Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1875-07-08


old and unfounded prejudice.
TTo BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK.
Mistellaneons &eaaing.
NEWSPAPERS.
AS newspapers, simply, those of America
are the best in the world The entire globe
is raked, and raked clean every day, of Incl
dent, movement and event to be blazoned
upon their teeming pages. Science, religion,
politics, society, commerce, agriculture, me
chanics, all things of human concern, find
place for every fact and phase in their COL
umns. The llghtnings are their messengers,
winnowing the midnight world with their
wings, and bearing in their beaks from the
harvest-6elds of thought and action every pre-
cious seed that has ripened and dropped dur
ing the day. No cost of toll or gold dismays
them. Their servants are on every battle
field, in the thick of every mob, in the forests
and the deserts, on the mountains and on the
seas, watching kings, watching parliaments,
sitting by the side Of the astronomer in his
vigils, recording the message of the preacher,
counting the steps of scientific progress, and
bearing the product of all this enormous en-
terprise and industry, morning by morning,
to the homes Of the nation. The outcome Of
this worldwide inquisition and exposition
rises almost into the realm of miracles. We
have no words to express our admiration OF
it-no phrases by which we can measure the
height and depth and length and breadth of
the largesse it contains and the influence it
exerts.
This much we can say with entire truth.
fulness this much we can say with thor
ough heartiness. To preside over great
American newspaper is to hold and exercise
one of the most digni6ed Offices of the world.
Now, let US open the newspaper and see how
it looks. Freighted with the worlds great
affairs, loaded down with the hopes, struggles,
misfortunes, crimes, triumphs and achieve
ments of humanity, we expect to find it ear
nest, digni6ed and catholic The first thing
we see is half a column of sensational head
ings, addressed, perhaps, to the prurient Gu
riosity of the basest men. We open West
ern paper, and find over an item of intelli-
gence, or of falsehood, concerning grievous
scandal, the word "HeU" in as large letters
as can be squeezed into column. This is
followed by minor heads, every one of which
is intended to produce sensation. We 60
on through the paper, and it is all sensation.
Oftentimes the headings mislead as to the
real character of the Intelligence to which
they are the preface. All the news chronicled
is wrought up into its most startling forms.
To pique curiosity, to raise feeling, to attract
attention, to appeal to the marvellous, to be
stunning, rather chan simple and true, are the
apparent motives of the conductor.
Is this an extreme case? We can furnish
papers by the hundred that steadily pursue
this course as a matter of policy. 1t is not
enough that we have party presses in religion
and politics that give party shape to every
thing that comes to them. 1t is not enough
that we have presses that rejoice in scandal
and crime, and take greater delight in them,
and take greater pains with their details than
are excited by those affairs which mark the
advance of the world in goodness and wis
dom. 1t is not enough that there are papers
which mould all things that they touch to
the personal purposes and prejudices Of their
conductors. If a thing is tame it must be
whipped into startling appearance. Ifit is
sad ad-inexpressibly sad from its badness-its
badness must yield the requisite sensation.
Great and good names are jested with. Top
ics involving the most precious interests of the
human race, are tossed Aippantly about, like
the balls ola juggler, to attract the eyes OF
the gaping multitude. Subjects of which
children can never know too little, are laid
before the family eye as familiarly as if they
we're not stepped in shame. To receive the
worlds news, in the spirit and shape in which
it is presented to millions of readers every
day, is to suppose that all the worlds momen-
tous events are conceived in fever and brought
forth in Mysteries.
If any thing were really gained by this
course there might be poor apology for it,
but nothing ever was gained by it. The pa
pers which indulge in it most are least trust
ed. The moment an editor becomes thor
oughly conscientious and recognizes the i'm.
portance and dignity of his position, he drops
sensational headings with disgust
Shall we mention another sin ? Have we,
to-day, any such thing in America as private
life? Is private man, or even mans fam
lily, safe from public mention? Alas that
the press has an apology for its familiar hand.
ling of private names and private affairs.
Alas that there are so many in private life
who rejoice in the public airing of their per-
and their personal movements.
Alas that the details Of private life are de.
voured so greatly by so many who do not
seem to know that the love of notoriety is vul-
gar, and that their desire to pry into the life
of others compromises their dignity and their
neighborly good will, After all, is it dig
nifed business for the press to minister to this
low and unhealthy greed? Is the world so
barren of great topics that the press, psrtorce,
must transform itself into neighborhood tat.
tier and public gossip? Are valuable opin-
ions and valuable intelligence so scarce that
it must send its prying interviewers out among
the ranks Of private men, to worm out their
secrets, on pain Of misrepresentation and
abuse, and spread them before curious pub
lie? The American press Of the future will
not do it, unless civilization shall retrograde,
and our nation remain nation of children.-
Dr.. j. G. Holland,
MISTAKES MATRIMoNIAL.-That the SUBJ
ject is lamentably old we readily admit; but
what matters that, so long as humanity is
ever new? Marrying and giving in marriage
will continue to the end of the world, but, for
all that, great number Of marriages prove
q mistake. Unfortunately, when men and
women have matrimonial designs upon each
other, they endeavor to hide their true char.
acters, and, however dissimilar their tastes, to
pretend they are alike. The rules of etiquette
are such that a course of deception is render