The Manchester journal. [volume] (Manchester, Vt.) 1861-current, 1871-04-27
Tsaa ta Feagsylraalaa Lea Esiats Journal
THE SENSATION ~ AND SLANG ELE-
WEAT - AMERICAN LITERATURE.

fEttt# tH# tAHAfft feiAtaat = Asss
THE xExxtrrusAL am SLANG ELE-
uENT Is AMERICAN LirERsruRE.
aT tuau s.. bksesta s. q. % aaer9ar VI,
The sensational and slang element IN
American literature Il steadily ana sure
ly approaching lhe extreme boundary of
tolerance
Already, beth in prose and verse, eer-
tain literary elowns,whose vanity has been
largely excited By prolonged popular ap-
pluse, and who are to-day from their
slowman's rig, slang speech aud indecent
antics, the fayorites Of a corrupt public
taste, are yeuturiug 50 Ear into the re-
eions of The indecent, absurd and ridicu-
lous, that a healthy reaction against such
yilIainous counterfeits Of true, genuine
literature is inevitable.
The rise and fan Of the sensational and
slang element ia American literature viii
afford a curious and fruitin field Of IN
quiry and discussion to the future ltcra-
ny historian. In an age otherwise bright
and glorious, il win remain as a dark
spot Of damning reproaeh.
Like a lrightful CONFUSION raclling the
human frame-the result of the transius-
ION with the healthy life current, of a dan
gerous venom, Of coiled and concealed
foe the effects Of this element on the
present age will seem to the future obsery-
en- IN brighter and purer age it will be
held up as a 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 sloriously
as the evening star-the popular applause
that to-day greets the uprising of such
"will o. the wispsH--such faint, gross,
nocturnal emanatons as Sylvanus Cobb,
Artcmas Ward, Brete larte Il 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 repre-
hensible school in American literature.
The first named author and his "kith and
kin, through such channels of approach
to public opinion as the Ne1e York
Ledgcr, and other periodicals of similar
character, have mingled current of poll
luton with the stream until it is fairly
turbid with the poison.
Passion - iufuriated, intensified pas
sion, attempting and achieving impossi-
bilities-strategem wildly wrought, ineo-
herent, seuseless; an expression sickly,
lashy, often displaying frightful eyolu
tions in rhodomontade, are some Of the
chief ingredients in the nauseating po-
ton. The hellish draught is invariably
favored with suggestiyeness Of amor
GUS desire often descending to unreleyed
brutal lust. A goodly number of pages
in each volume invariably glow with tins
reflection of the fires of hell.
Crime, whatever its nature or henous-
ness, is seen in this light, clothed in Il
gbastly and diabolicaI splendor that has
strange and fatal attractivcness for youth
ful, inexperienced minds,
Ideal monstrosities, whose hideousness
and unrivaled unseemliness constitute
their only claim, even to contempt, are
blazoned on every page. Think Of the un-
clean and monstrous ideal conception,
found among the pages Of a popuarnoy-
el, in which the heroine, "lair," "care-
fully educated" girl almost in her teens,
is made in fishing excursion, in dark
night, to sit ashide the neck of a negro,
as he wanders up and down the stream
spearing fish, And this from the pen Of an
eminent Brooklyn divine--a popular edu-
Gator in taste and morals. BAH what a
"black vomito Of literary filth the gods
are raining upon us. The result Of such
assaults upon good taste and morality is
appalling.
Its RESULTS fruit--the ripened poi
sonous clusters hang in enticing festoons
by the side Of every public thoroughfare,
where the young Of all classes arc alike
tempted to eat aud perish.
Pictorial illumination or illustration
has superseded verbal delineaGon. Cobb
and Beecher in the New York Ledger are
beaten and distanced in the race Of un-
cleanliness by obscene artists in the Po-
lice Ners, aud other periodicals of a
kindred character.
/ Isit worse--is it as bad, even, TO picture
an ideal indecency--a scene of Illicit love
( in pictorial illustration where the eye
may perhaps be disgusted with the bald
ness and undisguised lewdness Of the
caricaturc, than TO hide It beneath musi-
cal and Iabored sentences, that winningly
appeal to the ear, while the ideal sense
ofsight is busy in developing the scene in
living, acting characters in the realm OF
. The idealf What a spectaclel Eminent
diyines, historians, orators, presidents of
collcacs-those VINO till stations in life
whore the highest integrity aud honesty
Of purpose should be iDdissolubly joined
TO the n0blcst ambitions and puresl mo-
tiyes. pushing shoulder to shoulder at the
same wheel with syiyanus Cobb, that the
vile and infamous school ofiiiemiure that
be represents may be pushed up to The
summit Of universal success and popu-
larity.
Thus, this deadly poison 70 good taste
and morality found in tie sensational