The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-08-18
Crime and Oorrespondoncc.

Newspaper correspondents are sometimes
blamed because the majority of their correspond
ence is based upon crime, sin, and error. The
blame is not pronounced in wisdom and is un-
just. The hypercritical reader forgets that the
vast majority of the history of the world con-
eists of accounts of the same nature, only upon
a larger scale. To say that one is human is
almost the same thing as to say he sins and
SUFFERS and the correspondent who deals with
the bright side only of life but partially does his
duty To relate in straightforward manner,
facts of which sin and suffering have large
share, is a thing very different from what 1t is
to place perpetually before the public scenes of
Imaginary crime and woe, for the miserable
sake merely of 'being read" and creating
sensation. story of deserved or of undeserved
suffering always carries its own moral with it,
unless the crime or error which induced 1t is of
such nature as had better not be generally
known. There are certain crimes which bring
upon innocent victims an incalculable amount
of shame and anguish, but which, from the very
hideousness of their nature, ought not TO be
mentioned either in public or private, more
than is necessary to keep them in odium. Ii is
upon the details surrounding an immortality of
This nature that the tingling sensation-seeker
pounces. Like lightning that without strik-
ing fitfully illuminates q picturesque but
ghastly ruin, so he plays round
the morbid piquancy and brings
its sensual secrecies to light without
once venturing to actually touch them. He
gloats upon the subject over which he
moralizes, and squeezes out q sermon which is
worse than the sin that wrung 1t forth. Under
the present constitution of things, suffering and
sin always must form very large basis for
newspaper writing, and it is perfectly unobjec-
tionable that they should do so. 1t is against
the kind of sin which correspondents too often
take for their texts, and against the tone in
which such sin is spoken Of that wholesale OBJ
iections can Justly be urged. If were asked
what kind of people the gossipy correspondent
is most fond of chatting about, l should reply
that, for the most part they belong to those who
break the seventh commandment and do not
keep the eighth
Farraxut and the Flags.
The impartiality with which great men are
honored in this life is not often illustrated more
strikingly than it was on Monday and Tuesday in
this city. Admiral Farragut died on Sunday.
Until late on Tuesday afternoon no half-mast
flag was raised over the City Hall, or over any
other building that comes within the control of
the corporation of New York Think of that
When the half-mast flags were at last raised the
procrastnated tribute was wrung forth by
popular clamor Contrast this shameful indif-
ference to the virtues of good and great United
States citizen, who had used his goodness and
greatness in the service of his country, with the
ostentatious honors that, a few weeks ago, were
paid to the memory of Florence Scanned,
who, as the Tribune says, died ''from
the effects of wounds received in fight in
rum-hole, whittier he and his friends had gone
for the avowed purpose of 'mashing' some op-
ponents." At that decease, every flag appeared
at half-mast and the stars and stripes were OBJ
bx-n
sis of John Real and the vast multtudes that
fringed the route of his funeral procession.
Circumstances like these remind one that we
are living in strange times when an unspeakably
corrupt system of politics erects ruffians into
heroes and treats the honorable dead, the chief
servants aud saviors of the nation, with shame
full and hideous disrespect.
mr.. Barrett at NibiO's.
After eight years absence from this city, Mr.
Lawrence Barrett appeared at Niblo's Garden on
Monday night in that absurd play The Dukes
Motto. His capacity is that of a good leading
stock performer. His audacity in venturing to
appear in a character that Mr.. Fechter, the
greatest living representative of the romantic
drama, had made peculiarly his own, has not
been justified by the result. The performance
is neat and spirited-that is all. The scenery of
the play is elaborate and appropriate. Miss
Moore, who gives the impression that she is
always on the point of beautifully bluboering,
is the blanche de Nevers," and Madame Po-
nisi is the "Duchess"-the old lady with the
remarkable memory, who swears that q certain
young lady is not her daughter because she
(the Duchess can't recognize her. and it has
been only twenty years since they met. But
what matters trifing incongruity like this,
when the necessary "effect" and situation" are
produced?
Plenty of Giiead but no Balm.
The census proves that we have plenty OF city
to make out that we have) and plenty OF
the miseries that usually beset large city, but
that we have not near so much compensation
for them as we ought to enjoy. In other words,
there is plenty OF Gilead, but very little balm.
Look at the Bay nuisances, and the imbecility
of the Board of Health. The bay is filling with
offal of every description, and, to all appear
ances the Board of Health is powerless to pre-
vent the evil, and even questions whether every
other department of the city is not equally pow
erless. Contractors are, by law, required to
move all offal beyond the city For time they
eyaded the law by manufacturing the offal, al
one of the docks, into certain profitable SUB
stances. After a long struggle the Board
of Health succeeded in abolishing that nui.
sance and the disguised contractors expressed
their sentiments by chucking the offal into the
Lower Bay. Literally they observe their con-
tract, though certainly they violate its spirit
The Board of Health has followed them up, aud
done all il could to remedy the evil but has dis
covered that its efforts are laughed at. The
nuisance is continued, and the Lower Bay may
be described as a sort of internal manufactory
where Pestience broods over his work befor re
he issues forth TO affiict New York. If ne
disease is generated there 1t will not be because
it was not presented with an ingenious pretex
Tor making its appearance.
Country Cousins.
The country cousin is in town. He ettetl