Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1881-07-01
mourued her as dead till the North Carolina
paper gave him happy surprise.


SOME PLAIN WORDS ABOUT so-CALLED NEwsPA
PEBs THAT wALLow IN THE MIRE, AND THE
PEOPLE WHO SUPPORT THEM.
[From the Rutland Heraid.l
A man who will denounce a newspaper az
both systematically indecent and untruthful
aud yet always subscribe for it had better
close his mouth on the subject of higher
methods Of journalism. man who takes a
newspaper because he is weak or wicked
enough TO fear its gun and wish to spike IL by
secretly supporting the very form of journal
ism that he pretends to despise, is a very poor
creature, but he is to our certain knowledge
a very common creature. The press owes
much 10 the public, and yet that part of the
public that deem themselves the representa-
tives of advanced thought and intelligence,
who are in favor Of nobler manners and purer
laws, owe something to the press and to
themselves They owe IL to the press when
they ask with owllsh solemnity the question,
why is not the press loftier in its aim and
more decent in its conduct, TO stop support
ing newspapers whose spirit they pretend to
spurn to defy the denuncation and hostility
Of those whose methods they describe as out
rageous, hbellous, untruthful and obscene
Does any man suppose newspaper will rise
above the dialect of the ditch the gossip Of
the gutter the politics of n police gazette,
who think they stand at the top of society
just as koenly as those whom we know wal
low at the bottom? ? No; your ribald news
paper will always be ribald just so long as it
finds that even the righteous, who feel tit to
call sinners to repentance, sneer at il on the
sidewalk and subscribe for it in secret The
public that bellows for a purer press can
always make the press what il chooses it can
always make its choice between journals of
good report and evil report it can choose
whether to encourage an editor to act up to
the best that is in him or to live forever on
the lowest levels of his calling, but when this
public has made its choice let ii be manly
enough to stand by its flag let it stop snuff
fling over the servility of press that it has
helped to make servile let il stop pretending
to be in passion over the quality Of paper
that it has elected to support in secret while
it sneers at it upon the sidewalk, saying il
canuot afford to be abused by il. The honest
man, who cannot afford to be abused by a
disreputable newspaper, had best review his
honesty, for his action casts suspicion on his
conscience the innocent man, who fears a
gutter snipe armed with a rotten egg, is sug-
gestive Of the sinking life and motion of a
serpent and the painted innocence of soiled
dove. Let no man pretend that he cannot af-
ford to have a bad newspaper abuse him as an
excuse for supporting it, fora man who
really cannot afford to have bad newspaper
abuse him is worthy Of all the abuse he
avoids; his very moral cowardice ndicts his
conscience and impugns his conduct. II he
takes wicked paper it is either because he
likes it, because he is as vulgar and coarse as
the paper, or because he fears it, lest it drag
to light some dark passage of his history and
place him in pillory by publishing his shame.
No honest man, no innocent man need pay
moral blackmail" by subscribing for an i'm
moral paper. The only persons that need be
afraid Of such papers are those who have lost
their heads through the cowardice that a
guilty conscience brings home to all. Nasty,
corrupt papers live upon the suffrages of
those who sincerely relish rbaldry aud false
hood, or upon those who are cowardiy be-
cause they are corrupt; it is nothing but the
pickpockets dread Of the detective, who has
himself the temperament of thief.