New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1854-08-16
PUBLICITY TO CRIMES.


tn, Pos, and Express have touched upon tue obJec
tons brought against the journals for the publication
Of the particulars of crimes and outrages We have
90 often heard the press attacked in p.eudo-mor'
ring strain because of the publicity ii gives such
events that it is worth while to say word on this
subject.
The business Of newspaper is to record the news
the good the bad, and the Indifferent. 81 Happy,
seys Montague, lis the nation whose history is
dul;" and this remark is true far that times
of war, famine, pestllence, and public calamity gen.
orally, are infinitely fuller of exciting details, OF
heroic indivdualsms, than the serene periods OF
peace Tie news Of each day. therefore, is mainly
exciting for it's dark or sad events. The quiet
growth Of an idea, person, community or CROP
will be read Of if recorded, By few but bonn
parchment, earthquake. conhsgration, or aggravated
crime by many. II a newspaper left out its list
Of horrors it would incontinently be bank
,upt Saints would find it dull, and NOR
alists vote ii bore. Tie painting OF the
darkest side Of human nature is essential TO the
dramatic element; and the dramatic element essen
tal to III. interest OF literature. No book which the
yirtuous or vicious delight to read is free from the
description of abomiDable passions; and the most
popular reading is that which draws our tears In
learning the depths into which poor humanity may be
hurled by deserving the narrow path of reciltude
The Post well observes thai the Bible, 80 far from
ignoring crime deals fully in its details. We may
add TO this that tie greater the crime the more har
rowing the interest of its writings, and have ooy
TO instance that of the crucihxOn. Take, too, the
pre.eninent dramatic writer, Shakespeare. His
l..
fable artistic dellneatiOn of crime from its
commencement TO its elimination. Aud all his ira
gedies are pictures Of crimes punished, and morals
such az they were understood in his time, indicated
So, too, not comedy without milder form OF ini-
outy-some greater or less detection from the right
line of periectability and finally righted
by what he considered poetical Justice The sublime
epic of Milton Paradise Lost is another precious re-
cord of immense crime; distancng, in single one of
it's twelve books, whole file of modern newspaper,
50 far as the details Of sin go, Novels, too, all have
the diabolical elements in tbem-not excepting Gold
smiths yrtuous dyl, the Vicar Of Wakefield. is,
therefore, rather late in the historical day to de-
nounce journals for doing what every author out Of
the exact sciences does and what is indispensable to
his success.
But if individual murders, robberies and rapes are
to be omitted from journalism let US omit them BY
whole SALE let begin for example by ignoring Slav-
err in the S0uth-"the sum OF all nIquities let
us pass over the slavetrade, foreign and domestic;
let us also shut our columns to wars and runors Of
wars and imply that the great powers OF Europe are
On Cupid and Ply terms; let us suppose likewise,
that Sau Juan was bombarded and in fact that no
great military event is going on and pyramids Of
havoc are no longer built with human skulls These
broad Qeneralities of crime news than the
particuarties and if the be given BY irresistible
logic the other must
Again, the old Greek saying, "Know thyself," ap-
plies with equal force to society to individuals;
and we cannot find out what society is doing without
the dark records in question made by the newspapers.
No Tacitus, Gibbon, or Mscauay equals the daily
porter of newspaper in his particularly, and hence
in his accuracy Though tools may undervalue the
work Of newspaper reporters, besides the fact that
such reporters indispensable to the regulations of
all public men, they give the pabulum upon which
most of our criminal an much of our civil code is
reared They state the philosophy of crime, by ex-
posing all it's workings, and enable the law to be
adapted IN spirit and detail to the required case.
The best history of country is free press, and not
the least in its criminal calendar. 1t condemns often
when justice is dumb as well as Blind it familiar
ICES facts in blunt language, where stately History
deals in myths, and Asttery and rhetoric.
But it is sheer falsehood to say that society is
made worse by the publication of the details of crimes
in the daily papers. 1t is made better. Society
abouDds most in crime where newspapers are want
ing. The deed then is done in secret. Crime 10 or
ganized as an order. Witness the Thugs of In Tia,
where numbering is a part of creed, and the head
murderer invested with the sacred dignity Of Pipe
Bishop. Take the hons bosehers of France, an or
der of Christian murderers, much fact as Napo-
leon. Besides these combinations of villains the
private crimes are boundless. Those of 8 Borgis, q
Henry VIII Louis XIV but show the crimes of so
ciety. The King reflects the people.
The journals are so often denounced for that which
gives vitality to literature and lessons crime by the
warning of the philosophy Of puDition which 1t en-
geuders that this defensive word on the theme will
not be inopportune.