The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1874-09-18
The Beecher Business i'm the Country
Papers.

one OF the saddest results of the Beecher
business Is the demoralizing effect which h
Is having upon the country weekly papers-
IN tne happy pre-scandal days these cheer
iul little FOSSILS devoted a large portion of
tneir iour pages to stories of mildly roman
tic nature, stories which Phyllis usually
sIyleu III ordinary conversation Eliza Ami
would read after milking-time, and would
ponder over in dreamy delight, wondering-
the While, II the time would ever come wneu
noole lord of high degree would appear to
claim her for his bride, as the heroines az
those truthful tales were invariably Claimed
at the end of the last chapter. And Corydon
tbetter known about the farm as Bobl would
steal upon Phyllis as she sat on the bench
py tne pump, straining her pretty eyes in the
twilight, and would ask to be read to: and
PHYLLIS would read to him until it got too
dark to see, and then-and then mayhap a
DIT OF genuine love-making would supersede
the make-beleve article, and the result. not
unlikely, would be that Phyllis would def
nitely abandon all thoughts Of having a noble
lord for husband, and would gladly consent
to settle down as plain Mrs. Bob Corydon.
But all this is past and gone now. In
S s.eaI ol sqcn Titles as Margaret, or the
Pearl that Won,'' "Emily Egerton's Elope-
ment,. and so on, standing grimly at the
mead OF the hrst page, are the names which
the most OF us from very WEAKNESS have
come to loathe, "Beechef- -Tilton," and then
through column after column the scandal
trails its Shiny length, crowding out the
mild effusions Of Gifted Hopkins, the village
poet; shortening the market report, trench-
ing upon the "useful household receipts.s
running all.over the place where farm and
garden used to be, and even stealing the tw,,
or three sticksful of space belonging to the
poor LITTLE 'puzzle corner'-ln short, taking
up pretty much everything except the col
umns devoted to advertisements, IL but a
bare statement of the leading facts were made
It would be bad enough, for the story Is
not Dice one to bring into the family, vet
this would be justified on the ground that is
is newspapers duty to collect all genuine
news and present the same to its readers, but
the country papers, as rule, are very far
from contining themselves to a bare state
ment OF facts, or even to facts of any kind
whatever. From that koprophagous journal,
the New York World, and its kindred spirits,
the Brooklyn Argts, Union and Eagle, it is
an easy task to collect filth enough to fill 70
great many more pages than the country
weekly has to spare, and half an hours work
with scissors and paste il amply sufficient To
get together a vast collection ofprurient mat
ter, true, half true, and wholly false, relating
to the great scandal; and this vile mess tha
country editors serve up to their readers in
place OF the somewhat stupid but pretty and
harmless stories of days gone by.
Alas for Phyllis! alas for Corydoni A new
world has been opened 10 them within the
past few months, and the change which has
been wrought in them by their increased
knowledge has not been for the better, for
not only has the scandal itself imbued their
natures with its baleful essence, but the evil
suggestions of vitiated press, the press of %
great city, have weighed them down into u
moral slough, where purity is tarnished and
honor rdimmed.-Philadelphia Press.