Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1868-04-13
BOHEMIAN LITERATURE.
The New York Herald ON Its
Degeneracy.

I
| We have lately had occasion to look al
some of the numerous specimens of mag
azine literature which are now contend
ing for public favor as successors of the
Port Folio, the first monthly magazine
of any note in this country. The Porl
Folio was originally started as a weekly
in Philadelphia in 1900, and was ably
edted'by Dennie, the celebrated essayis,
and lay preacher" 1t counted among
its contributors Richard Rush, John
| Quincy Adams, Nicholas Biddle, Robert
Walsh, Charles Brockden. Brown, Francis
Hopkinson, Thomas Cadwallader, Gou-
verneur Morris and other eminent men.
Among the contributors to the Monthly
ANTHOLOGY, started in Boston in 1903, were
John Quincy Adams, j. s. Buckminster,
George Ticknor and William Tudor, who
founded the North American Repiew
in 1915. Another early American pc
riodical was the Analectic Magazine,
started in Philadelphia. Its name was
changed to Select Review by Washing
ton Irving, who edited it for two years,
and j. X. Paulding and Gulian c. Ver-
planck contributed to it. Without
enumerating other pioneers Of the null
titude of American magazines and re-
views which have since appeared, and in
nearly hundred instances have also
disappeared, we must say that when
we compare those which fourished fifty
or sixty years ago with those which are
hourishing now the comparison is sadly
unfavorable to the latter.
In respect to two important particu-
lars the comparison becomesa contrast.
The spirit Of the early American period
ical literature was pure and undcfled,
and the most tender religious suscepti
bilities were never offended But now
a-days-from the pompous North Amer
lean Reriep and its satellites, the Allan
ito Monthly and the Radical, and their
rivals in New York and New Jersey,
Putnam's Monthly and Northern
Monthly, tutti quaati (their name is
legion), down to The Last Sensation
our quarterlies, monthhes and weeklies
seem to vie with each other in making
open or covert assaults upon religion and
morality.
The whole mass of Bohemian litera.
ture is leavened with the spirit of infdel-
ity and liceutiousness. Periodicals pub
lished in the City of the Puritans hesi.
tate not to question the personality of
God and the authenticity of the Scrip
lures in which the Divine will is
revealed, or to rank the name of
the late Theodore Parker on the
same level as that of the Savior of the
world. In fact, the skepticsl Parker is
extolled and adored by these blasphe-
nous Bostonians as a sort of Yankee
Jesus, inspired with ultra modern ideas.
Even the professed apologies for Chris
tianity which occasionally put forth in
Difference to the lingering prejudices of
old fashioned orthodoxy would appear
heterodox enough to the early fathers of
the Church.
In the same way the professed satires
leveled against licentiousness, and par
against the indecent exposures
which sre now so common on the stage
and in che fashionable ballroom, are
less calculated to shock and alarm than
to compete as closely as possible with
the fatal fascinations which they pretend
to condemn. The Bohemian satirsts
fairly goat over the indecencies which
they describe with suspicious sffecta-
ton of holy horror. They emulate
in their descriptions the prurient
pietorials which they denounce. They
dilate with peculiar satisfaction on the
naked truth as illustrated by the "sala-
eious sprites" Of the ballet. They scat
ter words that burn, even when they
aim at saying that music and scenery
and effects "are merely the pretext for |
the unchaste convolutions
OF the goddesses of impudicity at the |
fullest angle of lewdness and through the |
rosy medium Of amorous suggestion"
The ''mob of gentlemen that stwrite with |
ease" is doubtless larger than in the in
fancy Of American periodical litersfhre.
But we cannot admit that such contrib
ltors to it as Dennie, Washington Ir-
ving, Buckminster, Edward Everett, Al
sxander II. Everett, George Ticknor,
and others who might be mentioned, |
lave been surpassed as writer's by |
hose whose names nov figure conspicu-
ously in flaming lists Of magazinists and
reviewers As We have already iutima.
ed, our modern moralists in their most |
slsborats disquisitions too often betray
he corrupting influence Of the very
wills against which they invsigh. Even
when they display the charms Of literary
,eauty.their hOvery pages exhale a poi
Ionous odor; and like the 6g leaves in
he basket Of the Egyptian queen TO
,orrow an illusirst0n), are de6led BY
he asp's trail and slime, while the sly
worm turks beneath
This degeueracy Of Bohemian liters-
ure is not unaccounfable, however, il
ge remember that Il mirrors and reflects
lert, and in the midst Of the nineteenth
.eulury, and such scenes ss are repre-
euled with impunity rpOn the stage
cetes for which no parallel can be found
ave at Rome in iis worst days al the
nscivious and sfeminafe court sf Bysan-
iun, At Hsrculansun. 81 Pompeii, or 81
,o1orn and Crnmnrrah