After he has been put into office
the people no longer pay attention to him, leaving it to the newspapers
to see that he conducts himself properly. When a high official is caught
stealing the people rejoice, because it shows that the newspapers are
doing their duty.
In the sphere of social relations, Herr Grundschnitt learned, the
newspapers are mainly concerned with safeguarding the purity and
integrity of the home. Most of them do this by printing full accounts of
all murder and divorce trials. The professor told me that he could
recall nothing in literature that quite equals the white heat of
indignation with which the editor of the _Star_ once spoke of "the
festering national sore revealed in the proceedings of the Dives divorce
suit, the nauseous details of which the reader will find in all their
hideous completeness on the first three pages of the present issue,
together with all the photographs ruled out of evidence on the grounds
of decency." The press also serves the cause of public morals by holding
up to scorn the vices and extravagances of the vulgar rich, whose
ill-used millions, as they hasten to point out elsewhere, are nothing
more than what any American may look forward to, provided he has courage
and energy.
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