The Portland daily press., 1874-02-24
New York Letter.
The question eff Moieties and Newspaper
veracity-A dissertation ON Virtue
Something about the MOieties-The case
of Mr.. Simmons and remarks thereon.

SOmetnlm2 aOOut tine ulOheuht13--I0 Nc CtHt
of Mr.. Simmons and remarks thereon.
NEW YORK Feb. 22nd, 1874,
That was a ,relishable morsel which the
Treasury Department furnished to the news
seekers, the other day, when paragraph was
sent on its rounds stating that the Revenue Of
icers of New York had teen in receipt of moi
cites averaging hundred thousand dollars q
year, or such matter, during the whole period
of Grants administration. Precisely where the
confusion of dates originated, which made the
story an egregious exaggeration, does not clear
ly appear. 1t is just possible Secretary Rich
ardson left the question of time in doubt, to
find out how large-sized Munchauserism these
sensation explorers would gulp down. If he did
he will have to try severer experiment. They
swallowed that bait without so much as quiv-
er of misgving. The whole country accepted
it very much as it takes the generality of the
dispatches from the national capital. The very
credulous were quite sure it was all true because
they ''saw it in the newspapers" The believ-
ers in, and practitioners of total depravity ex-
claimed "of course it is so; who could expect
any thing else from this corrupt admnistra-
tion?" The reader of ordinary intelligence ac-
customed to the caprices of types, and unswayed
either by excessive credulity or inordinate ma
Lightly, saw at once that it would be obviously
improper to take fer granted the correctness of
accounts and dates printed in mere figures,
when they seemed out of the way. The jour
nails dealt with it according to their won't The
savagely virtuous liberal organs held it up in
an affectation Of pious horror worthy of Amin
adab Sleek, as a monstrOus revelation of Off
cial corruption. The neutral hebdomadals,
with whom dyspepsia is the synonym for up
rlghtness, and snivelling the counterpart of
freedom of speech, adopted it as text for wea-
risome diatribes against all forms of partizan-
ship. and an indignant demand for the total ex-
tinction of every variety of political organiza-
ton, from ward or village caucus to nation
al convention. OF all the publicists of our time
these are the fellows for me. How vociferous-
ly they do rail at party sheets! With what de-
lightful self complacency they infuse into every
sentence delicate and neatly disguised hint
or suggestion, that their shop is the only place
where immaculate views of public affairs are
entertained. They have improved on those an
cient prototypes who thanked God they were
not as other men'-they pray God that he
will make other men like them. But when
they electrify their readers with literary stun
ner-a great Header in which lamentations
over Cne snorJ comings or oIncias. sIaceIuiIy al
ternate with sublime aphorisms on the beauty
of goodness and the duty of avoiding all en-
tangling alliances with political parties, the
chances are more than even that this speci-
of do lin, 10 hos
absurd and malignant lie, just then
afloat amid the mass of rubbish which is caught
up and put to service by the newspaper people,
No matter how inherently IMPROBABLE the lie
may be or from what anonymous or irresponsi
BILE source it may have been derived, this high
toned independent" Editor will adopt it.
without SO much as an if of qualification
and assai on the strength of it an in
definite lumber of men engaged in nation
al affairs of every grade from President
to tide waiter with redundancy CT calumnious
epithets, racy enough to excite the envy and
quicken the emulation of the keenest tongued
fish woman that ever sat in Billingsgate mar
ket. If any body has any doubt of the fidelity
of this picture, let him try years subscription
to one of these independent weeklies, and stu
diously compare its statements with actual
facts, and he will find to his indignant surprise
that they make it their business to take n ,ked
falsehood and dress it up in garb of sufficient
ly good English to conceal its deformity, and
then set it in circulation, to deceive and hum
bug as many of their readers as have no oppor-
tunity to detect the imposture. The very air of
sanctity they assume, invests these statements
wit orodiIi1fv What Cd
in such papers as the Mercury, Sun, Tribune, or
a dozen other sheets of that sort passes for just
as much as the rawlings of Brick Pomeroy did,
during Lincoln's time, or as the narrative of
the adventures of Baron Munchusen, has pass
ed for in literature since the day it was written.
The conductors of such journals pnt out their
diurnal fictions on the same principle, that the
connterfeiters "shove the queer not with the
expectation that they will generally circulate,
but that enough dupes will be found to make
the speculation profitable. If either can get
decoy of specious appearance to help him work
off his spurious stuff, he is happy. The conse-
quence is that the weekly newspaper, which
processes to discuss political topics from an in
dependent stand point, and to maintain
strict impartiality of judgment as between con-
tending parties, has, by lending credulous ear
to exparte libels upon leading officials, and by
believing without evidence, things which in
their very nature should have been discredited
unless substantiated beyond all possibility of
doubt, degenerated into mere tender to its
more unblushing, and hence less dangerous con-
temporaries, and is false light which ought to
be Stunned and put out. r'9gi,s.
In regard to this particular item of gossip, it
turned out that the figures named covered
period of ten years instead of four. The cor
rection would have spoiled considerable num-
Der of vehement protests against the moety
system, if 1T were not that the philosophers of
the press who vaunt their own morality and
impugn that of all other men, make it a rule
never to retract, qualify or explain. Once hav-
ing given publicity to an averment, they there
after regard it is piece of professional Ell
quette to defend it against all contradicting
witnesses, though their name be legion. Ex-
treme importantly may occasionally goad them
into an admission Of the testimony of an ad-
verse witness, bnt if so they take care to break
the force of his evidence by pointing out its
hopeless unreliabiity. As matte rlof course
this cheerful style of doing things deprives the
Vletim OF wilful misrepresentation of all
chance OF vindicaton with the few or many
who conhne their newspaper reading to this
particular species of journals AS a result,
many an honest blameless man, whom:the ext
gencies of the federal service has brought to
the front, and made conspicuous, has had his
name furnished, his character blighted his
life's life lied away to serve the purposes of
political campaign, initiated on the most high
sounding principles of reform, and pretending
to be altogether too exalted in purity to be
bound by the trammels of partizan fealty
just now it is the fashion to inveigh against