Martinsburg weekly independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1873-1875, 1874-09-12
FALSE REFINEMENT.

Xr0ul,ssS nave Tor ScNGThl WpeA :
xnonop0lized the newspapers o!
che american continent, Was III
the habit, we ar Informed, 81 buy
inc ni0re pictures than ne could
well agprd to buy. He was ass
prolific wri e. OF verses Of the sa D.
Jec'ive sort, putting the most pre
cious emotions into items and
tsei2htsn with uncommon fpcun-
dity, and many Of these are now
reproduced, and are read. we pre-
sumo, with tender interest. 1t is
u startling fact that almost every
body engaged directly or Indirect
w III these ili-smeIling transact
ions hail what is usually consider
ed q fine taste either for music or
pictures staiuary or poetry, Or
what YOU will The hero Of the
tragi comedy, we are told by his
unhappy wife, couldn't eat with
any relish the plain roast and
broiIed of the home kitchen; and
at frcquen intervals OF the story
we catch glinses Of him taking
his meals in first class restaurants;
and dropping his tears into ex Gen.
sive ragouts. Whenever he wish
ed to unbGsom hiIusplf, and he
wished ii very often, it was his
custom to invite his c0nfidant to
dine with him. We can imagine
him in his most Indignant mood
Stabbing the potatoes [ a la Sid
dons or saying things calculated
to drive any sensitive waiter into
a frenzy. He was also an amateur
OF female beauty, so that the short
statue Of the wife of his bosom
sometimes made his life a madness
and y mockery. We lay no stress
upon his fondness for being pho
tOgraphed, for that is the epidemic
weakness of the age but we do
say that it would have been more
wholesome for him il he had not
thought himself physically beau
tiful-and more wholesome per-
haps for some others.
But it is not our wish to be per-
sonal; and we have ventured to
be slightly so only to illustrate
What we want to point out is that
q very fine taste may be quite con-
sistent with a substantially coarse
nature, just as a connoisseur may
collect fifty pictures of the nativi-
ty Of the Crucifixion, and not be
particularly good christian after
all. We have known exquisite
musicians whose whole natures
were saturated with indecency.-
We have met with first rate paint
ers ofideal or heroic subjects who
were altogether ofthe earth earthly
we have met actors who played
Hamlet charmingly, and whose
talk was redolent OF moral garlic.
We have been acquainted with
verse makers, and good ones,
whose only hippocrene was gin or
beer. These, we confess, are NOR
tifying admissions, for if we were
all that we seem or confess to be
what congregation of heroes or
of poets would mankind become
Unfortunately the first encounter
with reality brushes off the thin
varnish and exposes the sham
color and the awkward drawing
below. The first rude wind blows
aside the lions skin, and we see
beneath it. We remember a Meth
~odist minister who for fifteen or
twenty years cheated society into
the belief that he was one of the
most eloquent of preachers. Long
before he died ne was found out,
and toward the last he made con-
siderable work for ecclesiastical
tribunals. We mention him be
canse he was a man of great refine
ment, dressed in perfect taste, was
a consummate elocutionist, and
sang as sweetly as King David.
There is reason for believing that
this preacher was thorough sen
Sualist-Of the miserable shallow
ness OF his preaching there is no
manner Of doubt.
After all there is good deal in
an experience, which reconciles us
to rudeness of nature, If only 1T be
genuine; for there may also be an
empty affectation of rudeness.
Talk about shakespeare and the
musical glasses" is of no more val
ne now than it was in the days of
the Vicar of Wakefield; and we
need now as much as was needed
then, some woIthy Mr.. B@reheIl
to cry "Fudge!" at our atfectation.
But asses still die an. :Sternes still
weep over them. Some lesson
should be extorted from the late
scarlatina scandal. Pray do not
let us get from it only an access
of shabby and secondhand Wer-
terism? 1t may be better after all
for a man to sell his books and
his pictures, to abjurepen and ink
TO lift up no more his voice In the
hut h wing mt Otf