The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-02-08
A Bit of Discussion.

To the Editor OF the indianapolis jon rnal:
Mary Deans letter on Matthew Arnold gives
room for a bit of discussion, not after the Irish
fashion, but with peaceable, wel-meaning pens.
In the first place, Miss Dean should be kept in"
an hour after school and made to learn Longfel-
lows ''St. Augustine's Ladder by heart as
children say, as a penalty for misquoting, as
from Matthew Arnold, one of its best stanzas
We are all liable to slips of memory, but it be-
comes us, as free and independent nation, not
to tamely submit to having our domestic
poetry attributed to an Englishman, however
talented. Matthew Arnold could have writ
ten THE Ladder of st. Augustine" but he
didn't Again, it is astonishing that Miss Dean
as representative of our intellectual element
should touch so lightly the interesting lecture
which Matthew Arnold delivered and lay so
much stress on the fit of his clothes and his
lack of grace as an orator. If he comes with
message of sweetness and light, the message is
surely the same if he had delivered it standing
on his head. We might not approve the pose, but
We could imbibe the wisdom Grace is not dis
tinctive characteristic of the English nation.
Who has forgotten Oscar Wilde's triumphal en-
trance when he .lectured here! He was Of
Irish birth, but English breeding, if l mistake
not He came siding on the stage with his in
significant eyes peering slantwise at the audi
ence through his unkempt hair-a sight to make
''angeis weep and huge leviathans forsake un-
sounded depths to dance on sands'-suggestive
of nothing so strongly as of Casper Hauser the
Nuremberg founding, who was brought up in a
dark cellar without any toietappurtenances, and
then suddenly plunged into the light of day
Oscar Wilde never approached grace in mind or
body except in the photographs made Of him by
Sarony, and the world knows that Sarony could
pose a stick of wood so that its photograph
would strongly resemble the Apollo Belvidere
Langtry not graceful Her walk was a
thing for memory and for tears her foot was put
on the stage, beginning at the heel with an elias
tic slap that could be heard in the third gallery
and the most vivid impression retained of her
''Rosalnd" is that of a prominent pair of yellow
satin knees. Neither Oscar nor Langtry brought
any message that we cared to rai1.in; but with
Mr.. Arnold the ease seems different, and the
public overlooks the awkwardness for the mind
behind it. Take our own David Swing as a case
in point. Could anything more unprepossessing
with reverence be it spoken-be imagined than
Mr.. Swings first impressions upon his audience!
Yet who that ever heard him would not have sat
two hours longer willingly, drinking in his beau
tiful, thought-inspiring. elevating utterances
On the other side, take the only original Joseph
| Cook-the Bombastes Furioso of the American
lecture field, the prince Of ludicrous gesture and
| laughter-provoking attitudes, now clasping his
hands across his stomach and rolling up his eyes
as if in the last agonies of cramp eolic--n0w en-
! ersetically Topping his Bible over and over on
thereading desk as if baking hapjacks for large