The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1873-08-31
Anew Words Concerning a FewWeekIies.


New York Weekly, which makes the tour
of the continent, enters, with welcome,
Thousands of homes, and entertains, in
manner peculiar to itself, thousands OF
readers. 1t is paper of right royal style.
Everything that Yankee art and artfulness
can devise and everything that money can
command is lavished upon the aforesaid
Weekly In order to make it attractive.
Its trappings are superb. Fine paper,-
clear, fine print,-bright bold engravings
give it an aristocratic appearance. Stor-
les, poems, humors,-odds and ends OF in
formation, criticisms, news, fashions and
other varieties commend it to countless
tastes. 1t makes its way everywhere. 1t
has a word to say about everything and
has quite characteristic way of saying 1t.
Science, art, history, biography, politics.
philosophy, gossip, sentiment, religion etc.
etc, etc, are topics which it treats in all
manner of ways and with an easy famili-
arity of tone as though it's writers had in
herited the wisdom of Solomon: This
wonderful Weekly is called Harper's
1VeeMy,-A Journal Of Civilization" Young
and old, rich and poor-high and low,
read it everywhere, and their hearts and
minds feel the power of its civilizing infiu-
ences. 1t has everything to recon-
mend it's character,-save one element
which has, at least, little to do with the
character and reputation of journal as
we'll as with the reputation and character
of gentleman. That Weekly is unfortu-
nately addicted to lying. The only excuse
which it has is that by some incurable de-
feet it never has known and cannot be
laugh to understand the difference be-
| tween truth and falsehood.
! 1t is, indeed, great interchangeable
that very misfortune rebounds to the pee
uniary profit and material prosperity of the
aforesaid Weekly,-for were it in it's power
| to tell the truth, and truth only it might
lose one of its strongest attractions for
mapy of it's readers. For as it has the un-
happy but profitable habit of telling false
hoods in the most pleasant manner, many
of its readers have contracted the habit OF
reading it's falsehoods with singular inter-
est. and with curious credulity. So, on
the whole it's lack of truthfulness pays
handsomely. The moral loss is counter
balanced by the material gain. 1t is a very
prosperous paper and very popular too.
And as this popularity and prosperity have
been built up on the principle that false
hood paws better than truth, no one could
, reasonsbly expect that tho rich Weekly
r would en.anger its fortune by changing It's
, principles. To do so would be an act OF
unsclfishness and reckless generosity that
would positively amount to objectionable
folly. 1t is q paper which elegantly caters
to the fashions of the day And as the
Roman Catholic Religion never was ana
never will be fashionable, it must be ex-
pected that the aforesaid Weekly will re-
gard. with the contempt which it deserves,
that church which is the visible form of the
I'm fashionable religion. Supporting the po-
pular and the fashionable the Weekly must,
as a matter of course, oppose the unpopu-
lar aud the questionable. There is an
other reason also for this. The Catholic
Church is terrible defender of truth and
has broadly and sternly marked cut the
lines which divide the false from the true.
Now the Weekly is opposed to such intol-
erance and as the Catholic Church will
not inaorse that liberation and Hherality
of mind which equally accept truth and
, falsehoo and which think that truth Is
extremely unpalatable without a mixture
of the false, the Weekly mnst, of course, |
prefer its own tastes and the similar tastes
of most of its readers therefore must
not and cannot countenance anything in the |
Roman Catholic Religion. That Religion
is too strictly true for its fancy and ia
too stcrnly exacting in regard to the laws
of truthfulness.
The civilization of the Catholic Church
is completely out of harmony with this
Journal Of Civilization.
There are some Catholics >sho have
reached such high degree of perfection
that they not only profess the practice of
humility, but they also seem to seek humi-
! liatious. With this view they are readers
of q" HdrperS Weekly, ON almost every
page of which they regale their eyes with
ISLANDERS, caumnies, Interpretations oil
themselves and the ministers and truths