The record-union., 1892-04-22
EARTHQUAKE EVENTS AND SEN
SATIONALISM.

The disposition to make the recent dis
turbances of the crust of the earth sensa-
tional in news articles is neither enter
prising nor benefcent. To create alarm
that is utterly useless, to cruelty excite
fears of the timid, and the alarm of the
weak, is but to contribute to that state of
the public mind that cannot otherwise so
well be described as by the word
''panicky." a panic under all circum-
stances is bad; fear, alarm, timidity
break down the barriers Of judgment and
remove the common guards Of good sense.
To appeal to fear and to quicken alarm
about earthquakes is, therefore, simply
to augment human misery and invite
disaster. What in troubIous times is
needed is cool judgment, resolution,
presence of mind.
A San Francisco newspaper, inspired
by the sensational craze, sent to this
office yesterday an urgent request for
photographs Of the ruins and of badly
damaged buildings in this city. But
there are none to be given, and even the
widest Imagination could scarcely tor
ture any earthquake injury in this city
into importance worthy of illustration.
If any possible good could come of
working up alarms it would be excus-
able, but there is nothing to be gained
and very much of injury to be taken, by
uselessly alarming the people. Simple,
cold statement of fact ought to be suffi-
cient in these cases, without any effort to
make the courageous doubtful or the fear
full panicky.
The tendency of the times is that of
drift into the sensational in all things.
The alarmist and sensation creating news
gatherer appears to have so stimulated
the appetite for cross bones and bloody
head matter, for erotic and scandalous
recitals, and immodest and indecent mar
rations, that without regular dishes of
scandal and excitement and horror, the
newspaper, to large body of people, is
tasteless and insipid.
The result of the disposition to ''sensa-
tionalize''-if the word is pardonable-
will probably be fully reflected in the
press Of the East when the news of the
recent earthquakes is printed there, the
sensation accounts being taken from CAL
ifornia sensational journals as true. The
result will be no good to anyone, and
hmitless harm to California. The recital
of simple facts would, however, leave the
judgment free, and that ought to be the
chief end of the news gatherer and pub
Usher in this, as in all other cases.
As matter of fact, earthquakes for
more than 100 years have visited this
coast, and with general decline in in
tensity. They have shaken up Boston,
wrecked Charleston, shocked New York,
broken plastering in the valleys of Ohio,
made earth assures in Pennsylvania,
thrown over old blue china pitchers
throughout New England, made mount
aims smoke on the north and the swamps
VI l. AOAANAh SAleFAC 11AC JO44g AL DaILS OF
our continent have been visited by them.
We have had them in California some
what more frequently, but never with
any resulting damage at all comparable
with the effects of every years storms of
the elements at the East.
OF course the earthquake is terrifying,
because the human being is utterly help
less in its presence. But the press should
not be terrified, nor by greed led into
sensation methods, in the face of duty,
and duty should not permit such presen-
tation OF news as to convey the impress
sion to the people of the East that this
spot we call California is next door to the
internal regions