American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1879-08-09
CORRESPONDENTS
Miscellaneous.

has under take en-, in his last essay, to
play the part of boaster. 'Glate in
thought. he sacks untaken Troy.
Discomfitted Common Sense lies
iprostrate under his pOnderous
blows-empaled and bleeding upon
the sharp points of his article
A gentleman who is so thorough
a master of classic literature hardly
needs to be reminded that it was
not Achilles, the real hero of the
Had, but ThersiteS, the prOverbial
buffOOn and black guard of the Gre
clan camp, who boasted, i'm words
of learned length and thunderInG
sound that 'Troy's turrets tOttered
beneath his mighty blows. and the
vast plain shook under his giant
tread
The honor of Hotspur's death was
not claimed or vaunted by Harry OF
Monmouth. by whose sword lie fell
but by Jack FalstaH. the windy hero
of Gadshill, upon 'the sharp point
tOf whose article so many men IN
5uckram fell. And we have no
doubt it will be found, on examines
ttOit, tftd AIR ftS
under the sharp points of Well
Wisher's articles, are men in buck
ram.
Our author can not only play the
role of Thersities or Falstaff, who
Boosted of victories that they never
won, but be can, with equal facility,
exhibit the critic spleen of Aristar-
chus, whose dictum could save at
once or damn name.' In this
amiaLte spirit. he disposes Of us as
a man of assinine tastes, an tallow-
ed FOOL and takes 6nal leave of our
'vulgarity.' The reader may take a
more charitable view of such dirt>
throwing,an attribute it to the pUv-
erty OF the authors resources.
| He predIcates his charge of bad
taste upon. the false assumption
that we were Ourse!f an anxious
oflice>seeker before the convention,
whose candidatorlal material was
so excellent, in our opinion. that a
bad selection could not be made
thus, according to Well Wisher,
embracing ourself IN the Iaudatory
terms employed by US.
His ..OnlyS excuse for snch an as~
sertion, so utterly without fOunda-
tiOn, is,to be found in the fact that
Paul Pry, in his caves dropping,
may sometimes be mistaken, as
we'll as more decent people. The
writer of this article was not an
laspirant, anxious OF otherwise. be-
forc that convention. Even if
charge so disparaging were. true, it
was. under the circumstances, i'm
proper to make it.
According to the we'll eeta blished
etiquette Of journalism, no outsider
has a right TO look behind nom de
plume, or to indulge in any refiec>
tons npon the character of the sup
posed writer. The rule, which con-
demns a practice so disreputable, is
based upon principles too plain for
discussion. The great matter Of in
terest 10 the reading publ. is, what
are the merits of the question under
considerations, and everything per-
tanning TO the real writer, tends but
to obscure them. 1t is upon this
idea that Justice has always been
painted blind. If she saw the par>
ties litigant, she might be Influenced
i'm her judgment by consideration
of their respective characters. The
famous court of the AreOpagus was
constituted upon the same principle,
and for like reasons. Causes were
discussed in the night, and Opin-
ions delivered in the dark, that the
judges might not be prepossessed in
favor of one party or the other, by
seeing them.
But we have still our critics
charge of vulgarity to meet. He
would have US think he feels a spe
cial adherence for anything of the
sort, and yet he seizrs on it with the
avidIty OF buzzard upon dead
horse. He bids alden to it in his
first paragraph, and returns to it in
his last. While commenting the
easy gait of our wit, he
snaps up that unfortunate '.fizzle"
with which his parturient laborS
terminated, and rolls it under his
tongue as 'tle sweetest mOrSel of
all the earth"
Well Wisher bids farewell to
'vulgarity' as an ardent lover does
to his fearful mistress, and returns
with increased Appellee desire
that grows with what it feeds on
he eschews it, he begins
with it and ends with it. We doubt |
not, that when hoy, he hunted up
all the smntty passages which mod
ern Phariseeism in literature has
expunged from Horace, Ovid, and
other classic authors. And We
should not be surprised to learn
that even now his specialized eyes
glance oftener over certain cantOs
Of Don Juan than they do over the
first chapter of Genesis or tho last
Of Revelations.
In regard to the charge of vulgar
ty, which the classical gentleman
with a pen so graceful, a
quotation so appropriate, aud
of learning peculiar to him
self, we beg leave, at the risk of
boring the reader, to call attention
o two extracts from Onr respective
that the public
nay see with what propriety Wei;
IVisher can say to Common Sense,
| am boiler than thou Daring
Common Sense to try conclusions
with u certain gentleman, Well
Nisher says:
Will the fiapdoodle penny-a-liner meet