The Complete Works of Brann, the Iconoclast — Volume 01Brann, William Cowper
General
The Complete Works of Brann, the Iconoclast — Volume 01
Brann, William Cowper
Brann, William Cowper, 1855-1898; Essays; Reformers
persistent sinner against all life's decencies and proprieties.
Its "personal column" was for years the most revolting
thing known to yaller journalism. Its counting-room was an
assignation post-office. The paper was the recognized
organ of "Happy Hollow," the Hell's Half Acre of Houston.
It was a pander to all the worst passions that run riot in the
"tenderloin," a procurer of young girls to glut the lust of
godless libertines. Its sign was the ligniyoni, its ideal the
almighty dollar. Through its feculent columns Muckle-
mouthed Meg and Doll Tearsheet made assignations with
forks-of-the-creeks fools, while blear-eyed bummers and
rotten-livered rounders requested respectable women to
meet them at unfrequented places and wear camp-meeting
lingerie. The ICONOCLAST compelled its unrespected
contemporary to purify its "personal column"--and this
service to society has never been forgiven by the bench-
legged hydrocephalous grand panjandrum of that paper.
The Post next proceeded to publish a directory of
Houston's red-light district, giving names and addresses of
the "madames," the number of their "boarders" and the
condition of the merchandise thrown upon the
market. All that was necessary to make the Post's
Bawdy-house Guide complete was the addition of rate-
cards. On that little bit of journalistic "enterprise" the
ICONOCLAST put a kibosh also, much to the satisfaction of
every decent family in Harris county. Now the fecular sheet
has found a new road to infamy--is advertising garters fit
only to adorn the crummy underpinning of negro prostitutes.
It does seem that the Post will do anything for a dollar--
except be decent. Owing to the mental perversity of its
management, respectability is for it impossible. It is a
social leper, a journalistic pariah. It is devoid of political
principle as a thieving tomcat of conscience. It has no
more stability than a bad smell in a simoon. It has deified
and damned every statesman by turn. It has been on
every possible side of every public question, and wept bitter
tears of regret because further change of policy were
impossible. It is a perfect maelstrom of misinformation, the
avatar of impudence, the incarnation of infamy--a social
cesspool whose malodor spreads contagion like the rank
breath of the gila-monster or the shade of a upas tree. Yet
its editor, I am told, aspires to the lieutenant-governorship
of Texas. Verily, he's "got his gall." He will indeed be "a
warm baby" if elevated to that inconsiderable office and
permitted to monkey with the scepter while the governor is
doing the elegant elsewhere. Texas may certainly consider
herself fortunate if he does not pawn the fasces of power
and blow in the proceeds of the erstwhile John Bell's variety
joint. Should he do so, he will probably be permitted to
"take off his things." The Post "ad." is worse than that
of holy John Wanamaker, who once announced in the
Philadelphia papers that "Parisian thoughts are sewn in our
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account