St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1889-12-19
Gbe CALIFORNIAN.
sENsA TTONAL JOURNALISM.


sENsA TIONAL JOURNALISM
Not less prominent feature in
much that is called journalism, is the
habitual and wanton defamation of
personal character. Libellous abuse,
especially of political opponents, or
of any individual who has in any
way provoked the hostility of the
manager, is SO common and constant
as to attract comparatively little at
tentiOn. Many a journalist would
laugh at the suggestion that he
should refrain from the publication
of a malicious and defamatory story
concerning the candidate he seeks to
defeat, merely for the reason that the
story is falsehood. He would prob
ably reply, in the slang of the trade,
that lit is good enough Morgan I'M
til after the election" There is no
law of libel in this country, except in
theory. Practically, it has no force.
The newspapers are strong enough
to make it virtually pOwerless. The
peculiar kind of legal talent that is
always available when anything
especially base is to be defended, is
quite able to make the remedy of the
plaintiff much worse than the injury
complained of and no man resorts
to it twice.
But these are offences against the
individual chiefly, except so far as
they tend to debase the popular
taste, and blunt the sense of what is
due to private rights. A more seri-
Gus mischief to the public is to be
found in the unclean and repulsive
sensa tional narrat ives with which so
many columns of papers of this class
are filled; the criminal, obscene, and
demoralizing incidents, which, bad
enough when merely reported as
part of the news of the day, are spun
out, elaborated, and repeated with
an infinite variety of disgusting and
unwholesOme detail; the lives and
conduct of the criminal, the vicious,
and the Profiigate; the most I'M
savOry of the contests in courts of
justice, amplifed and adorned; all
that panders to the morbid and de-
PRAYED taste
That this material sells freely is
true. There is no merchandise SO
profitable as garbage. Publishers
would not print it if a certain large
class of readers did not demand it
No one becomes purveyor of gar
bage for the mere pleasure of hand
ling it From THE Age of Words"
ter to England, i'll December Scribner.
The Kind Wanted.
Nearly every word that comes to
us regarding the Swedes in this
country is of a hopeful nature They
seem to be an enterprising people |
bent upon keeping up with the
American procession. The Swedish
engineers in America met i'll Trenton,
New Jersey, last month to the num-
Der of forty. They held conference
with the purpose of adopting some
scheme favorable to national |
engineering society, having for its
purpose the advancement of Swedish |
civil and mechanical engineers now
in this country This is a good sign. |
. Burlington Free Press
Good Advice for Vermont Capitalists.
A considerable amount of New
England capital has been invested in
land around various growing South
ern cities or around cities which are
being doomed, and these lands and |
stock of the land companies are |
being offered to New England in
vestOrs. Some of these land COM
panies are solid and reliable, the |
land being i'll, OF surrounding, cities
which have solid and reliable in
Il,
This class of land stock is safe in
vestment Other land companies
are organized by the purchase of
cheap lands around some town or
centre which offers no greater adj
than that of hundreds of
other towns, but by Industrious
booming by the promoters and f1orid
of advantages, which
do not really exist, excursions and
various devices, those lands are
pressed upon the average investors
as most desirable places for the in
vestment There is danger in some of
these latest forms of Southern invest
ment offered to New England people;
full as much as in unreliable Western
farm mortgage companies, wildcat
ern railroads. The South is rich III
natural resources and offers most
fields for the profitable
of New England capital, and
much of the future investment of the
surplus cash of our people will be in
that section rather than III the West.
Many of the schemes which are being
offered and persistently doomed
should be examined with great
cautiOn.-I Boston Commercial Bull
letin.
The Disgrace of the South.
The weather being unfavorable for
rifle maneuvers in the South, the low
ers of sport and Off-hand marksman-
ship are amusing themselves in the
towns and under cover. That was
a very clever bit of target work at
Ala, Wednesday night,
when DR. ]. D. S. Davis killed DIR. w.
l.. Chew shortly after they left the
of the medical society, which
we are told, was very har-
mOnious." Chew overlook Davis on
the walk and asked the privilege of
private conference Davis was too
quick for him, and Chew dropped
dead in his tracks. Davis might have
taken his time, as Chew was unarm-
ed. The pistol and cane tournament
in Judge Blanton's court at Mar
shall, Tex, on Friday, is not COM
pletely devoid of sporting interests,
it must be owned that the
cane is not considered good form on
the arena. 1t denotes ill-temper
rather than scientific skill, and is
now generally classed among the
vices of primitive age, like the