The Irish standard., 1906-05-19
YELLOW JOURNALISM.

YELLOW JOURNALISM.
The Chicago Chronicle in AN edi-
turial comments upon the length to
| which yellow journalism goes in order
\ to create Il sensation. Nothing is too
sacred for it's defiling touch. The basis
of The Chronicles comment is Il news
item purporting to come from Rome
which states that Il letter has been
found in which the personal appear
ance of Jesus Christ is described. The
editorial is as follows:
Everybody Knows that the yellow
press is capable of anything that is
brutal and vulgar and that it stands
ready to desecratc the family, the
church. religion and the courts Of
heaven itself for the purpose of secur-
| ing one morbid and sensational para
| graph. This is well known and yet it
gives people a sort of shock to read
in one of these newspapers a recent
alleged dispatch from Rome with ref
ere,lce To the personality of Jesus
| Christ.
| The dispatch comes by Way of l3cr
lin ;lnd announces the discovery in the
library of the Lazarist fathers in Rome
of an alleged letter written by Publius
Lentulus, an officer of Pontius Pilate's
court, to the Roman emperor concern-
| ing Jesus Christ. who. it is said, was
then just beginning his ministry in
Judea.
This letter bears internal evidence of
having been composed by the night po-
lice reporter or the horse editor of
the yellow journal. After Il few toll
crably disnitied and rational refer
ences it proceeds to remark that Jesus
was well up in every branch of
knowledge and that his mother is
the best looking woman ever seen in
these parts To be well rounded out
it should have gone on to say that he
was too fly" to be trapped by the
pharisees. that everything lie said was
"on the square and up-to- date" and
laid eyes on him.
| We call attention to this publication
not as u piece of news but as indicat-
| ing the low water mark of yellow jour-
| nalism. We have all been accustomed
to see it burrowing in filthy scandal,
patrOniZfnS murder and assassination,
melting insurrection, inviting anarchy.
invading the home. corrupting child
hood ard reveling in fictitious horrors
and lying sensations.
These things are low enough appar-
| emily to suit the most degraded nature.
| but it seems that it has found lower
depth. 1t is not satisfied until the
clergymen are subsidized, the sacred
! precincts of the church invaded and the
Deity travestied and insulted. Who
| ever dreamt that it would condescend
to Il fake cablegram, written in slang
| about Jesus Christ?
Although it may seem like dignity
ing this fake too much, we can not
well avoid commenting on the absurd
ity of all descriptions of the person of
Jesus. One of the strongest argu-
| ments for the divine origin of his re-
ligion is that while his spiritual ma
! tnre is spread out like Il panorama be-
fore us by the authors Of the Gospels
they have not told us a solitary thing
about mis- physical appearance.
obviously this is no accident. The
same mysterious providence that pre-
served in full his teachings evidently
drew the veil of everlasting secrecy
over his bodily form. The Christian
world would raise s1.OoOOo0 in five
| minutes to know the color Of his eyes.
but it will never be known. The fact
of this efracement is no more appar-
cnt than the object of it. The inten-
ton was. Of course. to prevent idolatrv
| and to promote spirituality OF worship.
Christian people in their songs and
otherwise sometimes express the pious
| wish that they might have seen Christ
in the flesh and the pious hope that
they may yet look on his form in an
other world. but the early Christians
/ seem to have had desire to forget
his humanity altogether Paul, for in
stance, says: Though we have known
Christ after the flesh, yet now hence
forth know we him no more" To the
Christians Of this day the unseen and
spiritual Christ shone with such splen-
dor that his human nature became
eclipsed.
This is such conspicuous doctrine