Smyrna times., 1859-04-21
The Washington Tragedy and Trial.

The Sckles' trial is still going on in Wash.
ioqton, and since our last issue, though the
Court has been in session every day from ten
to three o'clock, but little progress has been
made, the time being mostly occupied by the op.
posing counsels in discussing delicate points oi
law IN regard to the admissbility OF certain
testimony. Bot few witnesses have been ex.
'smined during the past week, perhaps not ex.
cscding dozen. All the disgusting details OF
this affair are faunted before the public, nclu-
ding the confession of Mrs. Sickles, which has
been published not only in most of the daily,
but also, we regret to say, in many of the local
and family newspapers. The following, from
the Philadelphia Press, is very much to the
point on this subject:
ave are not of those who have regarded
either the details of the narrowing tragedy at
Washington, or the proceedings of the result
iar trial, as the most delectable Of intellectual
enioyments We have not even read what has
been so fully published in our own columns
Ia txcluding the revolving confession of an un-
fortunate woman, we acted upon the impulse
that has always decided US il excluding Ques-
I0ndUle Tt6utHB VI du1 hiiu liOm lliS pdpeT,
and we are glad that for doing so our course is
generally sustained Ginning no excess of
delicacy in the premises, we submit whether
The elaborate republication of such matter as
iOe.s into this trial is not calculated TO produce
a large crop of evil. Faunted in the eyes of all
won en and men in one shape or the other; H.
lusrsled in millions of cheap newspapers; sta
ring at us from street corners rung into our
ears in railroad Cars, and constituting the SUBJ
iecl for conversation in every circle, great and
sn all, high and low, the public mind becomes
sdtaral, with, and familiarizcd to, obscenities,
and tn, appetite of youth and age "grows by
what j. feeds upon" II is not the fault so
mach f the newspapers that this is so; for do
we not see that those who pander most parlicu
larly 10 this appetite are the papers most eager
ly s. ught and bought! The subject may at
last be satated, however, by the odous over
due; and as the trial is, we hope and trust,
npicly approaching its close. may we not also
hope and trust that our public journals will,
aeretf fier, refuse to surrender themselves to
,ucL rivalry as that which now exists between
them in the reproduction Of nauseous and con-
Tan mating details of human depravily and re-
rTge! That Mr. Sickles should have deemed
II necessary to protest against the unauthorized
publication of the confession was what might
lave been expected. Another consequence of
The business of nafiOnGIiziHg this trial is to be
fund in the acerbty which has grown up be-
tween the counsel in the case itself. There is
rs great struggle between the lawyers, in
their intellectual Journeys, as between the
newspapers in their Efforts after " items" Of the
tragedy itself. Meanwhile, the prisoner at the
bar is almost lost sight OF, and he is compelled
10 witness the one or TO read with breaking
heart the other. The prosecution threatens to
becon e persecution, and the justification Of
the d ed bids fair 10 be lost sight Of to crafty
The feeling, local and otherwise, which is being
aroused against the prisoner"