Goldsboro weekly argus. [volume] (Goldsboro, N.C.) 1885-1909, 1897-03-18
CONDEMNED

A needed light is thrown upon
the "new journalism" of our day
by a chapter in a lately published
life of Charles Lamb. 1t deals
with the great tragedy of Lambs
life, the killing of his mother by
his sister, and shows how the
newspapers of a hundred years
ago treated such things. Return
ing ope day from India House to
the lodgings in Little Queen street,
Lamb heard shrieks issuing from
an upper room. He rushed up
stairs and found Mary Lamb, her
eyes cleaning in unconscious
mania, about to attack her help
less mother with a carving knife.
He was too late to avert the trag-
edy. The elder Lamb was cut in
trying to wrest the knife from the
mad woman, and before Charles
could reach her she had MORALLY
wounded their mother, and was
~dourlshing the knife for her new
victims. Help came, and she was
overpowered and taken to a mad
house. Sense fully the awful de-
tails of this tragedy and then i'm
agine, if you can, the disgust with
which an editor of the ''new
journalism would read the fol-
lowing:
After the awful event, the pa
pers of the day were most consid-
crate and reticent, not making
capital out of each harassing de-
tail. Names were suppressed, and
there was no 'gloating over the
scenes. The young clerks grief
was too sacred to be paraded be-
fore the public as a bit of enter
tanning news. The London Times
only spoke of "the sad death of
an elderly woman by the frenzied
hand of an insane daughter in the
neighborhood of Holborn. The
coroner's jury, after sitting the
evidence, found the verdict
lunacy.'"
Now consider how the new
journalism" would treat such an
affair. The first page would be
chiefly occupied by illustrations
and faring headlines. The main
picture would show the tragedy
itself, the daughter driving the
knife to her mothers heart, with
the father and son rushing to
draw her off. Supplementary to
this would be small cuts showing:l
THE knife with which the deed
was done-full size; 1.-The moth
er as she looked in life; * ray
photograph showing the knife
passing between TIE ribs and
reaching the heart; 1.-The MUIR
deress being stamped down by
young Lamb and a neighbor";
1.-THE grief stricken brother";
s'The father, s-The house in
which the crime was committed"
The "story" would contain inter
views with each member of the
family, written to order by
trained perverts and there would
be yelled hints of q shocking
scandal or some hidden motive
which led to the deed. Within a
week one of the women of the
new journalism" would have
gained access to the place where
the maniac was confined and Sc
cured au interview with her-or
would have claimed as much
and n of the male sleuths
would have discovered and pub-
lished that Charles Lamb, him.
Sells udU D06u COuAuC0 III d mdQ
house but a short time before.
Names not mentioned! Gricf too
sacred to be entertaining. There
would have been no detail of the
family history, or the tragedy,
however painful, however ghoui-
ish, however revolving to deem
cy, that the new journalism"
would not have paraded. Oae
picture is fact, the other is not
overdrawn. The worst of this
style of journalism is that it
gradually Defolls, peryerts, and
debases the readers mind until
he is without power 10 tell good
from bad. And it will flourish so
long as il pays. What is needed
is that public libraries, institu-
and persons of influenced
follow tie example
of the trustees of the Newark
Free Library who lately debar>
red two of the most conspicuous
offenders. A general movement
10 this direction could not help
L-A uyholncamn rnoofi1n