The same ingenious method of promoting virtue by holding up vice to
obloquy is pursued in every other field, the learned German told me. The
newspapers do not print the names of men who support their wives, but
they print the names of men who do not, or who support more than one.
They do not publish the photographs of honest bank clerks, but of
dishonest ones, and of these only when they have stolen a very large
sum. They pay no attention to a clergyman as long as he advocates the
brotherhood of man, but they have large headlines about the minister who
believes in the moderate use of the Scotch highball. They overlook a
college professor's epoch-making researches in American history, and
take him up when he comes out in favour of an exclusive diet of raw
spinach. From the newspaper point of view, a college professor counts
less than a professional gambler; a gambler counts less than an actress;
a good actress counts less than a bad one; a bad actress counts less
than a prize-fighter; a prize-fighter counts less than a chimpanzee that
has been taught to smoke cigarettes; and an educated chimpanzee counts
less than a millionaire who suffers from paranoia.
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