The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1866-12-26
Literature Pollard's His
tory Of the War.

: =
:, satisfactory solution. tits not surpri
S sing, therefore, that, in the race afte,
wealth, the means of its attainment
D should often depart considerably from
a that strict rule of morality which al
$ the world is taught to believe belong
e almost exclusively to "sthe land o
t steady habits 1t is not surprising
r that trickery, deception, unfair dealing
f and other species Of knaytry, by which
: one gets the advantage of another in a
+ trade, should have become inseparable
from the generally received ideas ofthe
modern Yankee. Wooden nutmegs,
painted hams, and other devices of the
: thrifty inhabitants of the land of blue
lights and burning witches, have be-
come proverbial, and were the legiti-
mate precursors of shoddy and of the
wholesale plundering which figured so
conspicuouslyas distinguishing features
Of our Yankee friends during the war
for the independence of the South.
With the universal reign Of. shoddy at
the North, our minds were prepared for
the assertion of his title to authority in
the literary world. The English re-
viewers derisive question, Who reads
an American book? has long since been
answered by our Yankee neighbors !;
and having proved to their own salts
faction that every body reads Ameri-
can books, they have turned to us and
reechoed the question, with slight
variation, who reads a Southern book7
Assuming to be the book makers for
the universal Yankee nation, and
claiming the unrestricted right to fur
nish the literature for the Southern peo-
pie, the world Of Yankee writers set to
work to furnish the largest supply, at
the cheapest cost and the greatest pro-
| fit. And here did shoddy find a wide
field for the display Of his peculiar ac-
complishmepts. Literature having be-
come a trade, by which the needy and
the avaricious were to fill their mock
cts, all the modern appliances for sa-
wing labor, and multiplying the pro-
auctions of the small capital invested,
were brought into requisition. The
"lucubrations of twenty years" which
were formerly supposed necessary to
bring into being any production which
should be deemed worthy of immortal
ity, was ridiculed as an obsolete relic of
those ages whose darkness is rendered
so much the more apparent by being
brought into contact with the bright
ness which has long since dawned on
the best and wisest people the world
has ever known. Photographic aman. t
lenses and ten-cyiinderpresse are now $
almost inadequate to the task of giving f
o the world the luminous thoughts of Q
hose who cannot understand the dull n
less OF those intellects of the past who a
pent years in the composition of sim !
lie work, and then died without any b
satisfactory evidence thatit would live \
'eyond the generation in which it ap- h
'eared. Machine poetry ground out h
y the thousand verses, fourth of July LII
rations taken down by Photographic tt
eporters, and histories thrown off at e.
lmost a single sitting, are now held la
nth as rivals of the great works of G.
Iher ages. for the patronage and admi- b,
'tlon OF the people of the best govern N
ent the world has ever known. Nor tt,
, these shoddy literati fail to reap the su
wards after which they strive-the nc
ing OF their pockets with gold.- Sc
loddy in literature has proved as MI
'ofitable as shoddy in the commerce ce
more material things. The profits D,
the worthless productions of the D.
ankee book-wrights are really as Ju
unding; and the shoddy litsrateur do
fects a profound contempt for those
orks which have failed to sell, such as to
Paradise Lost" which brought ten
unds in two instalments, and the TT
Vicar of Wakefield" which could
arce insure its authors breakfast !.
I'M Milton and Oliver Goldsmith tn
'uld now be left far behind the shod- no
ties in the race for the favor of the . q" :
'nkee reading public. col
We have been led to these thoughts o. o.
lle reading in almost every paper ab]
tees of some new Yankee work on ito
Great Rebellion" Books without dee
mber, which they call "histories D. ing
tories of the war, histories of cam e IN,
gns, Of corps, of divisions, of brig Co,
IS, &c.-biographies of generals, and the
er officers, and such like, are put a II
ii by the score, each asserting its Of off, :
1t to the exclusive patronage Of the rem
lkee public. Of course the South is but
poor unfortunate target at which all
Sc literary archers aim the shafts of
i hatred and malignity. The
them people are all barbarians. Je
tors, towards &c, and are not to the
famed as belonging to the same Or II
of civilization as those who carried give
flag of the Union, and executed the spec
OF the rulers of the best govern s stan
t the world has ever known. And pulls;
books sell, too. We have heard and
forth