Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1871-12-04
Letter from New York.
The Relics of the Ring-Our Newspapers
-IOraIs OF neutrality-suspicious. of
The Prcss-Thc Fisk-IInnsfeId scandal
Word Of apology
IRON OUR REGULAR CORRESPONDENT

solely from perusql of our newspapers, might
well believe that the city deserves the title OF
"Sea Sodom," which Byron, both in verse and
prose, applies to Venice. 1t is currently he
lieved that the grand jury are on the point of in
dieting the mayor, and that his bail will he
fixed at an amount which he can not possibly
procure, so that he will be imprisoned until he
can be brought TO trial. BE that as it may,
Connolly, the late controller, head of the fiscal
department, the most responsible office in the
municipal government, has been arrested, and
after trying for three days TO find bail, has been
shut up in the common jail, where Tweed
would before this have been confined had
he not been lucky and wealthy enough
to find men with sufficient cash and
confidence to give bonds TO the amount
of 4 million of dollars, that he would not like
some of his tools run away before being brought
TO trial. As it's, he receives by way of Thanks
| giving present, an Injunction from the supreme
| court iorbidding him in any way to dispose of
| his property. This injunction is only partly in
time, for he has already made way with large
amounts, but it is supposed that there are many
millions left.
Nearly all of our newspapers contain, espcc-
tally in their advertising columns, matter which
render them unfit to enter any respectable fami-
ly. lam quite aware that it is difficult to draw
the exact line where the responsibility of news
paper for the character of its advertisements
begins and ends. No one will claim that il is re-
sponSible for the veracity Of its advertisers. If
Brown chooses to say that his sugar is twlce as
sweet, and his coffee twice as strong as those of
anybody else, no one will contend that it is the
duty ofthe editor TO test the goods before insert
ing the advertisement That is a matter which
may fairly be left to the purchasers Not quite
so easy is it to decide what should be the rule
in regard to advertisements which are clearly
bogus. For example if A B., box 9g9, promises
upon the receipt Of a ten cent stamp to send in
formation by means of which anybody can make
a hundred dollars day; Or if B. G., Of SQUAD
Hollow, New Hampshire, wants to hire hun
lred agents at a hundred dollars week, and dt-
reefs those wishing to engage in the business to
send dollar for circular and sample, it is
perhaps well enough to 90 on the principle that
a fool and his money will in any case part COM
pany, and these rogues may as well have it as
any others.
1t is rather more difficult to say what should
be done with medical advertisements
Squibbs may be allowed 10 assure
-ullible public that his mixture No. l will make
gray hair black, and cure the toothache: Blobbs
that his extract Of sarsaparilla has ten times as
much virtue as that of any other make; and
Snobbs that his pills win prolong life to thou
sand years. But it seems to me that all adyer-
tisemeuts for the cure Of "secret diseases"
wherein the cold doctors" promise to extract
the sting of vice, so that one may play with it
as though it were charmed serpent, should be
vigorously ruled out of every respectable news.
paper; and that on the simple ground that they
are, on the very face of them, contrary to good
morals
But be this as it may, it is clear to my mind
that advertisements which on the face of them
purport to be of obscene pictures and licentious
books; those which promise relief to ladies in
trouble" that "reef'' being, as everybody
knows, neither more or less than the certain
murder of the unborn offspring and the probable
murder of the miserable mother, are clearly be-
| yond the pale. Yet there are only few OF our
| daily newspapers, and believe not one of our
/ 'N-1''iNA t'NHuot PtpNioJ III WHICH llGSt du-
| refreshments are not inserted as freely as any
others. Some of our Sunday papers 90 far be-
you'd this, The one which claims and believe
| correctly, TO have larger circulation than any
other, contains every week score or more of
advertisements, in which, without any pretense
of disguise, men advertise for mistresses, and
women for keepers. think that the publica-
ton of such advertisements is a crime bv com
mon law; or if it is not, it should be made so
by express statute. Advertiser and publisher
should be punished by fine and Imprisonment.
Proof of the simple fact of publication should
be sufficient for conviction. What is the use
Of sending Rosenzweig and Perry TO
Sing Sing, while Grnde and a score of
others are allowed to announce to all the world
that they are ready to perpetrate the precise
crmesifor which other scoundrels have received
portion Of their deserts. Suppose a man
were to advertise that for reasonable price he
would shoot or poison any person, | imagine
that the law would find hold upon him; and
in case the crime were actually committed, the
publisher of the advertisement would be held as
an accessory before the fact.
Not few OF our papers, moreover, are full of
matter quite as indecent as their advertisements.
Fake, for example, the Fisk-Mansfeld scandal.
The essential facts lie in nutshell. The noto-
| Iious James Fisk entered into an open and
shameful liason with au equally notorious
woman of the demi-monde AT length they
| quarreled, and the woman threatened to pub
lish his letters to her A judge issued an in
| junction fOrbdding the publication on the
| ground Of the indecency of the letters. Fisk
| procured a servant of the woman to make an
affidavit that he had heard her and her latest
| paramour concoctng Il plot TO extort black
mail from the immaculate railway adventurer
| and manager Of the Grand Opera house. She
bad him arrested for libel, and the whole scan
dial comes into court. OF course the case must
ne tired, for reprobate may not legally libel
stfumpet. But it was clearly a case for pri-
vate trial, so that the disgusting details should
not atiront public deCency. But it was Ostenta-
uously paraded. The woman and her paramour
dressed in the height Of fashion, received al
most an ovation as they entered the court room
| Two OF the lawyers, one on each side, had
| formally held the Office of drstrict attorney
and they seemed resolved to make the most of
was on the stand, and the details of her career
were gone into, the examination being en-
| livened by hints and double-enders, to the in
| finite delight Of the crowded audience. This
was on Saturday, and on Sunday we had full
verbatim reports in the papers. The World
originally established as sort Of religious
| daily, had four or five solid columns, and the
Herald half as much. One would suppose that
this would have been enough, and that the Judge
might have disposed of a mere preliminary ex
animation in day. But that is not the wont
Of our $4,000 judges when anything "spicy"
comes up. Towards evening, when the judicial
appetite had got the better of the zest of the
performance, he adjourned the proceedings for
fortnight, also to Saturday, 50 that Sunday
after neXtwe shall be treated TO another scene
in this detestable farce; and the funny lawyer
who played the part Of clown, intimated that
even then the piece would hardly be begun. If
it runs much beyond the time Of the meetipo