The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1867-01-07

PORTLAND. Hlf
Monday Morning, January 7, 1867.



The New York Day Book has correspon.
dent rejoicing in the "proud title' of"War.
wick" which sounds very much like the title;
we are accustomed 10 read in the Southern
newspapers, In the exhilarating accounts O.
that peculiar Southern amusement, the tourn
ament. Indeed we suspect that as Northern
firemen are accustomed to subscribe to theil
newspaper communications the name of the
machine which it is their chief aim in life tc
keep bright and beautiful, as ball players sign
"Base Balp and rowing men delight in the
ghastly signature of "Sculls," so warwick
rushes into print over the doughty title by
which he has heretofore been known in the
lists, when with pasteboard visor down he has
spurred his Rozinante calamity at the gutta
percha ring and deftly striven to carry off that
product Of Northern skill, designed for teeth
ing babes, upon the poin. of a tin lance with
hickory shaft. l 4I.a.s IA ~ fa3.
Warwick" writes from some mysterious
locality in Alabama, unknown to the gentle
men in the General Post Office, and designat-
ed as "The Hills" This is locally intelligi-
BILE designation no doubt, like "the Corners -
or "the Gross Roads," in many Northern
towns. People at the North are net accus-
toned to date their letters from such places,
but at the South the fashion is quite different.
Southern gentlemen have a notion that it is a
fine thing, like those dear lords in England
and other foreign countries, to address the
world from their own estates. when the
Duke de Nasty realizes his pleasing vision
if he ever does-his delightful epistles will no
longer hail from the Confederate X Roads,"
but from "the Snob's Retreat" ~ s'l 81
"Warw wick" is learned, after the Southern
fashion-that is to say, he uses the Latin
tongue more freely than accurately in his
newspaper articles, and abounds in classical
allusion. In the letter which now lies before
us, he remarks, for example, that Good Sen
ator Wilson forgets mali inter mdlos riri-
mus" This awful lapse really ought mot to
be charged upon Senator Wilson. The Sena-
tor could not have forgotten these words, for
we don't believe he ever saw or heard OF
them. Good English speech is enough for
Mr.. Wilson, and Mr.. Wilson's English we
firmly believe would prove. a good deal too
much for Warwick" in a logical or rhetorical
encounter. In a tournament" the advan-
tage would probably remain with warwick"
In this curious letter, "Warwick" celebrates
the woes of the South. That is another
Southern fashion very prevalent just now.
After alluding to Horace quite originally as
''the Epicurean poet" and successfully quoting
Latin verse from the said poet Warwick
dilates upon the consequences of what he
calls "the Carthagenian cruelty Of the Mon
grel Congress" as follows:
If the reign Of reason has ceased, and the
future of the South is to be that of the sublime
lyfsuffering Prometheus, of 6schylus, chained
to Mount Caucasus, his liver preyed upon by
the vultures-threatened with 'three-fold ven
geance" and invited by the conservative chorus,
BY "the prudent councils" of abject fear to de-
grade herself at the foot of despotic power;
why, them the South has only to arm herself
with the resolution of the immortal sufferer,
and uefy power! Its studied insults, its per-
sistent tortures, its maddening outrages, may
signalize the humble pleasure, of malignant
Mongrelism and the diabolism of bloody
demagogues; but all these cannot ''extermi-
nate" her, nor equench the ETHEREAL breath" of
honor in her! s sift, s.i5 5..s.g.r -s.i e.
Why "Warwick" chooses to emphasize the
harmless name of Eschylus in that startling
way is a mystery as profound as his peculiar
method OF spelling Caucasus" with two SIS.
Under a white mans government "Warwick"
probably thinks a Caucasian" has right to
spell the title Of his race and all cognate words
with as many letters as he chooses. 1t is in
certain sense his own name, and he will do
with it as he likes. To object would be to be
guilty of "the diabolism of bloody peda-
gogues." ssaa E s
Alas, alas what can be done with such fel-
lows as this, who cannot even spell! How
can we expect logic, where we do not find even
orthography? Ii "Warwick" were a solitary
case, there might be room for hope but he is
only specimen OF the class to which he be-
longs. The plantation life was a life passed
mostly among interiors 1t bred conceit as
naturally as putretaction breeds masgots.
Our Northern youth get the conceit taken out
OF them when they put on airs Of this kind.
The Southern aristoeracy has always been a
sham aristocracy, compounded in equal parts
of Don Qulxote and Squire Western, erratic as
the knight of La Mancha, coarse as the
country squire. This atrocious nonsense
about "sublimcly suffering South" is its nat
ural outgrowth. Prometheus indeedl There
was Prometheus in the South, chained to
the mount of suffering, but his skin was dark
and the vulture which tormented him was
the Southern gentleman" We require the
South to give up her medieval habits and
antique institutions; we ask her to confer
equal rights upon all Americans within her
borders; and we are met by talk about Gear
thagenian cruelty and "maddenning out
RACES" This country belongs to the people
of the United States. Every man Of US has
a vested right in Alabama as good as WAR
wick's." The people CT the Uuited States
have discovered that the aristocratic institu-
tions which formerly existed in Alabama are
dangerous to the peace OF the country, and
viii not consent to their continuance. If that
be 'diabolism" we have made great mistake !;
we had supposed it to be common prudence.