Brownlow's Knoxville Whig. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1866-1869, 1868-10-14
Mur,er as one Of the Useful Arts.

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Murder rs one OF the Useful Arts.
Tl,rnss dc Qaincey the gorgeous English opium
eater. startled British society by laying down the
proposition that murder is one of the me ars ana
,,rovin,, Il. too. He showed conclusivey and be-
vond cypn cavil that the pursuit of murder does
devolop the ner and nober faculties of the practi-
toner as truly rs any other Of the generally &C
knowleIged fine arts does il, and that murder it.
self, properly pursued and exhibited goes as far in
cultivaiing and educating, and giving tone to Po-
lite society, poetry, or the drame, or sculpture
or painting, or architecture.
British socety--the nobility, the Church and the
West Ilnd--were rather slow in coming 20 ac-
knowltdg, the truth Of this view; but it was mere
IL and solely because they nation Of islanders,
lacking continental breadth Of thought and feel
ing.
Now. no such ignorance aud narrowness ever be-
Titled and dsgraced the sayehoding aristocracy Of
our country. From the earliest times-aHtiqissi-
mus te,apor5Hs-the conflict ooded and high-toned
chivalry of the cotton-gin and the sugar-mil have
carried on the practice of shis fine art Of murder
On AMATEUR with the greatest enthusiasm and ar
dor, and with the greatest success. The bowie
knife the pistol, and the doube-barreled shotgun
have been familiar TO their delicate, skilled and
bigh-bred fingers No place could come amiss.-
Acting in the spirit of the motto, always ready"
the duelling-ground the courtroom, the highway,
The public square, the lonely woodall were alike
and equally favorable for the shot the stab of
high art.
So il was for three generations-each inheriting
the skill and the tendency of its predecessor, and
adding its own thereto. But all this while, these
things we're done, as said above, en- amateur,
and not by any means professionally, and least of
ALL with any leaning towards making the art in
its practice encrosch the province of tho useful
arts. Now, this is all changed. The delight and
solsce of the cultured and elegant gentleman is
made 10 do yeoman service Great talents and
high skin are no longer allowed TO be the mere
adornments of diLLetanti they are forced TO make
themselves useful in social science aud its practical
applications to politics, finance and craftsmanship.
Like all great applications 10 industry too, this APP
pication is marked by simplicity.
What can be simpler than to shoe! down the man
that thinks differently from you taxation, or free
schools, impartial suffrage Nothing, certainly.
What more gentlemanbke than TO break into the
bedroom of pour political opponent at one O'Clock
at night, friends enough with you, of course, te5
make it safe for you,) and riddle Kim with bullets
from revolver, caiibcr II, as he lies in bed We
can think of nothing moro thoroughly artistic and
bigh-bred.
But this fine art turned nObly useful, has its east
applications, and its uses on a grand scale. Single
murders are WE'LL they often show talent, culture,
feeling. But genius rises beyond them, and scars
far beyond mere talent and culture. Happily we
have not far TO sock for even such. What Salvador
Bosa was TO painters that is Fort Pillow Forrest to
the common herd of rebel gentlemen-murderers
aye and moro too Fort Pillow was grand but it
was only the prelude to Ku Klux and It's glorious
achievements Where will you find nobler con
cepton, carried out with such artistic grandeur,
the masked faces of the gentle and heightened
murderers riding through darkness and storm, or
under the fair light of noon TO the lonely cabin of
the helpless freedman; dragging him from his chill
dren, hanging him TO the limb of a convenient tree,
in full sight of his home, and piercing him with a
dozen balls in merry sport?
Where is there, in the long and glowing list of
high human achievement, more spirit-stirring
deed than that bold and chvalric one lately did in
fair Kentucky, of attacking, in broad noon-day a
village of Quakers, (who would not mar the artis-
tic completeness of this gem of art by making any
resstsneel saeing it, and burning the cotton mills
of base plebeian business men Nowhere, we feel
sure.
Yet more and higher and more expansive
Some of the greatest artists have lived unnamed
and unknown, till they burst upon the world with
such work of art as has made all the world won
der. This has happened, but yesterday, right
among us. Consider the Camilla exploit. Was
there ever so much murder done in such short time
so unexpectedly, suddenly, so INTERESTINGLY, so
systematically, so eOolly so goefully? We aver
that we believe there never was in Europe Asia,
Africa or America Nobly, simple, majestically
artistic, and gloriously successful This this alone
would be enough TO establish, firm as the rock
ribbed hills, the claim of Murder as one of the Fine
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