Life — October 17, 1889 — page 4: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

VOL. XIV. OCTOBER 17, 1889. No. 355. 28 West TwEnTy-THIRD STREET, New York. Poblished every Thursday, $5.00 8 year in advance, postage free. Single gorles, 19 ceats. "Back numbers can be had by apriyitig ta this office. Vol. Ly bound, $30.00; Vol. I1., bound, $10.00; Vols. fil, 1V., Vy VI, VIL, VIL. IX, a XI. and xi bound, or in flat numbers, at regular rates. ejected contributions wi jestroyed unless accompanied by a stampe and directed envelope, es Sabscribers wishing address changed will greatly facilitate matters by seading old address as well as new. ~EVERAL months ago a lumber dealer in Elmira, had a dispute with a workman, which became so warm that he struck the man on the head with a strip of board which he held in his hand. To his horror his adversary dropped in his tracks and died then and there. Examination showed that his skull was abnormally thin so that a blow which wouid have done another man no serious injury had finished him. . . . FORTNIGHT ago the Brooklyn Zag/e printed a story about one of its young fellow-townsmen who got mar- ried in the absence of his parents and without their knowl- edge. He was a youth of good character and had married a respectable girl with the consent of her friends. There was nothing scandalous about the story and nothing that would naturally be expected to hurt the young man very much if it got into print. Nevertheless, when he saw the Eag/e’s article he went to his office and blew out his brains, leaving a dis- consolate widow, and lamenting friends, and leaving the Eagle in a very uncomfortable state of remorse. HE Elmira man had possibly acquired a habit of bang- ing his employees when his temper was stirred. The Brooklyn Eag/e, like a great many other newspapers, had undoubtedly formed the habit of printing any likely bit of per- sonal gossip that it could gather, with less regard to the feel- ings of the people involved than to the taste of the general public, Both are mighty bad habits, and persons or journals who indulge in them are liable to be brought up with a round turn of disagreeable experience. * . * N commenting on the case in which it had had a hand the Brooklyn Eagle said : The Eagle profoutdly regrets the event, and freely admits that too much care and discrimination cannot be employed in the treatment of news of that kind in which the account of yesterday may be classed, Nevertheless, whatever criticism may be incurred applies to the ques- tion of publishing such news at all rather than to the substance or style of this particular case, Which is all very well, and is worth saying, but LIFE would like to have seen its neighbor add that for one Brook- lyn paper at least this tragedy had settled the question whether “such news " is fit to publish, The unwarranted invasion of private life by American newspapers is one of the shrieking evils of the day. Hun- dreds of them, some of the very biggest and richest, make a regular business of prying into private concerns of private people, to enable them to afford their readers a constant supply of tattle and gossip. . . . HE ghoulish “enterprise” of the jackal Wor/d, in Dr. Brown's case, is of such recent occurrence that it will be recalled. For that shameful crime there was no redress any more than there is for this unlucky bit of impertinence of the Eagle. There ought to be some redress. The Elmira man who broke the workman's skull, was at least put under arrest to await the verdict of the coroner's jury, but no officer of jus- tice has troubled the HWor/d, nor will any one try to arrest the Eagle. It isa pity. . . . ITHOUT wishing the editor of the Eag/e any per- sonal harm, or considering him morally guilty of young Van de Linde’s death, LiFe could see him languish in jail with a right good will, until the culpability of his journal had been determined by a jury or a court. When accidents like Van de Linde’s case happen, some one besides the victim ought to get hurt. It is a mighty lame excuse for smashing in a man’s skull to say that you supposed it was thicker, and it is a lame excuse for driving a sensitive man to self-destruction to say that he should have had a tougher hide and a better-regulated mind. “| 2 French, always on the front line of progress, have added a new crime to their list. It is “homicide by imprudence,” and is defined as causing the death of an- other by any foolish act not criminal in itself, If we nad such a crime on our list, the valued Lag/e would stand a chance of learning what was the penalty for it. But Americans are slow in such matters, and in the absence of a punishment that really fits its fault, there is nothing for it but to invite the Fag/e to take a seat in the pillory along with the New York World. Disgrace in such company ought to be punishment enough for a paper that really seems to have been unlucky rath r than recklessly brutal. comicbooks.com