The Cheyenne daily leader. [volume] (Cheyenne, Wyo.) 1870-1884, 1881-01-23
MoNon.
AS shown Ina the Columns OF the
Cheyenne sun.

"a lie will travel many n league
while truth is putting on his boots"
A pertinent illustration of this proverb
has recently been shown in the columns
Of the SIN. After blackening the char
acter of an upright, honest man, whose
life has been open to the scrutiny of
this community for thirteen years, and
describing him in a column and u half
article as a black hearted villain and
blood thirsty rufian lying in wait with
two others in the stiffness of a Sabbath
evening to assault a holy man of God
and committing the shameful outrage,
the paper in question, when this So
called attack was known to be a tissue
Of lies, and the man was proved innocent
by a jury of his peers in a court of law,
refused to express any regret for the
damning libel it had printed, or to ac-
knowledge it was misled by the state
ment it had received and published
through its reporter. This may be
journalistic honor but if so there is more
''honor among thieves" The theory
Of the editor of the SIM when inter
viewed upon the matter, was that he re-
ceived the statement er parte, had it
written up by his reporter and printed
it as a matter of news, and he was will
ing the injured party should make a
statement of his own. That is to say,
that having stabbed a mar behind his
back at the demand of another, he was
willing the nal should dress his own
wounds and he would furnish the band
ages, but he could not possible humili-
ate himself so much as to admit that he
had done a %grievious. wrong unwillingly,
nor express the generous sorrow of one
who knows how deep and vital are
wounds inflicted upon a man whose re-
%putation-s his life. Imagine the cast
reversed and see how quickly the editor
who gave the world such q story would
''crook the pregnant hinges of the
knee" and make his abashed and hu-
initiating confessions.
1t looks very much rs if the Sun Of
flee is run on the principle that ''those
in authority are ordained of God'' and
and that it must simply do their bidding
''asking no questions for conscience
sake"-that a laboring man has but
small right to live any way, and nj
right whatever to a character.
The judge, the priest, the politician
may have a character-and the Sun al
ways has an assortment on hand to
supply for a proper consideration-but
q poor, Woodworking laboring man has
no occasion for the bubble reputa-
tion." l care not for the case between
Mr.. Cahill and Fathes Hayes but simply
use it to point a moral on the vicious
and a~trociously unjust system Of journ-
alism which the Sun practices.
The best citizen Of Cheyenne may
wake tomorrow to find in the Sun a
blood-curlipg tale of horror in which he
figures as the central devil, the whole
thing written up ''by our reporter"
with sensational head lines, and depict
ing an outraged community stirred to
the lowest depth of Indignation, and
after the story has been spread broad
cast, it is found TO be baseless-the man
is perfectly innocent. He has the privi-
lege of denial, but the Sum-that high
and mighty personilication of infalli-
bility takes back nothing - regrets
nothing. If the victim is so fortunate
rs to prove his entire innocence in q
court OF law, the paper will print the
finding of the court in an obscure para
graph ''as "a matter of news, " and its
soul of honor is forever appeased,
Meanwhile the thin air whispers the
story through every chink and crevice
in hundreds of homes-and the ghosts
and vultures of gossip are busy with the
remains of a once good name.
DO the people of Cheyenne admire
such a style of journalism or such an
exhibition of journalistic honor?
1. {. Il.