The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1881-04-20

90 on WIN Tue puullc Uusloess WILL
they can pay a repudiator the price
stipulated for his purchase.
Clean Newspapers.
The New Orleans Democrat quotes
the Boston Herald, and adds it's own
observations upon the need of clean
sing TIE newspapers Of the filth that
now besmears them. The demand
of publication is made none too soon.
There are some newspapers that not
only polish accounts Of broils, rapes,
seductions, social scandals, ETC., but
hire scavengers in remote towns to
hunt them up and pay for telegraph.
ing them. The first page of most of
the northwestern papers is a dis
grace to the communities where they
are published, and we fear that the
southwestern press is not wholly sin.
less. How many New Orleans papers
publish telegraphic dispatches from
Texas which contain nothing more
important than that two or more
rowdies had fight, and one or both
were wounded or killed, or from
Shreveport that father had shot
the betrayer Of his daughter, and
thus adding to the girls calamity by
publishing her shame to the world.
How long ago was it that the details
of false marriage. with full names
of the parties, were hunted up by a
reporter, whose scent for carrion
must have been whetted by personal
spite, and the whole disgusting story
published with a flourish, and a boast
that no other newspaper had got
wind of it. What refined man or
woman wants to know such things2
Formerly such narratives were
confined to the Police Gazette and
like publications, and people of pru
rient tastes knew where to go to find
the food they delighted in, while de-
cent folk could avoid having often.
sive matter thrust before their eyes.
But so contagious is bad example
that this sort of news is admitted
into the greater part of the Ameri-
can press now, and some newspapers
seem to think it an evidence of en-
terprise if they can get a batch of
kilograms from various localities,
blazoning local events that are al
most always unimportant and often
nasty.
1t is then a matter of congratula.
ton that the two prominent journals
already mentioned have sounded the
alarm, and will endeavor to repress
this vicious tendency of the newspa-
pers. 1t is the more incumbent for
such a cleansing process to be insis-
ted on by leading papers, because the
press has acquired all influence and
a position that has made it the edu.
Gator of the people, the companion
of every mans Preside, the visitor
to every woman's boudoir. Since
its power is great for evil as we'll as
good, it behooves those who manage
and conduct it to see that the public
mind is purified, and not poisoned,
by it's influence.
Mr.. ED1ToR--
I live on I'd Street in Alexandria,
and while it is unpleasant to inter-
fere in the business Of neighbors, /
must nevertheless protest against
the appropriation of the sidewalk to
individual use. This was once con
sidered the incest street in Town but
latterly it looks like a turkey with
one wing. We have one sidewalk,
the other is now being built on by
private individuals. 1t would be
worth a mans life to undertake to
walk on the right side of the street
of a dark night. Complaints have
been made but no notice taken of
them. Should the municipal gov.
eminent fail to protect the rights of
the citizens in Town to their public
ways, private individuals must see
to it. / hope this matter will be no.
ticed by the Town Council. IT.
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PEOPLE IN GLASS HousEs.-While
1t may be proper that those "living