The record-union., 1895-08-14
MILE NEW YORK.
The Femininity and French Of the
American Metropolis
Voiced by a Group of Young Writer'S
Something About Them and Their
sipuiffcance-Roosev as a West
ern Contrast.

ern Contrast.
Especial Correspondence of RECoRD-UNIoN.l
NEW YORK, Aug. 4.-Down in little
dingy foreign restaurant at one OF the
points where this town goes to the bad, a
set of young writers dine together very
frequently They talk clever, sickiy
French nonsense over their California
yi2a r0sqe and their homemade Turkish
cigarettes They grieve that America is
30 healthy, so little degenerate, that the
spirit of Paris which moves In them Will
not move this people. l said America,
but they would be content. [ think, If
only New York would show some symp-
toms of the disease they caught abroad.
For they have been to Paris and London,
these chaps, and have felt the charm OF
the dainty, delicate abandonment OF the
lax will to refined sensuality which is
the tendency of the extreme school OF
French literature.
This school Is represented by the bod
ily diseased, the grossly sensual and
xepulsive poet NillOn, who, when his
horrid sickness permits, writes the most
exquisite verse. No one can live near
him, he is so vile, yet this freak OF eX-
hausted French nature touches SOUNDS OF
his language which ring together to make
The loveliest music, the most polished
and perfect poems. His hideous thoughts
OF vice and vileness peep through the de-
ceptive veil of style like children or
cherubs-tbey seem so clean and pure.
1t is triumph of art, but
These rosy-cheeked, healthy bodied,
sound minded young Americans breathe
In the Partisan hospital atmosphere and
come back with the bad breath OF the
Nilions. 81 knew the poet" says one.
81 sought him out in his sickroom. He
stank SO 1 couldn't stay long. but knew
the master when | was in Paris. Have
another absinthe. do"
When he went to Paris he carried a
fresh receptive mind, q soul ready 10 ad-
nlire, to revere ''the Iatestn hat hap
pened to be the tin de steele worship of
luxuri Gus degeneration. The same stage
OF decay IN Rome made the Romans wild
beasts of cruelty; 1t has made French
men tame animals OF sensuality. What
Xhe hardy young Americans were struck
by was The novel beauty OF self-consciOus
tameness, the perfection of the art which
expressed in dying breath a passing
slnutty soul. In short. they reached for
the exquisite art which was the produc-
ton OF many, many generations of clvili-
zation and refinement. and they got some
of the germs of the disease which the
same protracted period OF Over-cultiva-
ton produced in the bodies under the
French mentality.
On their return these young men were
accepted everywhere for their cleverness
and were kept for their polished style as
writers. But they could not be permitted
to write what they chose. They were apt
to select the subjects their models OF
style the sick Fr9nchman had to write
about. So they were detailed on assign
ments, such as the newspapers give
good, honest everyday topics. which were
news. Now they handled the news In
their own fine way and journalism in
New York profted by their labors and
the- chaste taste as writers. Good re-
porters they are and good reporters are
scarce and we'll paid. 80 they lived we'll
dressed we'll aud did well. But the PEN
Gil was beneath them. They had ideas,
inspiration and they must needs take up
the pen. They wrote for the magazines.
Magazines are managed by business
men VINO hire editors who are not merely
literary mon, but keen readers OF their
subscription liSt. They know that 80
per cent. of our people are workers
busy, hearty, shrewd workers, who want
entertainment, d little instruction, but no
nonsense, no deluSlOns, no tendencies.
SO the magazines sent back the beautiful
manuscripts and continued to accept and
print other fellows stuff, work not nearly
SO we'll uone but sound and sensible. This
policy disgusted Our fin de steele young
Paris Americans, who dinsd and damned
everything and every body. They did
this iii Ii struck them 10 get out maga-
zine of their own. " g have it now-vol-
ume one, mum Der one OF " lie NelU York.
elbow and black and white are it's coll
ors; yellow and black and white its mat
ter. Symbolism, satire, cynlGlsn abound
III it, and so do untruLh, tendencies and
beauties. 1t is almost perfect as an ex-
ample of the publishers, the printers S.
the papermaser's workmanship, and it is
certainly perfect as sample of sure,
skllltul and inventive drawing and illus
trating. AS Tor the writing. it Is delight
fully delicate, chaste and yet strong.
Only the undercurrent of thought is
yellow. There Is nothing vulgar in it,
Bad to rotten below, it is clothed in the
sweetly simply drapery OF purity and
culture. 1t Is ballet girl, coarse and
wicked, clothed in tiimsy gauze which
disclose only the graces OF the artful
dance. \ ou forget the dancer.
When oscar Wilde. one Of them, came
here years ago and taught an extreme
esthetcism, he did great deal of good
For he drew attention to the ugliness OF
our interior decorations. His substitu-
tion, Grass loudness and stupid affeclation
was easily corrected by the reaction We
never forgot the possibility of beauty and
study. Common sense and moderation
achieved it.
That Is what may result from the fad of
M'He -NeC York. The writers for it
would have the metropolis retain the
ballet and all its wickedness, and our
ownt and would introduce that of the
most sensual foreigners. But they want
us to take our pleasures not in the legs of
the dancer but III grace OF their trai ed
Inotlons. Be wicked, sin more than you
do, but be more refined and elegant in il.
There is the new doctrine. Smoke, but
smoke daintily; drink, but drink tastily:
preserve the saloon, but as q salon. away
with the bar, here with the cafe; cherish
the prostitute. but clothe her like a lady
and require of her fine manners; swear.
but swear like a gentleman. In short,
be libertine, but deliberately, not pas
slonately, because you mean TO be lust
that. not because you are misied by temp
sation. The mind should direct the senses
to evil, instead OF being dragged down by
them.
-N'tle Near York is fitting title for the
magazine, for two reasons: it convevs the
notion of femininity and Of Frenchiness.
The old city, however, like all America.
is Intensely masculine, and the opposite
of French. Perhaps 1t is too crude There
is a proof of it in the male recognition
OF the attractiyeness of the femininity in
the arts. and il, while our women are