The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1868-06-30

of English Iterature,-a thousand have
greedily devoured the prurient sensation
alisms Of "Grifith Gaune and the author
of "Comsth up as Flower" When authors
of undoubted power are 30 little to be
trusted, as regards the moral effect Of their
.nroduct;ons-the author of "Adam Bede, :"
for instance, who stands confessedly at the
head Of contemporary noyelists, makes the
interest of every one Of her four magnih-
cent fictions to turn upon breach Of the
seventh commandments is not surprising
that writers of lesser power should emulate
the class of production which they have
made so attractive. =
We are inclined to think that this dis.
eased condition of mental activity is rather
the cause than the effect of the demorali-
cation of the taste of the reading public
Power will make itself felt in whatever
guise it assumes; and the success of writer's
of talent in this direction has produced 80
immense q crowd of imitators of their
worst-and, therefore, most easily repro
duced-characteristics, that the popular
appetite has been educated by the very
abundance of the material offered for it's
consumption into that state made immortal
by GOLDSMITH, where
ssThe relish grown callous almost to disease:
Who peppers the highest is surest to please" ="
The English papers come to US filed with
the most revolving accounts of crimes, per-
petrated in many instances by mere boys,
large number of which could be directly
traced to the pernicious influence of this
"Gallows Literature" as it is most appro-
priately termed. An intelligent writer on
the subject says: ga number Of errand-
boys and apprentices at Paddington were
recently convicted of series Of thefts from
their employers. 1t was found that, emu
lating the desperadoes of these tales, they
had formed themselves into an organized
gang, and taken names from their favorite
heroes-one was Dick Turpin, another
Claude Duval, and so on. And their depre~
dations extended ever the whole neighbor-
haod. A few weeks ago, under the same
influence, youth of eighteen, the son Of a
small tradesman of Clerkenwell, having
exhausted ell the means of plunder which
his shallow wits could invent, succeeded in
getting possession of two pounds. With
this money he invited two or three women
to drunken debauch, in imitation OF Cap
tain Macbeath and Claude Duval. Having
thus squandered his last penny, he threw
himself over Westminster Bridge, leaving
behind him melodramatic letter of fare
we'll, written in the style affected by these
Infamous publications.
Doubtless these instances could be multi
piled theusand-fold on this side of the
Atlantic, and we cannot avoid the question
of "What remedy ?" which they so imper-
atively suggest. Evidently the whole sys-
tenn of Imaginative writing is in need of
serious reform, and we cannot but agree
with the same writer when he recommends
go more earnest cultivation Of the faculty
of good writing for the masses by Christian
men and women" Power, as we said be-
fore, will make itself felt, and if there could
really be an infusion of new and vigorous
and healthy life into the corrupt mass of
our present fictitious literature, there would
doubtless be soon found corresponding
growth of healthy popular taste.
This reform has begun in sphere where
it was hardly less needed, though for diff
ferent reasons,-in the production Of chill
dren's books. Mr.. McDoEALp's Dealings
with the Fairies" and LEWIS CARRoLL's
"Alices Adventures in Wonderland" ore
an immense step in advance Of anything
which was served up to our infantile imag-
ination, both in real literary merit and in
adaptability to the object proposed. 1t is
to be hoped that they are only heralds of o
reform in literary productions Of more
ambitious type, which will 60 for to check
and correct the evils of the present state of
th;pro