The Portland daily press., 1875-05-18
Our New York Letter.
The scandaI-Uawarranf Assaults upo
Witnesses by Newspapers.
NEW YORK, May 16, 1875.

as much of plaintiff as of defendant, trial of
public patience and trial to all the witnesses
major and minor who have appeared In it whether
voluntarily or compulsion 1t has been pro-
life of stage effects from first to last A great
deal of it that has seemed incomprehensible to
the general public has had an occult meaning
perfectly explicabe to the initiated. The prin-
cipal actors have been manifestly well versed
in the parts assigned them, and obviated the
necessity of evoking the help of the prompters,
by previous careful study of their share in the
text and their attitudes iE the tableaux.
The witnesses have not only been subjected
| to the inquisitorial rigors of cross examination
but each in turn has stood for few photo
| graphs executed with all the power OF imagina-
| tion possessed by a corps of skilful reporters.
These playful limners have as general rule,
been far less careful about the accuracy than
the impressiveness of their pictures. By way OF
making the situation imposing, the lawyers and
the reporters on the anti-Beecher side both
took turn at Mr.. Southwick, the closing wit
ness for the defence. The former knowing him
to be an ardent admirer of Beecher and an inn
movable believer in his purity and truth
bethought them of the possibility of bis having
now days and therefore asked him IL he had
any bets pending on the result of the trial. He
answered in the negative. The reply was
disappointment to the counsel, evidently, and
he repeated bis question, and received second
negative response. This might have ended the
| matter, but the witness appeared to have had
| in his mind the old story of the man in court
who being asked the distance between two
| points which were under discussion, gave the
exact number of feet and inches and on being
| inquired of how he eould swear to them so
minutely turned the laugh against his interro-
| gators by naively saying that he anticipated
some id fool would ask him the question
and so be measured it! In the same way the
| final witness in this trial volunteered the in
| formation in perfect good nature, and with
| evident enjoyment of the humor of the thing,
| that he had made wager of an hundred dol
| lars that the jury would find for the defendant
but thinking he might be examined on that
| point he had taken the precaution to withdraw
| the bet. The intimatiou conveyed In his man
ner clearly was that the withdrawal was not
| influenced by the smallest doubt of his win
ming, but merely by misgiving as to the pro-
| priety of his being interested in result which
| he was avowedly anxious to promote. The
| frankness with which he stated the fact, was
| calculated ~ make a favorable impression alike
| on the jury and the audience. 1t was the part
| ing shot in the engagement, and the plaintiffs
| counsel got the worst of it.
But there was still the great outside jury to
| be addressed through the newspapers, and the
| reporters who act as counsel before this tribu-
| nal thought it necessary to break the force of
| the recol by some disparaging illusions to the
witness. So after distortiDg the testimony as
| ingeniou,ly as they could they INDUCED in
| some playful illusions to his personal appear
ance, describing with far more piquancy than
exactness his bearing and costume, the color
and curliness of his hair, the shade of his neck
tie aud other little mnuti@ of like nature. On
the whole, they represented him as a cross be-
tween fashionable fop and young gentle
man of pronounced sporting procvties. Per
haps there is no great harm done in this in
stance. These pleasantries of the newsmongers
have grown too common and chronic to excite
any degree of ire. Aud yet it is a question
how far this style of thing may be carried with
| impunity. The freedom of the press should
hardly be so ilimitable as to give license for
every conceivable excess of personal abuse Of
| individuals who do not force themselves upon
| public attention but are compelled by legal
process to appear in courts of justice.
| In this case neither age, sex nor previous
| good standing have availed to protect those
| whe had had the misfortune to be called to de-
pose on either side, from jeeriDg comment not
| always from brutal aspersion. And yet it is
difficult to imagine that any but the more i'm
mediate actors in the scene were there of their
own volition. SO far as know there has been
a very general reluctance to appear, both be-
cause of the notoriety attending it, and through
terror of the mercess bandits who never hesi-
tate to immediate victim for the sake of CIV
ing spice to a paragraph The willing wit
nesses who may possibly number half dozen
beside the principals, are perhaps to be consid-
cred fair game for the quill drivers, but beyond
that, it was an affront to the court, and an out
rage upon decency to caricature, or even to at
tempt to delneate-without malice-the little
peculiarlties of dress or carriage of each party
as he or she appeared and disappeared upon
the stage while this uniqCe and protracted
spectacle was on exhibition.
1t so happens that am very we'll acquainted
with the witness who was so grossly travested
by two or three of these journalistic appren-
tices who worked up the Brooklyn trial and
can therefore bear testimony to the wide diver
sity between their fancy and the fact. He is
Woodworking, psins-taking, thrifty and enter
prising merchant, who came TO New York, In
his boyhood, from a New England town-al-
ways earned his own living-gradually in
creased his store by unremittng toll Of
| hand and brain, and has the true
Yankee acqusitveness not merely in re-
spect of money but of mental culture He
has been a constant attendant upon Mr.. Beech
| er's ministry during the eighteen years sue
ceeding his majority, and entertains for his be-
| loved pastor those sentiments of reverence, az
fection and trust which are peculiarly charac-
teristic of the great congregation of Plymouth
church. He is by no means an anchorite-does
not reject all pleasures as sinful-has reason
able appreciation of this world and the sources
of sensible enjoyment it supplies, likes books
and pictures and holds in just estimation the
comforts and luxures of refined social life, Is
fond Of good play or opera, but after all rel
ishes no intellectual exercise so much as he
does the Sunday morning sermon Of Mr..
Beecher, which he goes four miles to hear as
regularly as the sabbath comes, at all seasons
and in all kinds OF weather.
To a sensitive man of this type it cannot but
be annoying to be held up for the first time in
his life as debonar youth of sporting tenden-
cies and propensity to be fast. One who
brides himself especially on his standing as a
merchant, whose name to bond or note gives 1t
unchallenged currency, who lorg in advance of
his wears, has won place at the head of the
branch of trade with which he is identified sud-
denly finds himself lampooned by set of fel-
lows who have no more conception of his real
character aud qualities, than they have of their
obligation to obey the ninth commandment
The thing is not to be borne with patience. 1t
is grievous wrong. Public men have endured
this sort of Misrepresentation so long that
they have become Injured TO it. 1t is bad
enough in their case, but it has grown so COM
mon that very little notice is taken of any pas
| auinade hurled at the incumbent of an official
station 1t is a different thing however, when
private citizens, forced into momentary publci-
ty by the memorable mandate of the law, are
subjected to contumely or derision. The court
itself, ought, in conservation of its own digni-