Knoxville weekly chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1875, 1874-02-11
THE INDEPENDENT y PRESS.

ton, who think 1t an CvideuCe or fndcpenu-
ence to throw filth at public men, one
would suppose they were virtuous in the
superlative degree. But according to re-
cent developments, which, by the way,
they have alluded to very gingerly, and
some Of them not mt all, it appears that
these immaculate penny-a-rners are "on
the make whenever an opportunity pre-
SCENTS ITSELF Some OF them have been
economizing their stationary accounts by
using paper, pens, ink, ETC., belonging to
the Government. 1t appears further that
they have been cogitating among them
selves and planning how they could add
to their salaries by writing up the
approaching Centennial Exposition. This
Is all that has leaked out
yet, but the probability is that their pri
vatC matters were looked into as closely
and as zealously as they have rrved into
the private matters of certain public men,
several black spots could be found With
out being under the necessity Of Gauu;aC-
turing facts to prove charges. The iGr' is,
there are some of the rscurviest fellows en-
gagged in this business thar c.a-ls fVld
anywhere. They take advantage of q 49,
timent that prevails among newspaper
readers favorable to everything that is sen,
sational, to Islander and blacl1-mail public
men, and they often do it without the
shadow of preteXt, hoping thereby to
gain notoriety and occasionally find a
weak victim, who will pay them hush
money.
No public man hopes, or need to hope,
for escape from their slanderous notice.
The veriest pimp or blackguard can court
their favor and be written up in excellent
style as q model of craftsmanship, while
the purest man il all the country, if he
turns his back upon them, incurs their
malice and becomes the target for their
scandal.
1t is unnecessary for US 10 say that such
men and such a course is a disgrace to
American journalism and an abuse Of the
freedom of the press. 1t turns what should
be and is a powerful instrument in shap-
ing public opinion into an engine fof the
propagation of SANDER \ recent editorial
in the Washington Euening star so well
! expresses our opinion on the subject that
we take the liberty of copying from it.. 1t
says:
! The reader of these papers vino believes
! what he sees there habitually must come
! to the inevitable conclusion that there is
| no God, no future, no virtue ia man or
] woman. The effect is to make cynics, in
| fidels and misanthropes of all, and es-
| Eecially impressionable young people, who
| get their ideas from these sheets. AL gen.
erous aspirations, hopes and faiths are held
! uD to utter scorn and derision by the back
bites and sneerwells who guide the " indie
| pendent infidel press. There are no
bounds to their Mephistophelean mirth
| when some unsophistieated yoush, fresh
from the family circle, ventures the opin-
| jon that there are true men and women in
! the world. How they roar with laughter
at the idea that any man in public life who
processes morality or religious belief is not
an arrant hypocrite. What exuberant
delights theytind in repeating many times
a day the sucering appellation of " Chris
tiau statesman What an unfailing
Subject OF derision with these papers is
the effort of 1.-The Young Christians " OF
the country TO bring young men from the
streets and the grog-shOp, to the influences
OF the library, the lecture-room and tho
I church. When the New Y ork Sun Ia its
trade of defamation, pronounces the WON.
\ en- i'll Government employ, one and all, Z
set of sham eless- prostitutes, how greedily
the mutual admiration society of independ
ent papers in Cincinnati, Louisville, Chi
cage and elsewhere, copy the vile Islander
with piquant head lines and editorial notes
Of explanation and admiration. And when
an indignant response Is made repelling
the miserable falschood and pointing ou
that large proportion Of these female
clerks are the wives and daughters of oul
patriot dead struggling to make an hones
livelihood for themselves and the feeble
and helpless ones dependent upon them
does the Sun and its sympathetic sneererl
of the independent press retract the
SANDER? oh no, they never retract. Thi!
would take away their independence
their infaliibility as the expounders of the
doctrine of total blackness. How tn
echoes wake up the line of the independ
ent schOol-for-scandal press when a clergy
man falls from grace. How instantane
ously the delightful It'd -bit is reproduced
and with what chorus Of sneers at tn
"cloth.n a black sheep here and there i
; paraded as type of the whole clergy
They can make no discrimination in favo
of the grand army of true, self-denyini
preachers who have labored to make thei
fellow man better and happier in thi
world and to give them faith and hope 70
| the great future. Truly we ought TO b
proud Of our dignified, judicial, large
minded, public spirited, Oenigusnt, "inde
pendent press"
TuE whole country regards with iLtege4