St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1884-04-20
PUBLISHED DETAILs OF CRIME.

bowed down shoulders, but rather, JOY
full crown for the temples"
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PUBLISHED DETAILS OF CRI1IE.
The minute and voluminous detail crimes of
of every hue and measure and quality
with which the daily press teens is beginning
to command extensively the attention and
apprehension of thoughtful minds. Every
form Of vice, wickedness and crime, is given
with minuteness often startling, always
painful and very frequently disgusting.
Every phase and hue of domestic in
felicity and social criminality are given with
apparently salacious JUNCTION, giving re-
hearsal of transactions and occurrences pos
itively unfit for perusal, conversation or
or contemplation, in the unsoiled, uncon-
taminated sacred precints of the family cir
Gle. Not only is it now the custom of local
reporters to gather up the details of the
events of the criminal and Shiny slums,
but the associated press reports come loaded
down with accounts of every monstrous, as
well as almost nameless crimes and out
RACES, as well as minor petty criminality, oc-
curing in every nook and corner of the
country and almost of the whole world. Thus
every morning is presented budget Of hor-
rors, startling in detail, exaggerated often
for sensational effect, but deleterious in in
1uence upon youthful inexperienced minds.
The ''yellow covered literature" and the
''Dime Nover' are cried out against for their
impure, deleterious, and harmful influence,
but in how much are the criminal columns
of a large portion of the daily press better
than those. The circulation of obscene lit
erature is punishable offence,
the circulation of the New York
much as PERSONS reputation is worth to be
seen reading it, How much better
than these, are the daily published police
court reports, which are eagerly sought for
and gloated over by the impure minded?
It is gratifying to know that there are hon
orable exceptions in the daily press; that
there is occasionally journal, so just and
true that it eliminates from the associated
press and police reports the impure scan
dals unfit to be read or thought Of. The
general daily press in New York has very
much lowered its standard of propriety by
the wholesale publication of fetid details Of
vulgar criminality, but there are honorable
exceptions there, and in Chicago, and we
could well hope in other cities where due dis
elimination is practiced in publishing the
base deeds of humankind, emitting a re-
hearsal of the low, wretched and polluting
vices that disgrace humanity.
In this regard for the welfare of mankind,
for the elevation of society, for the advance
ment of civilization itself the practice of the
general daily press should be reformed.
Doubtless the volume of crime is increased
by such publications, the tastes of the young
vitiated and their minds poisoned. Certain
ly the community would lose nothing by the
omission of filthy details that are disgrace
to newspaper columns. Instead of the risk
of coming under the imputation of lack of
enterprise, that journal ought to be honored
that bravely omits much of the detail of low
vice and crime that affiict distress, and dis
grace humanity. No wonder that taking in.
to view the report of the daily press many
are impressed with the belief that the world
is growing worse instead of better, that chris
tianity is failure as a remedy for crime and
vice, that the world is so overborne by
wickedness, that its end is near, and that
already may be discerned the rapidly ap-
preaching end of time.
The gigantic wickedness of man, before
the flood, caused the worlds destruction
What better is this generation than that, ex
claimes the startled and alarmed reader of the
reported crimes, vices and pollutions of the
world. The world may not be growing
worse; wickedness of every hue and form
have abounded in all ages, but the knowl-
edge of it was isolated and confined to the
locality of its occurrence, except in extraor-
binary and exceptional cases, but by modern
Inventions and appliances, all the daily
wickedness of the world is gathered up, and
as by the lightnings flash, is poured like a
concentrated torrent upon amazed and start
Id communities. All honor to such publica-
tons as enter into the work of reform in this
direction, and send out for public perusal,
only such chastened and purified columns as
can be read without blush, or shudder in
virtuous and refined family circles.