New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1875-07-09
/" NOT DIRTY PARTICULAR"


Not long ago was printed a clever English
novel which tells in fresh and eloquent
fashion a story of artistic Bohemia and the
Phstne. Its characters are quaint and fan
tastic the most fantastic of all being .
large-hearted, untIdy woman. who paints
noble pictures, who always has crust
and pot of beer for her brothers
and sisters of Bohemia, and who prides
herself upon not being dirty particular"
either in table cloths or morals She has a
taste for the fine the graceful, the elegant
but she is not "dirty particular" She has a
kindness large and gentle. but they who eat
and spend of her bounty arc neither lovely nor
grateful. She's "nOt dirty PARTICULAR and
life goes on and out with her in the hap
hazard, down -at-tbe-hcel manner which is
forever old and new in Bohemia and is not
unknown to other social regions.
For Polly Cornford's sect of believers in the
Doctrine of SLOUGH are large and growing
company. Thomas and Richard and Henry,
sound church members that they are, walk the
streets in moral dressing gown and old
slippers and are not at all dirty par
"ticularn as to men and their ways.
Those ardent and impulsive desires
toward simple manlness and honesty of soul
they felt when they were Tom, Dick, and
Harry to each other they look back upon as q
part of youth, something like the measles or
the chicken-pox. They are not wicked men,
by any means their respectable bald heads
are constantly seen at church and at great
public dinners, whereat General Windbag calls
them "our honorcd fellow citizens" they
make no profit which the law does not
allow and the Court permit-the law being
elastic and the Court compaisant; they are
the kindly heads of rcverential families But
they are mot dirty particular" They can
laugh face laugh at 4" smart trick" sly
and amusing deviation from the unwrttcn rule
of honesty; they look indulgence upon
the political falsty and the commercial
sharpness which end in success Rich
ards elder brother the Honorable James,
retired from Congress with a pocketful OF
money which neither his pay nor his neglected
business could have brought him. Do Thomas
and Henry think the worse of him for that
They chuckle over his wisdom, they respect
his wealth. they are this pOmpOus and vulgar
PERSONS very humble servants. These men
love creamy generalitics "Iluman nature 8
human nature, SIR says smiling Richard to
acquiescent Henry as they talk of Smiths sue
cessful jump off railroad bridge into some
golden slough of financial dshOnOr, or OF
Robinsons playful and profitable meddlings
with Canal Rings or paving frauds. They do
not demand strict and exact rules of life;
they are not repealed by little hypocrisy,
a little sanctmonousness, a little charla-
tanry-so long as these have what is
esteemed worldly success. Human nature Is
the scape-goat that bears all these sins out into
the wilderness and leaves their whilOm owners
quite clean and fashionable. God forbid that
the law of charity should be made naught-
but il is as far removed from the Doctrine Ok
SLOUGH ~ is the gentle dew of heaven from the
tIubid tide pouring from the kitchen sink.
As the husband is the wife is, and the sons
and daughters. Shams, folies, unwholesoms
opinions, white lies, ragged regiment
of worldly receptions pass muster and
are enrolled in what Richards pretty.
empty headed daughters call "Sassiety."
The tendency to dirty particularly does not
grow luxuriantly in Sassiety. Its table-clotls
are clean, perhaps, but the table beneath is
often the reverse. Honest manliness, re-
serve and courage OF soul, mod
est womany graces do not belong
to the articles of the Doctrine of SLOUGH. Tho
easy acceptance of what has not the fiber OF
truth; the placid endurance of brag-
CART weakness; the capacity for par
,loning what is not openly punished
these are the comfortable possessions OF tho
great Cornford family in society. Human ma
ture Is human nature little cheating, some
thing of falsty, bit of humbug-what does
all that amount to They don't care for ideal
standards of life and aiiairs-they are mot
:" dirty narticularv