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About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 1, 1884)
340 THE WEST SHORE. TRUE JOURNALISM. Thai, taken as a whole, the English literature of to day in far cleaner and more wholesome than that of even , loss than a century ago, is a pleasing and encouraging truth. Upon the shelves of every scholar's library stand books which have not a rival in modern times in the im morality of their contents, and which simply hold their places among purer volumes because they are denomi nated " classic," and were honored with notmlar amimvnl , , 1 i i in those "gixxl old times" when people were none too pruuisn aixmt wliat was six)kon or written. Mr. Spur goon recently said, "Our grandmothers read books which their daughters would be ashamed to open," and a com parison of our modern popular works of fiction with those . it l t .... . . i mo last century will furnish convincing evidence of the truth of his remark. Books, such as now receive the stamp of jx.pular npproval and find their places upon unrary sneives, are certainly more wholesome in tlioii conumta than those of a few docades ago. While this is true or the bettor class of books, the opposite must be nam oi puoiicatioiiB or the periodical press. Improve tnenU in the art of printing and the enormous reductioi hi u. wwioi putmsinug, combined with rapid and cheap v...n....HH.noverwi.io ami thickly populattkl areas, ha resulted in multiplying, to an astonishing degree, the number of periodicals. By these facilities for cheap jmxiucuon ana wide circulation, papers whose content vary irom the simply p.-ruictou to the positively in., moral mid degrading have Won enabled to establisl themselves and spread their d oralizing inlluences vnrougiiom mo enure nation, Up,,,, tl, HuiK.i t gained from those whose moral sensil.il if !. blunbxl, they have lived, recruiting at an alarming rate the ranks of their readers from the youth of our land over whom their influence for evil has become appalling! The records of our ix)lice and din. ma . - prisons and asylums, are daily furnishing evidence of . " v,1.i,u,ihi.ui oi sucu literature is liavinff uixin tlioun u-lii. n..,.. ,..;ti. :.. n . , "ihhii me circle or its ever ...........K iu ueejx'ning mnuenc. The printing press and the leaden type, are inanimate objects, ready to be manipulated by the hand of the g,xxl ami the bad Thev T 1".I:!.,Vh! Rk",,,U f uIture or 11,0 'Nominators of vice, . they shall Ik, rests with the inUdligont and th.nkmg, the moral and cultured ix.rtion of our citizens Aa a recent writer on this subject remarke.1, the essentiai HemenU are simple, "Given," said he, 8 vile imagina tion, am depraved heart, with a few brains, then put w. h,u ,U control the m.xlern printing press, and hold out a alight unmry reward, and you have i combina tion tome of the most dangerous forces that our xlern cinliaatiou know, anything about" Those are the essen tial condition under which is produced that which re mn. the passive condemnation of a vast majority of 2 cius; and yet, until it ceases to be passive and Cm" active aud aggressive, condemnation is idle and impTnt For this, journalism, as a profession, cannot be held fully responsible, A weU hold the noble science of surgery and medicine accountable for those unworth disciples who prostitute the knnwled commit crimes against nature. The great responsibilit lies not with the press, not with those whose perverted literary taste craves such filthy trash, but with the' acknowledged respectable portion of the community those who, for business or what they deem prudent reasons, furnish the financial support to these manufac turers and retailers of vilest scandal. Thro i this city-men of acknowledged respectability and high social position who admit these filthy sheets within the sacred precincts of the home circle. They are, thought lessly perhaps, but none the less actually, subjecting their children to influences which can but be highly in. jurious. They are laying the foundation for a tower of sorrow and grief whose weight shall crush them in their declining years. They are sowing the wind, and the harvest of whirlwind must surely be reaped Instances are not wanting to prove the truth of all that has been said. To-day the heads of parents, guardians, brothers and husbands, bowed in shame for the wayward conduct :f loved ones, attest its truth. And yet how many of them realize the full measure of their own responsibility for that which they look upon as an undeserved aillio tionV They have taken these papers into their families, ar have in their business contributed" to their tmmioil aud any bitterness which, may flow into their lives from tne inquire stream they have thus helped to snsttiu, is but a righteous judgment visited upon them, and which may at any time fall uion the heads of their eouallv guilty neighbors. It is not a pleasant subject to dwell upon, but it i necessary that our citizens should be aroused. This danger is not remote, nor is the cxuro of it entirely beyond our reach. We are not talking alone of the vile sheets published in New York: the Dress and people of that State are attending to that matter. l is of one in this city we speak, which is the base equal of the worst of them, which is attacking the purity of our home circles and the happiness and peace of our domestic hearths, It was no evidence of perspicacity on the part of that weekly paper one which, utterly devoid of anything Sabbatarian, bears nt its head the name of the day it desecrates that it rfiCnrrniiArl in nnr nun nictnre A faith 0.... . " j"' i nil jx.rtrait of itself. Ordinary intelligence and nn acute ness of conscience which its lom? nanderincr to vice must surely hnve created, were sufficient We simply held the glass up to Nature and every one recognized the repul sive features. With equally guilty instinct it knew whom Dr. Marvin meant when, from his pulpit a few months aim. l.a .l.w.l.,..., i ci tr i ii.: that o ""wmou, ue nave papers in una v. would be a burning disgrace to Sodom and Gomorrah." This was not an inconsiderate and impulsive expression, but was said deliberately, with ful expectation of th rem oi vue abuse which that sheet immediately iur.. upon him a sadlv weak and unrrv Answer to such rible indictment For this Dr. Marvin cared nothing; could do him no lmrm nnr nr.nl. 1 U'im'nrn unv respecta''' , , . "J J , nan. A mud cauuou, filthy as its missiles are, ban ul