The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-11-06
ENGLISH URNALISM.
Throwing Stones From Glass Houses Very Yellow Work fin the Great Lon don Dntltes--Open Vice in London Tolerant Treatment of 1t by the Au- thorities,
London. Oct 2O

Oy DY the A u
 thorities.
 London, Oct. 30.
 To the Editor of the Journal and Courier:
 It Is an amazing fact that for th,
 worst feature of what is called yellow
 journalism you have to look not at thC
 aggressive, devil-may-care papers ot
 that ilk in the United States, but into
 the pages of the conservative. self.
 righteous press of the great cities o1
 England, The English themselves are
 beginning to see this For long time
 English editors have been throwing
 stones" at their brethren across the
 sea, but they will do this less hereafter
 Tor fear of violent and just retalia-
 ton from the other side against the
 glass Aouses" in which they them selves have been living. One has but to follow the verbatim reports of police
 court and other cases, as they are spread out in the great London dailies, to get surfeit of nastiness such as could be gathered from the press of no
 other nation. These papers are free from some of the faults of both the American and French press, but in giv
 ing the details of filthy testimony they beat the world. It has seemed as though they knew of no line at which the law could stop them or at which public decency might be outraged.
 But there is an old adage which says that if you give the devil rope enough he will hang himself. The meaning is that evil may go to such lengths that it will finally provoke revolt and compel rigorous measures of restraint. Some times the evil doer gets to be so very bad that out of pure shame he calls a halt upon his own transgressions and is reformed from within, and there is some chance, happily, that this will be the case with certain debasing features of the English press. American read CTS have probably heard enough about that scandalous Horos trial. The only justification of any further reference to it is that 1t promises to be pivoted in its effect upon the English press as purveyor of nastiness. This awful case has surely marked the limit from which there will have to be rebound. English law rigidly forbids the press to comment upon a case in such way as to indicate bias or pre-judge it in any way. but it doesn't seem to forbid the detailed publication of testimony. Certain divorce cases, it is true, may be heard in camera, if the judge choose to so order, but police magistrates have no such option. The trial must be pub lie, and in cases of shocking debauche- ry the English press gives it to the larger public outside with a minuteness of detail which would not be tolerated in America either by the law or by common decency.
 But the Horos case seems in more ways than one to have opened the eyes of both the press and public. In brief it is a story of scarlet shame involv- ing man and woman as the accused and number of girls as the outraged victims. To the taunt that the prison CTS at the bar are imDortations from the United States one may properly re- ply If he wants to give tit for tat, that, at any rate. they did not think it safe to ply their vile game in the United States, but chose rather as the scene of their depredations, the capital of the British empire, that modern Babylon where vice is notoriously so free and defiant, notwithstanding all the good there is in it.
 For eight days this case dragged it's slimy lengths through the public press and the resultan corruption of young minds Of both sexes must have been enormous. But still there is more to follow. The magistrate hinted when he adjourned the further hearing till +hoG hor more than half finished. In this post ponement Justice Bennett, whether he it or not, performed a great public service in behalf of decency, for by ordering this respite he gave both public and press time for reflection the result being that already one of the most widely circulated of the London dailies has given notice that from this time its pages shall be kept entirely J free from such stuff, and the happy | is that awakened public senti- l ment and editorial conscience together | will compel other papers to conserve | public decency in the same way. It is | not unlikely, indeed, that when parlia- ment meets the shameful notoriety of ! this case will lead to the enactment of | 3 law making such publications crimi- nal
 To be just to London one must admit hat a case of the Horos kind might nave occurred in almost any other big ,ity, although its nastiness would sure v not have gained elsewhere the same newspaper publicity as here. At the same time one who studies London life cannot fail to connect this case with what he knows to be going on daily and nightly all about him. Social vice is and attractively in evil fence on every hand There is no at- empt to keep it within restricted quar- CTS or to drive it's devotees into cover. f is an out-of- door affair in London. Solicitation goes forward on all the treets as openly almost as any other rade Everybody knows that it does. Iven the young soon find it out. They must necessarily do so from what they cad in the papers, and, failing that ource of knowledge, they might easily earn the situation from the Zealous ut misguided way in which the sins of london are uncovered and denounced rom many pulpits There is necessarily a clearance of he streets as the night wears into the 1orning. but even then the evil does l ot cease altogether to be a public one. {