Daily Davenport gazette. [volume] (Davenport, Iowa) 1854-1855, 1855-05-07
AN INDEPENDENT PRESS.

every body loves an independent press
How strange it is that we don't have an in
| dependent press, when everybody is 50 in
love with the idea EyerJ thing else is in
! dependent; men speak their opinions, ire
spective of the feelings OF their neighors,
and act without reference to what others
may say of them-of course they do II is
only the editors who are seryils, poor
| chken- hearted fellows! Afraid Of what
Afraid of losing subscribers, patrons, bread
and butter! Well-we must put up with il
and yet it is strange that all the moral COW
ards in the community are the editors. The
lower surface Of dough face, and the
upper surface of "a tripod, seem 10 have an
affinity for ca n other There is magnetism
somewhere. Is it in the chair or incumbent
Does the seat attack the dough-lac or the
dough-faee the seat Here is question of
physico morality for You or for our cotemp
orary OF the Cincinnati Times to solve. There
is truth somewhere-at the bottom Of the
chair, perhaps. True.
Why don't you pitch in Into what
Into everything and everybody. Expose all
the knaves, reform all the abuses, aad let
the river Of your indignation flow into and
purge this Augean stable Of society That's
the way to make yourself popular. Every
body VIII take your paper and read it, and
everybody viii sustain you in it. Fair and
so.tly, E'iend-who is to pay the bill When
We are sued for a libel when the virtuous
AMI eloquent Squire Blunderbuss, with
, five hundred dollar fee buttoned snug and
safe in his pocket, rises before the jury and
pours the walls OF his pious indignation upon
a teeattoas press, and paints the horrors Of
its ravages, in uprooting the reputation Of
Z IL -. t..,r r
the innocent, don't You all grow virtuously
indignant, that SO awful pest as news
paper should be permitted to exist don't
you wonder that editors should ever presume
to interfere where the characters Of people
are concerned, and doubt, il justice does not
soon Uvertake them at the hands OF man,
Providence Will speedily me,e out, in their
case, the fate OF Koran and Dathun !
man steals into the neighbours house at
midnight, and blows out his brans-another
sends to his friend an internal compound, BY
whose ey p!osion family IS sent to eternity
the newspapers get h id OF the facts, and
lay them before their readers-thc criminal
is arrested indicted, and arraigned Tor TRIAL
--ond what next "Gentlemen Of the jury"
inquiries his well-paid counsel, "haye you
read any Of those infamous reports against
INV tlltiIt. WHICH HdHt ptNA PSbitEutd az tIIC
papers, Tor the purpose OF securing his con-
ylctIon 90 The public become outraged al
the conduct o. the uewtpapers-and ike a
man who swallowed rotten 0yster-@ ould
be glad to throw up what they had read with
such an appetite the day before, If they
could Counsel finds that his client has 70
case-no defense. What then Make a
drive 1T the newspapers. He is an injured
4 ~ .tfattt s a,t. t.1r astr
the vile, nal, vulgar press has deter
mined that he should be convicted Gentle.
men Of the jury, will YOU have your heads
N slavery to this new tyranny in he State I!
No! Not guilty Let the oppressed 90 free.
Discount SW eatcloth, Esq, to the
! city aud brought, for capital, roguc's rep
/ utstion. As the easiest mode to render his
rogu .ry available, he took up the profession
OF banking ard religion. He throve-gaYe
splendid dinners-banked in one palace and
| liy,d in another, WAS leader in the church,
and a pattern among the snubs. He ended
as any man Of sense mast have known he
must end--by sWindiing thousands and run
ming away with the money You knew this
saw that the end must be, before il came.
Why didn't you expose him Honest, in
uocgnt, near-sigh,ed, unreasoning indiyi-
&
Swtatclaln was knaye, what hubbub
ould have been kicked up in lie church
The appearance Of Anti Christ. horns and
all, would not have excited half SO much
corumotion. We should have been donoun-
ced Us an intdel, an atheist, with an espe-
cial drudge against Gods chosen people.
suppose we had said he was unsound and
ius0yent, what a stir there would have been
.,ri III
susprctng themselves to be in the same
liz fish condition would have had their sen
biity wounded by our arrogance. Who
would have helped us 10 pay the exemplary
damages that he nigh: have waited long
enough to recover, or have hesitated TO re-
spond to the verdict Served him right !"
Be.ial Smooth is a calm, quiet, sancti-
memo $, domestic tyrant N man appears
in the newspaper more often than he, as the
patron OF some movement for the spread Of
the Cos pei, the relief OF the INDECENT, or the
promotion Of the cause 81 philanthropy. Yet
beneath this, all is false and hollow, and
these professions conceal heartless wretch
aud dttestable hypocrte. His wife sleeps
in her grave, sent there by cold and cease
less persecution, and his daughters were
driven from has house by his solicitations
hvpucrite, and show him up in his true CO.
tors, as the editor OF an independent journal
should do Restrain your temper, Mr. Sim
plsity-you don't understand what you are
talking about. Suppose we should do it,
who sooner than yourself, would Join in
complaint that licentious press should
penetrate the sanctity of the domestic circle,
and desecratc the hcly scenes that cluster
around the family iire-side This Will never
do.
0, il is easy to complain about the sorv-
iHty of the press. We have thousands who
are ready enough to get us into difficulty,
where there is one willing to aid in helping
US out. Widow Feighty is out OF patience
with Widow Flrt, who lives on the third
floor opposite, becase the latter has wiled
away her lover, AMI is perfectly convinced
tina, we have no independence, because We
viii! not permit her for tire benefit of socie-
tv, OF coulse, to lampoon her rival through
our columns. Dr. Calomel and DR.. Water
power, each thinks il would be vastly for
the benefit of mankind if we would permit
him to annihilate the false, erroneous, un-