132
Music Trade Review
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May 20th, 1881.
THE
CRITIC AND TRADE
REVIEW.
" Be sure and tell them that if they declare themselves so responsible,,
they assume a pretty big contract.
I called to see this lawyer next day. He said that the American New*
OE some time past a paper in this city has been incessantly libelling Company wouldn't take that position.
" I thought they wouldn't," said I ; "you'll have to get up earlier."
Shanks. The corporation which publishes the concern is chartered
What makes this anecdote timely is the fact that within a brief time, one
tinder the laws of the State of Connecticut. Obviously a man sueing the
paper or any of the five people who conduct it, could obtain neither damages by one of the nerveless critics of this same newspaper, have succumbed to
nor redress. In a libel suit the phrasing of the complaint is generally as the same threat, and that, indeed, it has been played with effect upon the
follows : .
,
man himself.
I believe that, according to law and to right, the verdict Mr. Shanks has
" That the said defendant did print, publish, sell, circulate, and dissemi-
obtained will be reversed, and, in the interests of publishers, of newspaper
n a t e the following false, slanderous, and defamatory matter to wit:—"
Now Mr. Shanks' legal position is that the American News Company is re- writers, and of the public, it will be a good thing if it is.
sponsible for damages for having disseminated the libels concerning him.
BIOGRAPHICAL.
Accordingly he brings suit and gets a judgment which, against so wealthy a
Mr.
Shanks
is
a
gentleman
of about forty, of medium size, red face, and
corporation, would be good and collectable if not reversed on appeal. Mr. straight, black hair. His countenance
is ruddy and piignacious. He wears
Shanks thinks, and his friends think too, that he has solved the difficulty of a cream-colored overcoat, and might, therefore,
be mistaken for a Phila-
bringing irresponsible libellers to justice and to time.
delphia theatrical manager. He was born in Shelbyville, Kentucky, about
forty miles east of Louisville. He has a brother and a sister, both connected
THE OTHER SIDE.
with journalism. He was formeriy city editor of the Tribune; ran the police
All this looks very pleasant and plausible till you hear the other side. and firemen's paper, The Sentinel; owned a printing office, and is now a.
Says the American News Company :
space writer on the Tribune. He has a good acquaintance among politicians.
I. We do not " circulate" any newspaper. We are simply agents. Make is an intimate friend of State Attorney-General Hamilton Ward, and is a
us responsible for what appears in a paper and you force us to become patron of the playhouse.
judges and censors of everything it contains. What newspaper would give
Patrick Farrelly, the manager of the American News company, is a man
us that authority ? If we are compelled to keep certain libels out of a paper of about
the same age and connected with newspapers all his life. He is a
and dereliction of that duty is to be paid for by us, then we must scrutinize, man of sedentary
habits, has dark eyes and hair, a face sallow, but occa-
from our point of view, every line which appears in the two thousand pub- sionally flushed, might
pass in appearance for a Jesuit priest; talks well and
lications we handle. Preposterous, clearly.
smoothly, is a good business man, a diplomatist, preoccupied, has a few very
H. We do not sell to the public, but to the trade. We are common good friends, a great many anonymous rivals, is envied, devoted to his
carriers. We are no more responsible for what a newspaper contains than is business, and understands Imposition a good deal better than any of those
the expressman whose wagon carries the edition, the dealer who provides who criticise him.
the paper, the founder who furnishes the type, or the railroad which puts a
Chapman whose position is, I believe, associate manager of the
package of papers in its baggage car. We are given no power to affect or News Mr.
Company, is a complete contrast to Farrelly. He is probably about-
direct the sale or circulation of any newspaper. " Respondent superior"— thirty-five,
has dark hair, side whiskers, a handsome face, fine eyes and very
see the principal—is our legal answer.
suave address. His portrait, hung in a picture gallery, without designation,
III. A question of equity. If a man is libeled in a newspaper, and sues would evoke this comment: "A gentleman." He talks rather slowly, i»
the paper or its editor, the latter may, and usually does, set up one of the level-headed, popular, a hard-worker, is neither very sanguine nor very
following defences :
cynical, is devoted to the service of the News Company, and in business
1. The correctness of the charges published.
hours would be called a smart man, and out of them a good fellow. I don't
2. Good motives and lack of malice in publishing them.
care to ever have a better friend.
3. That the communication is privileged.
ERNEST HARVIER in the Philadelphia Sunday Mirror,
4. That, for legal reasons, the plaintiff has no case.
But how can the American News Company do this? What justification
Kudolph Kaner, Teufenthal, Switzerland, assignor to Edmund Luthy,
can they plead. They know nothing of the rights or merits of the affair.
Accordingly they have no defence. Say that C. A. Dana says in the New Cincinnati, Ohio, has patented a spring motor for music boxes. No. of
York Sun that W. M. Tweed is a thief. The News Company circulates the Patent, 241,373. Application filed Feb. 28th, 1881.
