The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1869-09-10

The Mission Of the Newspaper and the
DeseeEation Of the Press.
IRON the Frankfort O0mm0nwealth.l

Dissertation Of the Pfsss.
From the Frankfort Commonwealth
IF shsrs Be any one source more than an
other from which may Be derived healthfuI,
moral Influences, OF disseminated the verisst
seeds Of corrupt and liesntious practices,
It Is from the public press. The nsRspas
per is the common vehicle thss goes laden
with intelligeneesin into every family nearly.
where any sort Of education is EeyeTgnced.
It has an unObssructsd right Of admission.
simply because & is newspaper. That
title is considered s6mcieat to admissof it's
uncontrolled circulation in the best 8 FAM
lilies; only few exceptions exciting where
discrimination with regard to the 81 otsr
Of papers is exercised. With ths public
press. therefore. rests respousibility Of
the most impressive character touching tbe
conveyance Of facts and incidents 70 BE.
youthful mind. touching she language u
iea these facts may be clothed and touch
'us = style Of facts shsf obtain admission
- - eolamns. The paper thel deiibsF-
80 sets e work to color degrading inei-
iasthe gaudy husslof passion, and q
subsidizs such eorruptings expressions
5Hill give them attractiyeness to an imagi-
nation too easily led away from legal re-
strai1ts. is an enemy to the race, and as
guilty Of moral crime as il It's conviction
had been determined OF full proof before
a regularly constitutional judicial tribunal.
It cannot be denied that many newspa-
peFs now extsnt az accepted organs and Ye-
hieIes Of public opinion are mere poison
fountains, pouring flood Of wiokedness
andf ruin into the world. They are educa-
ting vast communities into licentious hab-
! its and criminal practices that make men
shudder to think Of debauching
society by pandering to'its worst impulses.
The massacre of st. Barz emew Was q
slight affair compared to Tia slaughter eff
fected by these pernicious Sfgans of COM
munication, for, in that, innocent men and
women perished for no crime save such as
rested in their bloody executioners, while
in this they are involved in q destruction
that eomPssses the execution and the exc
cuted, as the sccomplice and principal are
involved in one and the same guilt.
We need not travel to New York to gath
or the names of papers that are corrupting
American youth. While that sharnel
house of prOdigious corruption is pouring
out its thousands of copies of "Police Ga
zettes," Sporting Times" ''The Days
DOings," ':Brick POmerOy's Democrat"
and similar filthy trash, conveying to the
mind by obscene pictures aud vicious Ian
gusgs, impressions ft only for earthly
hells, there are papers nearer home that sup
ply food for these metropolitan publications
and copy from their spirit and tone. Chi
cago nourishes its proportion of daily pa
pers that dwell with demoniac delight on
the incidents Of crime that should be limit
ed by the portals Of the police courts. As
consequence, Chicago is noted as the
most corrupt place Eest Of New York. As
the police courts and baWdy houses furn-
ish food for the Chicago papers, so the pa
I pers in turn furnish food for the police
courts and baWdy houses. They 60 furth-
eF. They furnish food for the innocent
hearts of young men and women that un-
der parental roofs read the highly cOloEed
accounts from the daily papers Of crimes
made attractive, and with unnatural tastes
begin TO long foe indulgence il them
Hundreds Of these young persons, sduca-
ted by the press, fud their way at last IN
to the hsunts Of vice, travelling rapidly to
q drunkard's grave, the Felon's csll, OF the
doom Of the outcast.
The mission Of the press of the country
should be to teach the soundest principles
of morality, and to shut down the brakes
on ell sorts of corruption. To elevate. to
refine, to purify, to make white as driven
snow the image Of Innocence, to draw forth
from the human heart its noblsr and grand
er aspirations. and to make men better for
its influence upon them, are objects COM
mon 70 its proper sphere. This is no ide-
al mission. It is practical. Il does not
contradict or Obstruct the dispensation of
news and general information. Il goes
along with the latter Sc its handmaid. Il
fulflls the Law of man to his fellow.
2