Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1855-08-18
LITERARY STUMBLING.

The man who, urdcr false prctenscs, induces you
to invest your money in bog land, insolvent banl. .
stock or pinchbeck watches, is, by common consent
pronounced n swindlcr. This rule, however, does
not seem TO hold good In the literary market. Moth
ing is more common on the part of the editors of
our so-called literary newspapers, magazines and
reviews, than the laudation of works intrihsically
worthless. II is q plea which these gentlemen will
be 10th to have put in for them, that they err there
in through ignorance; the very confession i~ncapaci-
tates them utterly for the Office which they assume
of literary faster. Personal friendship or the plea
of encouraging American talent nc excuses
''hn6t to be made" and tho amiability and patri-
otism Of tho reviewer who thus plays into the
hands Of the author and publisher, at the expense
of the purchaser, may very fairly be questioned,
the moro especially, as our English literature is,
by the common consent of ali nations, admitted to
the world, it being impossible for the mass of read
ers to exhaust the stock of ~frst-rate productions
already in the market.
1t is true it is quite impossible for the editor of
the weekly journal to peruse adequately the half
bushel of publications laid upon his book-table
he~bdomadaly, but this is an excel ent reason why
he should refrain from giving any opinion at all;
and it requires nothing more than a glance on the
part of any one possessed Of ordinary judgment in
the premises, to perceive the worthlessncss of the
vast majority of the publications of the present
oge, so prolific in what is satirically termed bellies
Iettres. or the works issuing from the American
press at the present time, it is perfectly safe to
say that not one in twenty is worthy a place
in q good library. Inanity and stupidity are their
prevailing characteristics, and he who runs may
read that they are the productions of persons who,
like the young lady fresh from the fashy boarding
school, "have determined to become celebrated
authors" whose natural ~unftness for the sphere
they have chosen, is evident on every page, and
whose deficiency in the requisite literary culture is
everywhere manifest. Yet these works are con-
stantly Landed as "triumphs of genius" and
"gems of literature" either through incapacity to
judge between the genuine and the meretricious,
or.from a false lenity, and are presently found upon
the shelves Of every book store, and the centre.
table of every romantic young lady who aspires to
u reputation for taste in literature.
In the meantime, the publisher fills his pockets,
and the author becomes Neutrality-suspicious.
would be the better word-sickly sentiment on the
one hand, and private scandal on the other. are the
favorite food of the rising generation Barnum's
disgusting career is held up as a model to the ZEN
terprising" young men of the country Wyko6
assumes the character Of a hero of romance. and
the Fanny Fern controversy acquires the impor-
lance Of an affair of State.
Nothing is more imperatively called for than
able and impartial MISUNDERSTANDING which
will resolutely refuse to elevate into a Scott every
scribbler of washy novels and novelties, AMI
steadily decline to acknowlede in the manufacturers
Pastorals," ETC., anything higher than the
p~oetaster or "rhyme-smith," as the Germans have
it, The itch for writing is n disease of q ~fearfully
contagious nature, and which requires memorable
treatment. OVARD0.