Wow, I don't remember anything like that in the Hardy Boys! I guess it didn't register at the time, because it wasn't so inflammatory when I was a kid. It was just another word, which certain people of a certain time used.
My daughter giggled recently about "gay" in The Wizard of Oz, and I had to tell her what it meant and that she could say it. And that even if it were the other kind, they weren't being mean, and that was ok too.
We have an Uncle Remus book, and the originals of everything, so we're obviously not of the belief that words should disappear from literature and leave everyone in the future wondering where they came from. History is history. If particular words could disappear from the planet, in memory and in writing, and leave no holes, it wouldn't be a bad idea -- but they can't.
