The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1875-03-23
The POOh.POOhS.

There is no conceivable condition except
death (and we hope the black camel is far
from his door, in which Oliver Wendell
Holmes can avoid being witty. To the cur
rent number of the atlantic he contributes
an article on the automatic nature of crime,
which is in effect notice of Prosper Des-
pines Pyschologie Naturelle. To the the
cries advanced in this article we purpose to
call attention some time, but our present bus
mess is with an chronological discovery made
by DR.. Holmes himself. One would scarcely
look for a humorous suggestion in Despine's
substantial array of facts. But the professor"
finds mines of wit as the man with the
crooked stick finds veins OF water, in the
most unlikely and unsuspected places. In
preparing the readers minds for kindly re-
ception of the FreDchman's deductions he
takes occasion to make the characteristic re-
mark that every novel growth of ideas has to
encounter the weight of vested opinions and
mortgaged preiudces, for it has to face So
ciety more or less unprepared for it. He then
goes on to say that ''the Pi-Utes and the
Kckapoos of the wilderness are hard to rea-
son with; but there is another tribe Of ire
claimables, living in much larger wigwams
and having all the look of civilized people,
which is quite as intractable to the teaching
of new philosophy that upsets their ances-
tral totems. This is the tribe of the Pooh
Poohs, so called from the leading expression
of their vocabulary which furnishes them
a shoft and easy method of disposing of all
novel doctrines, discoveries, and inventions
of character to interfere with their precen-
ceiyed notions" The tribe he thinks may
possibly serve a useful purpose, like other
barbarous or semi-barbarous human beings,
in keeping down the 100 prolific family of
talking and writing animals; but beyond this
1t is of small value.
Dr. Holmes description is sufficiently def
mite for purposes of identification. We rec
ognize the tribe at once. Geographically
it is very widely distributed. In Maine GER
tainly the representation is numerous, and
the wigwams of the sachems are numbered
among the finest edifices of the state. The
Braves are the noisiest and most aggressive
OF their kind. Their war-paint is never of,
and they are forever whooping their 'spooh-
pooh'' at every advance in civilization made
outside of the beaten track. At present they
are with savage glee going through a pecul-
iarly ferocious death-dance, some hob bling,
some tripping it fairly enough, according to
their respective saltatory capabilities.
1t is certainly remarkable, considering the
talents, natural and acquired, possessed by
members of the tribe, that so little progress is
made by them in certain directions. Some
of them are men of quick parts, eager to
adopt or invent novel and ingenious theories
as to the winds, or the tempe rature, keen in
legal subtleties, anxious for governmental re.
forms and official education. But the mo-
ment the suggestion is made that society
owes something to its lowest as we'll as Its high
est classes; that possibly the best way to dis
courage the taking oflifes to refrain from legal
izing it, and from making it common, by accus-
toming the masses to it; that perhaps women
have certain rights to the choice of those who
make the laws by which they are bound and
taxed for property which they have in
herited or acquired; that absolute justice may
give the criminal certain claims upon the So
ciety which has made him what he is-the
moment any of these suggestions are made
the war-cry of the Pooh-Poohs is heard in
the land.
A popularity of the tribe is certain word
of reproach much in use among them. This
word is 'sentimentalst' and is regarded by
them with much the horror which afflicted
the Saxon at the terms "nidering'' or seizes
the average young man at the monosyllabic
"mean" from fair lips. In their vocabul ry
the man who objects to hanging or who ia
vors woman suffrage is a 'sentimentalist."
When they have affixed this stigma to his
name they exult greatly, and consider that
they have triumphed. The disposition to be
elated by childish triumphs is trait of all
savages.
There are many details about this curious
tribe which must be of great interest. 1t
might not be pleasant undertaking, but it
would certainly be useful one in the hands
of writer of industry and taste for dull =
search, to collect them for the instruc. ION
and warning of mankind. It is too much to
hope that DR.. Holmes with his love for the
beautiful, will continue his researches, though
his professional career must have led him in
to very many disagreeable situations before
now.