Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1859-03-30
CORRUPTION OF MANNERS.

Under this head the Philadelphia North f.
nerican one of the most conservative and
substantial papers of the country, has the fol
lowing upon the growing corruption OF man
ners and morals in high life in this country.
Uttered by us it might perhaps be called
abuse, but in the North .4mericGn we trust it
will be called a correct criticism and profited
by accordingly. After speaking OF the power
of the press and the demOraliZing influence
of corrupt literature, it says:
Women have in this country a great ad-
vantage, which is forfeited only by their own
consent. As sort of diyinities, or at least
the priestesses of social religion they are ap-
preached only with kindness and honor, until
their claim to consideration is lost 1t is not
accident which has given them the high posi-
ton which they have hitherto possessed.
And it is not accident which, in some classes
of society, is depriving them of the conserva-
tive power which they have welded so nappI-
". Our fathers prided themselves upon re-
publican simplicity; but the boast of many
in this generation has been superiority to such
an antiquated notion. We have sought rather
the importation of foreign folies.
We have commended the intellectual ele-
vation of our women in overcoming old fash
ioned prudishness, aud in looking with as
much composure any blase European upon
beautiful enormities, and elegant liberties of
pseudo high life.
In art aud literature a downward progress
bas been manifest. A feeling of latitude a.
mounting, if not to RIGHTEOUSNESS in fact, to
the enjoyment of the contemplation of~its
phases, has been increasing. In literature
ladies weep over and admire heroineS, any one
OF whose traits would exclude living woman
from society, even now. highly wrought
tales and exquisite pictures of passion are pre-
sented for their admiration. Music and the
drama, pen and pencil, furnish to the educated
and, by courtesy, the refined, the same enjoy
oh ind in la q bOratp
performances. We condemn, in no measured
terms, the vulgar dish, but when genius pre-
sents us with something favored with epicu-
rean skill, we forget how beStial, and ezclaim,
how beautiful!
With this corruption of taste, comes of ne
cessity corruption OF manners, and dan
gerous freedom of intercourse. Decorum
forms the outworks of virtue. When the ap-
pearance of evil is disregarded, evil itself
loses its forbidding character. Our fashiona-
Bile life is taking too much the air which has
caused the borrowing from courts the title OF
courtesan for woman no where presentabie.
And while the sovereign lady of our ancestral
land is with woman's virtue, and woman s
tact purging her court of the legendary at
mosphere we, republicans of the new world,
would seem to be reviving the looseness OF
manners which marked the age when man OF
pleasure was the highest style OF eourtly ele-
gance, and woman laughed and admired while
she family said ssfie 20
We do not charge that this Generalization
| is universal. There are communities in which
the people are so far behind the age that they
still call things by their right names; where
men do not repel the suspicion OF being cor
rect in principles, lest they should De thought
| mean spirited, and where women 90 not dis-
| guise their natural disgust for RIGHTEOUSNESS.
| But the poison of false estimate OF genius
/ has permeated the social body to much grea-
! ter extent than it is pleasant to admit 1or our
| great cities, and in our political capitai the
/ brilliant scum floats uppermost till some nor
rid affair scatters the fashy veil which has
| covered. without concealing, corruption. In
New York, especially, the unfortunate rem,
! devious of foreign adventurers, and the great
central point for the importation OF foreign