On this page
-
Text (2)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
Vt * nnewith what he calls " a flint" under his arm , weighing about two Imndred pounds , and which he employs to break open the doors of the " nhospitable inhabitants . At another time this spiritual friend hugs a sanscuiotte to death in " five or six seconds . " A aelme . his eyebrows contracted , his nostrils extended , and his upper Up raised , JZ ^ ZxTfeom bis immobility of position . By a gesture , slow , but indicative of I ^ rfhlo force , he clasped the body of the sans-culotte against hi * breast , then raising ' •? inthe air he all at once opened his arms , and let him fall a motionless corpse upon JhecTOUQdl ' As for myself , it appeared to me when he gave him that fatal hug , that I heard the sound of breaking bones . I cannot express the agitation I felt . " Come inv dear friend , let us set out , " said Ansehne to me in the most peaceable tone— " my ne miicij for the licu / n of Terror . Now let us plunge into Mr . Willis ' s Rda- Baa , and extract a few of his least vulgar impertinences . I used to know Thackeray in London . He was our correspondent ( the Home Journal ) you recollect , six or seven years ago—then in the chrysalis of his present renown . He is more likely to be . personally popular , I think , than any other contemporary English author would be , on this side of the water . He is a tall man , of larce frame , and features roughly cast—the expression of his face rather " no-youdonV' and Great Britain-ous , but withal very fearless and very honest . He has ( or had ) no symptom of the dandy about him . Above twaddle , by the lift of his genius , and not having had either prosperity or personal beauty enough , in early life , to contract any permanent illusions , he is ( or was ) more blunt and peremptory in address and conversation than will be expected of a fashionable author . He is satirical on the surface , genial at heart . In taking a mutton chop with him occasionally , at the " Blue Posts , " in company with a publisher who was our mutual friend , I remember being struck ' with the degree to which the hot punch , in the silver tankard after dinner , softened his criticism of new books and brother authors . By knowing his intimates , I learned a circumstance which I will venture to record . His father was wealthy , ' and his family , of a patrician descent , had known only prosperous ease till adversity came to sting one of them into fame . The only remainder of the household in its ancient state , was an old and faithful serring-man , whom Thackeray , while earning his first difficult bread with hid pen , continued to maintain in the old drab and gold famil y livery—half starving himself to do it . There was " blood and game" in this which gave a key to what be would always be true to . Here follows an " authentic" description of a visit paid to Jenny Lind by the proprietor of the " suburban residence" she occupied at Brompton : —• The servant at the door showed his old master to the drawing-room , and the next minute " Miss Lind" came running in from the garden , with dress unhooked behind , hair not very smooth ( these particulars are second hand from the first narrator ) , and as cordial as the oldest friend he had in the world . She seized him by his two hands , crowded him down into a large arm-chair , insisted upon knowing why he had not been to see ner during the long time she had been in his house , and finally seated hereelf on th « floor at his feet , to talk over matters . Quite overcome with this last condescension , the deep-down chivalry of the honest Englishman was aroused , and , dropping on one knee , he declared that he could not sit in a chair while she sat on the floor . At this , the unceremonious Jenny jumped up , and , taking Mr . C . ' s two hands , drew him to a Window-seat , and squeezed herself ( for he is a very fat man ) into the recess by his side— " and a very tight squeeze it was , " added the old gentleman in telling the story . Here she pulled from her pocket contract and receipts , and proceeded to business , which was soon settled ; and the landlord took his leave , delighted with Jenny Lind , but not quite sure that he-had been in possession of hb senses . Although a Yankee of the purest water , Mr . Willis readily acknowledges the superiority of an Eng lish to an American gentleman , at least in physical appearance . A young Englishman taking n walk , in Broadway , with the son of an American , to whom he has brought a letter , is an cvery-day spectacle—yet a spectacle which would , in most cases , answer for a picture of a healthy man taking a walk with an invalid . The frame of one is fully developed , hb chest is broad , his step firm , his look that of a man who could enjoy anything or defend himself from any intrusion upon his rights . The other is pale , Hat aud narrow-chested , undersized , weaklimbed , and looka like a man who could neither eat with a healthy appetite nor hold his own with any moderate-sized man who should assail him . The average height of the wealthy young men of New York perceptibly dwindles with the number of the same family through whom the property has descended—a man who had a rich grandfather being smaller , usually , than one who had only a rich father . In England , as ia well known , it is just the contrary ; the bettor descended a man is , the more care haa been taken , commonly , of hb boyish health and manly exercises , and the better developed his system and figure . English gentlemen arc taller and healthier than English working men . American gentlemen are diminutive and feeble-looking iu comparison with American mechanic * and farmers . The difference between the two countries , as to the pleasure of leaving a fortune , is easily estimated , therefore , for it is the difference between a long and healthy gratitude and a short and diseased one . It should , perhaps , bo mentioned that both the Ray-Bag and the Out-doors at . Ltfewiltl are merely reproductions of articles and letters contributed to the Home Journal , of which Mr . Willis was part proprietor . The pervading tone throughout these two volumes is egotistical , self-satisfied , and coxcombical ; 7 he latter is not even redeemed by the vulgar , but amusing , sptightliness that relieves if it cannot excuse , the platitudes of the Hag- Bui / . The fact of the republication however of these -papers in a collected form suggests the natural inference that they are suited to the taste of the majority on the other side of the Atlantic In which case we can only congratulate the British public on still possessing a purer taste in matters of literature , notwithstanding the quantities of cheap trash hourly brought into circulation . That publisher would , indeed , deserve well of his country who should take the initiative in introducing a more healthy style of liiiht literature . We have had cheap novels and other works of fiction till our stomach revolts at the \ cry name . What a delightful variety , then , it would be could we obtain a series of well-digested memoirs of notable personages , illustrated by characteristic anecdotes , and reflecting the true spirit of the times . The adventure would surely be a prosperous one , and we are surprised thnt a publisher of Mr . Houtledge ' s enterprise' should not sooner have conceived nnu carried out this ideu . But we have not yet noticed the two novels in green . And in speaking , of them , it isdilficiilt to reconcile sincerity with . polito . nr as . Besides , having actually read them from beginning to end , we are unavoidably prejudiced , against them . We would , therefore , merely recommend those who have « ot yet perused these six volumes to renounce the anticipated pleasure , and we can assure them that they will have no reason to regret that exercise of self-denial .
