Year: 1875

Mr.. Bergh I'm New Role.


We should be truly sorry to see this SYM
pathetic friend of the dumb creation aban-
don his noble mission, and we must, there
fore, resist the temptation to invite him to a
place on the HERALD staff as our drbaer eie-
gdntidrum and final judge on points OF taste.
But we tender our respectful acknowledge
ments for the advice he deigns to give us in
the letter herewith published rs to the
proper management of newspaper, and are
should adopt it, although we fear it will be
lost upon the HERALD, which will continue to


Shoot folly as It flies


And catch the manners living as they rise


figure which that polished barbarian, Pope,
having died too early to have his taste refined
by Mr.. Bergh, drew from the naughty prac-
tice of shooting birds. AS our humanitarian
friend has time to lecture the press on the
duty ''of creating and sustaining an intel
lectual, tasteful and moral tone Of public
thought, we beg his pardon for suggesting
that he direct his labors to the
plastic minds of the young, and print ex-
purgated editions of the ancient Classics
upon which their taste is formed in their
early studies. There are captivating descrip-
tions of pigeon shooting in the 'Iliad" and
the "Eneid," and as Homer and Virgil are
likely to remain the basis of classical educa-
ton long after Mr.. Berghs praiseworthy labors
shall have ended he had better procure the
fuh ino Of hat oil
lively descriptions of popular games and
amusements which bear so close resem-
blance to what he reprobates in the HERALD.
1t might be objected that the pictures of
ancient society would be mutilated by the!
excision, but not more than the pictures of
our contemporary life would be by the sup
preston which Mr. Bergh advises in the
modern press. The HERALD is photograph
of modern life in all its varied and ever
shifting phases, and Mr. Bergh's censure
falls with the same weight upon the most
admired models of literature that it does upon
us. Can he have forgotten that animated
description of stag hunt in the opening
canto of SCOTS LADY of the Lake?" In his
next letter we beg him to de-
nounce the violations of taste, morals
and humanity in that beautiful
poem, in which the noble stag, after thrice
swimming the lake from shore to shore, sobs
with fright and exhaustion. All the steeds
but one give over, and that one, reeking with
foam in the pursuit, falls dead in his tracks.
What o sinner against taste and humanity
was Sir Walter Scott who ''prostituted"
his great gifts of description on such scenes
Mr.. Bergh will see that he has great deal to
reform besides the HERALD's lively reports of
current events. He must lay his reforming,
some might say his Vandal hand, on the
choicest specimens of elegant literature.
When he tries his hand again as literary
censor let him favor us with a dissertation
on the pigeon shooting scenes in the two
great epic poets and demonstrate, against
the universal opinion of scholars, their
immoral tendency and want of taste.


We do not suppose that the truly good Mr..
Bergh quite aspires to ''turn the crank of the
universe" but should he ever rise to so sub
lime a function we trust he will rectify the
original inhumanity of creating beasts and
birds of prey and venomous serpents, which
live by 'cruelty to animals. Do the harm
less birds suffer more by being shot than if
torn by hawks and vultures? They really
endure less pain than domestic animals
slaughtered for food. What has Mr.. Bergh
to say to the grouse shooting, which, at this
season of the year, is the favorite amusement
of half the cultivated gentlemen of England
They wound far larger proportion of birds
that escape and suffer than happens in prize
shooting. What the multitude admire in
such sports is the skill of the marksmen and
the sureness of aim which is thus encouraged
birds.