The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-10-13
THE PRURIENT PRUDE.
ter from Charles Reade Concerning
OGrifIith Gauut.o


10 the Editor Of The BUenin0 Tetegrdph;-
Sr:-There is kind of hypocrite that has
never been efTectually exposed for want of an
expressive name. beg to supply that defect in
our language, and introduce to mankind the
"Prurient Prude." Modesty in man or woman
shows itself by q certain slowness to put
foul construction on things, and also by
unobtrusively stunning indelcate matters and
discussions. The "Prurient Prude," on the con-
trary, itches to attract attention by parade of
modesty (Which is the mild form of the dis
ease), or even by rashly accusing others of i'm
modesty land this is the noxious form)
doctor Johnson" said lady, "what /
admire In your dictionary IS that you have in
serted no improper words"
what you looked for them, madam ?n said
the Doctor.
Here was "Prurient Prude" that would have
taken in an ordinary photographer.
The wickeder kind of 'Prurient Prude" has
committed great ravages in our English rail-
ways, where the carriages, you must know, are
small and seldom filed. Respectable men found
themselves alone with shy-looKlng female, ad.
dressed civil remark to her, we're accused ut
the end OF the journey OF attempting her virtue
and punished unjustly, or else had to buy her
off, till at last, learn from an article in the
Saturday ReUieI1, many worthy men refused to
sit in carriage where there was woman only,
such terror had the "Prurient Pruden inspired
in manly breasts. The last of these herones,
however, came to grief; her victim showed fight,
submitted to trial, and set the police on her.
She proved TO be, as any one versed in human
nature could have toretold, woman OF remark
ably loose morals, and she is at this momeut
eXplatmg her three P's-Prudery, Prurience,
and Periury-in one of her Majesty's gaols.
Some years ago an English baronet was nearly
ruined and separated from his wife by one of
these ladies. He " from fhp nd nv
force of habit made his toilet nearer the window
than Londoner would. "Prurient Prude"
lurked opposite, end watched him repeatedly,
which is Just what no modest woman would
have done once and interpreting each uu-
guarded action by the light of her own foul
imagination, actually brought criminal charge
against the poor soul. The charge tell to the
ground the moment it was sfted; but, in the
meantime, what agony had the "Prurient
Prude" inflicted on an innocent family!
Unfortunately, the "Prurient Pruden is not
confined to the female sex. 1t is not to be
found among men of masculine pursuits; but 1t
exists among writer's. EXample:-A divorce
case unfit for publication, is reported by all the
English journals. Next day, instead of being
allowed TO die, it is renewed in leader. The
writer Of this leader beams by complaining of
the courts of law tor giving publicity to-Fifth.
IN. b. The ridiculous misuse OF this term,
where not hlth but crime is intended is an
"Prurient Prude.") After this flourish of
prudery, Pruriens goes with gusto into the
details which he had Just said we're unfit for
publication. Take your file of English journals,
and you will soon lay your hand on this variety
of the "Prurient Prude." A harmless little
humbug enough.
But as among women, so among writer's, the
"Erurient Prude" becomes a less transparent
and more dangerous impostor when, strong in
the shelter of the anonymous, which hides from
the public his own dissolute lite and obscene
conversation, he reads his neighber bv the light
of his own corrupt imagination, and so his pru-
M fnly q tnrn nF Gle nnhn ntA1
assassinates the fair fame of his moral, intellec-
tual, ana social superior.
Now the five for six "Prurient Prudes" who
dehle the American press have lately selected
me, of all persons, for their victim. They are
uying hard to make the American pubic be.
lieve two monstrous falsehoods--frst, that they
are pure-minded men; secondly, that l am an
impure writer.
OF course, if these five or six "Prurient
Prudesn had the courage to do as l do, sign
their names to their personalities, their names
and their characters would be all the defense |
should need, But, by Withholding their sigma
lures they give the same weight to their state
ments that an honest man gives by appending
his signature, and compel me out of respect to
the American public, whose esteem | value, to
depart from the usual practice of authors in my
position, and to honor mere literary Vermin
with reply. The case, then, stands thus.
have produced a story called "Gritfith Gaunt;
OF, Jealousy" This story has, eyer since De-
cember, 1865, ioated the Arqosy, an English
periodical, and has been eagerly read in the pages
OF Tia Atlantic monthly. In this tale I have to
deal, as an artist and a scholar, with the very
period Henry Fielding has described-to the
satisfaction of Prurient Prudes; a period IN
which manners and speech were somewhat
blunter than nowadays; and l have to portray
a great and terrible passion, Jealousy, and show
its manifold consequences, OF which even Biga-
my lin my story is one, and that without any
violation of probability. Then l proceed to
show the misery inflicted Oh three persons by
bieamy, which denounce as crime. In my
double character of moralist and artist, pre-
sent not the delusive shadow OF bgamy, but its
substance The consequence is, that instead of
shedding a mild lustre over bigamy, ill my
readers with horror of bigamy, and a whole
some Indignation against my principal male
character, so far as | have shown him. OF
course "Griffith Gaunt," like "Hard CASH - is
not a chid's book, nor little girls book:
it is an ambitious story, in which
present the great passions that poets have sung
with applause in all ages; it is not boatful of
pap; but am not paid the price of pap By
the very nature OF my theme l have been com
PEELED now and then to tread on delicate ground; !;
but have uodden lightly and passed on swiftly,
and so will all the pure-minded men and women
who read me. No really modest woman Will
ever suffer any taint by reading 'Griffith Gaunt"
unless, indeed, she returns TO Its perusal, un-
seXed, and filled with prurient curiosity, by
the foul interpretations of the "Prurent
Prudes." Then come a handful OF scrib-
bers, whose lives are loose and their con-
versaton obscene. They take my text, and
read, it, not by its own light, but by the light
of their own foul imaginations; and having so
| de6led IT. by mixing their own filthy minds with
| it, they sit in judgment on the compound. To
these impostors say no more The two words,
''Prurient Prude," will soon run round the
Union, and render its citizens somewhat less
eullible by that class OF ofimpostors One person,
however, has slandered me so maliciousIy and
| so busily, that am compelled to notice hun in
diYidually, the more so as ] am about to sue an
| English weekly Tor merely quoting him. The
editor of New York weekly called the Round