A FIGHT WITH DEATH!--Heroism of a Young Girl!--John Graham rescued from
Drowning by Beautiful Millicent Almsford!--The Personal Appearance of
the Heroine!--Early History of the Lucky Man!
These headings preceded the two-column article at which Graham laughed
contemptuously, and which drew hot tears from Millicent’s eyes. She had
never before seen her own name in print, and the freedom with which the
Anglo-Saxon press deals with the affairs of ladies who have no claim on
the public interest was unknown to her. She only felt that her name was
being spoken by people who never had heard of her; that the most sacred
and awful hour of her life was revealed to the world; and that the event
of which she had hardly spoken, and of which she barely dared to think,
was now familiar to thousands of indifferent readers. The news had in
fact been telegraphed to one of the large New York papers, and in the
course of a week filtered down through the smaller organs of that city
to the suburban press, and was read and forgotten by the careless public
throughout the length and breadth of this enlightened land. To Mrs.
Shallop and Barbara, accustomed to the vagaries of American journalism,
the state of mind into which Millicent was thrown by the article in the
San Francisco "Roarer," was entirely surprising. It was without doubt
annoying, but they had both become so accustomed to seeing their own
names and those of their friends in the columns of the daily journals,
that Millicent’s horror and indignation seemed disproportionate to the
cause. This utter disrespect of the privacy of life which is the right
of all men and women leading peaceable lives, breaking no law of the
civil or social statutes, is the crying sin of modern journalism. When
they are charged with this, the journals very tritely retort that
"social news" pays better than any other class of matter; that its
insertion is more often prized and sought after by the individuals
mentioned than resented by them; that much of the personal news is
actually furnished by the individuals whom it most concerns; and that
they but supply the demand of their readers. It would be well for them
to remember that to pander to the public taste is not the highest object
open to journalism; to elevate that taste were a task more deserving of
commendation, and less unworthy of good printer’s ink and paper.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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