The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1859-03-21

session of many ofthose avenues, through which the
intelligence and taste of the people are reached and
cultivated. We alude to the tthrilling stories, 3"
which, depicting vice and crime in their badest
and most hdeous aspects, and offering no antidote
to obscenity except stupidity, are furnished in
weekly instalments by the ''family papers," and
issued daily, by large publishing houses in the
shape OF cheap novels. Their baleful influence is
ncalcuable, for into the ears, chiefly, of the most
innocent and unwary, they continually pour
ing ''ther leprous distilment' without let or him
drance. If, in the scenes or characters which they
attempt to delneate, one touch of nature was per-
ceptible, something might be said perhaps, in their
behalf. If one single paragraph of true descrip-
tive power, of genuine pathos, of real humor, or
of glimmerng sense, could be winnowed from their
pages, they might even then, be within the pale of
redemption. But the most careless observer of
humanity must fail to detect any of its faml-
lar lineaments in the pictures produced by
the diseased and delirious maginations of
these authors. One such romance lies, even
now, before us-bulky in form, and rejoicing in a
title terrifcally captivating-whch might serve as
specimen of its kind. There is, below it. no
Glover depth in the profound abyss of unmit-
gated trash. Daggers, and conclaves of
the hooded assassins, who are to use them-se-
cret corridors in castle walls, and subterranean
passages beneath, that put the Thames Tunnel to
the blush-posons, and skeletons, and trap-doors;
all these give but faint ideas of the tremendous
and antiquated machinery, which moves the
puppets to and fro. The characters, if such they
may be called,
'that shape have none
Distingushabe in member, joint or limb
perform astonishing feats, uttering their favorte
exclamation of 'Ha Ha r' or politely accosting
each other as ''Sir Page" Sir Doomsman,' or Sir
Sentinel" The heroes appear in the simplest &C
tons clothed in steel inlaid with gold and banners
waving overhead; and the non-combatants scorn
to come before the public, unless arrayed in GRIM
son or azure velvet. The facility with which men
appear and disappear is enough to set Sig. BLrTz
at his wits end, and their awful doings could only
have been surpassed in the habitation of the i'm
mortal BLUEBEARD. The very horses-we beg par
don, "barbs" they are called-are of wholly SUI
pernatural breed. Not content with drawing
luckless criminal asunder, they heghten the
effect considerably by dashing off to the
fou winds of Heaven, each trailing an
arm or a leg behind him. If we so
desired, we could not convey an adequate concep-
ton of this energetic composition, which is offered
for the small sum of seventy-fv cents for our de-
lectation. We must admit, in passing, that it is
"dog-cheap." 1t is liberal thus to bring down
its cost to that Of volume from the pen of
DICKENS or TENNYsoN, of HAWTHORNE or LoNGFEL-
Low, especially when we reflect on the immense
price that might be obtained for the whole edition,
if translated into the languages of the Feeees and
the Malays to whose fiery latitude it is so admira-
bly, suited.
When Mrs. RADCLIFFE and HORACE WALPoLE
having fixed their trap doors, and mixed their
noXious drugs, set their characters in notion they
managed, nevertheless, amid their uurealities, to
develope some of the recognized attributes of men
and women, to present some glimpses of the quaint
society of by-gone days, and to give us, now and
then, vivid conceptions of the scenery surrounding
it. Monk LEWIS, in his ghost stories contrived at
times to strike a chord of human fear or pity, or
to enchain the reader by his vigorous and moving
style of narrative. But to paint, and that very
badly, the castle and mountain-sde, as they ap-
pear in a melo-drama, and call it sketch from
nature; and TO seize the costumes and antics of the
fifth-rate actors, they rant in LUCRETIA BoRGIA
and palm off the drawing as a representation of
the men and manners that once existed-this seems
to be the highest range of initiative art to which
the yellow-cover" novelists aspire. If such books
please, it speaks badly for our taste-if they are
considered otherwise than degrading, by the class
who indulge in them, it tells worse for our general
morals. If their effect is thus hurtful, it is mat
ter deserving serious consideration; for their sale,
as we have said, is enormous. From the baskets
of the steamboat and railway peddlars the shelves
of the book stalls, and the counters of more pre-
tentious stores, they are distributed with marvel
lous activity. The essayists and the poets, the
novelists and the historians, who, from the 'Ewcll
''of English undefiled" pour forth the sparkling
streams that cheer and invigorate us, lag far be-
hind their bastard ''blood and murder brethren
in the of competition for the favor of the null
titude. A rabble rout, more swnish than the
crew of CoMUs, has forced itself into companion
ship with that noble literature which has done
much to civilize, and will yet do more to elevate
humanity. We submit that the public should be
invoked to manifest some active interest in this
subject. 1t is an evil which calls more loudly for
a remedy than those arising from the adultera-
ton of the food and liquors which affect delete
riousy mans perishable and baser nature.