The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-10-25
x1scEeENAr1ox IN ROMANCE.

There abounds IN the world what is called
the ssirony of life'-the saddest of all humors,
the most humorous Of all satires. 1t is the
almost invariable contradiction between pre-
cept and personal example; between the
workman and his work between the artist
and his art between the poet and his song !;
between the reformer and his mission. The
most eloquent exhorters against intemperancs
have been incorrigible inebriates. The shoe
maker is proverbially i'll shod. The cook is a
stranger to gastronomic joys. Old Samuel
johnson, the ferocious advocate of monarchy,
and nobility, and high church, could not, in
his personal relations, brook the least shadow
of authority and superiority, and in
SO far was savagely democratic. John
Milton, the outspoken and indomitable
champion Of all liberties, secular and
religious, was suspected, not without
reason, of being more imperious than repub-
lican in his own household. Depend upon it,
if the Knight of La Mancha had been blessed
with real wife, in place OF his imaginary
mistress, the Incompatible lady of Toboso,
she would have been the veriest drudge to
keep his house in order, while he went forth
to set the mad world right, and more es-
hapless victims of Merlin the magician. And
did not Las Casas, the eloquent denunciator
and indefatigable opponent of Indian slavery
In the Spanish American colonies. himself
own and use in Spain an Indian slave whom
he only liberated under compulsion of royal
decree? And did he not give his aid and
sanction to the introduction of negro slaves to
take the place of the emancipated Indians I?
Even so, according to the testimony of his
tory. But let us come to our mutton or,
rather, to the couple of simulated LANDSLIDE
wolves in lambs clothing we have
particularly in view, as more than usually re-
voting illustrations of the kind of irony re-
ferred to.
Two works of fiction, not wholly uncon-
nected with the doctrine of miscegenation-
by no means have been resently issued by
Northern publishing houses. One of them,
"waiting for the Verdict" from the pen of
Mrs. Rebecca Davis, isvigorously written and
artisticaiiy constructed. The other, "What
Answer" from the pen of Miss Anna R.
Dickinson, is namby-pambyly written and
wretchedly inartistic in respect to plot and in
cident. Each has purpose, common pur-
pose, which is plainly revealed in its pages.
1t is to show that there is nothing intrinsically
wrong, unnatural, abhorrent, in the inter-
marriage of the most dissimilar races-in the
wedding of snow-white Desdemona, not to
-e1~x hui 10 10Th Il R0th
authors assume, in theory, that repugnance
to unlimited miscegenation among the various
types of humanity is founded upon nothing
but an ignorant and unchristian prejudice
which is unworthy of the boosted progress,
philanthropy and fraternity of the age. And
ties of their doctrine? Why, in each case,
lucus non hlcendo is positively thrown into
the shade. The exemplifcation, SO to speak,
is an elaborate concealment.
In waiting for the Verdict" the heroine
is an accomplished white woman who falls
in love-with whom with negro who, in
figure, in features, and otherwise, adyertises
his race to all the senses, so that he or she
who runs, even though blind, could not mis-
take it? MOI She falls in love with a man
having the form of Adonis, and the graces of
Apollo, and, apparently, of as pure Cau-
casian genealogy as she herself But there is,
nevertheless, in his veins an invisible trace of
negro blood, and this fearful secret, as the
author strangely, upon her theory, supposes
| it to be, he is too honorable not to diyulge to
the lady whose love he reciprocates, though
he should forfeit her hand by so doing. And,
in fact, such is the consequence. The repul-
sion against the imperceptible eighth, tenth,
or twentieth of the negro race underlying the
form of Adonis and the graces of Apollo, is SC
great that, with all her love confessed and un.
alterable, she cannot marry him. He goes
and dies on the battlefield, and she survives
| with withered heart which joy is never to re-
visit in this world.
I In "What Answer" the unperceived
and unsupported tinge of negro blood flows
| in the veins of the heroine. She flashes upon
the sight of a dashing young New York lawyer
at a school commencement, in all the shapeli
ness and classic delicacy of features charac
teristic of the most approved Caucasian type
of womanly beauty. 1t is now the LADY
whom honor impels to reveal the fearful secret
The lover is incredulous So convinced is h'
of her unadulterated whiteness of race, tina
he painfully suspects thather story is invented
as trick to evade his suit. At length, how
ever, it is confirmed by her father. But h
does not experience the repulsion which
proved fatal to the happiness of the lovers il
the other novel. He insisted on marrying
her nevertheless, though cast off by hi
family in consequence; and welded love wa
going smoothly with both, when the autho
necdiess1y killed of the -impetnous hero i,
| the draft riots of 1868.
Thus, in two literary enterprises designed
to combat the so-called prejudice against tn
doctrine of miscegenation, both authors SHOW
that they are themselves slaves to this preju
dice, by reducing to an unacceptable mini
mum the element of diversity of race be
tween the men and women whose spontane
GUS loves they describe. 1t is, by implica
ton, confessed that any spontaniety of Low