The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1873-03-24
vicious journalism.

"a vicious journalism. ssl
The New York World, of Saturday,
commences two-column account Of the
execution of Foster, the car-hook murder
er, as follows: ..es-.s- Z
All Thursday night the fierce March wind
screamed like u demon through the gibbet that
men had just put up not twenty feet from Will
liam Fosters cell The three lamps ironed into
the walls flared their light about the gloomy en-
closure as the wind blew at the flames, and the
black shadows OF the gallows danced round the
yard like the afrites to the demoniac music.
{ This is fine Bohemian writing, but it is
of that surfeiting quality whereof a little
more than little is by much too much.
The article itself extends through two
mortal columns, nonpareil, and thoroughly
pals the appetite before one is half through
reading it. The strain upon the readers
nerves, in the entire perusal of it, is mani
testify not unlike that of Thursday night
upon poor Foster, leaving him, in the Ian
guage of The World, limp, spiritless,
and dazed. 'aat4 9
But in addition to these powerfully
wrought and nerve-stretching scenes at the
Tombs and beneath the gibbet Of Foster, the
same issue of The World gives us nearly
two columns more, in loaded nonpareil, ofthe
the gibbet in Boston, which did its inexora-
Bile work, on the same day and at nearly
the same hour of the day, upon James Nc
Elhaney, the wife-murderer, who walked
firmly to the scaffold and behaved with ex-
traordinary fortitude = on the occasion.
This history of the crime of this last named
murderer is handsomely worked up, but
with less attempt to shatter the nerves Of
the reader or make the occasion any more
thrilling than ordinary well-strung Boston
nerves could cleverlY withstand. ssiassa
Besides all this, we have in the same
issue Of the SAME journal. column edito-
rial-not especially objectionable---op the
Foster hanging together with two-col-
umn Record Of Crime,o in which we
are treated to thrilling accounts Of shoot
ing. poisoning, throat-cutting, skull-split-
ting, murder-mysteries cleareda up"
ETC., etc, making altogether a seven-col-
umn melange of phenomenal rascality,
which ought to be enough to satisfy the
most craving appetite for Dick Turpin
literature in one day. Itwould seem as
though the great Republic of Letters was
| about to be broken into by sentimental
rascality, if not complacent blackguardism,
and that the genius that fourishes most on
the gallows was about becoming the most
attractive in dslineation, as well as the
most complete in Characterization. Hill
We regret to see a newspaper, so
deseryedly popular in many respects as
the New York World, lending its in
fiuence in the vicious direction which
American journalism is now too rapidly
taking. Reports of criminal trials may
sometimes be necessary, when the facts
connected with them are Of special public
Importance; but they differ from these
high-seasoned accounts ofcrime and atrocity
which only pander to a deprayed and
vicious appetite. and harden the public
conscience by familiarizing it with such
accounts Of. crime as only cease to be
startling because Of the terrible frequency
with which they are publicly narrated.
The newspaper that. can lift atrocity
to the sublime, and make the most of in
genious villainy wherever it may be found,
is the one no doubt to command the larg-
est circulation and widest popular favor.
But is there nothing that the true Journal
list owes to society ? Ought he to so edu-
cate the public mind that every precocious
youth in tho land shall seriously think Of
turning rascal, BLACKBOARD or cut-purse, as
the readiest way to achieve distinction by
fastening upon public sympathy, if not
public admiration 81 ia aslb
How different was it with the delinea-
lions of Shakespeare. In Iago, he forgot
to make malignity, yillainy. and murder
fasten on our heroic sympathies, whereby
we might have sided against the victims Of
that "rainer Of the Moor" whom we are
all made to detest from almost the first mo-
ment he sets his foot upon the stage. Did
the great dramatist show hirnselfa bungler
in characterization, or amarplot in scenic eE-
feet, in thus delineating this consummate VII
lain? Or was it necessary that he should
make any of his villainous characters con-
yey TO us "pleasant impressions Of sin and
Satan" in the zest and pungency with which
ne portrayed them in their more compla-
cent devlltr'es? The World will hardly
give an affirmative answer to SO pregnant
an inquiry as this last 4
1T is estimated that at present the nation-
al banks receive six per cent. coin interest
from the government on $3.50, 900, 900, equal