Sun. Tweed sues the News Company. They have no defence. But if
Charles Parent, of Biddeford, Maine, has patented a music rack. No*
Tweed—he is dead, I am using his name simply for an example—sues the of Patent, 241,412. Application filed Oct. 12th, 1880.
Sun, the defence is "you have been convicted of thievery. For reasons of
It begins to look as if Boston were disposed to take into serious consid-
public policy, you being a public officer, we publish this of you." The case
is thereupon dismissed. It would be a cold day for journalists and a poor eration the project of a World's Fair in 1885. Various Boston papers have
one for our readers, if Mr. Shanks were able to shift the responsibility of given a cautious hearing to the enterprise, and now The Herald, in its sup-
libel from the man who prints and publishes it to the paid agency which sells plement of May 9, publishes a half-page map of the proposed site with a.
it to the trade. As a matter of fact, there never has been published in the groundplan for the building, suggested by General C. B. Norton. The site
United States a newspaper which did not contain in each issue at least one may be said, roughly, to be a triangle bounded by Huntington ave., Parker
libel. For a libel is legally any statement which does damage to another or street and the line of the Boston and Albany Railroad, and the plan pro-
tends to create trouble. The courageous man, with a pen in his hand, is poses that the main Exhibition shall be under one roof, covering sixty acres^
forever making havoc of this kind. Especially so is this true of the critic. and connected at one end with the building of the Massachusetts Charitable
To say that the house at a theatre was " light," is ground enough for a libel. Association, and at the other with that of the New England Manufacturers'
To say that an actor don't play a part properly is libel. To say that an Institute. It is asserted that Boston possesses peculiar and unrivalled ad-
actress is no longer young, or that she is getting stout, or to publish of her, vantages for the holding of a World's Fair, but it is to be hoped that the
without her authority, that she is married, all these things are libel, for they enthusiasts will take pains to ascertain whether or not the people want one
do damage. To call a man " too fresh " is a criminial libel, for it may pre- before setting about the work.
cipitate a fight. Who, then, except a cast-iron man, who loved jail better
than liberty, and who had a national bank behind him, would consent to be
NEARLY 4 0 , 0 0 0
an American journalist ?
U
MORE ABOUT LIBEL.
MB. SHANKS' CASE.
F
FACT.
If the American News Company, which makes from a mill to a cent on
every paper it handles, is to be held responsible to the extent of $5,000 or
$10,000 for every line of damaging matter such papers contain, then it must
go out of business. And what then would become of the poor journalist—
and the poor reader?
" Good," would say the News Company to the publisher, " that is the
law. Very well. You must give us bonds for $100,000 for every issue we
circulate to protect us from suits and judgments." How many papers could
do this? And of the four or five in the country which could, which one
would have a place for journalistic Shanks?
AN EPISODE.
About two years ago, I was engaged in a little controversy with a man
who thought he owned the United States. Shanks knows him. I was the
first, as I have been the last, to put in print concerning him, what others are
accustomed to say verbally. He brought, I don't know how many libel
suits. He failed in all of them. One day I got a letter from a lawyer who
said he wanted to see me. I called upon him. He said " these libel suits
don't pay. We have won nothing by them. Now WE ARE going to stop
you."
"How so," I inquired.
" I have seen the American News Company."
" Well, what of it ? "
" They have agreed to stop you."
" Indeed. In what way ? "
" They won't circulate your paper any more—that is, so long as it contains
libels on my client."
He threw himself back in his chair and awaited the result of this bomb-
shell.
"All right," said I. "If theAmerican News Company is willing tosay to
me : ' We won't circulate your paper because WE ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR WHAT
IT CONTAINS,' I am agreeable, and will stop my fight. But I fancy they won't.
Say you see them ?"
"Yes, I will, certainly."
Matchless" Burden
Organs have teen made and shipped to all parts of the World.
CHAPLAIN McCABE'S OPINION.—" There can be no mistake
made in purchasing a Burdett Organ, A poor organ—like poor
art—is good for nothing. A rich, full-toned organ, like the Bur-
dett, ' is a thing of beauty and joy forever.' The Celeste stop
gives a wierd effect to the music which is well nigh enchanting.
I would aay to all our people: Be careful to avoid purchasing
poor organs that you will tire of in a week. I might mention
some that make me shudder every time I sit down before them.
C. C. McCABE, D. D.,
Asst. Cor, Sec'y of Board of Church Extension of M. E. Church.
BUBY, QUEBEC, CANADA, April, 14,1880.
DEAB SIRS—I ought long ago to have written to say that the
organ I boughtfrom you (as Church Warden) for St. Paul's Church
in this place far surpasses our expectations iu every respect. Its
beautiful appearance, sweetness and strength of tone; its numer
ous combinations, from which the kind of music required can be
so easily obtained, render it a great acquisition. I know no organ
in the neighborhood that can begin to compete with it, though
there are several that cost much more than I paid you.
Faithfully yours.
THE BTJEDETT ORGAN CO.
ROBERT COWLES.
Organs for the Parlor, School, Lodge, Church, etc., are
made by the
BURDETT ORGAN CO., Limited, ERIE, PENN'A.
J