Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1907-05-01
OUTSIDE POINT OF VIEW

| It's saying nothing new TO remark
| this is a curious world or rather the
| people in it are peculiar This is Sug-
gested by divorce trial that occupied
| the time of the court several days week
before last. And II is not the divorce
suit that is to be commented on here,
| BUT the inconsistent public that
watched 1t and failed to read in the
| r.-R. the evidence in full. Not many
| moons ago the reports of the ThaW
trial so Disguised the readers of the
| daily papers. at was awful No de-
cent paper would print such stuff And
yet somehow the papers that printed
the most of it, gave it verbatim, ct lit
eratim had the big sales, while anoth-
Ell class of dailies that expurgated the
press reports We're accused of want
of enterprise. So it Is with this re-
ferred- to divorce suit The T.-R. omit
and now not only in Marshalltown, but
readers say the T.-R. gave a very poor
report of 1t.
And right here Is the explanation of
the success OF the yellow journals. The
publishers of such papers give the peo-
pie for mental food just what they
want. Such papers published all Of the
sensational and indecent particulars of
the Thaw trial, because the big mass of
readers want 1t. Hearst an his follow
ers of the yellow press cater to the
public demand as much as the success
full hotel keeper does to the wants and
demands of his guests, It's all very
well for the guests of a hotel to object
10 the smell of onions on the premises,
but when the landlord from past ex-
perience knows that fried liver and on.
IONS OH the bill of fare. viii be first
called for and run out" before other
meats" he has liver and onions in thar
hotel frequently. That small per-
centage of his guests really dislike the
smell of onions he regrets, but the MI
nority must suffer, because of the de-
mand Of the majority.
Is this article an indictment of the
public? 1t is Not every reader, not
all. but the majority. Here's Il phase
of this question not generally touched
upon. To again use the hotel manager
as an illustration. We, for the writer
will include self, want to eat liver and
onions in a respectable, tirst-class ho-
tel. We would not for moment think
of calling for that succulent dish in
cheap restaurant. If we dropped into
15-cent eating house thinking no one
would catch us at 1t, we
would catch US at it. we put on airs
and call for roast turkey and
and cranberry sauce, it would
impress walters and proprietors, but
on dining car we can call fo.. what
We really like because it's q do..Ir a
meal, So it is with many readers of
the daily papers. They want and ex-
.pect, respectable daily papers to pub
lish sensation and indecent articles
and then condemn the said papers for
doing it. Billy Sunday, the evangelist,
recognizes and makes the most of this
weakness of human nature. He says
pants of the pews never before heard
uttered in church. The people are
shocked, terribly SO; but the next
night the church is crowdei--to be
shocked some more.
Does this Indictment make hypo-
critics of everybody that reads Thaw
trials and listens to Billy Sundays
vulgar language? Do men and women
realize that INDUCING in this mental
bill Of fare" they take one position
before the world and act another?
No; they are as unconscious Of this
hypocrisy as the man that SO loudly
declains AGAINST the indecency Of the
reports of the Thaw trial. and then by
his very words shows that he has read
all he could get hold Of In regard to
it It is a form of inconsistency, a
popularity of human nature impossible
to explain or understand. A few years
called religious novel, had tremend-
Gus safe, and millions Of readers. Pubs
lished under suggestive name and
the scene and hero and heroines of the
slums, not one person, not one respect
able person, in a thousand would have
read 1t, much less commented on 1t In
decent society. But it was a religious
historical novel, and the preacher and
his people devoured every word of it. |
The facts are. the book should have
been denied the use of the mails and
today should be thrown out Of every
in the country. And vet today !
there are plenty of persons that will
impute to this writer an impure inn
agination because of the preceding
sentences They will remark with a
plying smile: How strange It is any
one can find anything wrong in Quo
vadis" To the pure all things are
pure" i
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