Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-09-25

all it reflects is a type Of the dolngs Of
the most of mankind. And finally, he will
declare that the Importance of news, no
matter what its character, is not always TO
be measured relatively to the concern of all
the land therein, but that a great part of
that complained of as unduly prominent, is
not so, when measured by the local i'm
portance of the affair, and that from
within that jurisdiction its relation to the
activities of the world must be judged.
And in saving this he would be iusti-
fed by the facts. Nevertheless, it remains
that the person who reads only newspapers
reads i'll. If his mental equipoise is to be
preserved, he ought daily to pay devotion
to something less sensational and more
serious, and something more eleyat-
ing and refining. We have been too long
in the business not to know that
while the newspaper is 4 great power, a
vital factor in civilization, an altogether
indispensable agency capable of great good
and great i'll, it ought not to be the sole
reading Of any human being. Like other
literature, it is full of lies and truths, of
deceit and Of straightforwardness Of enter
tainment and of mere amusement, of valu-
able information and a world Of trash, of
much good and much that is vicious, of
pure records, of good things and lofty and
cnnobling thought, and likewise of vile
r~ecitals, debasing criminal details and de-
moralizing chapters of vicious activity.
II engages in its service true men and wo-
men, who abhor untruth and impurity,
| and realize that every word they print is
a seed sown for good or i'll product but,
rs it is free to all to employ as an agency,
it also engages, unfortunately, in its service
| classes the New York Post describes
as "lying newspaper reporters and CORE
| spondents, men who make no p~retense OF
telling the truth and would smile if you
reproached them with not doing so. Their
skill in i~nventing and embellishing is in
fact their capital, and they find in a large
proportion of the newspaper offices a ready
market for their wares, OF which no ex-
posture can deprive them. 1t is rare in
deed to hear of an amusing, brazen core
spcndent being dropped for lying either
about persons, places or things. As long
as the proprietor finds the lies sell well, he
holds on to kim, while acknowledging the
Justice of all the harsh things You say
about him, or else sets him on you to cover
YOU with abuse and SANDER. In truth, 1t
might fairly be said that the most singular
phenomenon of modern society is the ex-
istence of a market for professional men
dacity, kept by professional moralists."
Our contemporary has by no means ex-
hausted the list or covered the ground.
There are other vicious men and women
employed, worse than the liars, ten-fold :;
the class who appeal to libidinous appe-
titles and whose reports and letters TEEN
with the most obscene descriptions and
impure illusions who strip enough of the
cover from modesty to make the pure
maiden blush and the honest youth
ashamed to look his sisters in the face
across the villainous sheet that beats its
way into the home under the guise OF a
newspaper. For the m%endacity Of the
newspaper there is the invulnerability of
truth for its assault upon modesty, its
tribute to salacity, its catering to the
scandal-loving taste, its ripping up OF char
acter and its damnable sowing of seeds that
develop lewd tastes, corrupt morals,
and result in wrecked virtue and ruined
lives there is no excuse. When it is
of thischaracter it belongs with the bawdy
i publications that the laws make GRIM
inal to have in possession, and the men
whose erotic drivel drips from their col
umns, deserve the l%oatling and contempt
of every man who has a mother to revere,
a sister to respect, a wife to cherish or a
child to nurture.