Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1866-10-27
OCTOBER 27, 1866
0blo Stattsrnart,
"rHE PRURIENT PRUDE."
The Round Table Critics-A Smashing
Letter from Charles ROade. fi"'

ofan expressive name. beg TO supply that
detect in our language, and introduce to
mankind the Prurient Prude. Modesty in
man or woman shows itself by a certain
slowness to put foul construction on
thingsand also by unobtruSively stunning
indelicate matters and discussions. The
"Prurient Prude," on the contrary, itches
to attract attention by a parade OF modes
ty (Which is the mild form of the disease)
oreven by rashly accusing others of Inn
modesty (and this is the noxous form}.
"Dr. Johnson" said lady, "what | adj
mire in your dictionary is that you have
inserted no improper words" f..at'.
"What! you looked for them, madam ?"
said the Doctor. . -...45r"
Here was "Prurent Prude," that
would have taken in an ordinary leXicog-
rapher. .." -... ... .r...
The wickeder kind of "Prurient Prude"
has committed great rayages in our Eng
lish railways, where the carriages, you
must know, are small and seldom filled
Respectable men found themselves alone
with a shy looking female, addressed a
civil remark to her, were accused at the
end of the journey of attempting her vir-
tue and punished uniustly, or else had to
buy her off; till at last, as [ learn from an
article in the Saturday ReUielo, many
worthy men refused to sit in carriage
where there was a woman only, such ter
ror had the "Prurient Prude" inspired in
manly breasts. The last of these herOines,
however, came to grief; her victim showed
fight, submitted to trial, and set the police
on her. She proved 10 be. as any one vers-
ed in human nature could have foretold, a
woman of remarkably loose morals; and
she is at this moment expiating her three
P's-Prudery, Prurience and PeTjury-in
one of Her Majesly's goals.
Some years ago an English baronet was
nearly ruined and separated from his wife
by one of these ladies. He was from the
country, and by force of habit made his
toilet nearer the window than LOndoner
would. A ''Prurient Prude" lurked oppO-
site and watched him repeatedly, which is
Just what no modest woman would have
done once and, interpreting each unguard-
ed action by the light of her own foul inn
agination, actually brought criminal
charge against the poor soul. The charge
fell to the ground the mOmenti it was siitcd;
but in the meantime what agony had the
"Purient Prude" inflicted on an innocent
family!
Unfortunately the "Prurient Prude" is
not confined to the female sex. 1t is not
to be found amongst men of masculine
pursuits; but it exists amongst writer's.
"A
lication, is reported by all the English
journals. Next day, instead of being al
lowed to die, it is renewed in leader The
writer of this leader begins by complain
ing of the courts of law for giving pub
Ilicity to tilth-[N. b. the ridiculous misuse
of this term, where not filth but crime is
intended, is an infallible sign of dirty
mind, and marks the "Prurient Prude."l
After this flourish of prudery, Pruriens
goes with gusto into the details, which he
had Just said were unfit for publication.
Take down your file of English journals
and you will soon lay your hand on this
variety of the "Prurient Prude." A HARM
less little humbug enough. I r.
But as amongst women, so amongst
writers, the "Prurlent Prude" becomes a
less transparent and more dangerous i'm
poster, when, strong in the shelter of the
anonymous, which hides from the public
his own dissolute lite and obscene conver-
sation, he reads his neighbor by the light
of his own corrupt imaginations; and so
his prurient prudery takes the form of
SANDER, and assassinates the fair fame of
his moral, intellectual and social superior.
Now the five or six "Prurient Prudes" who
defle the American press have lately Sc
lectcd me, of all persons, for their victim.
They are trying hard to make the Ameri-
can people believe two monstrous false
hoods: first, that they are pure-minded
men secondly, that am an impure writer.
OF course, if these five or six "Prurient
Prudesr mad the courage to do rs [ do, sign
their names to their personalities, their
names and their characters would be all
the defense should need. But by with
holding their signatures they give the same
weight to their statements 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 YER
min with reply. The case, then,
stands thus / have produced a sto-
ry called "Grillith Gaunt, or Jeal-
ousy." This story has, ever since Decem-
ber 1865, floatcd in the ArgOsv, an English
periodical, and has been eagerly read in the
pages of the Atlantic Monthly. In this tale
have to deal, as an artist and a scholar,
with the very period Henry Fielding has
described-tO the satisfaction of Prurient
Prudes; period in which manners and
speech were somewhat blunter than now-a-
days; and have to portray great and
terrible passion, jealousy, aud show its
manifold consequences, of which even big
amy lin my story is one, and that without
any violation of probability. ThenI pro-
ceed to show the misery inflicted on three
persons by bigany, which denounce us a
crime. In my double character of moral
ist and artist, / present not the delusive
shadow of bigamy, but its substance. The
consequence is, that instead of shedding a
mild lustre over bigamy, l fill my readers
with horror of bigamy, and q wholesome
Indignation against my principal male
character so far as | have shown him. OF
course " Griffith Gaunt,' like " Hard Cash.
is not child's book, nor little girls book /;
ii is an ambitious story, in which present
the great passions that poets have sung
with applause in all ages; it is not a boat
full of pap; but am not paid the price of
pap. By the very nature of my theme |
have been compelled now and then to tread
on delicate ground; but | have trodden
lightly and passed on swiftly, and so will
all the pure-mmded men and women who
read me. No really modest woman will
ever suffer any taint by reading "Grilllth
Gaunt," unless indeed, she returns to it's
perusal, unseXed, and filled with prurient
curiosity, by the foul interpretations of the
"Prurient Prudes." Then come a handful
of scribblers, whose lives are loose and
their conversation obscene; they take my
text, and read ii, not hy its own light, but
by the light of their own foul imaginations
and, having so defiled it by mixing their
own filthy minds with it, they sit In iudg-
ment on the compound. 10 these impOsters
] say no more. The two words, " PInrient
Prude,p will soon run round the Union,
and render its citizens somewhat less guilt
BILE by that class of imposters. One person,
however, has slandered me so,malioiOusly
and an hnsiIv that am nOmnallad to inn