Evening bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1895-1912, 1895-11-19
The press aud Durrant.
Stockton Mail.

DuTFdhbJ Wnebuer dCQulltcu VI
convict d Of the awful crime of
which he stands accused, has
been subjected to an extraordin-
airy ordeal. Not only has he been
compelled to answer before the
regularly organized tribunals OF
his county for the murder Of
Blanche Lamont, but he has had
to face an arrogant, INSCRIPTIONS
and Infamous inquistion repre-
scented by the San Francisco
newspapers. He has had one
trial under the forms of law ard
another in utter disregard of the
principles of decency and justice.
One has been in progress only
since he was arraigned in the
Superior Court; the other began
from the hour the bodies of the
two girls were found in the desc
Grated church on Bartlett street
In one he has had the benefit of
the presumption of innocence,
the right to be confronted by
witnesses, the privilege Of beiug
repre- sonted by counsel and all the
safeguards t, which, in II free
country, person accused of
crime Is entitled. In the other he
has been condemned from the
start without a hearing, put on
the rack, tortured by gossip
momgers, lumpooned by erica
turists and Indignantly assailed
by sensatlonaIists.
Nothing in the history of tho
press of San Francisco has so fully
exposed its dsgracefuI methods
as its course in reporting the po-
lice and court proceeding against
Theodore Durrant. The Call may
be left out as n conspicuous and
honorable exception since that
Journal passed under its new
management. If th, re be failure
Of justice in this celebrated crjmi-
nal case the responsibility for that
failure will have to be charged to
the brutal, vicious and demoraliz-
ing conduct OF it, City contcmpO-
raries. All sense of honor and
decency in the news treatment of
the atrocioua chine and the al
legged relations to it of the medi-
cal student seems to have been
ignored by the managers Of those
journals ever since the hour of his
arrest. An ovent Of an exception
ally appalling character, which
has shocked the moral and spirit
ual foundations of society, and
which should have influenced all
right-minded people to contem-
plate its developments with hor-
ror, has been made by these man
ayers the occasion of pandering to
the morbid appetite Cor sensation
alism. 1t has been regarded by
them as great opportunity to
create from day to day spectacular
effects. In a grotesque spirit
they have attempted to make
sport out of the incidents of the
crime and the trial of Durrant.
Many Of the sketches made of
the court, the jury and of the
witnesses have been drawn in the
spirit of burlesque. AS for the
defendant, but one motive seems
to have inspired the so. called
artists,to see which could draw the
most forbidding and brutal por-
trait of him. This rivalry has
been kept up from week to week
until the ideal produced is that of
typical murderer. Surely the
depravity of journalism has no
deeper depth than that which
has been sounded by these papers.
The browning capsheaf of press
infamy is the obtrusion of the
Cunningham woman into the case.
This androgynous reporter, it may
be safe to say, has in no ense
promoted the ends of justice. She
was detailed to spy on the defend
ant and extort a confession from
him. That she failed is very
clear, yet we find this vain and
ridiculous female posing on the
witness-stand, trying to swear
away the life Of man whom she
had approached in the guise of a
good Samaritan. Even the I'M
scrupulous newspapers that en-
ployed this woman as dirty
hireling seem to be ashamed to