Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1883-03-23
A MATTER oB DEcsNcY.

There has been very much more of de-
tail sent over the wires about the Haver.
stick. Conkling tragedy in New York, than
there is any warrant for. We have had q
surfeit of the amours of a shameless woman
and libertine, and the disgrace of
brother of the creature who has dyed bis
hands in blood. If it were not so disgust
ingly horrible and bestial it would be alb.
surdly amusing to see a whole nation
stirred up about such q lot of people. Who
are they, and what are they, that our
wives and children should be RECALLED day
after day with their doings, and amours,
and flights, and escapades, and murders,
and family histories, and closeted skele.
tons Ia there nothing else at the East
more worthy of the attention of the news.
gatherers? What earthly difference does
il make that the harlot who deserted hus-
band and children for the embraces of a
roue, had her parlor hung with rich
tapestry. that her bedstead was of bur.
nished brass and it's hangings of blue satin
and old lace. Who should care, and of
what moment is it, that she tainted when
her paramour was shot down Why
should very ordinary stockbrcker, who
outraged all the decencies of society by
scandalous life, be lauded in resolutions by
his fellows, and why should they be tele-
graphed across the continent? We confess
to nausea on this subject. This public
does not posture as one of saints, or as
better than the average of communi-
ties, but certainly it has some re-
gard for the proprieties, and some
shame, and may indulge in an
occasional blush. The press of the day
needs to reform itself on these matters.
This is not the first time we have had occa-
sion to call attention to the evil. For a
week or more the press has been record Of
outrages and scandals that would make a
police gazette hesitate. It behooves the
great news journals of the East, the pow.
erful news-gathering associations, to start
the ball of reform at once, and reduce this
aggravating style of reporting to the lowest
Importance. THERE'S need for an evangelism
in press circles that shall kill out the COM
petition which alone affords the papers of
the day apology for the publication of the
insutferable and indecent trash that has
surged through their columns of late.
There should be a common effort on the
line of common sympathy among jour.
nalists in this regard. The papers of to-
day light their torches at common altar
that of public desire; but it must be re-
membered that the baser tastes do not re.
fleet the desires of the better multitude,
who have some thought for the purity of
the homes of the country. If this is not
true we are forced to the confession that
public morality is at a fearfully low ebb !;
that these publications but represent the
underlying baseness of the men and women
of this day and that the detailed history
of crimes and transactions that appeal to
the morbid desire for brutal excitement is
the reading the public most relishes. Is
the public ready to receive such a verdict :?
There would be less objection to the news
complained of if it was given coldly as
news; but the dishing of it up, the splicing
of it, the method by which it is made pal.
atable; therein reside the infamy and the
danger.