Democratic Sentinel, Volume 5, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 November 1881 — Journalistic Abuses. [ARTICLE]

Journalistic Abuses.

There ought to be a law making it a penal offence for the newspapers to use certain phrases and expressions, unless the proprietor pay a royalty to the State for the use of such language. Quite a number of respectable bld men have tried it, but none have ever succeeded in dying, without being subsequently • denounced as “an old landmark.” Why not call the late respected citizen “ an old mile post,” for variety ? If a respectable old citizen dies, why should he not be allowed to pass away ? Is he expected, after his relatives have gone to the expense and trouble of having him ostentatiously planted —is it still required of him that his remains loaf about his old haunts, and frequent saloons just about the time lunch is set out ? Why should he not pass away, without the local paper indulging in personal flings and meaningless taunts ? We have shown how the census was kept down by the marriage notices that are put in the papers, how there is more skirmishing than regular engagements, and how, amid all the popping, the question is never popped. In this connection we may mention the term : “ High contracting parties,” which is flung in the teeth of every couple that has the reckless hardihood to commit matrimony. What are high contracting parties, anyhow? Unless the fair bride is seven feet in her stockings, and the noble-looking groom has a contract to shingle the roof of a shot tower, we fail to perceive what possible justification a reporter has to call them high-contract-ing parties. And even if the bridegroom is a carpenter, and has a contract to build a shot tower, that is no reason why his trade should be flung in his teeth. How would the reporter like it if the insulted bridegroom were to publish a card stating that the reporter’s mother took in washing, and his father was a hotelkeeper, who took in strangers ?— Texas Siftings. ‘