The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-08-21
OUR LTTERARY MRS. GUMM1DGE.

EVERY week there comes to us a decocuon VI
groans, done up and compressed into q sixteen
PACED magazine. Nor are the groanings OF the
Biblical class, which, we are assured cannot De
uttered. ON the contrary, there appears TO oe
no difficulty in making them audible; the only
cause of regret is the monotony with which they
are expressed. This compilation of horrors,
this T1MoN in our literary world, this cynic,
this Mrs. Gummidge, is popularity known as
the New York Round Table There is nothing
under the sun at which this favorer of reform
does not growl. It matters not whether 1t is
book, poem, or the ladies' hair, or female
authors, the crops, the paint for the cheeks, the
progress Of the age-eyerything Is .sorroWed
over. Ii goes through the world like the
shepherd" of the "Pickwick Papers, and we
should not be surprised If some of those tra-
duced should turn upon the mallgner. aud
graphically describe the rencontre in the ele-
giant words of the elder Weller-"He called me
vessel, Sammy, vessel of wrath, and 1 gave
him one.p
For six months the Round Table has had an
article, which we would advise it to keep stand
ing and save composition, ON the subject of our
native authors. II assumes, as we have none
worth naming, that they are all imitators of
England, and devoid of originality and talent.
Well, that all may be true but to have the fact
that you are a parasite or an imbecle continually
repeated to you is disagreeable. Now there is
cure, why don't our contemporary go TO work
and remedy it, and give us less frequently
editorials in which there is neither original style
or force? We know the fault as well as the
Round Table, but let this SoLoN give us the re-
medy. We grant its premises; let us have the
q AZ
raise the standard Of letters and to seek to make
its name GOOD and to have set of knights to
sit at the Round Table and admire each other
will not cause an IRVING or TENNYsoN or MAoAU-
LEY 10 arse from among the people, -a
Having harped on this string for several
MONTHS the conductors of the UnioerSdl
GTO10ieT think that another cause of complaint
must be secured, and an utterly indelicate
article on paint and rouge used by the ladies IS
the result, Now in order to write an article,
the contributor has exaggerated what is really
on exceedingly limited custom into general
habit. As rule, our American ladies do not
paint; our young girls do not make use OF rouge
OF paste. Nature has blessed them with COM
plexons which no art can improve, and they
are content. Rut the Round Table says that
they are not--that as a general RUE they resort
to cosmetics, aud rival Cyp:ian in their attire.
This is SIMPLE and unadulterated slander and
one which as Americans we resent. 1t is nos
the truth, and to invoke an evil in order that
the remedy may be applied. is a device TOO old
TO pass current now. 1g- e-l .alD / 90
But we actually believe that we are losing
our temper in replying to our complaining con-
temporary. We must call in federation, ana
cay, whenever strikiney alarming fit of the
groans comes, in the language OF our worthy
friend, the ''Captenr of "David Copperfeld, !"
''Pocr woman, poor woman, she thinking of the
old 'un, she got the fiji bad" Nothing but sym
pathy should be shown the Gro,o'er, and if all
would join, we might hope in time to recall from
his misanthropy the cynic, whose aspersons
on the literature and manners of The age will
tend to injure us in the eyes of posterity. b.