New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1877-12-25
TIE BL4THERsKITE GOES TO CHURCH.


This Is a great day for the Blathersllite. He
will dress himself this morning with unusual
care. turning his collar on the yet virgin
wrong side submitting his coat to the unac-
customed brush and depOsiting a drop of ink
on the tell-tale crack in his boot, through
which CLEANS the white of his stocking. Then,
with the notebook in his outside breast
pocket and the pencil sharpened, he will set
forth briskly on his days adventures. He is
going to church. TO be more precise, he is
going to great many churches. Not as a
worshipper; he leaves devotion to the COM
monplace and unpretcnding private citizens
who have time for such things; but as
critic. 1t is especially as a critic of
dress, style, fashion, ecclesiastical decorations,
pulpit cloquence prayers and sacred music,
that the Blatherskitc enjoys himself and ex
cells. No suspicion of a possible imprOpriety
in his method OF treating the hottest affairs of
life and discussing the most awful of mysteries
has ever entered his head The ruthless foot
that has trampcd unbidden through so many
private bed chambers does not falter at the
threshold of the closet; and the pOrtentOus
check of brass that has so often intruded
upon the guests at dinner is quite ready to
thrust itself into the sanctuary. Hence we
shall have tomorrow morning full descrlp-
ton of orr demeanOr at prayer, written in
that lavish and cOrruscating language for which
the pillar and sweet ornament of jOurnalism-O
ct prGsidium ct duIce decus meam lis cele
brated all over the world.
He will begin by an off-hand estimate of
the quality of the congregation as viewed
-. -, Io Of
remember the nice determinations which
marked his report last year, when the Christ
mas deyOtiOns were so accurately measured by
the style of the garments and the average
price of the pews, the churches of Murray
Hill being warmly cOmplmented upon the
patronage OF what the Blathcrskite calls the
hdut tom, while the humber temples over in
the hoows seemed to get only the common
place and piOus. The discretion with which
the Blatherslite reports prayers Is paralleled
by the tact with which he touches off sermons.
So we shall read in his paper Tomorrow
that the Methodist preacher or the Catholic
priest made can appropriate address," but
the ten-thousand-dOll clergyman delivered
"a brilliant and affecting discourse, which
stamped him as a pulpit orator of the first
make catalogue of the green festoons and
the Christmas legends written i'll leaves of
holly above the chancel; on the other he will
take note of the holiday bOnnets and the
latest thing in mateass6 cloaks, and as he
discOnrscs of modes and millinery with such
reckless and rapturOusl fine language, we shall
find ourselves wondering how he would have
described the shining company i'll the heavens
if he had CHANGED to be ont reporting the
movements of certain shepherds in Judea
good many years ago.
1t il in criticising the divine worship OF
song, however, that the Blatherskite appears
Mt his worst. He will elbow his way this morn
ing up the gallery stairs, and thrust himself
into the organ loft, and there he will pull out
that dreadful note book, and proceed to smear
over the musical exercises with his coarse and
worldly comments. He touches nothing upon
which he does not leave the stain of vulganty;
but he is most offensive perhaps when he turns
an act of worship into public exhibition.
When he tells us that the distinguished tenor,
Signor de- Medici, executed difficult aria
from modern Italian mass, and electrified
the audience by his high chest i'll the Al
legro furioso of the lncarnatus; and that the
prima donna of the church is the eminent so
prano, Madame Laquelle, whose rendition "
of the music reflects the highest credit upon
her artistic training; and that the organlst per
formed, in the unrivaIled style which has made
the church so famous for good music, a mag
nifccnt transcription of appropriate airs from
"OrphGe aux Enters and - La Trayiata, who
does not feel as if II gift-concert company had
got into the church, and Christmas had been
robbed of all its holy and gentle obseryanccs
and the shepherds dogs were barking at the
angels
General Butler has broken his long silence at last,
but the shower Of bricks is only light one. lie
MN. Ihn siNnr I,ll will mss Nefn no Xrtn. TINT