The Hawaiian gazette., 1871-07-12
Living with windows Open.

corning the most private relations that IS not I'm
mediatey noised abroad, discussed, and judged
by meddling and gossiping communities Homes
that should be guarded with the most jealou!
care are Of easy access to strangers, who come
with the fimsiest credentials or with none at all
and every year produces its crop Of personal and
social disasters which this unwise exposure oil
the soil gives to reckless or villainous sowing.
a man should wish TO see how Americans differ
in this thing from other nations, let him try to
get into German or an English family, or even
into a French family, abroad. He will at once
discover that he has undertaken to do a very DIFF
fcalt 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 an introduction and iudorse-
ment which place him above suspicion. Students
who go to continental Europe to study languages,
with the natural expectation to accomplish their
purpose by entering German or a French fam
lily, find to their surprise, that nothing but neces
sity will induce any family to open its sanctities
to them.
1t will naturally be said that old or mature
communities are conservative in this, as in 9TH
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 taste for everything
relating to the life Of indivduals;7aDd the base
desire to be talked about, were never more prey
alent than now. We have only to take up a
fashionable paper to learn who has had parties,
who attended the parties, who were the bellies of
the parties, and how they were dressed and we
know while we read thai the ladies who gave the
parties gave also the information concerning
them, and were glad to see the reports in print.
Weddings, which should be sacred to kindred
and closest friends, are turned into public shows;
the trOusseaus are inventored by the daily prints
and spread before the country. 1t is not enough
that ones marriage be published when it takes
place, but the engagement must be bruited in
Jenkins Journal jenkins having previously been
assured that the announcement would not be Of
fensive, and subsequently repaid by an order for
extra papers. The inanities of the Court Jour |
nal, over which Americans were in the habit of
laughing twelve years ago, are more than matched |
by the daily report Of the movements of every |
man of title, or place, or notorieiy. When a wo-
man lectures, the reporters understand that the |
first thing 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 plat
form-being all vain-are of course not offended
by this treatment; but it somehow happens that
bn &c H,..
1t would be possible to get along with all this
A man may become used TO smothering his sense
of humiliation and disgust when reading the pub
lie record Of private life, SO long as that record is
made with the consent, or at the wish of those
to whom it relates; but it happens that we have
in America now prowling, prying, far-seeing,
vivacious, loquacous, Toracious being known as
the Local Editor, who must get living, and who
lives only upon items. If man sneeze twice in
his presence, the local column Of the morning pa
per will contain the announcement that "our es-
teemed fellow-cltizen" is suffering from q severe
cold. If man loose his hat in q high wind, it
exercises the mirth of the local editor to the ex-
tent Of dozen lines. He amplfes an accident
that kills. or q scandal that ruins, with marvellous
of detail His eye is at every mans /
md come. There is nothing safe from his pen. 5
All the private affairs Of the community for
which he writes are published TO that community {
Every day. If man shoots dog or catches +,
string Of trout or rides out for his health, or is
seen Inysteriously leaving town on an evening 2
ram, or sells a horse, or buys a COW, or gives t
dinner party, or looks sallow, or grows fat, or
miles upon a widow, or renews the wall paper of ;,
lis house, he gives the local editor an item The u
ocal editor turns the houses of the community n
inside out every day, and keeps the windows d
pen by which the secrets and sanctties of every Il
ome are exposed to public view. II !,
The local editor is, we regret to say, not with :
ut excuse. Occasionally some indignant victim Il
his prying and publishing propensities scolds Ia
T scourges him; but it must be confessed, with p
hame and sorrow, that his local column finds al
reedy market. Instead Of frowning upon the u u
berry be takes with persons and homes and the f.
etais Of individual private life, the multitude Ii
sad his column first of ALL That its results are pr
ischevous and demoralizlng in their ministry to at
eighborhood gossip and scandal, there is no ca
Oubt. Among its worst results is the destruct- :. =
N Of all reverence for the right of every private h,
IAN to live privately and of every home to live in
18th its windows closed. There is unquestion- as
BY desire in certain sort of private life to tit
1t into the papers, desire to spread all the de- $
ills of its doings before the world This life =, =,
ay be "high" or low. fashionable or unfashion- oil
de- but it is irredeemably vulgar, and can only 70
sgast every selfrespectfal and dignifcd man and NJ
oman. Let US protest on behalf of decency re
-aiust the familiar treatment which the retiring :"
ID the unwilling receive in the local column, 81
ID in the more ambitious performances of the on
nnipresent jenkins. Let us at least have the
ivilege of repeating the cry of Betsy Trotwood,
hen her little patch of green was invaded. 10
Ianet! doukeys !7-Dr. j. G. Holland ia Serb bo
RS for June. ill
A CHICAGO MAN got into a row and had guam 90
ty Of mis- lungs shot out and his ear bit off. be- ~
les receiving couple of stabs in the ribs aud III,
oxen arm 10 addition to which his left eye was tic
It out Of joint and hurricane deck was put on ha
5 head after his teeth had been knocked out sh'