The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-02-07
LITERARY ACROBATS.

LITERARY ACROBATS.
From the N. Y. Tribune
John Ruskin has undertaken the reform of
tie British workman in a series of letters en-
titled FO7S CldUigerG, which are to finally
right all English social abuses; the only diff
Guilty in the way being, it appears, the fact
that nobody-not even the astutest critic
has as yet the faintest idea of either what
fO7S Cld0SgeTd means or what the letters are
about. The truth is, that the lower class in
England are Just now in the condition of the
starving donkey in Esop, to whom each of
the birds and beasts came with advice and
consolation, while nobody brought him the
peck of oats for lack of which he was dying.
Every refermer, philosopher, or poet in Eng
land has joined in the pow-wow over this
lower class, in whom civilization is seen IN
GTtiCulO m07ttS, and has his favorite remedy
to offer. One thrusts expatriation down the
patients throat, another infanticide, a third
religious education-not seeing that if his
empty stomach were filed his heart and brain
would right themselves. Mr.. Ruskin must
have peck at the poor victim with the
others, which is perhaps well enough
1t is grave subject, and one to which any
man would give his gravest thought. Ruskin
was endowed by nature not only with genu-
inc love of the truth but keen insight into
it, and exceptional force in its utterance. But
of late he has tricked out his deas in such
frippery of sentimentality, such pish-pash
of ''Sesame and Lilies" such Ducks and
Dawns, that it is John Ruskin at whom his
audience stare, and not at the truth which
God gave him to show to them. He has
taken, too, an apparent delight in the wonder
excited by his unintelligibility; clasps his
hands in childish glee when book aimed at
the reformation of the clergy falls dead
''They did not understand word of it," he
cries; show could they be expected to do it,"
l.Al1 s.~L1 Al ILL.,
rate people, are series of obscure paradoxes
and attempts at mystifcation. He ''wants to
tear down all the railroads in England and
Wales, the houses of Parliament, and the
city of New York He wants to whisper in
the ears of all girls to curtsey as professors
and dignifed persons 60 by, and to kings to
keep their crowns, and bishops their croziers;'
and so the childish chatter goes on, page
after page, while the critics puzzle their
brains in vain to find the obscure meaning.
Now Ruskin knows as we'll as any living man
how tosutter hard sense in words like bullets;
and this nonsense is not even amusing non
sense. 1t is nothing but vain posturing, a
click. clack of castanets to attract notice.
There are enough poor devils driven to play
such trapeze games in literature for bread and
butter; let them stand on their heads and
play tricks with their heels to make the vul-
gar gape; but Ruskin is in lack of neither
best work to the world without betraying this
vain desire for notoriety.
1t is high time that literary men, at least,
understood of how little importance indivi-
duals are in this busy age of the world, and
that they weigh less and less with each sue
ceeding year. If man has discovered a
poem, or a sewing machine, or fertilizer, or
a new divine truth, he owes it. to the world,
and that is all the world wants of him.
Nhar, hat &c lxuhi
power of turning unmeaning somersaults
among words on its notice, he is simply
guilty of an impertinence for which he
will speedily be snubbed. Journalists
who of all men ought to be the most
impersonal, are apt in this country to
fall into this very error of thrusting their
own petty affairs, likes and dislikes, on
heir readers. We have done what we
could to show them their mistake, and not,
we are tempted to hope, without effect. We
fancy the public has been bored somewhat
less, lately, with the squabbles of New York
| editors, and is not called upon SO often to re-
| gard their tweaked noses or wounded sensi-
bilities from the right hand point of view Oh
| the left. The world wants few heroes now
a-days, and knows these few by instinct, as
the lion does the true prince; and the man
who suggests himself as demi-god by virtue
of his gift of chattering about himself OF
| ludllSuhuI dOuoo VI Aio hSlBAOOI4 Will HQu
himself shortly not demi-god, but an ap,
| plauded clown in a circus, who will be left
! alone and forgotten in the sawdust as soon az
| his tongue grows less timber.
WHAT WILL THE SAN DOMINGO COM
MISSION DOE
From the NJ Y. Nation.
A foreigner who knew nothing of the Sar
Domingo affair but the appointment and de
parture of the commission of inquiry woult
naturally suppose that the people of the
United States had just heard of a newly dis
covered island some thousands of miles off
and that in order to crafty their curiosity
they had thought fit to send out scientific
exploring expedition.
Perhaps he would begin to deplore the
profound ignorance of our people, unless in
deed some one better versed in our way o.
managing political schemes were to ease hi
mind by telling him that we know all abou
San Domingo; that Colton's descriptive atlal
was found in almost every log cabin; that WI
had had commercial agents and consuls TO
years past in both parts of the island (Hays