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

SLASHER AND GUSHER,

which
hieahallys
upon what it calls—that p
The London Review commentseooli tharstaya w
iole
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 tant-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 Magdalens, starved paupers, or
ground-down agriculturists. It is by no means an
exaggLration 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. lit
the Gusher's declarations that he would not intrude
upon the sorrows of bereaved royalty, and his bu-
positious pictures (which ho could :not refrain:ho
from drawing) of royalty in its bereave
brought into play all his longest words, his choice.!t
quotations, his deepest aspirations, his most !Thu()
mate acquaintance with Cruden's Concordance.a
mere fact that ail flesh is grasso was
ishone, hint
to him to make hay while the columns
a Standpunkt whence be CI
which, while
of moralizing, in a
consolatory to the denizens
Castle, was yet highly
.s
ettlers in De Beau-
tenderly respectful to them ancnuerp
of Kingsland, and theprimiit lei y
been very kind to
ants of indsor
voir Town. Fortune has
%plenitude of subjects.
the Gusher in affording
dra ; the marriage
Alfred's fever at
Clyde ; the Queen's return
roffhtehe arrival Prince
f the
of
f princessrrrnArlienxcane
Malta; the death of
to duty in the inauguration"great divorce scandal," have
rial; finally/
the of the Aberdeen Memo.niticent opportunities—of all of
afforded
himEnaig availed himself—for the display
which
loyalty,
has
deu-syptitriotism, his virtuous indigna-
otif,in"s alt."
'rolcodile tears.
alight free-lance, kept
---1-I,waaSdlallsit:ecr is a7r.iter of a different type. He is
td-be roysteter ,down
a would-be
by his overweening sense of What is
to gravity
due to public decorum. S •.
etre is his natural
via, but in his duty, to the public it must be tetn-
pered with scorn. he cynicism of lhogenes
must
be mingled with the ringing philippics of Demos-
thenes, and the playful satire of Thackeray must
find vent in the blunt outspokenness of Carlyle.
The slasher is nothing if not, natural ; it is his
favourite haast that he calls a. spade a spade. Like
the cock in the fable, he delights in climghill•raking,
and many are the gems which he there finds, and
to which he calls the attention of the world. Far-
fetched as tare his themes, it is his boast that by his
skillul treatment they are brought home to vulgar
comprehension, and welcomed with admiration by
the ordinary British tax-payer.

LA • ,AtEUGyvp ~-,
others, --- ,F, 011's SUCCESSOR the French
Academy (Section des Beaux Arts) has found in the painter
liesse, known by a long series of admirer efforts, anions
" The Funeral of Titian," and the " Triumph of
Doge Pisani," (ierorno was his unsuccessful rival on this
oeci.,eion.