The Sunday herald. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1866-1887, 1881-01-16

the Ganalie who tells In the Republican the social
wisdom he has learnt by the "cruel remarks OF his
Baltimore friend. Probably the gentlemen we have
named, and who may be any night In the parors
OF Washington, would, like our Republican writer,
wear black crayats, only that they are not afraid Of
being mistaken for servants.
A LETTER in an afternoon paper of a week
ago has enjoyed the dubious honor OF starting
troversy among those old and agile antagonists
''Constant Reader,'' "Subscriber, ~ and the
rest 1t Is no wonder. either, for the letter was
the quintessence of snobbery, and managed to COM
press Into few lines all the cruelty, baseness and
immortality Of that loathsome thing at Its worst.
Speaking of unfortunately celebrated this male
or female creature. signing hypocrtically Regret,
writes OF the petticoated victim of the scandal 'If
" she has regard for her present position, whatever
that means, she should not forget she has worn the
90 senatorial mantle Of Anericd.n ~ by the bones of
the first snOb, could flnd II In hearts to
laugh The reminder Is SD irresistible of the story
about good old Dutch Governor of Pennsylvania,
whose children came to their mother the day after
election and asked, Mar, Is all we Governors
"now?" and she replied ''No children only me
land your par!'' On this principle alone can we sup
pose the lady has worn the called 'Senatorial
mantle "-perhaps when her husband had laid 1t off for
BATH Ifthere has been any elected to the Sem
ate, Susan Anthony ought to know of 1t at 1t
would afford her unexpected cheer. The letter writer
continues In the same sentence, with hang grammar
" and every social downfall Of arepresentdtice iddy
''wlether based upon facts allegations, reflects
''upon the entire sex.N Passing the ''down-
'fall based upon allegations, ~ may we Inquire what
u 80 representative lady'' may be Something like
the female Senator above outlined, suppose; but
as representation In this country Is always by the
election of the represented, may inquire when her
sex ever elected the person In question to represent
them Certainly her ''position IL we can use that
CASTE favored word, did not give her the right to
represent anybody, any more than the choice of her
husband the choice of her sex. We have heard
fore about downfalls rejecting outside parties,
but while may admit that such falls spoken OF
n reflection wOmanhOod, We deny that they
| are n reflection on one single good woman. We all
stand Or fall on our own merits In this country. It
90 Ii true - maunders the slckening snob we are
quoting, 90 she was not born in the purple, which
SHOULD have made her all the anxious to MAIN
- tain crediby lcredtably?l her newly honors
90 and posltlon.'' How nauseating this Isl Not heI
duty to her husband and her marriage vows the
| laws OF God, to restrain the sinner, bu
n sense OF her ''pOsltion,' because she wa.
| not "bon In the purple.' Yet this ia perfect,
characteristic With your true snOb, what he sht
considers honors and position - usurp the place
their (aeged) Creator, the ton commandments, ant
everything else. Then follows the sentence which
| has aroused controversy and which indeed wert
surprised to printed conspicuousy In a newspaper
that presumably intends TO be decent at Is simply
objectionable she the ubject of the screedl fa
"fOrgOt herself er- Senator's and minister!
"DJe rs to allow travelling agent to become lie
lover; the sin would have been far less In the sigh
"of man and woman II she had chosen peer o
'her husband.'' Edil Giro is coming In for goodl
share of oboquy and denunciation Just now, but be
side this cantlng commentator he Into compare
ttxal 10 ar,Iaa
printing the letter heads It, "a woman's Advice Il
"Mrs --.'' There Is the unfeellng hardness t
| her sex of woman, but the coarseness of man.
may seem like case Of thunder and small beer t
notice such n small thing at ALL but the outbreaks O
| snobbery recently have become SO frequent and s
| strong that the complaint threatens TO becom
endemic unless unsparingly put down.
