The herald., 1894-03-30
THE NKws AND ITS READERS.

opeCVaclo Oh an axeo man. DelOnRlnB TO
one of the historic families of the new
world, using his wit, his brilliancy, and
his other manifold attractions and ac-
complishments to compass the ruin of a
helpless girl. The Clemencesu case,
ugly and unseemly as it was. existed
only in the brain of clever Frenc b
dramatist, yet public decency drove it
from the stage. This is not fiction,
but reality. Several days ago, morn
ing contemporary published letter
from one of its presumable subscribers.
asking why such Drurient details we're
given to the public, and answered that
they were published because they were
news.
Similar queries have flooded this Office
for the past fortnight, but we did not
deem any of them entitled to a distinct
answer. The present article is in re-
sponse to one and all of them-the de-
tails are given to the public because
they are part and parcel of the daily
news.
If the being that Voltaire summoned
from another planet were to appear
upon earth, in these United States of
ours; and if he were to pick up any of
our daily papers, he would digest the
journalistic pabulum set before him
and then come to the conclusion that
the chief proceedings of this sublunsry
sphere consisted of murders, arsons,
rapes, seductions, bunco swiRdles and
derailmelt OF passenger trains for pur-
poses Of robbery. And the pilgrim from
beyond the stars would be impressed
that there was but little in the history
OF this world beyond narrowing record
OF crimes and casualties. The great
metropolitan dailies, with the "Alfred
Davids," as Mr.. Tony Weller would have
put it, of their daily circulation, verified
by the pressman who never told a lie in
his life, and by the book-keeper whose
knowledge of modern journalism has
taught him that perjury is obsolete as a
crime whsre ones daily bread is at
stake--the great metropolitan dsilies
are just as culpable in this respect as
the smaller dailies OF the "boom" towns
that are struggling for an existence.
Now what does ali this mean? Ger
tsinly the readers of daily morning
paper published in San Francisco or Los
Angeles have no direct interest in the
fact that ''welching" bookmaker from
the New Orleans race track has been
discovered entombed in ice 344 miles
NV by N from Fort Wrangel; or that a
broken down town boomer" in New
South Wales has blown out the contiu-
gent remainder of his inherent brains.
In all such cases the readers personal
interest is infnitesimally small. There
is no man 80 broad in his nature that he
can absolutely love or hate all the mem
bers of the humsn family. Why, then,
should such details interest people in
capable of sympathizing with the suffer-
ers by cyclone in Nebraska or the vic
Tins Of an Indian massacre in Manitoba? =?
Simply because it is only the excep-
tional which, in this work a. day world
OF ours, attracts any attention at all.
The bulk OF our people are engaged in
earnest and honest daily vocations in
which the serious battle against the very
frowns of nature is TOO familiar to evoke
anything like criticism. They fit into
grooves and become part of a little
machine; and when they lay aside the
routine work which makes them a part
of that machine they look for some
thing out OF the common run of events.
If they read sensational reports of
crime. it is not because of a taste for
such doings or desire to "sup on hor-
rors," but because they prefer to talk
about something apart from the hum
drum of work in which the whirr of the
spindles or the ring OF the anvil echoes
back the Masters supplication of "Give
US this day our daily bread"
The average American newsp aper has
constant accounts of how Edison and
other inventors are perfecting machines
to alleviate the laborer'a burdens by
shortening his hours of toll of the ef-
forts OF Cramp, Scott and other marine
builders to lessen the distance between
eRrth's continents by building vessels
OF increased speed with no perceptibly
increased consumption of fuel, and of
engineering calculated to give greater
facilities for hauling the produce of in
terror states to tide water. But these
escape the eye of the toier in seven
cases out OF ten, while the forgeries,
deIaloations, seductions and bgamies
are gathered up with as unerring pre-.
cision as that with which the quick
silver catches the floating particles of
gold.
Two towns in Australia, both old and
of early settlement, afford exemplication
OF this. Good water power was estab-
lished at Bathurst on the LRchlan river,
while Csrcoar, II miles away, had no
industries worth fostering. New ma
chinery went into Bathurst, and the
stsid old town began to erect elegant
buildings, while Carcoar seemed to be
taken with sort of dry rot. One day
came the story OF horrid crime at the
old place. The son OF pioneer family,
rendered half crazy by Losses on the
turf, attempted to burglsrize bank. He
was slovenly operator aud aroused the
attention of the bank manager, who
slept upstairs, and came down to inquire
h A 49,