The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1894-09-07

stories almost too outrageous for publ
cation for the sake Of sparing the inno-
cent members of 'iaI-ilies whose heads
apparently care less for tho honor OF the
family name than the editors OF papers
who have only public interest at hearf.
More scandal is suppressed by the
newspapers than is ever printed, and
many a supposed respectable man and
woman owes his or her place IN society
to this forbearance on the part of the
papers. This is true of Newport, of
Providence, of Boston, of Washington,
of New York and every other com
munity.
This attempt "to control the press
would come with better grace from the
Four Hundred if that body was as rigid
in excluding from its ranks men and
women Of vicious propensities aud
known immortality. as are the news
papers in carefully scanning the rumors
and stories that are offerei them daily.
As long as society" will tolerate and
welcome acknowledged libertines and
greet cordially the women known to be
impure because they come from the
sacred ranks Of the Four Hundred, or
because their wealth can hide the shame
that would send man or woman of the
middle class TO destruction, just SO long
will this sensational stuff flood the
papers. There isn't any need of pointing
TO individuals, for the names of some of
the wealthiest and proudest families in
the land will come to mind at once
without the mention of a name. The
Four Hundred is morally corrupt, and
even arigid press censorship cannot hide
the fact from obtaining publicity. The
gossip of drawing rooms, of the club, of
even the stablemen employed by these
representatives OF fashion eventually
crystalize into such shape that the news
papers are forced to take cognizance of
it.
Men with large fortunes, though their
moral characters be as black as mid
night, are greeted with smile by
mothers anxious TO "settle" their
daughters we'll in life, and pure young
girls are entrusted TO their charge when
the touch Of such men is profanation
and an outrage. Women with their
rustling silks move in circles that dare
not refuse them admittance for fear OF
the uncovering of other family skele-
tons.
Not that THE News believes that all
society is immoral, for 1t is not, and
there are thousands of pure wives,
mothers and daughters in the highest
social circles as well as upright and
honorable men, but on the other hand
the conditions just reviewed exist in
spite of those good men and women.
Mr.. Gerry and his friends should first
reform society, refuse admittance to
libertines and to women whose good
name long since disappeared beneath the
scandal of the drawing room and the
club, aud then they would find their
cause Of complaint against the press gone.
And unless this is done the social
fabric, not only in the United States,
but everywhere in the civilized world,
will soon reach the doom that has over
taken previous civilizations since the
world began.
IL the Four Hundred think that
money can secure for them the silence
of the press or purchase laws that will
muzzle it, they little understand the
power and the force that they propose
TO master and overcome. There is le-
gitimate news enough in this great
world without seeking foul stories Of
martial unfaithfulness and the libertin-
ism of the ''upper crust" but when
these things become SO rank and noxious
that the nation is disgrsced by the in-
ternational notoriety that such scan
dals entail the press Of the country can
be depended upon to drive the guilty
parties out of the ranks that would still
welcome them, into the seclusion that
they should be forced to seek without
public castigation.