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Show T 1 1 I ; Perilous 14 Should Be tm ji Administered i iriltn in Small Doses II Ily COUNT OTTAVIO (UOO OJETTI). Funou Italian Journalist. Some IC journalists in London linvo planned to found a newspaper that shall tell the wholo truth, nnd publish every day with full particulars the great and smoll scandals of the courts, of parliament, of tho UJivJ markets, of famous families. Naturally, this journal O savngc3 cannot be printed with tho sanction of the IqflBM' X laws, which on rare occasions permit the publication 3Lx of tho truth, but which always and explicitly prohibit AT" the publication of tho whole truth; therefore it is to ffiffly be printed at some place -it is not known where mj on the coast of Belgium or Trance, whenco it will bo qEP dispatched under cover by the first mail to London every morning. As it is printed in English, tho unknown men who arc projecting it arc already vaunting themselves as publishing it for moral purposes, because, be-cause, especially in England, tho banner of morals is the only one under which an immoral traffic can be concealed. Tho whole truth! And in a newspaper! To understand the social peril of saying and printing the whole truth about any and all things, there is no better way than to imogino what the streets, tho houses, thfl theaters, tho parliaments and tho madhouses would become if men walked about and lived in them naked. In telling the wholo truth and in walking .about naked one runs pre ciecly the same risks. First of all, that of being locked up in a cell or n lunatic asylum. Then that of having no friend who dares accompany you or tolk freely with you. Then, that of losing at once and forevel v5& your good reputation, that is to say, the possibility of deceiving your V neighbor about your own shortcomings. For a man who does not want to wear clothes or who desires to proclaim pro-claim aloud all that ho believes to bo the truth, thero is no way except to go to live on a desert island; and oven there it is certain that this original hero would do much better not to tell himself those total truths which others oth-ers have not wished to hear, for, through telling them to himself and be-f be-f , lieving them, ho might finish logically with suicide. Truth is a medicine; a medicine so dangerous that tho honest news- t papers are those which administer it to tho public in small doses and at set hours; and the expert public knows this so well that every reader in order or-der to swallow this tiny dose every morning and every evening lias it prepared pre-pared for him by "his newspaper," and not by any other, in tho way that i& most suited to his habits, to his health and to his opinions. The same ' dose prepared by a journal with other views puts him in a state of excite ment, or of anger, or spoils for some hours, often for tho whole days, hir circulation and digestion. And these Englishmen would scatter this poison broadcast in the heart of tho city! Fortunately they, by keeping even their names concealed, con-cealed, confess that their newspaper of truth will havo just tho value of an anonymous letter. Tho honest public is forewarned and will leave the truth to beasts, to savages and to madmen, while it continues to live hygicnically and to enjoy civilization, education, poetry, art, hypocrisy, morality and all the other delicate and tender gifts of divine deception. |