The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-09-24
4 uRrUoUs sPAsAf.

Il VIRTUOUS SPASM.
The remark of Macauley in his essay
on Lord Byron, that England has a moral
spasm every seven years, is true as to
this country with the exception that the
spasm may come upon the people at
any time and without any apparent
reason. We Americans have but little
ground on which to accuse the French
of undue excitability. We paddle along
the stream in the same little boat our
selves. 1t is true that the Americans
gain their equilibrium Quicker than do
the French, but we get off our center of
gravity just as readily So unstable is
the American mind that it will run after
any fad that seems to be the popular
thing. At time of public excitement,
let a crank start hue and cry and ten
to one, the entire populace will follow in
his wake. Woe to the object of either
their admiration or their dislike. Adj
miral George Dewey was national hero,
such a hero in his universally, as the
nation had never borne before. His ar
rival from Manila after a year of adula-
ton was triumph rivaling that of the
great Napoleon from Frejus to Paris
An indiscreet deed, and a few unguarded
sentences. awakened adverse comment,
and the whole nation set upon his heels
like pack of ravenous wolves. His deeds
in he 0f
sonal criticism. The hero, without
reason, had sunk into commonplace
man.
The Americans are faddists. Anything
new is eagerly taken up and pursued
with an unreasoning blindness that re-
sembles universal dementia The faker
if he have sufficient assurances, is as la
BILE to carry the public with him as the
philosopher. The more extravagant the
assertions the more readily they are be-
lieved.
The recent assassination of the presi-
dent has set the mob hunting for some
thing on which to feed it's excitement
The assassin confessed that he is an an
archist and was actuated by the teach
ings Of that cult. Notwithstanding this
assertion and the hue and cry that was
Set up against the school of anarchy the
world over. the seekers for the sensational
began to declaim against yellow jour-
nalism' as the cause of this national ca
lamity. Without. waiting to weigh the
statement in the scales Of reason; with
out attempting to trace the result to the
cause, press and pulpit began to inveigh
against that awful evil, yellow Journal
ISM What is yellow journalism ?"
Have any of the shouters definite idea
of what they mean by yellow journal
ism?' No, an idea is not necessary for
their purpose; they have secured a name;
that is sufficient
Because few papers, by printing any,
thing that would interest the public. be-
cause few journals sought to give the
public what it wanted, whether it was
truth or fiction, all the opposition press
is charged with being instrumental in the
More than this, preachers from the pull
pit declared that all cartoonists who had
represented the late president and his
advisers as srotesques, dwarfs Or mis-
shapen ogres in their political capacity,
were directly responsible for the crime;
that everyone who had during the last
campaign criticised the successful presi-
Dental candidate was as culpabIe as was
the assassin himself Such statements
seem unbelievable but we know they have
been made. Is there any connection be-
tween the political criticisms of the late
president and the act of the assassin?
So far, there has not been the faintest
trace of relation. Beside, such a con-
nection is without reason-absoluteIy alb
surd. But a couple of bell-wethers
| jumped the fence and the flock of sensa-
tional sheep followed looking neither to
| the right nor the left.
Until the fever of sensationalism has
spent its force, we will hear from the
yellow pulpit, sermons on yellow Journal
ism. The people will be given what they
want and the preacher as we'll as the
editor, will cater to the excited magma
ton of the populace, without regard to
rhyme or reason. In giving certain
newspapers credit for so much influence
on the public mind, is doing them an
honor which is scarcely merited. The
trouble lies not with the yellow journals
| but with the public, which demands that
kind of stuff If by yellow journalism
is meant the publication of sensational
news with highly cofored settings; the
placing before the public in favorable
light the acts of the vulgar in all grades
of society. then is yellow Journalism 80
be condemned. But if it consist in the
free criticism of men in public station,
! while we may not agree with the senti-