Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1878-01-04
THE SLANDEROUS PRESS.

AHN iAChl tiiC DGu VI NOlOntl
BLovE, published in the Los Angeles Mir
ror, is applicable outside of California. If
EvERs, or his co-laborers, had the mental
caliber to appreciate the sentiment, we
should call their especial attention to it,
but to such perverted tastes it would be
only another illustration OF casting pearls
before swine:
An industrious and earnest and dignified
press deserves the highest commentator.
To an editor who limits himself within
the Legitimate confines of his profession is
due an unusual NEED of praise. A sheet
that wantnnly assails character should be
visited with extraordinary severity. Good
men mourned when the era of newspaper
Islander was innugurated in this good State
OF California. Say what you may, the hu.
man family loves traduction as do hyenas
putrid carcasses. Both sexes and all class
es glont over murdered characters with
fiendish glee. 1t is a foul instinct that no
education or elevation can eradicate from
the human heart When the massacre of
character is emhlazoped in the form and
consistency of printed matter, then there is
experienced joy almost sublime. We say
the editor who parties or tr1es with the
fame OF a citizen deserves the severest rep
rotation - the most scourging anathema
verbal calumny may run along from
mouth to mouth, hut il will flag and tire
in time. IfunfUunded, it will rebound most
iniuriouslr upon its malignant author; then
has the vili6ed one his personal redress on
the base concoctor. 1t is true, the letter of
the law may inhibit such summary vindi.
cntioni but just public sentiment, para
mount to legislative enactments, will ever
justify telling to the earth convicted
slanderer. There starts in our pathway, as
our saviour, the supreme law OF lf-defense,
the main constituent OF mans erect nature
that allies him to Deity.
II is very wonderful. at this late day,
that a human being can resist, to the bitter
death, an attack upon his person, and yet
remain inert and powerless when his i'm
mortal part, the very salt and SAVIOR Of his
existence, is assailcd. Character is the
aroma, the sweet perfume of the soul.
Blight it, and no healing efficacy can buoy
up or restore. More right have we to
cudgel and slay those who wound charac-
ter, than those who seek to mutilate our
coarser and material bodies. If, then. the
principle of self-deiense apply against the
slanderer. whose venom is limited to mea-
ger neighborhood, shall the more powerful
libeler insert his fangs with impunity?
The malice OF the one dies out from very
apathy; or an intelligent community has
tens to repndiate the charge and contound
its author. But once let the press catch
up tale of infamy, and it becomes liy-
ing thing, endowed with Immortality and
ceascleSs motion. 1t becomes an earnest
constituent OF the very atmosphere we in
hale, The press has myriad of sympa-
thetic tongues, and its utterance is heard
alike on mountain top and over broad
savanna and through deepest ravine.
A name wounded by press will writhe
forever. The victim NAV die and his
homes moulder away, but the slander fits
ab0nt his tombstone. The injured one
may slay the editor after impoyerishing
him by scant legal remedy, but he can not
arrest the printed calumny. The earth is
full OF IT, and the newspaper is und ying as
Gods stars.
When the press OF California stepped it.
self in slander, it.did vast hurt to itself.
1t mingled aloes with the draught of its
existence. II painted the chalice with an
ehol shade. Ii created disease in the
public mind, which can only be alleviated
Ivy continuous and more poignant ISLANDERS
"A newspaper conducted on sound princi.
Piles, with its compliments of late inteli-
gence and literary excerpts and well digest
ed editorials, is now too tame and insipid
for the present vitiated taste. The press
must contain something monstraus. The
details Of murder or rape are very good
but the sheet is incomplete unless char
acier is dissected and tsquivering muscles
laid hare aud bloody before the cannibal
reader. No age or sex or condition must
be spared. The nohler and higher the
mark, Ihe more vendihle the paper. O! il
is rich season for these newspaper senv.
engers, those hidenns chouls that slay and
reduce TO pntrelaction and then feed on
the corruption made, when questions Of
public moment are ngitating the good pub.
lie. Under pretext Of public censnrs and
party vigilanls, they can now lacerhte and
tear in pieces the prominent men Of the
land. a premium il offered for malice.
Each refuied story. from boyhood up, il
blazoned abroad. GO0d acts are distorted
and indiseretiOns are tainted with crime.
The lieentiOnsness OF tie press il fast
beHiOwing our public offices upon the cor
rnpt OF the State. II Is driving modest
integrity into privacy. Such only Rs are
Indifferent to reputation, or who Will ppr-
chase Immunity from Islander, will here
after prance over the political arena. We
dsprecate the present low condition Of a
pol,ioa Of lhe California Press.