The penny press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1859-1860, 1859-09-09
Special Correspondence Of the Penny Press.I
LETTERS or A NOMAD.
YELLOW STRINGS, o.. September

YELLOW srRIxGs, o., September 6.
MY DEAR PRESS: The daysof my nomadic
life are nearly numbered. The adventures
of Bedouin in search of cool shade or
refreshing wave, are pleasant enough, but
they lose their charm when they cease 10 be
exceptional. l am quite sure that my friends
who live by seashores and in cool and lovely
groves do not relish them as much as an oc-
casional vsiter who presses out from hot
streets and hard work. Have you not heard
Of the alderman who reoced that he was
not turtle, in which case he could not cat
that delicious Wand? l who 60 out into the
country occasionally, find there pure &c.
stacy with each VISIT but to my friend Agr-
cola it is quite q humdrum and common
| place affair, So now, as soon as | have left
my parting card on several old oak trees who
have belriended me, | shall return to the
dear old Queen of tho West with as keen o
delight as left amid The powder storms of
the glorious but ear-splitting Fourth.
Rut there is one realm into which have
been wandering little this vacation, from
which have intended all along to make
some report; mean the realm of books.
There is more connection between the book
of nature and tho printed book, than many
suppose; many volumes have ] met in which
|
and real men and women move. w y
There is a story of an Oriental Sultan who,
having reared q magnificent palace, desired to
proclamation that all should bring him the vol
umes they wished to- sell, and which they
should doom fitting for a King. Thirty camel
loads soon stood at his door. The Sultan ex-
amined them and sent away all the camels with
their loads except three. These he examined
more carefully, and sent off two of them
From the remaining camel load he selected one
hundred volumes; Of these, on careful inspec-
tion, he burnt nine six. The four volumes re-
tanned were respectively on science, philoso-
ply, poetry and romance, religion. After
reading these he burnt them also, and caused
to be embroidered in gold, framed and hung
up in the room, provided for the library the
following:
"THE ESSENCE OF ALL READING."--0f all
Science, cause and effect. of all Philosophy,
doubt; of all poetry and romance, to love Ma
ture within or lwithout of all religion, to
seek truth and obey it." yt ts
A pretty fair summing up. And yet the
Sultan was not as wisc one way rs he was the
other. We can not live mentally any more than
| physically on essences. Suppose some chemist
had gone to tho Sultan's table about dinner
time and changed his vegetables into their
essences; shiny stream of water running over
somo mineral dust would have streamed over
the table. Literature does, indeed, distribute
through its myriad forms only q few leading
ideas, but still, so that these forms be natural
and beautiful, they are all needed, for each
separate mind or temperament needs new
statement Of the old thought adapted to it,
This year has been thus far quite generous
in its literary gifts. There has been good
sign too in the fact, that it has not given SO
many as many former years, quality and guam
tity not always going together. Who has not
observed that the masses of trash which used
to load the counters have become blase; that
the "Ensanguined Night Gown" the Blood
stained Carving knife" the "Mystery of the
Haunted 5Hogpen," cannot even get into their
saffron aprons, but must illuminate the sheets
for which the Hon.. Mr.. Everlasting and the
Rev. Mr. Bigbug, write occasionally but which
ara the only papers for which Dobbs, jenkins
/ and A. B. &C., X. Y. z. Judkins, write We
now find that such nOvels'as "Doctor ThOrne,
John Halifax, Charles Anchester, Adam Bede, "
&C., are so popular that several copies are is-
sued from the libraries and never returned,
| aud the clerks at the bookstores say blandly,
@we are just out, sir, have you one 10 few
days!"
In novels this year has been quite rich.
Even that old sinner, Bulwer, has got little
closer to the worlds pulses, and felt that to
make it thrOb once beneath his touch, he must
stop that word-sen ntimentalism, of which be
is more guilty than any man living, and write
something true to nature. "What Wall He Do
with 1t, is book of far more truth and nature
than he has ever given us. l say more, for
even in this he shows his vicious literary habits
and asnnot keep the foOt-lights from haring on
ones >Je. High art will have things real; low
art will have things theatrical-will have little
girls rush between contending parties, and point
4 Ut the insulters Of those they love, and young
men call each other Lioncilo Moi, if they are
named Lionel. Nery much better is "Adam
4 Bede,"'a book in which there is no attitudin-
izing, and where the attitudes are, conse,
quently, beautiful and true. Where will tne
find US wittier character than Mrs Poyser,
whom q conceited fellow reminds "of cock
who thoughtthe sun was rising up to hear him
crow" who-where people mourn so much fol
dead folks as to neglect living ones-"can't
see the use of watering last years crop;' who
J has observed that "them as are not wanted in
this world are just the ones as are not wanted
in the next" Better than Wordworth' s lines
y "The good die first" &c. In this book there
5 Is the finest clerical character wo have ever me-
with in book. Very different indeed is "Tht
Bertrams," by Anthony Trollopc, to whose
: terseSand' humorous pen we are already in.
; better book than the present, for "Ths Ber
trams' has beenspoied by the introduction o
the authors observations in the East, which
But after you have Ttrundled over that part
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