The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-03-11
ChrI.,inn JournnIi.m in Kansas.

We are apprehensive that the scheme of
| the Rev. Mr.. Sheldon to run the Topeka
| Daily Capital" for a. week las Christ would
| conduct it, were he on earth, will not be
productive OF good TO the cause of religion
There may not be anything consciously ir-
reverent in the conceptions or propositions
OF this sensational preacher but it must be
| admitted that the natural tendency of his
plan and methods is to excite irreverence
| in others.
Mr.. Sheldon. &c begin with, has sin
gular notion OF dealing with his adver-
Users. He proposes to charge all out-of-
| town advertisers twenty six dollars an inch
per insertion during the holy week, while
local merchants are accommodated at the
| old and much cheaper rates. II this does
not strain the Golden Rule and make flesh
Of some of Gods children while treating
others as unclean fish our logic Is at fault.
In like manner. he refuses advertisements
from Kansas City customers because he
says that town completes with Topeka, and
because a just publisher in the olden time
would have insisted upon a discriminating
tariff to protect the infant industries of
Jerusalem from the cheap labor and imita-
tion wares Of Jericho.
In the matter of patent med cine adver-
tisements it is &c be apprehended that Mr.
Sheldon has made another mistake. He ad-
mits that some of the medicinal prepara-
tions offered to the public and guaranteed
to produce miraculous cures in six easy
bottles may be good and worthy of place
in his columns; but he is satisfied that
some others are uncleap, as the He
brew scholars would say, and SO he ex-
cludes the whole lot. Ye there are among
them some to which he is likely to resort
himself when that tired feeling comes DER
him before be finishes his self-infiicted but
pyrotechnic mission.
Above all things, the average heather
will envy Mr.. Sheldon his ability to see
anything pruriently suggestive in the illus !
trations which usually go with magazine |
advertisements of female garments. The !
underlying principle of these painful wood |
cuts may be erotic, but if they are to be |
anathema then so should be the wooden !
Indian figures that tempt the vicious into !
the clutches of the unregenerate tobac
conist. Mr.. Sheldon will allow no maya
hines which advertise patent medicines or
print suggestive cuts TO figure in the
Daily Capital even by name. We need
not say that all references to ales. wines,
and liquors are absolutely barred. He will
not even permit the Kelley Cure to be
called TO the attention OF his readers. The
Sheldon view is that drunkenness is not
disease TO be treated by human means.
What it wants is Christian editorship and
prohibition. OF the latter Topeka is about
he most shining and shocking example ex-
ant.
Their. is not the least doubt in the world
hat. as a journalistic enterprise OF the
iellow order, the novel and sensational ad
'enture of the Topeka Daily Capital will
je a great success, financially considered.
But when it comes to be regarded from the
viewpoints OF religion and ethics. there is
'eason TO doubt its elevat;ng CT soCl-sav.ng
esults. The Sheldon idea deals too fanil-
arIy, not to say impudently, with sacred
hings The assumption that this preacher
Knows Just how Christ would conduct a
provincial newspaper, and his proposition
o demonstrate that knowledge, may de-
light people who are willing to have the
christian propaganda conducted under the
ondtions and. by the methods OF continu-
us vaudeville performances; but sober and
eyerent followers OF the Man Of Galilee
ire not likely to be much pleased OF edi-
ed by the spectacle.