Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1860-11-05
The Exposure of HumbuEs Duty of n
JouruRl,

with the inhabitants ofanother world, taking
their money and putting 1t in bis own
pocket He is Of the opinion that by so
doing-"exposing the imposition"-we shall
confer favor upon the community, and, at
the same time, administer merited Justice to
the offender He even presents the case as
matter of duty-a duty which we, in the
character of Journalist, owe to the public;
and wonders how we can find it in our con-
science to refrain, where the facts are 50
patent and the wrong so palpable. Upon
this hint we have few things to offer:
Ha journalist were to set himself at work
to denounce or hold up to reproaoh all who
may, by others, be presented as practicers
Of deception with a view to gain, he would
soon have his hands full in more senses
than one. All men, more or less, in the
prosecution of their business affairs, practice
the suppTeSsio veri, if,nOt the suggestio .talsi;
and the place where excusable deception
ends, and reprehensible deception begins, is
purely matter of opinion. In the present
condition of morals, man may lie good
deal without losing caste either in social or
in business circles; and indeed in the latter,
sharpness" in the sense of unscrupulous-
ness, is not unfrequently the subject of high
oommendation.
When a man becomes notorious for the
success with which he practices some art or
profession, which others suspect to be en-
pyrical, il is usual for the latter to assume
that he is as well convinced of its unsound-
ness as they are themselves; and that there
fore he is willful impostor. No assumption
is less likely TO be correct. They who are
most successful in convincing others, are
Lhey who have first been most successful in
convincing themselves The earnestness of
belief is the thing of all others most efficient
in the making of converts; and this earnest
ness is a thing that can not be simulated.
The history of the world shows that, in all
ages it has been the zeal of the propaganda
ist-athing that can only spring from con-
viction-that has led mankind, and not the
truth of the doctrine, or the value of the
cause in which it is exhibited.
Whether this or that man is a humbug or
not, is a matter of opinion, in which it is
just as allowable to hold one side as another
If a man draws crowds and gains proselytes,
it is evident that he has claims which appear
sound to the minds of others, as well as to
his own. If he is not successful, he is not
dangerous, and therefore to attack him
would be waste of ammunition; if he is sue
cessful, there is a mass of opinion in his
favor, which may properly Offset that which
stands against him. And in this respect he
is like all the rest of his race. There is no
man whose place is not determined by the
balance of opinion for and against; who has
not those who deem him unsound as well
as those who deem him sincere and honor
able. And it is pregnant fact that they
who, from the circumstances of the case, are
to be best fitted to judge, are in
variably the most prone to condemn.
What school of doctors does not pro-
nounce every other school of doctors
a body of errorists? What physi-
clan does not look upon nearly all the ply
sicians in his vicinity as quacks, practicing
buchery upon the community in the name
of science of which they have no just con-
ception? What lawyer would trust an i'm
portant case of his own in the hands of an
other lawyer, without rigid supervision?
And what priest that does not look upon
sitting under the preaching of another as, if
not worse, little better than time thrown
away? There is probably not a priest,
lawyer, or doctor in existence, who, tried
by a jury taken from the members of his own
profession at large, would not be pronounced
either humbug or an ignoramusi and we
might extend the remark, with equal truth,
to other trades and callings.
Beginning here, the newspaper that should
adopt the avocation of general exposer and
denouncer of humbugs, empyrics, quacks
and the like would have its hands full:
And if it should enter upon the business of
exposure at all, on what rational ground can
it proceed against one, and not against all
whom any can accuse of being other than
they protest. Or, if otherwise, where shall
the line between permissible and censura-
BILE humbuggery be drawn2 and who has
power to lay down the standard and adjddge
upon its application to individual cases?
The truth is, the wisdom necessary for such
a calling is greater than a majority of jour-
are no more than men--pos-
sess and therefore none should be trusted
with it. We make no pretensions to such
1t is every mans duty so to tax the rest of
as to provide for himself If he
only leyies upon such as voluntarily pay,
the law of the land is all that is desirable to
protect the public against his acts. If he ad-
yances doctrines as the basis of his demand
they are open to examination, and he has no
right to complain; but they should be exam
ined fairly, and without prejudice or pas
sion-without reference even to his indi-
vidual imperfections or idiosyncracies. 1t
would be hard TO put Christianity on trial
by its manifestations in a dyspeptic, or
professor-one who has a chronic
gOut, or asthma, or neuralgia-who has
teTmagant for a wife, or a harridan for
That trade which man
practices for living should be handled care
fully, for it is his living. If he practices with
that degree of assiduity that secures him sue
cess, the probability is that however incon-
sistent his course may seem to others, he be-
leves in il; in which case he will be likely
to look upon prosecution as persecution, nor
win he be far out of the way.
CLEVELAND telegraphs to the Sunday En-
Quirer, by special dispatch from Washington,
that South Carolina has made proposition
10 o,,;a NannIaon eor Rranah ,,ro.oa.:.- :.