Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1913-06-20

II in the days of the Judges, there
had been published the Mizpah Daily
Herald, and that paper had come out
the morning after the death in Gibeah,
with a story Of the previous nights
occurrence, 1t would not have been
necessary for the Levite to cut the
body of his dead wife in pieces, and
send the pieces throughout all the
country Of the Inheritance Of Israel to
bring about the terrible vengeance
that followed.
And again, II so soon as it began to
be whispered in Shiloh, that Hophni
and Phineas the sons Of Eli. had be-
gun to take more than their proper
share of the flesh that was brought
for the sacrifice, the semi-weekly Vim
dicator had published an intimation Of
the fact, old Eli would have gone
round to the. editor. or mayhap gotten
some one else to go and suggest that
II there w.s another breath Of that,
someone else would print the passover
programmes. Then II the editor had
persisted as more than apt he would
have done, certain Of the merchants
who were getting a good share Of the
heavy trade that Hophni and Phine-
as were giving out, would have with
drawn their advertising, and II this
had not had the desired effect there
-1,.,a - - o,,iaf axplo ~ q tfnn fo oopo a
thug as to how the high priest had
power to protect anybody in any crime
and the first thing the editor knew he
would be in a difficulty started on
some other pretext and knocked into
the middle Of next week. OF course in
time 1t would all come out as 1t final
ly did; but not so quickly perhaps as
IL the whole story had been published
at once. Had the story been publish
ed while Eli. Phineas and Hophni
still had the confidence Of great ma
jority of the people and full control
over the administration Of the law. the
editor Of the Vindicator would have
been killed and his murderer acquitted
or he would have been sued for dam
ages, and so hopelessly cleaned up
that he would no longer have the pow
er to do further injury. But really and
truly no newspapers were necessary in
Shiloh. God was able to manage then
as he is now. All three Of the old sin
ners were removed the same day, ac-
cording to promise, and the whole in
cident became a record in the Great
Journal to warn future generations Of
the right. r.
We have never seen the files of the
Jerusalem Times covering the period
chronicled in the Acts of the Apostles;
but we have an idea that there was
but scant mention Of the acts there
recorded in the papers. Fact is most
of the papers were very probably one
sided. If there were any really fair
papers they would have been sup
pressed because of the events proceed
ing, and the editors would have been
imprisoned or murdered. There is no
reason to believe that the demise of
Annias and Saphira was recorded
otherwise than as a remarkable co-in-
cidence carrying off both husband and
wife, during the same hour. though
possibly some Of the servile sheets
might have suggested that the worthy
pair had been murdered by their fell
low religionists on account Of disa-
greement over the division Of treasure.
Certainly no paper acquainted with
the existing religious sentiment would
have dared to tell the whole truth as
1t has since been told, for fear Of libel
proceedings or something worse. OF
course there would have been those
almost ready to tell the truth: but
certainly it would have been trying
situation in view of results that would
have seemed inevitable, with no hope
of accomplishing any immediate good.
And then the great fight for the liberty
of the press which had only been start
ed during the few years previous, had
not yet made much progress. .,r
Now we do not want to charge any
ulterior motive on the part of Senator
Works or intimate such thing. We
are perfectly aware of the fact that
there is a very large school under the
influence of the dogma, that the best
way to deal with crime Is to conceal
It. to keep 1t secret. Senator Works
evidently belongs to that school. We
do not agree with him, If that is the
idea. Our experience and observation
is that the white light Of publicity is
the most effective social and political
purifier that the world has ever
known, and as we have attempted to
show in the foregoing, we believe that
it Is the approved method Of Almighty
God.
OF course it is easy enough to switch
off to the mercenary sordidness OF
newspapers that specialize this kind
of stuff for no other motive than the
profit there is in 1t; but we see moth
ing in the argument It would be just
as fair to say that Senator Works is
in congress solely for the profit and
we do not believe anything OF the
kind. There is plenty of newspaper
stuff that is wrong and harmful; but
that applies to very little that is true,
no matter how shocking such matter
may be.
We have all heard Of the "All-See-
ing Eye" The most concrete concep-
ton of this that has ever come to our
mind is the Holy Bible. Therein is to
be found a record of everything that
is good and everything that Is bad. II
there is a trick that mankind ever
practices or q crime Of which mankind
is guilty, or a virtue by which man.
kind Is uplifted, and there is no clear
concise and forcible example Of the
same that Is not to be found In the
Bible, we have no knowledge OF this
trick, crime or virtue. We insist that
all the real good there is In the world
today, which is not ultimately meas
ured by Bible standards, Is not worth
measuring. And no matter what q
newspaper may publish about any
body, whether good or bad, true OF
falsa will eyeptually stand or fall on