The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-02-25

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sidering that newspaper men do much of their
work in the night, and are called so often to re-
port oratlOns and sermons delivered in style
rapid and indistlnct, wonder that they so
oIten get things right. But there is a class Of
men IN towns and cities who send forth a bale
tul influence from their editorial pens. There
are enough bad newspapers weekly poured out
into the homes of Philadelphia to poison vast
In addition to the home manufacture OF
ubiquitous Sheets the mail-bags of Boston and
New York come in goTged with the most super
natural denominations. We scoop up from the
sewers OF other cities and add IL To our own
newspaper filth, and tonight lying on the tables
of this city, or laid away on the shelf or in the
trunk for more private perusal are papers the
mere mention OF the names Of which would
send blush to the cheek of childhood and the
coloress face Of the octogenarian, until the
decent and Christian world would cry out,
There is paper published in Boston that.
because OF It's indecencies, no city Government
ought to allow, and yet there are seven thou
sand copies OF that paper that come weekly to
this city for circulation. will not mention the
name for fear some OF you would go and get IT %
The vilest sheet published in another city. has
between thee and four thousand Philadelphia
subscribers; IL ls wonderful how quick the
fingers of the printer boy fly, but the fingers of
sin and pollution can set up fifty thousand
types in an instant.
The supply of bad papers in our otUn city does
not meet the Unsuitable appetite of our people
for refuse and garbage and moral swill But we
must import corrupt weelxlies published else.
where filled with stories of blood and murder
ana revenge and abandonment, that make our
newspaper stands eroan under the burden
But we need not go so far-there are papers In
town that long ago came to perfection of shame
lessness, and there is no more power in venom
ana mud ana slime To pollute them. They have
dashed their inquites into the face of every
thing decent and holy. And their work will be
seen in the crime and debauchery, and the hell
Of innumerable victims. Their columns are not
| long and broad enough to record the tragedies
! OF their horrible undoing OF immortal men and
! women God in the day of judgment will hold
| up the reeling, Stenchful, accursed sheet, upon
! which they spread out their guilt, and the whole
universe will cry out for their, damnation.
| see the work OF bad newspapers in the false
] tidings they bring There are hundreds of
| men to-day penniless, who We're during the war
! hurled from their affiuent positions by incor-
! rect accounts of battles that shook the money
market, and the gold gamblers, with their
beastly hoofs. trampled these honest men into
the mire. And many window was hotsted at
''Ertrai E9traP p And the father and mother
VINO had an only son at the front, with trem-
ping hand ana blanched cheek and sinking
heart, read of battles that had never occurred.
God pity the father and mother who has boy
at the front when evil tidings come
If an individual makes a false statement one
or twenty persons may be damaged; but
newspaper that wilfully makes misstatement
most stupendous of all lies is a newspaper lie
a bad newspaper scruples not at any SANDER
1t may be that TO escape the grip of the law the
paragraphs will be nicely worded, so that the
suspicion is thrown out and the damage DONE
without any exposure or peril. Year by year.
thousands of men are crushed by the ink-roller
An unscrupulouS man in the editorial chair
may smiGe as with the wing of destroying
angel. What to him are commercial integrity
or professional reputation, or woman's honor
or home sanctity?
IL seems as ifhe held in his hands hose, with
which, while all the harpies of sin were work.
ing at the pumps, he splashed the waters of
death upon the best interests OF society, The
express train in England halts not to take in
water, but between the tracks there is a trough
one-fourth of q mile in length filled with water.
water while the train flies. So with bad news. VS.
papers that fly along the track of death, with
out pausing "a moment, yet scooping up into
themselves the pollution of society, and in the
awful rush making the earth tremble.
The bad newspapers stops not at any political
outrage. 1t would arouse revolution, and
empty the hearts Of a million brave men in the
trenches, rather than not have its own circula-
tion multiply What to it are the hard-earned
laurels of the soldier, or the exalted reputation
OF the statesman? They would, If they dared,
blow up the Capitol building of the nation, If
they could only successfully carry Off the prize
| of one of the corridors. There enough
talsehoods told in any one of our autumnal
| elections TO make the Father of Lies" disown
| his nionstrous progeny. Now it is the Mayor,
then the Governor, now the Secretary of State,
and then the President, until the air IS SO full
! of Observation-Disclosures truth is hidden from
| the view, as beautiful landscapes by the clouds
ofsummer insects blown up from the meadows
clean advertisement. It is so much for so many
! words, and in such a sheet it will cost no more
| to advertise the most impure book than the
! new edition of "Pilgrim's Progress" a book
such as no decent man would touch with the
| tip of his cane was few months ago advertised
in a New York paper, and the geUter-up of the
| book, passing down one of our streets the other
! day, Acknowledged to one OF my friends that he
! had made $4,000 out of the enterprise. More
money than John Bunyan ever saw or dreamed
of!
that have not scrupled to take immoral adver-
tisementS, In one column of paper we some-
times see grand "ethica" discussion, and in
another the dropptngs Of most accursed nasti-
| ness. on, you cannot, by all your religion in
one column, atone for your abominations in
another! 1 rejoiced that some of our
papers have addressed those who have pro-
posed to compensate them for the use of their
columns, in the words of Peter to Simon
Magus-"Your money perish with your
But arraign the newspapers that give their
| columns to corrupt advertising for the n9fa-
| rious work they are doing. The most polluted
| plays that ever oozed from the poisonous pen of
leprous dramatists have won their deathful
! power through the medium of newspapers. The
and ye proprietors of iniquitousshows Though
| you get money-though morality dies, and so.
| ciety is dishonored, and God defied and the
doom OF the destroyed opens before you-GET
| upon thy naked, blistered, and consuming soul
| get MONEY! GET MoNEY II will do you
will solace the pillow of death and soothe the
| pangs of an agonized eternity Though in the
| game thou dost stake thy soul, and lose 1t for
ever-GET MONEY! Fill all the newspapers
the country with your nefarlous advertisements
| GET MONEY! GET MONEY!
The bad newspaper hesitates not TO assault
Christianity and its disciples. With what ex-
hilarationit puts in capitals that fill one-fourth
| OF q column, the defalcation OF some agent of
a benevolent society. There is enough meat in
rion crows OF an iniquttous printing press.
They nut upon the back of the Church all the
Inconsistencies of hypocrites[as though a
banker were responsible for all the counterfeits
upon his institution. They jeer at religion; and
lift up their voices until all the caVerns OF the
lost resound with the howl OF their derision.
They forget that Christianity is the only hope
for the world, and that but for It's enlighten-
ment they would now be like the Hottentots,