The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1854-01-13
brutality ar the New York Press.

consideration. They were provoked by letter
from railroad agent, complaining that these
| two journals-one OF which circulates twenty
| three thousand the other twenty-five hundred
| papers, or, perhaps few more-charged for
! his advertisement more than twice as much as
the HERALD which circulates nearly fifty thou
saud papers. Such charge might naturally
| try the temper Of our contemporaries 1t is
| well known TO business men that, while in well
| regulated Offices uniform scale of prices for
advertising is established and pursued, alike
| towards rich and poor, the tax levied by the
| Times and Express On advertisers is always
proportional to the supposed ignorance or
liberality of their customer shrewd indi-
vidual viii procure the insertion Of an adyer-
tisement in either for an Incredibly small sum;
| but rich company, or n Western agent who is
supposed to be green" is freely bled. Our
| correspondents letter throw some light on
this black mail system, and the culprits excul-
pate themselves from the charge in the articles
we now republsh. The line of defence adopted
! is peculiar, though by no means original. The
| Times accused by railroad agent OF extort-
ing money from Western railway, pleads ia
|
The organ Of ''prolgates, prostitutes aud quAck
doctorsn The Express placed in the dock on
similar Indictment, also justfes itself, by as
| serting that Mr. Bennett never earned enough
| to have home to shelter him"--that what he
as is mortgaged all over head and heels'--
| hat "le has had Inflicted upon him kicks,
| cuffs aud bruises all over the body"-that he
has not on his body whole spot of skin left
| him that some rough-shod heel or huge paw has
| Lot violated that he displays "ogre-like de-
formity," &c. &C. How far these amiable com
| pliments excuse the Times and the Erpr0ss
for taking advantage Of the simplicity OF
Western railroad agent To impose and levy
black mail upon him, the public may Judge
For our part we caudidly confess that were
every one of the ridiculous coumnies true, We
! should still be at loss TO conceive how they
can constitutes defence for our contemporaries.
The accusation of the railroad agent remains
unanswered; and until some more plausible au-
swer is made the Times and Express must be
deemed guilty of an offence which can hardly
be distinguished from swindliog.
Their replies are noteworthy in another point
| of view. They are couched in language which
| if uttered by word ofmouth would necessarily
| involve the expulsion OF the speaker from any
| respectable house in the city. No public as
sembly could sit and listen to such language.
Nofather Of a family would allow it to be used
in bis house. No gentleman would associate
with one habitually given to express himself
thus. And yet these two journals claiming
peculiarly select, refined, and respectable circu-
lation, write thus day after day, heap obscene
| epithets on coarse invectve, Gull from the die
| tona1y all those terms, which common consent
| has ostracsed. and occ isionally serve up dish
Of abuse which for filth and infamy, would
make fshwoman pale with envy. The same
| is true of the Tribune. Bllngsgate would
have re-echoed with approving shouts, could the
writer Of the Tribune article on the Fry YER
dict have read it in open market. Now, what
| is the net result of this?
| Do any Of the silly people who write this
coarse trash fancy that it Injuries US? A visit to
| their acquaintance will soon disabuse them if
| they do. They can learn anywhere that the
outside public takes not particle of interest in
| editors squabbles, and invariably attributes
abuse of one paper by another to the true cause
business rivalry. We think we may safely say
| that we have endured larger aggregate Of
| calumny and vituperation than any other jour-
nal in the country; and yet has it made the
slightest difference, either as regards the paper
| or its editor?
1t must not be supposed, however, that this
style Of literature brings forth no fruits. 1t may
not tell in the way the writers desire; but it is
4hnlo Va,
| find its fruits here-when men of character and
| standing In private society allude to the press
in contemptuous terms, reasoning naturally
enough that those addicted to the use of such
language as that Of the EapresS and Tribune,
cannot be the equals of gentlemen. You find
them abroad, when the English journals refer
with indulgent pity to the degraded tone of the
American pres when the Times kindly advi-
ses the United States to try the experiment"
ofhaving gentlemen to conduct its newspapers
when travellers wonder that so intelligent
people should be SO i'll represented by their Pc
riodical lterature-when Santa Anna and
other foreigners who have had no other oppor-
tunity of Judging Of read our journals and
call us "half civilized barbarians." These
are the fruits of the coarse language too FIRE.
quently used here in newspaper polcmics.
They are or ought to be CALLING to every man
connected with journalism, The public cannot
remedy the evil 1t must have news; and will
still read where it cannot approve. 1t may
testify its opinion by transferring the bulk of
its patronage to journals which do not offend
its taste by indecencies. But no one OF two
papers can satisfy the demands of large read
ing community like this The cure lies with
the writers alone. When they shall have learnt
that to gloat over brutal assaults on an edi-
tors person is to degrade oneself beneath the
rufian level-that coarse terms add no strength