The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1871-05-09
BY VIRGIL W. BLANCHARD, NJ. D. OF BRID'
PORT, VT.

The sensational and slang element in
American literature is steadily and sure
ly approaching the extreme boundary Of
tolerance.
Already, both in prose and verse, GER
tain literary clowns, whose vanity has
been largely excited by prolonged pop
ular applause, and who are to-day, from
their showman's rig, slang speech and in
decent antics, the favorites of corrupt
public taste, are venturing so far into
the regions of the indecent, absurd and
ridiculous, that a healthy reaction against
such villanous counterfeits Of true gen.
uine literature is inevitable.
The rise and fall Of the sensational
and slang element in American literature
will afford a curious and fruitful field of
inquiry and discussion to the future liter
ary historian. In an age otherwise bright
and glorious, it will remain as dark
spot Of damning reproach.
Like a frightful convulsion racking the
human frame-the result of the transfus-
ion with the healthy life current, of a
dangerous venom, of a coiled and con-
cealed foe-the effects of this element
on the present age will seem to the fu-
ture observer. In a brighter and purer
age it will be held up as warning to all
ages that are to come.
With the armament above glowing
with the grand orbs of classical history,
where Macauley shines radiantly and
gloriously as the evening star-the pop
ular applause that to-day greets the up
rising Of such "will O. the wisps'-such
faint, gross, nocturnal emanations as
Sylvanus Cobb, Artemas Ward, Brete
Harte & Co., will occasion both wonder
and reproach.
would be understood to use the
names of the authors above mentioned as
representatives, each, of a vile and rep
rehensible school in American literature.
The first named and his "kith and kin,
through such channels Of approach to
public opinion as the The New York
Ledger, and other periodicals of similar
character, have mingled current Of pol
luton with the stream until it is fairly
turbid with the poison.
Passion--infuriated, intensified pas
sion, attempting and achieving impossi
bilities-strategem wildly wrought, inco
herent, senseless; an expression sickly
Aashy, often displaying frightful evolu
tions in rhodomontade, are some Of tht
chief ingredients in the nauseating po
tion. The bellish draught is invariably
favored with a suggestiveness Of amor
Gus desire, often descending to unrclieveC
brutal lust. A goodly number Of page
in each volume invariably glow with thi
reflection of the fires of hell.
Crime, whatever its nature or henious
ness, is seen in this light, clothed in
CHASTITY and diabolical splendor that ha
strange and fatal attractveness for youth
full inexperienced minds
Ideal monstrosities, whose hideousnes
and unrivaled unseemliness constitut
their only claim, even to contempt, ar
blazoned on every page. Think of tn
unclean and monstrous ideal conception
found among the pages of popular nov
el, in which the heroine, "fair," scare
fully educated" girl almost in her teens
is made in fishing excursion, in darl
night, to sit astride the neck of negro
as he wanders up and down the strear
spearing fish. And this from the pen @
an eminent Brooklyn divine-a popula
educator in taste and morals. Bah
what "black vomit" of literary filth tn
gods are raining upon us. The result @
such assaults upon good taste and mora
ity is appalling.
Its result--its fruit-the ripened poi
souous clusters hang in enticing festoou
by the side of every public thorougfar'
where the young of all classes are alik
tempted to eat and perish.
t Pictorial illumination or illustratio
has superseded verbal delineation. Cob
and Beechcr in the New York Ledger ar
$ beaten and distanced in the race of ur
cleanliness by obscene artists in the Pt
/ lice Ne,os, and other periodicals of
kindred character.
Is it worse-is it as bad, even, to pi'
ture an ideal iDdecency-a scene ofiliic
y love in pictorial illustration where th
. eye may perhaps be disgusted with tn
badness and undisguised lewdness Of tn
caricature, than to hide it beneath mus
} cal and labored sentences, that winningl
appeal to the ear, while the ideal sens
; Of sight is busy in developing the scene
N