Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1893-01-28
swEENEY's BIG JUMP.
The Impertinent Press,

From the Springfield Union.
What are We coming to if the press is going
to take the starch out of everything? An es-
teemed contemporary 1--WE have forgotten which
one) has complained that the reports of the
daily press have made the recent heresy trials
appear ridiculous in the eyes Of the public
The dignity and mystery of theological discus
sions, once SC awful that angels scarcely dared
to tread the platform where the discussion was
carried on. have been reduced to a common
placeness comparable to the reports of ward
meeting or filibustering session in Congress
The impairment press persists in treating
everything and everybody in an everyday sort
of a way. Even religion has to undergo the
same treatment. II there is any sham or mvs-
ticism or superstition in it it is liable to be
handled as a detective handles an embezzle-
ment. The press as rule believes in pure and
undefiled religion, but it wants religion that
is good for Mondays and Thursdays and Satur-
days well as Sundays.
1t is complained by some Roman Catholic
authorities that the press is unnecessarily
meddling with the alleged controversy between
the archbishops. and that the laity of the
church is being stirred up by a contest which
ought to have Geen confined to the prelares and
settled ty them. But everything is news and
SO important a matter Is alleged insubordina-
ton in the high places of the Catholic Church
can no more be kept quiet in these DAYS than
Island. 1t does indeed detract from the dignity
and mystery OF eccesiasticism to have its
quarrels reported in the papers, but it cannot
be helped, except in one way. Let quarrels
cease and the press will quit its impertinence.
This meddlesomeness Of the press is more
marked in this country than in any other but
i'll Europe the trouble is growing worse and
worse. Emperor William is in perpetual fear
that some newspaper man will remove one of
the casters from his throne and show the world
how unsteady it is. As for the French press, it
has been meddlpg with things to its own hurt
and vet it is turning great floods of light upon
the mysteries OF Partisan officialdom. In Eng
land the press has been free to criticise EXCEPT
in certain directions, but once in awhile takes
the bit in its teeth and runs away and smashes
something.
Probably the time is coming in the halcyon
future when everything that everybody does
Will be open and above board, when there is
nothing hidden that shall not be known, when
that which is spoken in the ear shall be pro-
claimed upon the housetops, and we rather
think that the impairment press is helping TO
bring about that day. The fear of publicity de-
tiers many a man from doing wrong or delivers
him from the temptation to go astray. Men
who seek to take unfair advantage of their fell
low men because of their poverty or ignorance
or weakness, or for any other reason find an OBJ
stacle III the light which the press throws upon
their actions and motions. Individual ne VS.
papers have their idiosyncrasies and other
faults but as whole the PRESS believes in
right living. honest dealing, truth telling and
doing as you would be done by.