AMERICAN JOURNALISM.

Evening Star, Issue 3832, 5 June 1875, Page 2

AMERICAN JOURNALISM.

The arrival of the San Francisco mail places us m possession of our usual American ex. changes. Even to a thoroughly practised newspaper hand accustomed to sift the wheat from the chair, a nle of American papers never falls to perplex and bewilder him. He knows not where to look for the kind of information he desires to place before his readers. Religious reports are mixed up with commercial mtelliK e « a ‘‘Tfrible Murder and Mutilation Of the Body, f.llows on a “ Touching Incident of a Missing Child. Ihe discovery of a rock only two feet under water in the Atlantic is . .receded by an account of the early life of niton. We get ihe cream of a very elo-qui-nt sermon upon the “Worldliness of Americans, followed by “Brevities,” which are short paragraphs containing indecent suggestions; theproduc of a cornfield, and how tsoott revolvered ” Davis and wounded him. in the femoral artery, by which he bled to . e bave . at tbi ® instant lying before us ihe l hie igo Tribune.’ What are its political whatiis its religion? for what special object is it published. we are quite unable to pronounce. In one place we are told that there are 400 religious journals in the United States: that there is a great “awakening;” that those ati tending the revival meetings who “wentto scoff, remained to pray.” . 'ihat thousands wl o have erred have repented themselves and have turned from the error of their ways. That evildoers are besought to seek that consolation from a Higher Power which uo other can give them. Then follows what is headed, “RoL ligious Intelligence The contribution® of Lafayette Avenue Chutoh, Brooklyn, for religious and benevolent objects dming the last fifteen years have amounted to 233 900 dollars. For sustaining tbeir own church they have raised 261,500 doLars. Two other church organisations have gone out from them within the same period. It speaks of the “awful warnings” which ah Episcopalian clergyman has given to those who persistently refuse to join iu prayer for the Unconverted. But then follows in the next column such printed matter as this :—“A pious man who candri ve a balky horse ten miles without being set back ten years in his religion is ripe enough for a better world. ” “ When a clergyapplies at the depdt for a minister's ticket, and the official ventures to express a doubt ail to his clerical character, he says, ‘ I'll read one of my sermons.’ The ticket is passed over instantly without any proof.” “ There is a law* yer in Akron, 0., who, when he wishes to quote from this Mosaic Law, says, * Now, yoiir Honor, I will read from the Kgyptain Reports.’’ ” A little four-year-old woke up verj early one morning, and, seeing the full moon from the window, innocently remarked, * I should think it was about time for Dod to take''that moon in * ” “ The Baptists of Catekili at communion recently found themselves without w i”e. A thief had, somehow, stolen it, and the ‘ Recorder ’ adds, * Any man who would rob a church will slide down Hill in his grandmother’s coffin.’ ” We cannot bring oiirselves to understand the character of people who can tolerate a class of journals which plice religious exhortations cheek by jowl wity so much that is calculated to bring it into do* risiom A card-sharping trick in a railway train by which two unsuspecting men are fleeced of every dollar they possess is spoken of as “smart while a woman who murders her child by suffocating it witli a pillow because she has been deserted by her husband ig described as having been actuated by feelings of humanity in saving a child from a life of misery had it been permitted to live. Thera are greater anomalies than those we have mentioned, did we choose to find space for them WiE only a very few exceptions, the style of the American newspaper Press, if introduced into »• nglish commuiutes other than the most illiterate or abandoned, would not be tolerated for a month. The advertisements which are inserted. l in some of the newspapers do not make the slightest show of concealing their m.eamug. coouft % '' - * * \ , . |

Sex to the opposite for the most immoral purposes ; hints to unmarried women where they can be received when “in difficulty places of assignation where the strictest seciecy may be relied on, and others of a like kind. Men shoot each other down in the sti ect, whjch is described !a “a, fracas.” A description is g : ven of a New York saloon, where men are wait *d on by females in the last new style of costume, which means neither more nor less than that these unfortunate women carry drinks, with drapery which none nut the most immodest would permit themselves to appear in. Such are the char acteristics which pertain to a large class-of newspapers which arc printed in “ the geateat country in the world, sir.”—‘N. Z. erald.’