The Arkansaw traveler., 1885-08-29

pass the criminal amendment bill raising the @age of consent" in females to eighteen years. It IS quite likely that such law would be a strong protection to young girls. Granted that it would, has the GdSekte gone to work in the right way to pass such law, and make 1t the most effective when it is passed Is there any reason to suppose that the govern ment would have been less willing or likely to pass the criminal amendment bill if the GsSekse had offered its evidence without first throwing it broadcast on the streets Would the home secretary have expressed any less surprise. or been any less anxious to press the bill, if Mir. Stead had had his famous interview with him before instead of after the publication Would the Mansion House committee have been any less shocked or mortified, or any less willing to indorse the evi- dence, if MT. Stead had not first sent it into every English home! There is but one answer to these questions. The law could have been passed without sowing the seed ot future harvest of corruption.
 The course of the Gasekks has been in- dorsed by men of the highest station and morality of England. The tune IS com. ing when these men will repent in bitter ness of spirit the day when they approved the publication of obscene literature The matter is not going to end with the passage of the criminal amendment bill Publicity is the worst course possible in such affaits. The old system of public hanging was responsible for more crimes than it punished. The old story of pub l,~ kAhAaAinn n( a hsv Cf ole se case in point. The crowd of spectators was thrilled as the first head fell in the basket, looked unmoved on the second, aud, when the execuiioner accidently dropped the third, cried in derision, "Ah, now, Bu,teifingers P ln the England of the last century, and in some parts of the south to-day, hanging is looked OF as a pleasing public spectacle, and its demor- alizing effect is we'll known. Can 1t be supposed that the result of the GaSetke publications will be any les; demoralizing2 Is it not certain to be ali the worse where the Spectators are vastly more numer- ous2
 We have considered the whole matter from the standpoint of London alone. Where can the justihc ation for the pub lication be found when we reflect that the Gazette, laden with its suggestions of vi- cious possibilities, is making its way to every city and village in the English speaking world2 Editor Stead may have trusted, if he thought about the matter at all, that the cities outside of London and the countries beyond England were able to protect themselves They ought to be; but it is wellknoSn fact that they are not. From every prominent city in America comes the complaint that re- print of the Gasefte's obscenities is being sold openly. Our laws may be good, but their enforcement is not. Men can poi son their bodies with strychuine or their minds with the PaN Mall GaEekfc, in spite of stringent laws.
 The Gasekte is as powerless to recall the evil 1t has done, and is doing, as was Pandora to recall the Mischiefs when they were once out of the box. We hope that the American press will take more than surface view of the whole matter. There are newspapers in our great cities that are planning to follow in the Gasttte's footsteps. The syndicate of papers that published 900 words of the PaH Mall GaSefte, and paid for them at ca ole rates, show how far they are prepared to go. It is the earnest wish of every though ful and upright citizen that they may rest sat ished with the enterprise they have already shown. There are plague spots in American cities, but they can not be cured by the newspaper.