Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-10-05
The NEW AND THE OLD IDEALS

ton of uniform standards in weights and
measures of all classes.
The NEW AND THE OLD IDEALS
Referring to the modern novel, the real
istic style that prevents nature as we know
it and love il, and gives US what the Zines
Democrat Of New Orleans denominates
"dry plate literature" that journal asks,
"How many of US would be wiling to ex-
change the heroes and hercsnes of the
realistic school of fiction for the heroes
and heroines we know and kr0w of in real
life ?7 For one we reply that not one
human being known to us would for mo-
ment contemplate the exchange. 1t is
true that the hard and fast realism of
modern romantic literature that dis
courses by the rule and plummet, has
tendency to create for us beings who in
real life would be most unlovely. The
journal referred to signs as it exclaims:
What G sorry procession of forlorn Gsmsels it
is that stretches out before the mental vision as
we glance back over those weary leagues OF
printers inkl And how hspless the late allotted
them by their stern Creators Verify, il is better
to fall into the hands of the living God than
into the hands of the realistic noyel-wrlter. But
what's the matter with them all! Is joy dead,
or have they all contracted blood-p0ison from
too constant devotion to the dissecting table?
Or is il possibly only fashion they feel COM
PEELED to follow because it is set by the French
| Just as because.in England, where theEsun sci
dom shines and the CLOUDS perpetually threaten,
1t is the style to walk about with II little UNI
brella rolled into the most compact form, we
may see girls and young men walking about
under our own blazing skies with the same ap-
pendage carried uselessly in his hand instead of
| over the head? There used to be writers-and
once in q while even now we come upon one,
though not among those accounted famous
who had, and have STILL the art OF putting into
their work certain quality OF freshness and
joyousness SO catching as to give delightful
tillip to the blood of their readers ana bring
smile TO the lip and a sparkle to the eye. But
who laughs nowadays over a novel, or cries
either, for that matter, though they are melan-
choly enough heaven knows? Or rather let us
say despairing, for their woes are utterly with
out remedy.
But our contemporary takes heart in the
faith that the day of this style of "ro-
mantic' writing is to have an early sunset.
1t cannot endure, for human nature is
stronger than realistic writing, and the
heart truer than the pulseless fancies of
these people. who picture for US impossible
beings.
We could wish that our contemporary
had carried its criticism beyond the realm
of modern romantic literature, and have
touched the quick also of modern play
writing, which has also fallen under the
baneful influence of the new school. For
the fact is, that we have no more the
splendid heroes and the lovely heroines of
real flesh and blood, and real human ma
ture, such as the earlier school gave US,
pulsing with life true to it and to nature.
No, we are treated nowadays to stage peo-
pie that are little more than silhouettes,
cut out with precision to be sure, but as
rigid and as devoid of real life as so many
automatons. The emotional drama is
given nowadays with a tension that is
wearisome and mournful in sheer despair
we rush to the other extreme and find re-
Taxation in the thoughtless, loose and often
unchaste farce comedy = whatever that
may mean-a title that is intended to
exalt farce at the. expense of comedy, but
which succeeds only in degrading the
latter.
The old ideals may be very old fashioned,
very much to the distaste of modern
tastes, they may not at all suit the pert
miss or the too-knewing young woman of
society of this day, or yet the precocious
youth of the time whose sensibilities so
often need powerful stimulants, and are
more moved by an impudent retort by the
souberette than by the human expression
of genuine artist. Still, the old ideals
were rich and noble and human, and
measured man as something more than an
animal, and woman as something better
than dresser or an emotionally explosive
and fearful figure of the stage. But there
are hopeful signs that the old ideals are to
be again realized, that the true is to dis
place the false upon the stage, just as the
realistic writer's in literature are to give
place to those who are more human and
less analytical, who do not demand that
every Interpretation Of impulse, every
manifestation of genius and every fight Of
Imagination is to be put to the scalpel Of
the critic of methods and of the square
and compass.