The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1874-10-15
NUMBER Ill.
Caste in England.

One of the central characters In lord
1 LyttOn's Parisians, the English gentle
man par excellence, renounces his love
for the heroine of the novel on the plea
that she it about to become q profess
sional singer and is not diverted from
this sacrifice by the exchange which the
/ girl makes from q musical to q literary
/ career. The character has been eriti-
| cised as exaggerated, and it is probable
/ that few Englishmen of the intel
/ hgenee with. which Grahame Vane is
credited would push their prejudices to
| this extremity. Nevertheless, there re-
mains deeply-rooted in the mind of
English society the recognition of a
hard and fast line separating the pro-
fessional from the amateur. The fron-
tier boundary is not always very clearly
defined, nor is the barrier which guards
It by any means insurmountable. Still
It exists, and assumes a shape more or
less definite, according to the particular
profession, trade, or amusement within
reference to which il is established.
In art its outlines are naturally and
properly most fai- tly marked and least
rigidly maintained. The man of high
est birth may become a painter or souip-
tor almost without protest from the
most scrupulOus parent. And, as an
obvious consequence, the artist of sue
cessful genius, though of humble eri-
gin, may make his way without any ve-
hement opposition, into very high So
cial rank. In the musical world COM
posers are treated with leniency some
what similar, while executants are rele-
gated to far inferior sphere, from which
only exertiOns almost superhuman can
avail to extric6te them. Actors and &c
tresses hold place at least as undigni-
fed, and it may be long before the i'm
pulse towards q better appreciation of
their social position, which has already
set in, can reduce to their limits the
gulf that still separates even the most
successful of them from the highest
society. IL is useless to dictate to soci-
ETY. the rate at which it should progress
towards greater hberality in this res
pect. In America, where il was at
tempted simply to fill up or ignore the
gap which the older world still keeps
open, the experiment has not been sue
cessful, nor can be except by gradual
influences. One thing, however, it is
quite safe to assert, that the nearer pro-
fessionals can be raised to a social
equality with amateurs the better will
be the prospects of art, and more pure
and elevated the ambition of artists
~ Nuhb II chleliy NAutinB N our profess
sional men is culture and educational
refinement of the higher order. What
this want is due to is the discourage
ment offered by the fashionable world
to the enlistment of men of high birth
and high education in the professional
ranks. The portrait of Grahame Vane
sitting the birth of genius in the talen-
ted young italian is expressible painful.
Bat it is a form of selfshuess far from
isolated, far from being exploded.
Many genius, quenched by similar in
huences, has blushed comparatively
unseen, and in the languid salons of an
amateur coterie wasted the sweetness
which the robust air of professional
life would have developed into excel
lence.