Year: 1872

form their work whom their objective point IL
reached, is part Of the secret Of HERALD
success, which we recommend to our contem-
poraries gratuitously.


The Beechcr scandal-A Public Danger.


Yesterday at noon two notorious women
we're arrested in this city by two United States
Marshals on the charge of sending obscene
publications through the Post Office. Far
different were these two brazen creatures from
the miserable class that generally falls under
the operation of this law, and whose guilty
trade OF disseminating written and pictorial
NTH is carried on with all the secrecy that
BELTS its righteousness. The dark trade we
refer to is carried on by men, and men often
who shiver and shrink from the light Of day
when their occupation is made known men
occasionally who are glad to hide their shame
IN the recesses Of . prison rather than be
pointed at as the malignant corrupters of the
nations youth or panderers to its viciousness
OF every age. But these are women Of bold,
unabashed front who have flaunted their degra-
dation and lived upon it. Not even with
the s'unfortunates' who are sad blot
upon our civilization can these women
DC classed; it is greater depth of
infamy to which they glory to belong.
For some time they have published paper
in whose pages, fortunately little read, they
have hurled defiance at decency and virtue,
rs would the worst tongued strumpet in her
hours of bitterness at the worlds war upon
her. With this, too, it is alleged, they COM
bined system Of blackmail more odious than
any known to history. It is stated to have
been their custom to threaten respected citi-
zens, men and women, with the publication
Of charges against their honor unless heavy
sums were paid /; and many weak persons are
said to have complied with their villanous de-
mands rather than face, what most people
would shrink from, war with beings whose
motto is that OF the vagabond in Burns beg
gar's cantata =


Let them cant about decOrum


Who have characters to lose.


Instances are put forward in which proof
sheets containing these unseemly ibels have
been forwarded to the intended victims In
last weeks number Of the infamous publica-
ton over which these two women preside,
and in which certain male wretches are
also said to play their dishonorable
part, an unclean libel upon the Rev.
Henry Ward Beecher was published, &C
cusing him, with every accompaniment of
Billingsgate. of foul crime. 1t was, perhaps,
in the great final interest Of truth that this
popular man should be assailed, to whose
support the whole community would rally
rather than that the arrows should be aimed
at one less noble and less likely to draw forth
the denunciation which has justly burst upon
the fortress Of beastliness tenanted by these
harpies-.rhe gods first madden whom they
would destroy" If the esteemed pastor
has 10 bear this load, as o greater Sufferer
bore His, let him be consoled in the
fact that he will be an instrument
through which the community will be rid Of
satanic scourge. The two women at latest &C
counts were in Jail, and we understand that
other complaints against them are pending
should bail be secured to give them even
temporary release. One of their alleged male
confederates has also been arrested and held.
We can afford to leave the matter now in the
stern grasp Of the law and ask for them only
q fair trial


But there are presented in this relation some
thoughts that reach into the very recesses of our
national life. The great problem for popular
governments is not merely how to protect
their liberties from the encroachments of au-
tocacy in all its forms, but how to prevent
them from being the protectors of vicious
license equally ruinous. Montesquieu has
said that q republic must always act on the
defensive il cannot afford to lose o principle
in politics or in social morality without
danger to the whole structure of its
rights. II has all the powers Of evil constantly
picking out the chinks in its armor through
which to stab il with their poisoned weapons.
Among the most deadly Of these are the forces
that, in the name Of so-called ''free thought"
would make immorality free Of all restraint,
and that, under the name Of liberty of the
press, make the journal vehicle not only for
the vilest slander. but for the flthiest express
sion Of debauched thought. In all these
attacks il viii be observed that the words
'liberty" and freedom" are paraded but as
far prostituted from their proper meaning as
their retailers are from the standard of honest
or virtuous men and women. Madame Roland,
turning 10 the statue on her way to the
guillotine and exclaiming, 20, Liberty,
how many crimes are committed in
thy name" forms o picture we can
never forget, and the foul issue Of slander
and immortality which has flowed from the
pens OF sdcA persons as We describe under
their lying notices Of freedom viii make all
honest people repeat the exclamation Of the
unfortunate and beautiful Girondist. but with
q determination that while the Law has .
.cou~rxa fov u,,nh rx,coa tha 1.ah x~;rl Ia nm