Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1866-11-09
From theNew York World.l
Iiferarure for the south.

slavery. Even tie great Institutions which
| issue Sunday school books by millions, for
all denominations, confined, themselves
mainly to stories about good boys who died
young and went to heaven. The American
Tract Society pounded away In its publica-
tions at other sins than that OF slavery and
the Methodist denomination divided on this
very subject into the church North and the
church South, each with its own "bOok-con-
cern," and each publishing what would be
acceptable 10 its own section.
but while there was q general avoidance
OF treading on the toes Of the South, few
publishers found 1t greatly to their profit,
| pecuniarily and as 8 means of popularity,
to praise and pet the peculiar Institution"
Prominent among these publishing dough
faces" were the Harpers Of this city. Tho
early volumes OF their magazine, with tht
avidity for stale stories still manifest in the
Editors Drawer" of that publication.
gave nearly all the old plantation tradi
tions and negro anecdotes and witticisms
current since the days of the settlement o
jamestown. Then "Porte Crayon," In
"Virginia Illustrated" pictured with pen
and pencil. CAV old "auntiesn who were al.
| WAYS cooking land eating, patriarchial
plantation uhcles," with nothing to do but
| TO sit in the sun and smoke their pipes,
| romping black children whose happy smiles
shone through their slavery, and stalwart
"bucks" whose main business seemed to b,
negro -minstrelsy and jig-dancing. Al
| together, these pictures were calculated to-
| persuade philaiithropists that slavery was
benefcent institution, which 1t would be
| well to extend over the halt-starveu,
vagrant, ragged and wrctched negroes OF
the North.
All this is wonderfully changed now.
Quite recently gentleman from Alabama
went to publishing house In Philadelphia
and askedif they could get together sun
day school library "uneXceptionable in sen,
/ timent to the S0uth"-nOt works relating
| to slavery, the death and burial of which
/ the South accepts, but books which do not
abuse Southerners for their secession. The
reply was 'tWe have no such books, nor
would we publish them if they were Offer
ed: and an application to denomination
al publishing society elected similar re-
sponse. The rebellion furnishes cheap and
readily convertible matter for the manu-
facturers even of Sunday school books.
The traditional bad boy who went sailing
on Sunday and was drowned, or that other
child OF sin who played in the fields on
Sunday and was struck by lightning, has
giyer, place to the wicked little rebel who
followed his father to the field and learned
to drink and swear. Besides this Sunday
reading, secular works for juveniles are
printed, which are intended to poison the
minds of the whole rising generation at
the North against the SoutherneTs who are
growing up with them. The fame of fa-
naticism is to be kept burning for years to
come, and the youths of one section are
never to be suffered to forget that the peo-
pie of another section are theirs and were
their fathers foes. Much of this Infamous
literature, whose evil intention prevents us
from pronouncing it the trash it would be
otherwise, is mainly manufactured in Mas
sachusetts, though more or less of it is
issued in Philadelphia, Cincinnati, and In
this city, aud it is deliberately designed to
instil into young minds a lifelong hatred
of the South.
For older readers the vast mass of par
tisan war literature sdoing, in its way, the
same wicked work. A morbid appetite for
sensational stories about the war, developed
a demand for that class Of books, which led
almost every lieutenant and staff officer
who could write to suddenly discover that
the pen was much mightier than the sword.
We are glad to know that there is lately a
large falling off in the sales of such works;
| but, for, awhile, the Harpers and others
| flooded the market with volume after vol
ume of exploits performed as well as mar
rated by the authors, making us wonder
how, with such hosts of terrible fellows in
the field, secession should have survived
through single year; or how, with such
venom toward the South, every Southerner
was not eXterminated. The diminished de-
mand for these modern editions of Mum
chausen is more than made up by the
monthly and weekly publications of the
Harpers, who seem to think that the war
against the South has just commenced.
/" Porte Crayon," who gave US the "col-l
ored" photographs Of slave life in Virginia,
and who was not nearly. SO prominent in
the war, nor so persistent In his efforts to
" put down the rebellion" as he was, while
ago, in attempting to obtain. lucrative,
foreign consnlship, now makes Hdrper's
Magazine the medium for series OF
sketches, supposed to be connected with Sc
cession, in which he attacks his old friends
and neighbors with vigor which, four
years ago, might possibly have driven them
out of the field. What is facetiously called
a Journal of CiuilizdtioR, even after the OUT
break of the war, was so conducted as to re-
tain, if possible, its Southern subscribers.
Lee with portrait) was great General;
StOnewall jackson was a man whose Christ
ian character was beyond reproach; and
we remember an article in Hdrper's Weekly
about the latter so fulsOmely eulogistc
that it was widely quoted by the Southern
papers in their obituaries of the General.
Now the same journal. which disseminates
kind OF civilization" which would make
the whole country Cossack, is filled with
political caricatures, sometimes beastly and
now aud then blasphemous; it out-venoms,
the most Radical newspaper printed, and Is
mainly devoted to abuse ofthe Presidenl of
the United States and vilification of the
people OF the South The publishers found
it profitable, at one time, to lawn upon the
South; at present it pays better to carry
filth tor the Radical party. f.,I ..
We notice in our exchanges that the re-
spectacle journals of the South warn their,
readers against the publications OF the
Harptrs, lust as they advise them to stop
taking the Herald, which urged them into
secession and then betrayed them, and we.
have the best of reasons for believing that
the advice is generally followed.
We should do injustice to one great.
Northern house, the AppletoDs, which pub
fishes textbooks for schools in all Depart
ments of knowledge, and the best in their
respective kinds, If we did not except them
from the class OF publishers who were
'dough-faces" to the South before the war
and are its Knockers and insuters now. The
Appletons have long been at the head OF
american publishers, and have deserved
their place for the high character of their
publications notless than for the number of
them. But they publish no weekly or
monthly journals.
In recuperating from the effects Of the
war, the South, moreover. is developing its
own literary resources. Two or three new
Southern magazines have been established,
and are doing well, and several professors
of the University of Virginia have prepared