The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1894-12-11

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character Of It's employees partakes of the
uncleanness whose sale nourishes them. We
are told that there are some men On the
World who are decent, but vi are convinced
that, for the most part, this il not so; and II
IL obvious that only those in whom shame Is
dead, or who are put TO the last shifts to
earn q living, can perform the unspeakable
services that the World requires. We can
not doubt that among the rascally horde, the
chief topic Of talk is the number Of keyholes
they have peeped through, the beds they have
crept under, and the conversations they have
overheard and we must commend highly the
prudence which induces all respectable
people, the instant the presence OF q World
employee is discovered, to clutch their valu-
ables and hold their tongues. We do not
hope to stir the sensibility of the proprietor
of the World, or OF any of his pupils and
~ervants Rather do we appeal now to a
long.outraged public sentiment to devise
and enforce some fitting punishment for the
browning, even though unsuccessful. act Of
infamy in that newspapers scurvy career.
It is not necessary to tell again the de-
tailed story of the abominable persecution OF
MIR. BRocKwAY. 1t Is familiar to intelligent
people, and their opinion is ours, that never
in the history Of journalism, nor of any
thing, has there been an attack upon q man
or an institution more entirely unfounded or
more thoroughly criminal. There can he no
question that in the inception of the scheme
the World was wholly ignorant OF the
high character OF the Reformatory and OF
the potent elements that would rally to its
defence. But ono begun. the assault was
prosecuted with a similar ignorant disregard
Of probability and reason. The World has
printed, doubtless, a thousand columns of
abuse Of Mr.. BRocKwAY, yet there can
hardly be found in them ten ines Of
truthful or sensible statement. The oldest
newspaper reader cannot recall such a
quantity or quality Of silly lying and
editorial absurdity. 1t would be ludicrous
II it were not shameful; and the attempt to
palm 80 clumsy an imposture on the wise,
high-minded men who sat as the jury in the
case, can be ikened only to the scene of an
unclean huckster Of decayed fruit and filthy
clothing, persistently trying to sell his wares
before the most conspicuous edifces devoted
to the worship of COP.
But there is every reason for accusing the
World not merely of gross and unlimited
printed Islander, but Of direct felony. This
Is no subject for roundabout phrases. Men
whose hands were nailed to the table in the
very act Of writing forged cable dispatches
to bolster a fraudulent claim of legitimately
printed interviews, have little reputation to
lose orcriminality to learn. In the hearings
before the Elmira Commission over a hun
dred convicts and ~ex-convicts, who were pre-
oaptaI M IyorJJ ,v;too,.ac son&,aoJ -l.lIu.~
physical impossibilities. 1t was proved in
each instance that either the injuries alleged
to have been received did not come from any
punishment by Mr.. BRocKwAY, or that the
convicts were suffering from them when they
entered the Reformatory, or, as in most
cases, incredible as 1t may seem, that
they did not exist at all. AS one
habitual criminal succeeded another on
the witness stand, and with shifting
eye and livid face gave the same absurd tes-
timony and made the same vulgar errors,
the catchwords of contrived and suborned
perjury were Enthusiastically spoken. 1t was
written in letters Of fire on the very walls of
the court room that the World had sought
to manufacture O case against Mr.. BROCK
WAY with the same readiness, though with
the same lack of skill, that it had vilifed
him in type. The pupils of its own acad-
envy of crime, young in years but fertile
in unclean resource, dealers in moral car
rion, experts In filthiness, had picked from
the Jail, the brothel, and the pits of Sodom
the miserable creatures whom Mr.. BROCK
WAY vainly tried to reform, and had filled
their mouths with lies. For very shame
and horror we cannot hint at the frightful
revelations which the cross-examinations of
these wretches disclosed, a story SO hideous
that it was blotted from the records of
the Commission. What we are concerned
is the consorts, the instructors of these
creatures, the agents and servants of the |
World. They were not employed alone to
procure the false witness of sodomists; they
were the agents Of active blackmail upon
every man in the State who, as they thought,
could aid in Mr.. BRocKwAY's ruin. They
swarmed like rats in the State Capitol, gnaw-
Ing and squealing at every door. They craved
from every one some foul morsel, and the
tracks Of their uncanny hunger led through
and cesspools and across the faces of
the dead. They demanded, first, material
assistance in the shape Of personal influence
exerted upon the members of the investi-
eating commission, and, failing this, a let
ter or interview condemning the Reforma-
tory. Some such statements, through fear
misrepresentation, they did obtain and
what they wished and did not obtain they
forged. They harried the member OF the
They pestered the Executive
alternate threats and cajoleries, that
be should commit an act of monstrous lille
and cowardice, by removing the man
ayers of the Reformatory without a trial.
Now for the World itself, what just reck-
oning can there bel Not until it is actually
understood that the charges and testimonies
which it brought against Mr.. BRocKwAY,
unwashed OutpOuring Of wordy and
abuse lasting for two years and
spread to the ends Of the earth, Were abso-
tnUeRtiOts; that these falsifcations and
Of perjury were made wan
only for the profit of causing a sensation,
md were as deliberately planned asthe means
by a burglar to crack q safe; that the