The Sun.
London, England, 1870-06-23 00:00:00

SOUTHERN LITERATURE.

Can anybody tell us what is " The Poesque ?" Of Poe,
per se, most of the old habitués of newspaper offices in
New York have a very distinct remembrance as an
exceedingly seedy, ill-conditioned individual, who wrote,
when sober, some genuine poetry, and when drunk a
great
,deal of laboured trash. The few real poems are
there to speak for themselves ; unhealthy and powerful as
some poisonous growth, yet giving evidence of a unique,
absolute genius, both tempting and impossible for mere
talent to counterfeit. Lately, however, he has gone up
among the gods of the South. Every new aspirant for
literary honours, below Mason's and Dixon's line, is now
approved or condemned as Poesque or non-Poesque.
The new adjective troubles us. If to be Poesque
means that these people are out of money, and
out at elbows, trying to make their daily bread or
morning bitters by scribbling verses or slanders upon men
who befriended them, the case is lamentable enough ; but
if means that the mob of gentlemen and ladies who write
with such alarming ease in the South all design to draw
their inspiration from " the scoriae rivers that roll their
sulphurous currents down Yaanek," the state of affairs is
appalling and must be looked to at once. The Wertherian
and Byronic epidemics in our fathers' days were dis-
astrous ; but what are we to do if the Southern school
girls and boys instead of going into well-conducted offices
or shops, permanently abandon themselves "to the mad
pride of intellectuality," or to wandering down ghoul-
haunted woodlands with Psyche • their soul ?
Such a catastrophe really seems imminent.
A crop of novelists, poets, and essayists has
sprung up in the South since the war thick as
mushrooms after a rain. There is, too, a constant boast-
ful attempt to parade and thrust them en masse upon our
notice. The latest compilation contains two hundred and
forty writers, all living, and with the great majority of
them Poe's Poems seem actually to have constituted the
sole literature with which they were acquainted. The
compilation is worth attention, as it gives very fairly an
insight into the present intellectual condition of the
South as developed in literature. The editor indulges,
from preface to finis, in a perpetual cackle of delight. He
marshals his host, from Mrs. Southworth to the callow
fledgling who has chirped feebly once or twicein the county
newspaper, as the Immortals at whose coming the ancient
masters, Greek as well as English, will hasten to yield their
long-held thrones. When we know that this Mrs. South-
worth and the author of St. Elmo (as the "De Stael of
America ") lead this troop we can have a very fair concep-
tion of their rank and quality. There is something
pitiable to us in all this. We cannot laugh at the proud
display of " keen satires written by yiung ladies as gra-
duating odes," at the wild confusion. of "scintillating
gleams—zephyrs freighted with perfume—horror-glares—
magnolia blooms—the tragedies about Greek maidens,
Scandinavian gods, or Aztec prophets," that -rush pen-
men out of the brains of this people when the first outlet
of pen and ink is given them. If now and then a glimpse
of plain natural feeling appears, the editor hastens to
apologise for the homeliness, and turns us to some author
" intensely Southern ;" by which he means, he tells us,
" abounding in uncontrolled emotion, clothed in tropical
drapery." What can be done with these people? Is it
worth while to sit down and reason with them ?
to tell them that vague gaspings for thought,
without definite thought in the brain, and the utterance
instead of a weak dribble of flamboyant adjectives, is not
literature ? Can they understand that " never to have
spent more than two hours in writing the longest effort
of his muse " does not " speak volumes for the genius of
Mr. Flash," but accounts for the effusions so worthy of
his name. Are Bombast and Gush ineradicable in their
nature ? When, in the language of one of themselves,
" the amber-hued Falernian of Truth and the aromatic
Tokay of Passion are set before them," must they always
choose the Tokay ? We choose to be more hopeful
about our Southern brethren, and to reject this book,
and in fact any recent offering they have made
to literature, as a fair sign of their intellectual
status. Surely the experience of the last ten
years has taught them sterner and nobler lessons than
this mawkiah sentimentality. During the war their ac-
tions proved them to be brave men and resolute, long-
enduring women. " They learned in suffering," says our
editor, what they here teach in song." Suffering such
as theirs ordinarily teaches very little song, but a large
amount of sound common sense ; and however much their
literature may belie them, we believe they learned the
lesson. "It was Ares who led them to Athen," says their
eulogist, explaining the sudden appearance of Southern
writers after the war. Heaven forbid that the dragon's
teeth should yield another such crop ! But the truth is,
we believe that the books which have inundated us
are no exposition of Southern thought or feeling, but so
many attempts to make money. The first mode of
money-making- to which an educated person turns when
thrown on his own resources is almost invariably author-
ship. They would shrink from attempting to make a
table or a chair, yet they go to work boldly at novel,
essay. or poem, without materials, tools, or knowledge of
even the rudiments of art. Our Southern friends, we
trust, as more ways of earning a livelihood open to them,
will see their mistake; and then, when time has made
real their new and broader views of life, we may hope for
a literature from them that will be as genvine and strong
an exponent of their condition as these crude efforts are
frothy and worthless.---New York Tribune.

A. WASHINGTON RIOT.—The late election riot in
Washington shews that the national capital can make
itself as famous in this line as New York was accustomed
to be in the days of its unsophisticated and ' untutored
youth. We conduct our elections here now without any
trouble. The fifteenth amendment goes smilingly to the
polls and returns unharmed. Although there are always
candidates of different parties on the tickets, people can
vote for their choice without getting broken heads or join-
ing in a row. The election not in Washington, however,
which was rather a serious affair—shooting and clubbing
and bloodshed being in the programme—was all about
nothing, for both candidates for Mayor were Republicans.
It was, therefore, more of a faction than a respectable
party fight, and, upon the whole, was a very silly proceed-
ing indeed.—New York Herald.