THE GLOBE. SATURDAY, AUGUST 13, 1881. JOURNALISTIC ETIQUETTE.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2297, 13 August 1881, Page 2

THE GLOBE. SATURDAY, AUGUST 13, 1881. JOURNALISTIC ETIQUETTE.

There is an old but very true aphorism that you cannot touch pitch without being defiled. Acting on this principle we should have treated the mendacious • statement appearing in the columns o£ a certain weekly production, as to commenting on a case which is suh judicc,. with' that contempt it merits. But as. there may be some persons weak enough, to believe oven what appears in a journal; possessing such a highly flavored reputation as the one alluded;to, it is only due to ourselves to expose the utter untruth of the statement. We published as an item of nows a paragraph concerning a certainfracas which took place. Islot one word of comment, however, as to the merits or demerits of the ease appeared, and. the paragraph in question was merely given asan item of news. A correspondent in thesame issue did, it is true, speak pretty strongly on the subject, but so far as- the paper itself was concerned no such comment as is imputed appeared. If thejournal (?) in question desires, however., to- have our opinion—not on the case which is likely to come before the R.ML Court, but on the general question of theexistence of such a thing in a decent community wo are not afraid nor ashamed to give it. That such a mass of scurrility and scandal should bo tolerated* and oven fostered by the public here, is astonishing. The existence in a community of a means for disseminating scandalous untruths, attacking the reputations of defenceless women, and flattering the vanity of a few silly girls, cannot but be detrimental in the highest degree,morally and socially. To those who are responsible for such a state of things, the lines spoken by Emilia in “ Othello ” most fitly apply w vis.:— “ Oh, heavens, that such companions thond'st unfold. And put iu every houast hand a whip. To lash the rascals naked through the world.” We do not for one instant defend any one taking the law into their own bands, but simply desire to express our views on the subject of the existence of so-called £ ‘ society ” journals which wo conceive, as conducted iu some parts of tha colony, aro capable of doing the deadliest injury to the people. The nearest approach to this

style of literature is described by Dickens in “ Martin Chnzzlewit,” where he speaks •of two American papers, “ The New York Slabber,” and “ The New York Sewer.”