The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1893-05-25


,ha. "a s..t of dirty scea7drUis do not
arlg,,na.a a new scheuls for flooding the
vr,rId with this illustrated nith- Al
leas, a half dozen Of these viiisinous puo
licatiors have originated IN Ne" f"fA
within the past year and nave met
some of them. with relnarkAnie saies-
A rsau.r called Music AM Drama u now
heinz isst,ea In New York which Is dirtier
To the square ir.sh that even The Poiice
Gazette has dared Ia he sinceits puoiica-
tiou. Another villainous sheet called
broadway likewise touches lower
denths than The Police News. So we
might name scores OF other papers tha'
seek 10 live is the distributors OF nlth-
WORSE THAN soDoM AND GoaoRRAh"
The amount of obscene matter circn-
lated today in pictures Is something IN
caIculable to those who have not inves-
ti.sted il. The picture has come TO oe
a mart of literature as much as the let
tiers itself. Our daily newspapers are
now all illustrated. Our weekly news
papers are using illustrations. The pow
or of picture To bless or to curse Is a.
the power of the living. vital personality
itself. We look at the frescoes of buried
Pompeii with disgust and horror and
strive in our imagination to picture the
depth of their degradation. We look
with amazement upon the scenes at Cor
NTH in which the worship of Aphrodite
was conducted. But Corinth in her deg
radiation and Pompeii in her vulgarity
of art, if they should rise from the
dead. would certainly find new lessons
in their art from their modern ancestors.
The vendors of obscene matter in our
cities have gone to lower depths than the
ancient debauchee of these old world
centers. And not only so, butmen who
pretend to respectability in the business
world use these means of public de-
bauchery 10 advertise their wares. Every
saloon is filed with lascivious pictures.
Every cigar store is full of the most
vicious prints. Every whisky and beer
mandatory uses the vilest possible pic
lures which they think will pass the
notice of the police and the district at
torney for the purpose of attracting the
crowd of boys that passes the open show
window.
When returned to Cleveland ON the
day referred to after the conversation
with the newsboy on the train, he
brought to my hotel his sample album
of pictures. If man had told me there
were persons in America mean enough
to take such pictures, devil enough to
sell them as business, would utterly
have refused to credit the statement for
a moment. This album represented q
stock of negatives representing hun
dreds of subjects both of men and wom-
en- in every conceivable condition and
position. Their bestiality is something
indescribable, is something inconceivable
to those who have not seen them. 1t
simply passes the power of the average
human mind to believe such things to be |
possible till after they have been seen.
These pictures not only are made to |
represent every possible sin of lust and |
lustful passion, but every unnamable sin |
and debauchery of the human body.
Not only those for which Sodom and |
Gomorrah were destroyed, but acts of |
at which Sodom and Go
morrah would stand aghast if they could |
rise from the dead and see them today. |
These pictures are issued by the hun
dreds and the thousands in almost every
great eity-and by great city mean a |
city of 100000 inhabitants-in America.
The photographer who took them from
life, who prints and sells them, is doing
business on one Of the principal streets
To-Day in Cleveland, and The aewsboys
running out from Cleveland have actsd
Ind are acting, unless arrested, as his
agents. This Is but sample
If what is carried on on larger scale
rom Chicago as center. and from all 1
our great cities, with more or less Sc
'recy, but with large success.
Th1rd-We note the fact in the grow
ng power and influence of the criminal
laily newspaper. This successful sheet,
which Is practically report of daily
rhine, is the mother of the whole brood
If modern vicious letters. The editor of
he modern newspaper is the one man
Who in our daily life sweeps its whole
'amut. He alone is in position to speak
With authority and with freedom. Car
yle declares: 1.-THE true Church of Eng
and at this moment lies in the editors of
is newspapers. These preach to the
,eople daily, weekly. admonishing kings
themselves, advising peace or war with
n authority that only the first reform
rs and the long past class of popes were
'ossessed Of, infieting moral censure.
mparting moral encouragement, in ali
Ways diligently administering the dis
1pllne OF the church" This is undoubt- |
dly the position and the privilege of the
modern editor, and yet what are the
'a1nful facts with which we are CON-
ronted?
The motto of the successful newspaper
the line of successful news of TODAY
to give the people what they want
nd give them the very worst of It.
his editor has the power to poison the
o1nds and unnervo the arms of. thousands
ally with hatred, lies, ISLANDERS and ap-
eais to the basest instincts of the ami
nal, or to lift the world from the slum-
er OF night to the beauties of day in +,
ne arms OF love, hope, courage. faith
he successful monger editor chooses tho
ormer. He should be the minister of the
lost High God, charged with keen;no
ae great hres OF truth that burn along
highways, tnat sweep through
arkness into the infinite and eternal. {,
na yet, nKe Judas Iscariot Of old, he
etrays Tor gold and silver this sacred
rust. Charged with the life of those to
nom ne ministers, he betrays innocence
no weakness for the sake of gain {
'harged with protecting the wavfarer
9 Is the friend of the highwayman and
ne assassin. And he knows hetter 1
hese sheets are edited with genius. and ,
ae1r editors present to the world the
lost shameless example of the intellect Q
al prostitute.
THE CROTON RESERVOIR.
a distinguished reformer who has Z
laoe this subject life study says on ]
Ills point. "Let a man be discovered !
lrowing barrel of paris green or ar. 2
INC into the Croton reservoir, and he I
QUO be almost lynched. What name t