The Sun.
London, England, 1863-11-17 00:00:00

SLASHER AND GUSHER,

The London. Review comments thus whimsically
upon what it calls—that peculiar style which has
proved so successful of late, that Leader, by Penny.
a-liner, out of Sensation, has been the public's
favourite and made the running of the journal in
which it began ever since.
For the composition of such articles are necessary
the following ingredients :—A thoroughly perverted
taste, an ear assailable by no amount of cacophony,
a contempt for the pure well of English undefiled,
a partiality for mud, a tendency to snivelling, and
a very strong stomach. Add to these a knowledge
of slang, a power of invective, a Cant-soil-peu ac-
quaintance with the notabilities or flash characters
of the day, and a sensation-leader writer's stock-in -
trade is complete. Complete, that is to say, if
he be a slasher. But if he be a gusher, he must add
a small store of Biblical knowledge, for quotation
purposes, and an aptitude for "piling up the agony,"
especially upon such painful subjects or occasions as
deathbeds, contrite Magdalene, starved paupers, or
ground-down agriculturists. It is by no means an
exaggeration to say that the lamented death of the
Prince Consort has done more for the promulgation
of the gusher's plaintive platitudes than any event
since the establishment of penny journalism. In
the Gusher's declarations that he would not intrude
upon the sorrows of bereaved royalty, and his sup.
positions pictures (which he could ;not refrain
from drawing) of royalty in its bereavement, he
brought into play all his longest words, his choicest
quotations, his deepest aspirations, his moot inti-
mate acquaintance with Cruden's Concordance. The
shone,
mere fact that ail flesh is grass
and
was a hint
to him to make hay while the
sun
a Slandpunkt whence ho deduced columns
of moralizing, in a manner which,
lin do r s
tenderlycast
lCastle,
w was
respectful
ht
yt o
consolatory
the s occupantslator t of N while
of Kingsland, and the primitive settlersothe denizens
in lie Beau-
voir
Gusher inaffording been
Town. Fortune
has
him
a plenitudebylately veryo f kind
subjects t o.
t
The arrival of the Princess Alexandra ; the marriage
of the Prince of Wales; Prince Alfred's fever at
Malta; the death of Lord Clyde ; the Queen's return
to duty in the inauguration
n
finally, the " of the Aberdeen Memo-
rial;afforded him magnificent
eat divorce scandal," have
cent opportunities—of all of
which he has duly availed himself—fur the display
of ilia is loyalty, patriotism, his virtuous mdigna-
his
tion, and
crocodile
The tears.
Slasher is a Writer of a different
type. He'd
a would-be roysterer ; a light free-lance, kept down
to gravity by his over-weening sense of what is
due to public decorum. Satire is his flautist
vein,
but in his duty to the public it must be tem-
pered with scorn. The cynicism of Diogeues must
be mingled with the ringing philippics uf Dein°B7
thence, and the playful satire of Tbackoray nist
find vent in the blunt outspokenness of .0 Carl ye.
The slasher is nothing if not natural t
Li h
d ke
favourite boast that he calls a spade a
sP-rakin
the cock in the fable, he delights in dunghilla
finds, and
and many are the gems which he
theerweorld. Far.
to which ho calls the attention of the
fetched as are his themes, it is his
boast that by hi
home to v
skilful treatment they are brought d
vulgar
gar
nuration by
comprehension, and welcomed with a
the ordinary British tax-payer.

THE RIGHT HON. WILLIAM HUTT, M.P., is

E GOLDEN CITY OF MA.NOA,
indisposed.
c) " On Iff
~ EL D°ltAl)' Walter Raleigh to be situated near the Lake
a posed by
, which
turns out to be nearer the truth than.
uptihnastuechvevr;stshqouvaenitfiutileostduerairntgh
contain more or less of it in fabulous pro-
s of the adjacent rocks
wtfilh'eaoetswt
earlyonft toDnGdepoillal :roe
trhaoa srf been
last
month dug
whilst on breaking. the vein
portion, found sparkling with the precious metal in
they were
virgin purity and abundant quantity,
TuE PROTESTANTS OF THE ELIZABETHAN AGE,
saYs the Spectator, Mr. Fronde entertains no
exalted opinion of, and he does not hesitate to express it
openly and manfully. They wei e returned refugees—men
who had prudently kept out of the way while their opinions
were dangerous to themselves, but who had re-appeared
when it was safe, and reightbe advantageous. The Aylmers,
the Jewels, the Grindals, Were not of tho metal which makes
martyrs; they had conviction enough—though Jewel, at
least, had saved his life by apostasy—to be quite willing to
persecute their adversaries.
EUGENE DE LA CROIX'S SUCCESSOR the French
Academy (Bection des Beaux Arts) has found in the painter
Hesse, known by a long series of admired efforts,2,lu
nlpmroig
F
others, " The uneral of T" 'Titian," and thei
Doge Pisani." Gerome was his uneucceesful rival on
t Ilk
occasion.