The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-11-11
TiltOn's Last Tilt.

Lacy he lied in his throat The "cheap de-
fense of nations" we surrender, seeing that the
radical War Department costs us about twice
as much as all the rest of the Government
put together. But the age of chivslry ?
Never
For, look you, here is sweet Anna Dickin-
son, the queen of Quakerdom Qf Quaker
can be queen), who has been assalled by
divers losel wights of the press, Bohemian
chevaliers, bishops of misrule and the like
as most "abominable person" for publishing,
in her singular conundrum hight "What
Answer P' a passionate plea in behalf Of mis-
cegenation ! And ere the brutal Anglo Saxon
can get out his stones or his eggs to as
sail her withal, comes dashiDg into the fore
front OF things, armed cGp-d pic and sound
ing his merry bugle-horn, the bold Knight
Tllton, Sir Theodorus OF Abyssinia, discerning
and declaring that in pleading for miscsgena-
tion Miss Dickinson has made "a heroic
attempt to join the Anglo. Saxon and the
AnglO-Afrcan blood is o true and lawful
marriage" This ''heToic attempt Sir Theo-
dorus, to whom fitting comes as naturally as
to patent hoop-skirts, is ready TO mantain
against all cOmers to be the very finest aud
noblest thing done or attempted to be done
since Cornelia took q cradle for her Jewell
box and ARIA perforated her own bosom as
an encouragement to her husband TO
do likewise. He will hear no controversy on
the subject. Whoever falls on his knees
to worship the divine Anna must expect
no more mercy than Don Qulxote would
have shown to the critics of Dulcines del
TOboso. Sir Theodorus is as full of fight
for his fair Quaker as an egg is of meat. His
erect and fiery spirit goes before her an
oriflamme of battle He is as intraotable as
Mic. Duke Of Guise and Sir John OF Lanoas-
tore, in SwiGt's ballad, of whom we hear that
"'such honor did them prick .
Ii You bat turned your face, q slap,
Ii uOt your lace, = KICK ~
In comparison with Anna Dickinson, ex-
claims the chivalric Tilton, Sir Walter Scott
was an old hurdy- -gurdy man, and Balzae
lean and shrivelled moral apothecary
"lJncle Toms Cabin" compared with ''What
Answer f' seems to Tlton to be simply ''as
sbapeless as a stuffed Christmas stocking"
Wendell Phillips set beside Miss Anna is a
Priscian all over scratches. ''His speeches
abound in as much bad grammar as his edito-
rialF." Nay, even John Bright, the giant
killing Jack of the period, is but Gan English
numbering thief in comparison with her.
All this is well enough. For our own part
certainly, we should prefer any "Christmas
stocking" however ''shapeless" (unless, in
deed, 1t were "stufed" with Mrs. Harriet
Beecher StOwe), to a dozen 'conundrums in
three hundred pages like this of Miss Dick
insoD's Little as We enjoy the orations of
Wendell Phillips, We own that We should
expect Lindley Murray to be better treated by
him than Mss Anna, or even by Miss Annals
cham piOp. And as for John Bright, if he
were half as respectful of the bases OF consti-
tulional law as he is of the rules of syatax,
we admit we should look forward with more
compiacercy, citizens of the world, to the
near future of Gr5a. Britain than we are now
| able to do
But many men have many minds. Aud we
| are quite willing that Titon should sing of
Miss Dickinson as Sir Philip Sidney sang of
! Lis Stella
| "rhine eyes are stars. thy breasts the milken
| Thy fingers Cupid's shafts, thy voice an angels
| lay"
But why should he defend his elect-lady by
| utteripg such trash as this, that ''When a
| speech or sermon or book happens to be so
| good that one cares nothing for the style in
| which it is expressed, the subject is thereby
| proven to be of peculiar and extraordinary
| merit'?
The only "style" in speech or sermon or
! book TO which an educated and capable person
can possibly be Indifferent when the substance
of the work in question is excellent, is good
style. 1t is one of the properties of bad
| style that it perforce compels our attention to
it's badness. The sharpest criticism that can
be made, for example, on such style as that
| OF Sergeant kinglake, in his Crimean history,
| is that it continually diverts the readers
| mind from the narrative. 1t is perpetual
irritation And what is true in an eminent
| degree OF so able a writer as Kinglake is true
in much slighter degree of Miss Anna Dick
inson. Tilton tells us that, in tramplipg upon
all the parts of speech, the peerless Anna was
only trying 'to get the wine OF eloquence by
crushing the grapes of STYLE" Suppose it to
he true that by crushing the grapes OF
| styls' this fair radical Thyad got only the
vinegar of vituperatiOn, and not i'll all the
wine of eloquence
Again. Why should Tilton impute it as can
illustrious fact" to the Quaker girl of his
heart that her shook is the brayest book in
American literature ?" and that she has ''de-
fed American opinion more nobly and
| CouIageOusly than any New England or
| H ickeTbOcker book-maker ever did 1'
| Would Tilton the dauntIess conceive it to
be the prettiest thing he could say of an actual
| or possible Mrs. Tilton that she had "deisd
American opinion more nObly aud courage
| ously" than any eXtant person OF her sex and
| years Has not Tilton for years past de-.
| nounced the defiance of American opinion'
by "Rebels' and "Cepperheads" as an OBJ
| viOus proof Of the personal interference OF
| Satan in mundane affairs Did not
"Anonyma" ''defy the opinion of her own
| sex and country when she first made her ap-
| pearanee in all her silken bravery, among the
beauties of Rotten Row Does Miss Dickin-
son defy American opinion" one whit more
"nObly and courageOusly" than Brigham
| Young, whose "defanee," furthermore, has
artioulated ITSELF not through cheap novel,
but through great community, rich, COM
Portable, and, as their latest visitor, Madame
Au6ouard, tells us, very far from unhappy ?
Tilon, noble youth tilt on Hit giant
instantly wherever you see one. Give no
quarter to dragons. Chase every ogre who
crosses your path to his hidden lair, though
| the chase lead Won to those lonely and horri-