Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1869-03-23
On ScalaWags.

Living languages grow: with new exigencies
fresh words are coined or old ones receive new
application to answer the demand. When the
buildings of civil commotion threw to the sur
face of society an impure scum which had De.
fore been lnterfused among Its lower strata, IL
was felt that some word OF pictorial power was
needed to represent and consecrate to scorn the
disgusting phenomenon. LIZ was suppied ny
the farmer.
. When he sees among his flock black sheep,
lean and ill-conditioned, which feeding will not
fatten nor nurture improve, covered with burs
and filth, predisposed to catch and communicate
every passing distemper, but still going about
with snivelling nose and rheumy eyes, appar-
emily rejoicing in the rafting dlshonors OF Its
tail, he at once pronounces 1t ScdtdUdg. And
when amid the settings of the revolutionary
cauldron certain discreditable things, gaunt
and ill-favored, hungry for office and never sat
isfed with getting, prone to corruption and ca
ger to contaminate Others were seen to emerge
from the depths of society like Internal frogs
from the pit Of Acheron. thousands of Threats
Kissed out scdlaaodgs Even sable sons of At
RIGA recognized the exquisite aptness of the de-
signation, and with nostrils broadening with a
snort of contempt, yelled forth the epithet
which consigns them to universal derlslon
/ Junius remarks that "the people are seldom
wrong in their opinions; in their sentiments
II
guides them in their moral judgments Black
ened and charred as the human soul is in the
furnace of its own passions, it never wholly
loses its capacity of distinguishing between the
plainly right and the palpably wrong. The
strong blast of universal contempt which withers
the scalawag fixes his doom forever
/ He has stripped himself of the last rag of re-
and walks gowned in tawdry at
tire of shames and pretences. He has surren-
dered, at the bidding of a master, all the con-
victions, affections, sensibility and prejudices
which from early infancy had entwined them
selves about his heart-strings, and for what p
The consideration which like an angel
came to whip the offending Adam out of him,
is some paltry office contemptuousy tossed to
him by his former slaves and present task mas
tiers. For this he forfeits the graduating hand
of friendship--for this he relinauishes the
sweet assurance of welcome which beamed from
a neighbours face-for this he turns his back on
kith and kin and color, and advocates uniform
ity of political privileges to all compilations and
conditions, though he knows that it involves
for us social equality and possible amalgama
ton. Like the unhappy Claudio, he processes
to be willing to encounter darkness as bride
and hug it in his arms.
Esau sold his birthright for mess of pot
tage, but happy he was unconscious of the spi-
ritual blessing he was bartering away. Judas
committed yet more awful crime, but at least
manifested guilty remorse But the scalawag
is a conscious, deliberate, unrepentlng traitor,
who would envy Judas bis bargain aad defraud
Esau of his broth. He breathes an atmosphere
of insincerity, speaks the shibboleth of hypo-
cricy, and bathes his soul in halcyon seas of
ialsehood. 1.-The man that was used up by
the Kickapoos, but who repaired the ravages
of war with the appliances of art, and obtained
false eye, false hair false teeth, false palate,
false tongue, and false limbs, but for the fact
that he was remodeed after an elegant pattern,
was fine type OF a reconstructed sealaWag
These are subjects on which thought is pain
| full Pascal complained that the measureless
eXpanses of the heavenly spaces terrified him.
| The infinite prolongations of eternity confound;
| the deeps under deeps, the abysses swallowing
up abysscs of human degradation, freeze us
with horror To see SoQtherner, once, per-
haps, bright eyed boy endowed with fine CO
pacities for usefulness, with soul crowded
with noble ASPIRATIONS dwarfed by mean love
of place into vile, crawling, wriggling Great
ure- to see him deliberately lay bare his back
while the Radical beade plies the lash. crying
Even SO, master, since it seems good in thy
| sight welcoming the fast descending rod as
an emblem of mercy, kissing the foot that
spurns him-'sif angels weep it is at such q
sight," sa
Shakespeare has dtawn a Shallow, a
Slender and Sence-he has portrayed the
nearest approach to mere inanity, but he draws
with loving touch and delights to show SOU
of goodness in things evil. But even that uni
versal genius, in whose vast mind was set all
that God ever vouchsafed, never conceived of a
scalawag. His generous nature feeling how fear
full and how dizzy It's to cast ones eyes 50 low,
recoiled from looking into the fouler depths Of
human debasement This was reserved for a
fercer and meaner spirit who gave us the first
preliminary sketch and faint admiration Of
| the coming monster; for the scalawag is the
bright consummate flower of which the Yahoc
| is the modest bud. ''es
| Let us hope that even he ia not altogether
without some aspirations for what he deems
noble and exalted. It really seems that he,
too, has his ideal His notion of human per,
fection-his ideal of unfallen Adam walking
around the bowers of Paradise is carpet bag.
ger. But what must be the worshipper when
monkey is the God. ''-Euqutrer