leave the problem undigested. Turning column after column or page after page of idle reading is as wastefully useless as to lie on one’s back and count the fleecy clouds in a South Sea sky. Such desultory reading destroys the incentive to vigorous mental effort. The very best way to read is when the zest for information fairly possesses and drives one to his book or newspaper. Then reading is never a lash, but a pleasure—nor is it mere trifling when thus indulged in.

Indolent inclinations too long indulged in case a dulness0 of the mind, throttling the will power and causing the reader to lose control of his thoughts.

Any idler who believes he is working on even acquiring knowledge by racing through a story is likely to be disillusioned as soon as he is put to a test and asked to summarize what he has learned.

The mania for hop-skip-and-jump reading is a species of mental mixed drinking capable to gluttony in the abnormal eater. A great observer says many nervous readers ramble or race over a page as if they were biting their nails.

Source unknown

Books as a Narcotic.

I fancy it accounts for a goodly proportion of modern reading, this desire not to think. From one point of view it shows an advance in civilization. Our ancestors brewed themselves the bowl of punch; we subscribe to the circulating library. The result aimed at is the same; to get rid of our brains—to be taken “out of ourselves,” as the phrase goes. Books have become the modern narcotic. China has adopted the opium habit for want of fiction. When China obtains each week her “Greatest Nove0 of the Century,” her “Most Thrilling Story of the Year,” her “Best Selling Book of the Season,” the opium den will be no more needed. As in the case of my friend previously referred to, a man addicted to novel reading is not as a rule much of a smoker or drinker. This may be the better for his body, but about his mind I am not so sure.

Source: The Buffalo News (Buffalo, New York), January 2, 1906, p. 13

Novel Reading Causes Suicide.

ORANGE, N. J., Nov. 5.—Because her father objected to receiving attention of young men, pretty sixteen year old Cecile Guimaraes left her home in East Orange last evening, leaving behind her a note in which she declared her intention of committing suicide. This morning after a night frantic search by her parents and the police the girl’s body was found half a mile form0 her home. A small revolver with one chamber empty lay beside her, and a hole in the forehead told the story. Henry T. Guimaraes, her father, is an importer in New York, and well to do. Cause of suicide, sentimental novels.

Source unknown