The San Francisco call., 1899-04-23

gether adorable, for she has recently
denied the authenticity of an interview,
and whosoever does that is fit for trea-
sons, stratagems and spoils; but none
the less she is to be commended for the
frankness with which she has publicly
condemned the tone, the style, the man
ner, the matter and the method Of the
criticism that prevails in California.
Even if her condemnation be madness
there is reason in it. AS she herself is
reported to have said, British critics
have treated her work seriously and to
some extent sympathetically, and
therefore have been helpful to her;
while Californian critics, giving the
subject no earnest thought at all, have
either praised her books carelessly out
of conventional courtesy to a woman,
or have gibed and jeered at them for
the purpose of showing wit. 1t must
be added that generally the criticisms
have been of the latter sort; for as the
opinion has prevailed among us that
wit is the chief qualification of a critic,
and mOckery the finest element in wit,
nearly every man who has essayed
criticism has practiced to acquire a
style having in it as much of the
mocker as strong drink or a cocktail,
and most have been so successful that
satire and criticism have become we'll
nigh synonymous with US. Indeed, a
style that stings or bites or burns is
seemingly so much admired that even
politicians have taken it up as a popu-
lar thing. Our present misgovernor, for
example, announced in the first speech
of his campaign before the people that
he intended to speak "caustic verbi-
age" and he has kept it up until sus-
picion has arisen that his tongue is
forked and has its root In a gall bag.
That we have exaggerated the value
of satiricaI wit in the domain of criti-
cism, given it a rank altogether out of
proportion to its worth, and carried it
too far in every direction is indsputa-
bic. We have f1Outed nearly every
thing that has been done in the State
from the undertaking of a transconti-
mental railroad to the writing of a
poem. Society, art letters, politics and
oratory have all been sneered at with
an impartial injustice. Indeed, so far
have we carried our skill in that kind
of thing that at one time our chief
critic was pictured in popular magma
ton as an incarnate ferocity, wearing
q red shirt, carrying pistols in his
pocket, dripping scalp in either hand,
a hatchet in his mouth, with his brow
bound by a bloody rag-a Jack the Rip
per of literature with mania for man
Cling female poets We have talked
and written as if there were nothing
good in California but prunes and eli
H. 4 l.
that Eastern people, listening from the
distance, long since concluded there is
nothing on this side the Rockies but
jaybirds.
What we need in California is an in
fusion of Boston culture-that kind of
culture which men and women attain
when they have been taught from
youth upward to admire everything
done in their State, in their town and
in their set. Such culture is productive
of that satisfaction with the environ
ment and it's people, which furnishes
about the surest basis for good man
ners and good morals the world affords
Bostonianism is of course not exactly
perfection. A mutual admiration so,
ciety has always its ridiculous side;
but under any aspect, it is pleasanter
both to sight and to hearing than a dog
fight with forty terriers in the pit.
When the Massachusetts Legislature
meets, Boston treats it with as much
respect as if it were truly an assembly
of the virtuous and the wise; but when
the Legislature of California meets, we
lampoon it, eXaggerate every ridiculous
or offensive feature, exalt its fools and
ignore its ADLER men until by the car
ricaturing process it is made to appear
more like an outbreak of corruption in
the blood of the commonwealth than a
part of its healthful life. When grand
opera is given in Boston and Mrs. Jack
Gardner and the Beacon street and
Commonwealth avenue set go down in
rich array to listen, the social critics
of the city neither gibe nor jeer, but
await the outcome with the calmness
of men who are assured that the opera
is to be put to it's supreme test; that
Boston society is to revise the reviews
of Europe and rejudge it's judgments
and pronounce final verdict upon the
performance. But when grand opera
comes to San Francisco the achatter-
ing of the wits is as satirical as if our
danes and gentlemen of fortune had
never seen an opera gown nor heard
music before. When a man or woman
of Boston makes public a book or a
story, the work is discussed as If 1,
were a matter of historic and almost
religious Importance, serious efforts are
made to discover the aims of the au-
thor, to note the relations of the philos-
ophy Of the story to the problems of
life, and everything is done to impress
the world with the belief that some-
thing new and great has been accom-
plished. 1t is different here. The re-
suit is that, by reason of her style of
criticising herself, Boston enjoys the
reputation of city of the highest cul-
ture and refinement, while our city is.
spoken of as a Jay town''-and then
we wonder why.
Could the Boston method of self-ex-
alting criticism be introduced here, it
would not be difficult to win for San
Francisco the reputation of the most
cultured city in America. We have at
present in California more talent and
Of a hicbor nrda -