NEED it be said that there are Washington
| novels and Washington novels? From the scarcel
| dissembled eYtravaganzas In the Capital to tn
namby- pamby efforts of Aedglings In the llterar
magazines there are In fact nnumerable varieties
the structures applicable to class may be compare
lively pointless with regard to another, though tn
majority agree In being worthy OF all the ridicue tina
can he heaped upon them because they are eithe
silly or malicious and offensive. friend has calle
attention to Captain Wilson j. Vance's ''Princes
+" Favors ~ as touching upon society and human ex
istence In the Federal City without falling into til
usual faults. Although 1t Is generally dangerous
challenge search for defects, since what human
is free from them, Captain Vance's maiden efrol
1--WE beeve) in this direction seems worthy of bcin
distinguished from the mass and set upon pedest,
as an example OF what We did not mean In the pre-
vi0us onslaughts productions which might bear I'll
same common appellation. IT may be well to pre-
misc Just what has been said In regard to this scho
OF fiction. In the first place, there seems to be an III
easy itching to get Washington Into the pages of re
NANCE as wen as Into the pages OF history; and as
the weekly or more frequent ettersof horde of anna
teur correspondents were not enough, books mu
be written and published to satisfy sort OF suppose
. craving among the commonalty to know about Il
doings Of their legislators and Official class,
, | English nursery maids crave to know abol
, the doIngs Of lords and royalty. Now, gran
! Ing the craving, roal life in novels may
, | either photographed, ideallzed, or rOmantclzed;
must be caricatured distorted without at lea
fair warning to the reader To violate the latter pa
OF this canon Is simply to be guilty OF fasehood an
libel and 1t Is no lessening OF the ofiense that who
populations or classes OF people are the Victims II
stead Of single individual. This then Is the mo
9 serious part of the complaint, waying all artist
ones. which we make against novels touching
Washington, q city We profess to know somethiI
! about. The same may possibly be said in the case
other cities, but Washington offers to serbblers
shining mark, a signal blow, and at the same tin
hasfew defenders. Either from over brilliancy La
Of experience lack OF literary skin, writers pri
either the most bitter sarcasms and sweeping general
cations. or the tawdrlest yulgarites as pictures OF
townspeople, social obseryances, and the condu
9 OF business and affairs. They mora cruel, mo
unjust, and more absurd than the worst Of the hat
y British spawn OF tourists. One might almost as w
q take swift's Yaioos or philosophers of Laputa
II truthful pictures OF humanity In his day.
u adequate portrait OF Washington, or OF some OF
phases, such as those have Of Paris, viii requ
o great powers OF observation. coupled with gre
" literary Skill and above all, sense OF fidelity to
" subject. OF artistic truth and propriety,
= proportion and arrangement--and then 1t will
" SO great work that people Will not think OF
= as - Washington novel at all, but as no'
n OF human nature. 10 return to Captain Vance
''story Of love- war and politics. ~ we are
observe that 1t docs not begin In Washington, Il
g In the country home Of the hero, who subsequent
enllsts In the army at the outbreak OF the war VIII
II the scene shifts 10 Tennessee, where his maria
takes place. and It is only by these steps that he
IT TO the Capital This is faithful and In aceordar
10 with fact. The men OF note In Washington, ev
those Intensely local. are In most cases native els
10 where After serving two sessions In Congress, Ro
n dolph Remsea drops back into the state Of which
see innumerabe examples here, the ex-Representati
espectant on Executive caprice the 'prinees fayors
Of the title, and the pitess tossing about he endur,
, the decline from grade and salary to another
catching at crumbs form the snbIectof the narraiy
. until he tears himself away from the allurng fra
altogether and goes boldly to sheep and cattle ras
. In the far West The contrast by which he Is brOng
. IN uxtapostion TO the humber ONCE seeker, the pc
a applicant for clerksbip who dts In his preseI
from the stress Of disappointment aud hope deferre
10 Is very striking. Incidental to the narrative I
author brings In his views OF certain aspects OF