The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-03-12
Rmputating The Nose
TO Spite The Face


The bill before the New York legisla-
ture prohibiting newspaper cartoons or
the portrayal of the face of any person
without his consent is one of the signs
of some reaction against the cheap John
journalism tina explores the sewers and
the garbage boxes Of society. 1t Is III
part the outcome of the disposition 10
check the enterprising and audaCious dali
ly i'm New York, which now illustrates
crime with a fidelity to detail unap-
preached by the Days DoIngs of the
Police Gazette in their worst days, and
which converts the visages of public men
into bowling monstrosities There Is re-
ported to be a strong and well-detined
movement at Albany in favor of this re-
markahle and, in this country unprece-
dented prohibition. Governor Black and
divers other persons, called from out or
obscurity to engage in propping up the
body polite, complain that their feelings
have been laCerated by the pictorial
ribaldrY Of the press and hence the bin
of pains and penalties. have no thought
Of apOlogiZing for the mass of slush
through which is daily floated along the
cutters of license all the pickings from
the dunghills of vice, or for the brutal
insncerty of the cartoon which degrades
or rdicules a man with no higher motive
than the clownishneSs of the small boys
who sometimes raise a Commotion by
their treatment of the figures of the pub
lies favoriteS on the theatrical posters Ct
a dead wall But the newspapers which
habitually and systematically practice
these infamies are not more numerous to
the press as u whole than the doctors who
practice abortiOn-defending themselves
because there is a demand for it-are to
the clean-handed men of medicine or than
tn purVeyors Of tainted meats are to the
dealers in wholesome food.
-:|:-
rb, yrb M 1l1 al "a
likenesses or carlcatures are usually
among the half-starVed ana sensitive in
tellects of public life. y big, robust char
aCter fit for public employment seldom
finds distress for himself In these things
When Cromwell gave Lely his famous in
struCtions while sitting for his portrait
"Paint my face as you find it, warts ANA
ALL" he spoke as one who knew that he
had something more TO offer for admira-
ton than the Shapeliness Of his yisage. No
man was ever more roughly used by the
cartoonists than Abraham Lincoln. His
homely face easily lent itself to their pur-
poses without much eXaggeration. In
some of the Democratic prints of 1860 he
was represented as a babOOn or a wild
man of the west But he had the common
sense of a great mind in laughing at
them, and never thought Of calling out
for censor. Grant was pictured as Il
butcher, like Wcyler, as Il clown ana a
sot. | recall a cartoon of Matt MOrgan's,
which represented him at Long Branch
as the summer capital, seated on throne,
a drunken leer on his face, his hat tipped
back, cigar stump III ms mouth, whisky
| bottles by ms side pun pups at his feet
ana some OF the best men IN the country
| standing around MN nan drunk, as If
| panderlng 10 ms vices; but Grant saw
hundreds Of like pictures without muir
| mur. Horace Greeley had an unusual
| share or then, Tor ne had the mannerlsms
| ana peculailtts Whlrh made MN shin-
| ing marx Tor Mast IN Nusts best days;
| but Greeley, doubtless, had not forgotten
| the time Wheh ne, as young man, pub
! lShed me Log Oablh; now ne had carl
| catufed van Bureh IN 1910 ana now he