The Rock Island daily Argus. [volume] (Rock Island, Ill.) 1872-1873, 1872-12-05
ehOuis in tho Newspapers.

Ia civilized warfare hostility stops at the :
grave Savage war is waged upOn the '
dying and the dead The corpse is mutt I
lated the grave is de6led, and while the
captive Is quivering at the stake or the
wounded man breathing his last breath his j
enemies crowd round to jeer him In
America the savages had 50 much grace as !
10 remit the preparation of this latter in :
dignity 10 the squaws. There was wild
and Just instinct that told them that it was
not those who brought about the fall who !
lcered the fallen and that those who were
lmpotent III conflict were most voluble in
insult after tho conflict was over The !
death OF Mr. Greeley has shown us how
much OF barbarous indeeency there still il
IN our journalism On the last mnrnisg
OF MIR. Greeley life, when it was known
and announced that he was a ayiur man.
the Times printed two paragraphs which
Tor cynical brutality no newspaper writer
IN New York during the rudest DAYS eg
New York newspapers DO newSgrs-
writer IN mining town IN New per
could have outdone. The ~ sda now
dying nan over b. st dashed the
friends who hal shoulders OF the
whom Il 80 charge Of him, and oil
'e'f'' ID that they were ID, Il the most most
o., and unfeeling friends which sc
any man had since the days OF jon.
The ostensible Inference Is that the care
al Mr. Greeley should have been handed
over IN his unselfsh and feeling friends OF
the Times newspaper but the real grew
anre appears 10 be that the reporters OF
the Times were not allowed 10 intrude upon
the decent privacy of sick room. where
las man diving of brain fever The mo
tive. IN the maintenance of such privacy
in such case are obvious enough, one
would think but in the version OF the
Times il seems that the friends vt Mr.
Greeley. having ruined him politically,
now think il necessary to deceive the pup
" lie ~ to the true state OF his health les
% the Tribune may be still further injured.
We are not altogether aware what man
ner Of men the private friends OF MI
Greeley are who seemed 30 the Times )
selfish and unfeeling; but we are very sur
that the last moments Of a man who coull
snarl over death bed in this way vii
never be embittered by the attention a
such friends as Mr.. Greeley made. Thu
paragraph the Times follows up with an
other of the same sympathic sort, in etiec
and almost in terms that as MIR. Greele
was dying the Tribune was dying too, an
by an unexpressed inference that peopl
who had been taking the Tribune had be
ter take the Times Bear in mind that tn
man about whom this was written wa
known by the man by whom il was write
10 he at the point Of death, and then ga
If this vanished Pawnee is not at least 1
much a savage as the Arab who defiles h
enemys grave, or the squaw who dane
before the stake at which prisoner
burning
Another journal in describing the dea
Of Mr. Greeley almost equals the Times
its absence Of any sense of decency. In
latter is only the absence and not the de
ance Of decency, for ii is not meant
malignity. But are there to be no linn
10 public curiosity Il there no sacre
ness Of sorrow, that the mad words a
the mad acts Of a man stricken with
saddest of all Affections should be set do'
and recounted every One3 This is turn
tragedy into horrible farce 1t is ii
exhibiting the straw garlands OF Lear, !
with the deep pathetic significance viii
Shakespeare made them bear, but, OF
for a Snowman catchpenny. A life spe
in promoting the progress and power
journalism, and also, according 10 the hgl
Of the man who led il, in elevating
standards and enObling the purposes
journalism ends with reporter clamori
10 be let in at the dying man. door a
abusing everybody because way is
made for him, and another reporter at
dying man bedside jotting down the fire.;
Of a frenzied mind. 1t is a sad anC
frightful thing TO contemplate, but the c
temptation of it is edifying il il shows
how much there is left undone towards
tablshing what we are so fond Of call
the dignity Of journalism. IN.
World.