Rensselaer Standard, Volume 1, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 October 1879 — Killed by Scandal. [ARTICLE]

Killed by Scandal.

Cleveland Herald. Borne statements have been made in regard to the young man George Clark, who recently killed himself in this city at the Keunard House, which may serv-s as a warning. He had had a difficulty with his wire, and been guilty of improper conduct as a husband. Wben he saw the wretched details spread out in the columns of the newspapers, the disgrace and exposure of nis private affairs drove him to desperation. He thought the eyes of everybody were upon him, that lie was branded forever as a criminal before mankind, and that death was the surest and only source of relief. He had not the courage to live, and so died by his own hand. We do not learn that this young man was a candidate for office; that any divorce suit or charge was pending against him in thecourts; that ne was in any sense a public man, or that the newspapers had any business with his private affairs whatever. That he had sinned, and was guilty of great wroftg to his family and himself, seems quite true, but that his offenses should nave been published, blazoned to the world with all the glaring headlines, that sensation ana ingenuity could invent, seems a needless and wanton outrage, a violation of public decency and the liberty of the ‘press. His private affairs were his private affairs, and the public had no business with them. Their exposure could do nobody any good, were in no sense news to which the public was entitled, and such publications should be made punishable like the vilest libels on private character.

Such garbage may make newspapers sell. It is eagerly sought by the bad and the thoughtless. But such invasion of the private affairs of a private citizen by a newspaper is a degradation of the press and a monstrous abuse of its rights. If persisted in by papers claiming to be respectable, journalism as a profession will sink below contempt, aud the time will come when, if editors are beaten or killed, the community will say it served them right. Young Clark killed himself rather than meet the shame he felt awaiting him. But if his death calls public attention to a growing evil in our country now recklessly indulged in by a portion of the press, he may not have died in ▼ain. In the United States frilly two-thirds of the people are directly dependent on he soil for support, ana of the 9.000,00 who are ©imaged in productive inustries over *,©60,000 are farmers.