The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1857-04-12

these people should turn their eyes The experi-
ment has succeeded on q small scale already.
The South, then, had better understand the ques.
ton at once. TIE invasion is not for the
abolition of slavery, but to get bread; not to
emabcipate the negroes but to fill their own
stomacbs. They should, therefore, encourage
this emigration A colony of forty or fifty thou
sand hard working, why, ingenious Yankees set
tied among them, would make everything spin
again. Indeed, if the State of Virginia has any
Incorporated public lands within her domain
she could not do better than to give them away
in sections to actual settlers.
IMMORAL PLAYS AND THE MORAL PREss-
There has recently been quite moral crusade
on the part of the press against the growing
wickedness of the community, as developed by
our criminal records. 1t is assumed as an axiom
that the amusements of the people have much to
do with their morals, either for good or evil.
LET NE write the songs of a nation, aud care
not who makes its laws" With this fact we'll
established, the Inconsistency of some of our CO.
temporaries is quite remarkable. Journals like
the Times Tribune and Courier, pretending to the
purest morality, dealing every day the heaviest
rhetorical blows against sins and sinners OF all
kinds, and yet openly praising style of drama
tic literature of the most immoral tendency. A
short time since lady-Mrs. McMahon-at.
tempted to portray the heroines of SHAKESPEARE and
the elder dramatists. but was assailed by these
presses with the bitterest denunciations. Anon
comes an actress who is only remarkable for the
representation Of Camille ola Dame aux Ca
melias'). And what is "Camille" The
romance upon which it is founded has been
Justly stigmatised as one of the worst specimens
of the worst school of French literature. 1t is a
dedication of prostitution. 1t sets forth In the
gaudest colors the life of the lorate. She
revels in the pleasures Of the hour The hand
soonest men in Paris are at her feet. Her
coupe is the neatest in the Boulevard. She always
has the best box at the theatre and the most pi-
quaint Of suppers after it. Her boudor is q mi
racle of taste and beauty. She is further endow-
ed with magnanimity, generosity and self-denial
and finally giving up her life for him enc loves
goes like blessed martyr to heaven. The play
is artistically constructed and conveys the same
lesson.
The tendency of this sort of literature has long
ago been decided. The ignorant and uurefecting
are dazzled by the vain show OF the first period
and fail to see the moral claimed to be convey
ed by the second. How many boys have been
made housebreakers by reading Jack Sheppard
The records of our criminal courts will show a
long list. Yet he was hanged. His imitators
oIxy 20 he al If MI ho ;aI
~ they mis- ht live as be lived. Camille" is
still worse because around her story is diffused
halo of romance; she is painted in glowing colors
by the hand of an artist.
Books and plays like Camille" appeal direct
~ to the worst passions of the human heart
they satisfy the morbid craving for forbidden
fruit, which is the original sin, if there be such
thing. The actress to whom we refer preserved all
the bad points of the character, and satisfied the
appetite OF portion of the public. She seems to
have fallen into the error Of supposing that be.
cause great many people went to the theatre to
zee a strong delineation of the life and death of
prostitute that she made an artistic success
The best proof Of the wickedness of the Dame
o,n Camtlias is found in the fact that the author
is himself ashamed Of it, and that in his last
work-the Question dArgent-he endeavors to
gain the favor of decent theatre goers by strict
morality. 1t is easy to understand how the
first named play made furore in a democrat
lied capital like Paris where the people, de-
barred from all participation in the affairs Of
their government live only for the excitement of
the hour, and plunge into all sorts of proHigacy.
But even there it has had its day. Here an &C
trees gives the play to greedy public, who rush
to see II as they would to any monstrosity; while
she, not satisfied with taking the money for
her exhibition, absolutely has the superb assur-
ance to defend q work of which the author is
thoroughly ashamed. We should be sorry to be-
lieve that all which is written by the provincial
journals In relation to the corruption of this
metropolis is true; but the morbid appetite for
such stuff has been given 10 us at the theatres
recently would 60 far to prove it.
THE South AMERICAN CONSTITUTION MoSGRRs.
We have received copy Of the projected We
nezuelsn constitution; but as documents of this
kind are of every day fabrication amongst the