Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1872-07-10
The Decline Of Literary Taste.

The Decline Of Literary Taste.
DIsCoURAGING VIEWS OF CHICAGO CRITIC.
It is painful to admit the truth, that the
popular taste Tor literature is not improving In
tone with the diffusion of knowledge among
the people and the general progress OF the
country. Levelling priuci Piles and institutions
have done their work. Save where some great
seat of learning, with generous endownments
10 render it independent Of the popular favor,
has stayed the food, everything which truly
deserves the name of bellies, lettres Is being
swept away before the all.absorbiDg interests
of business, politics, and matters OF fact.
.Scieuce, indeed, advances, because science pro
notes commerce, the art OF navigation and the
producrion of wealth; but polite literature,
into the shades OF private life, content to adore
the circles of home, too sensitive to brave
the sneers Of utilitarianlsm. ~
Can better literary spirit be evoked among
us? Perhaps not of that elevated tone which
once marked the halcyon days of the republic
Literature must have fitting element to make
it flourish, aud that element will regulate Its
character and govern its course. We shall
have 10 the United States an immense reading
public, we have it already. But what is the
kind of literature in which it most delights?
Sensational novels. pictorial newspapers, par
tisan sheets growing every day more vulgar
and abusive, jest books, and manuscript pub
lications like those of Bill Arp, Josh Bill
lngs," 'Philander Doesticks, "Petroleum
v Nasty etc, from which the writings Of
'Mark Twain" are but short remove. Such
is the pabulum, full of twaddle, false taste,
fasehood and false grammar, on which nine
tenths of the people Of this great nation daily
feed now when its joints and sinews are knit
ting afresh; when new habits Of thought and
feeling are being formed, and wheu Its. tone,
which at last makes the true greatness OF
people, is assuming shape and character. Any
heavier food than this turns their weak
stomachs. Boston, lying under the shadow OF
a great university, is perhaps the only point
which is bringing out anything in high lit
erature, and that is SO impregnated with ra-
tonalism, 80 saturated with unsavory doctrine,
that it is not pleasant for everybody, nor safe
for anybody, to indulge much IN 1t. New
York to be sure, is great book k-mart, vast
publishing centre, but she produces To-Day no
such writer's as Washington Irving, Pauldlng,
Verplanck and Cooper, whose racy and genuine
writings are the past Bryant though still
living, may be said to belong to an earlier era
of letters Philadelphia is focus OF science,
powerful reflector OF intellectual light, yet
she has no considerable literature of her own,
no art such as she once could boast Her
clever artists and her gifted novelist, West
Sully, Stuart, Brocken and Brown, have passed
away, and left no worthy successors Almost
every literary review of high order which has
been established in this land of ours, has ex-
pired after brief existence. The North Amerl-
can Review never had appreclable In
hueuce upon public opinion. The American
Quarterly after few years of unutterable
dullness went out for want of brains, as dis
tinguished critic has said. The New York Re
view, Of a much higher plane Of merit, did not
long Withstand the inevitable law Of decay
and failure. The original Southern Review,
whose articles were, many of them, equal to
the essays in the Edinburg Review, succum-
bed from lack of patronage, at the end OF ITS
fourth year. The obliquities OF the Atlantic
Monthly confne its circulation to very mar
row compass The Round Table. Old and
New and the Every Saturday, are yet candl-
dates for recognition Harper alone pros
pers, because it is furnished with numerous
cngravings, and stories by foreign authors OF
reputation and has monthly drawer OF jokes,
perhaps newer than Joe Miller's, but not so
good as his.
The fact is patent, and cannot be denied,
that the Augustan age of American literature
is already on the wane. With the exception
of few histories aud educational manuals pro-
duced in Boston, and now and then phllo-
logical work by such a profound scholar as
George P Marsh, nearly all our new literature,
not scientific, may be properly termed trashy.
The national taste is perverted, and must be
grati6ed This decline has been coincident
with the disappearance of the former stand
ards of education The caricature which late
ly headed one of our satirica papers, is daily
illustrated in real life Two young women
are represented as applying at circulating
library for interesting books, and the answer
which they receive from the simpering attend
ant is this: Il regret very much, ladies, that
We have to, day no Murder, nor any Breach
Promise but we expect at the end OF the
week two Bigamies ;"
The republic Of letters has grown mercantile,
and the power of the press often truckles with
become a sort of trade not always honest. The
multiplicity Of books in our day is so great and
confusing that without a reliable guide, some
thing like 'tPoole's Index to Periodical Lltera-
ture, - it is impossible, amid the literary stuff
daily issued from the press, to distinguish use
full works from writings devoid OF any merit,
and many others absolutely bad This evil is
increasing with the process of time. 1t has be-
come matter Of grave importance and earnest
Inquiry, whether the present educational sys-
TENS of society have tendency to render the
current literature any the more mobldly ln-
fate, and it's influence any the more corrupt
Chicago Ricerside Press.
INSIDE THE CARs-The railroad people al
ways advised those who travel with them to SIT
inside the cars aud stand off the platform. A
few days ago, after receiving this advice, on the
Chesapeake and Ohio railroad, Hanover party,
clothed in long linen duster, straw hat and
carpet bag, retired to the platform of the; car
to cool himself, as he said. He had not been
in possession Of his airy perch more than ten
minutes before sparks from the engine, or his
own pipe, set fire to his duster in three places,
filled his eyes with cinders. aud spot his hat.
When he arose and came into the Car for asss-
tance, he looked like one of those blazing
mcteors which the Emperor Constantine saw in
his ionrnau n,,nv hundred vearc apo The