The daily Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1841-1845, 1842-11-07
THE WING PRESS-THE NEW YORK
AMERICAN.

There are three presses in this country which
seem, of late, TO vie with each other for the palm
in the science of defamation: melted by natural
appetite for the unclean and disgusting, or AMI
mated with the extraordinary desire Of debasing
the dignity of manhood by the practice OF
bestial impurities 1t will be unnecessary to in
form such of our readers who are in the habit
of perusing the papers, that we aude to the
Courier of New York, the N. Y. American,
and third, whose name even is pollution.
To those who have never studied the anato-
nv of the human mind, i, may seem most sur
prising, that functions, the apparent intention
of which was the production of good results,
should be distorted 10 purposes, repugnant to
natural feeling and abhorrent to the delicate
sense but we find that powers and qualities in
obedience to natural laws provocative of ielicit-
Gus combinations, rebellious and perverted, pro-
duce consequences fatal to virtue, and disgrace
full to humanity: the inevitable results Of the
indulgence of depraved tastes and corrupted un-
derstandings. And baseness and vulgarity, at
which the early stomach revolts, are, after short
reluctance, not only telerared, but greediy en-
tertained.
We can readily believe that the editors o
these papers when they first assumed the duties
of what should be honorable stations, what
might be, but for the disgrace they and such
as they attach to the pro(ession-we can readily
believe that they were shocked at coarse
rbaldry, and loathed prolane vulgary but the
seeds of latent disease gradually terminating
in their minds-seeds which, in rank soils
spring up fast and vigorous-or themselves slim
ulated by that passion, too common, alas o
our nature, which urges to notoriety at any
risks, by the basest paths, they have, for Ions
time, been running an unchecked career of We
nal ewdness and coarse traduclion.
We fear to take such papers in our hands
nor, without apprehen> ion, dare we submit then
to the Uniformed minds Of the young. They
require fumigaion before admission into gu
families they must serve long quarantine be
fore they reach untainted places.
If we sit down 10 an intellectual repast w,
would be assured of the combine hts, the healthy
nature of the meats before US; for, if We know
not the caterer, or have reason TO suspect hi!
fidelity, we would be chary Of his entertain
meni.
In the days Of our classical studies, we wei
remember to have read, in the pages of the La
tin Epic, of feast, sought with anxious expec
tatiop, most vlanously disturbed. Our read
ers, fami lar with the author, will under
stand that we refer to the third book of thu
Eneid, where Kneas and his tcmpest-tos
hungry followers, forced by the violence o
wind and wave to an unknown coast, provd
with fastening care the long sought for food
They broil, and roast, and fry, and smile in tn
grateful incense of the spit
&C Ium Httore euro
Ersiruim,e que ioros, dapib,r que spuiompr opuis.
1T ssstiio ho,rif co lapsu de moniibw adst,nt
Ha,pyi9 ct magnis quauni cidng oribus alas,
Dir,p,untque da}es confaciuqw ornnia fUdant
fn,ntaydo; ruM vox TETRum piRA INTER oDoREM."
Yes, on the very threshold Of their antlcipa
ted enjoyment, while expectation was fast mer
ging into sweet assurance, and palate, in fancy
relishing the grateful batons. on a sudden
hideous, Joul, and obscene birds, whose touch
was contamination, whose footsteps filth, sez,
with dirty clamor the appropriated food and
with their nastlness dehle the tables