The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1871-07-13

Living with Windows Open.
( More than any other people in the world
Americans live with their windows open Less
than any people who have homes do they regard
their homes as sacredly private. Every family
knows its neighbor's affairs: and nothing trans
pires concerning the most private relations that
Is NOT Immediately noised abroad, discussed and
Judged by meddlesome and gossiping communi-
ties. Homes that should be guarded with the
most sacred care are of easy access to strangers
who come with the fiimsiest credentials, or with
none at all; and every year produces lts crop oi
personal and social disasters which this unwise
exposure of the soil gives to reckless and vii
fainous sowing If man should wish to see
how Americans differ in this thing from other
nations, let him try to get into German or
English family, or even into q Family, abroad
He will at once discover that he has undertaken
to do a very difficult thing. No man can obtain
an inside view of the economies and habits Of
foreign home, and share in its communion, who
does not enter it with record or introduction
and endorsement which place him above saspi-
cion. Students who go to continental Europe to
study language, with the natural expectation to
accomplish their purpose by entering French
or German family, find. that nothing but neees-
sity will induce any family to open its sancti-
ties to them.
1t will naturally be said that old or mature
communities are conservative in this as in other
matters; but we do not see that, as America
grows older, it mends in this respect. Indeed,
it is certainly and swiftly growing worse. The
greed for personalities-thet taste for everything
relating to the life of individuals-and the base
desire to be talked about were never more
prevalent than now. We have only to take up
q fashionable paper to learn who has had parties
who attend parties and how they were dressed;
and we know while we read that the ladies who
gave the parties gave also the information con-
cerning them, and we are glad to see the reports
in print. Weddings, which should be sacred to
kindred and close friends. are turned into public
shows; and trousseaus are inventoried by the
daily prints and spread before the country. 1t
is not enough that ones marriage be published
when 1t takes place, but the engagement must
be bruited in jenkins Journal, jenkins having
previously been assured that the announcement
would not be offensive, and subsequently repaid
by an order for extra papers The inanities of
the Court journal, over which Americans were
In the habit of laughing dozen years ago are
more than matched by the daily report of the
movements of every man, of title. or place, or
notoriety. When woman lectures the report
ers understand that the first people wish to
learn about her relates to her face, figure, and
dress; and that is the first thing they write
about. The women of the platform-being all
very sensible women, and too wise to be vain
are of course offended by this treatment; but it
somehow happens that the reports are generally
Of q hattering character.
1t would be impossible to get along with all
this. A man may become used to smothering
his sense Of humiliation and disgust when read
ing the public record of private life, SO long as
that records made with the consent or at the
wish, of those to whom it relates; but it hap
pens that we have in America now a prowling,
prying. far seeing, viVacious; loquacious, vora-
cious being, known as the Local Editor, who
must get a living. and who lives only upon
items. If man sneeze twice in his presence,
the local column of the morning paper will con-
tain the announcement that " our esteemed fel-
low citizen is suffering from a severe cold" II
q man lose his hat in high wind, it excites the
mirth of the local editor to the extent of dozen
lines. He amplifes an accident that kills, or q
scandal that ruins, with marvellous minuteness
of detail. His eye is at every man's back door
to see and report who and what go and come
There is nothing safe from his pen. All the pri-
vate affairs of the community for which he
writes are published to that community every
day. If a man shoots dog or catches a string
of trout, rides out for his health is seen mys-
teriously leaving town on an evening train, OF
sells horse, or buys q cow, or gives q dinner
upon q widow. or renews the wall paper of his
house. he gives the local editor an item, The
local editor turns the houses of the community
inside out every day, and keeps the windows
open by which the secrets and sanctities of every
home are exposed to the public view.
The local editor is, we regret to say. not with
out excuse. Occasionally some indignant vic
tim of his prying and publishing propensities
scourges or scolds him; but it must be confessed
with sorrow and shame, that his local column
finds a greedy market Instead of frownine
upon the liberty he takes with persons and
homes. and the details of private life, the mul
titude read his column first of all. That its re-
| suits are mischievous, demoralizing in theil
ministry to neighborhood gossip and scandal
there is no doubt. Among its worst results il
1 the destruction of all reverence for the right o
every private man to live privately, and of eve
ry home to live with its windows closed. There
is unquestionably desire in certaia sort o.
privat life to get into the papers-a desire tt
| spread all the details of its doings before the
world. This life may be ''high" or low, fashion
able or questionable, but it is irredeemabl,
vulgar, and can only disgust every self-respect
full and dignifed man and woman. Let us pro
| test on behalf of decency against the familia,
treatment which the retiring and unwilling re
| ceive in the local column, and in the more ON
nipresent jenkins. Let us at least have tn
privilege Of Betsy Trotwood, when her littl
patch of green grass was invaded, :" Janeti don
keys r"-ScTi6aef's Aoat1lgs