New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1868-03-29
from the Now Orleans Advocated
A Talk about What We Read.
BY DIR. G. B. WHITE.

an American book 2" Our present
want is not standard works by native
authors, for these we have in abund-
ance but the development of an ele-
waited literary taste among our people;
taste for the pure, the beautiful, the
truthful.
Our soldiers in the recent war repre-
scented the best class of the working
people yet in looking over a soldiers
circulating library, supplied by the
SANITARY" or christian Commits
sions," or, as in this city, by the con-
fscations of General Butler, one
could not help noticing the unsoiled
appearance of the works of Irving,
Cooper, and Walter Scott, while the
morbid sensations of Sylyanus Cobb,
Mrs. Southworth, and Charles Reade
had been conned, read, and reread un-
til the books were badly "dog-eared,"
and almost in pieces.
Suppose we call in at bookstore.
We find nearly all of them supplied
with shelves for the trashy weekly
papers of the present day. We find
"Harper's Weekly" and Frank
Leslie Illustrated Newspaper" those
gems of pictorial illustration of cur
rent history, quite lost sight of by the
throng, who ask for the "Police Ga
zette," the "New York Ledger" the
"New York Weekly"-weakly it is
indeed, in yet another sense--a large
portion of the purchasers being so far
lost to shame as to ask for "Pomeroy's
Lacrosse Democrat" and for 1.-THE
Last Sensation"
While the people thus seek for
literature that portrays the crime and
weakness of poor human nature, how
can we expect anything else from
them than sneers about the degen-
eracy of human nature and the cor
rupt times our fate has associated us
with. 1t is mere repetition
of the difference of the two
knights, each claiming that he was
right about the color of shield and
the other quite wrong; the one was
observing its silver-white outside and
the other its golden-yellow lining.
These opponents of ours may be quite
correct in claiming that human nature
is often weak and sinful, while I think
we may safely affirm that there ismore
real nobleness and worth of character
now existing in the world than has
ever existed at any time before. One
swallow does not make summer, no
more should we acknowledge that the
existence of few raseals in it proves
our social system all corrupt.
A book-publishing house that issues
cheap editions of the works of stand
ard authors does great good to the
community. Let US have the whole
some works of Irving, Scott, Dickens,
Mrs. Oliphant, and Miss Mulock, and
scattered as broadcast and as cheaply
among our people as are the worthless
and unnatural productions of Dumas
1.-THE elder and the younger,) George
Sand, and unnumbered anonymous
scribblers, and combined with an
effort of our better people to initiate
new order of things; then we may
expect the growth of wholesome
taste for the natural, the probable, the
eleVating among our story readers
and the occupation of sensationists
would be gone. IT'S true, "stoler
fruits are sweetest" perhaps fol-
awhile, our school-boy friends would
continue to hide "Sixteen- string
Jack" or 1.-THE Three Guardsmen .
behind their class books at school
or smuggle them under their jacket;
in going home; but bey-nature is mo-
altogether bad; such habits would be
forsaken if good wholesome storie:
were allowed them openly.
In no country in the world is there
such a profusion of infdel books, o.
improbable romances, and of corrupt
ing plays, as in France. What Other
Christian country can we possibly
find where the common people are
more ignorant or degraded and the
higher classes more heartless ant
superficial.
The better style of romance manu-
facture is vastly better in the presen
day than formerly. We are laugh
that true chivalry may as often be ex
hibited in the present day as in the
dark ages; the noble action of daring
to do right in spite of the frowns o.
sneers of society, standing by FRIEND
whose good name is unjustly asperset
and according to an open enemy
praise ELECTED by virtues he may pos
sess. 1t is one good sign of the time
that the better class of the patrons o
light literature Of the present day will
not allew to pass without ridicule an,
attempt to foist upon the hero o
heroine a mawkish sentimentality 0
the exhibition of Improbable sensibili
ties.
Young people crossed in love do no
die Of broken hearts, nor pine ava,
in solitude as often as formerly. TIL
1 way we avoid those things now a day
is to give our friends change Of seen
or Of associations; the young gentle
man goes hard to work at his pre-
viously neglected business, and tn
young lady probably finds sphere q
usefulness among her poor or Athlete
relatives and friends, or perhaps /
taking part in household cares no
! previously thought Of or properly ap
t preciated. i is my opinion that wer