Untitled Article
. arasMBBtt 1 , 1855 . j THE LEADER . 847
Untitled Article
HORACE GREELEY . The IJfe of Horace Greeley , Editor of the New York Tribune . By J . Parfcon . ( New York : Mason Brothers . No one acquainted with American newspaper literature needs to be be told what position the New York Tribune , holds under the able management of its founder and principal editor . To those who are not familiar with its very original and independent mode of discussing the events and opinions of the day we should find considerable difficulty in giving an accurate notion of the class of papers represented by the Tribune , for it certainly stands among the highest of the independent free-speaking journals of America—a rather numerous section of the press of late years . Horace Greeley , who is now in his forty-fifth year—having been born in February , 1811—came of a good ancestral stock . By the father ' s side he was descended from one of those old Puritan families to whom New England is so much indebted , while his mother gave him a portion of the Scotch-Irish character , her grandfather having emigrated from Londonderry to New Hampshire more than a century- ago . The little village of Amherst , in the " old granite state , " where his father owned a small farm , must have been a very old-fashioned place . Only think , for example , of the slow character of its journalism : " The village paper , which had 1500 subscribers when Horace Greeley was three years old , and learned to read from it , has 1500 subscribers , and no more , at this moment . It bears the same name it did then , is published by the same person , and adheres to the same party . " We defy any one to match this case of Kip-van- Winkleism in the old country . But New England is full of such quaint old villages we are told , where a traveller at the present day may stumble upon more of seventeenth-century Puritanism in half an hour's walk than he would find in the old country in a lifetime . The influence of such & birthplace , and the education flowing from it upon a mind like that of Horace Greeley , may be traced in many a column of the Tribune . In the midst of all his political and social controversies the reader can easily see that he still yearns after the " plain living and high thinking" of his early years , and laments the deteriorating influences of modern conventionalism on the present fast living age . Making due allowance for the exaggerations of memory among friends and relatives in the case of a man who has risen from the ranks to a high position , young Greeley was evidently a precocious boy . His mother appears to have been a somewhat remarkable woman . She was a great reader , and remembered all she read , " with a perpetual overflow of animal spirits , an exhaustless store of songs , ballads , and stories , and a boundless exuberant Toodwiil towards albliving things . " With such an instructor , who can wonder at his rapid progress ? Horace learned to read before he had learned to talk ; at four years of age he had become devoutly fond of books , and at six he was deemed quite a prodigy by all the neighbouring folks . " He was never without a book . He . would go reading to the cellar and the ciderbarrel , reading to the garden , reading to the neighbours ; and pocketing his book only long enough to perform his errand , he would fall to reading again the instant his mind and his hands were at liberty . " He was only seven years old when his father , who seems to have been an easy , goodnatured man , fell into difficulties , and , after some rather hard privations , the familyremoved to a farm in Vermont , where Horace finished his schooling , but still went on devouring all the books and newspapers that fell in his way . From early childhood he had made up his mind that he would be a printer , and his wish was fulfilled in 1826 by his being bound apprentice to the proprietor of the Northern Spectator , in the village of East Poultney , Rutland county , Vermont . In a . country like the United States , where the growing demand for labour absorbs four or five hundred thousand foreigners annually , in addition to the increase of its own population , one would hardly expect that any person , able and willing to work , would find much difficulty in obtaining employment . And yet , from the story of Horace Greeley ' s early struggles , after he had become a journeyman , it is evident that the condition of the skilled labourer is not much better in America than it is in England . Even after he arrived in New York he found it no easy task to obtain work . Once fairly settled , however , he soon began to ninke progress . Before he had beeii two years in that city he , in company with another journeyman printer , nearly as poor as himself , started the first New York penny newspaper , which lasted only three weeks ; the time for cheap newspapers not having yet arrived . Twelve months after its decease , the firm to which Mr , Greelev belonged , at that time worth three thousand dollars , established the New Yorker , one of the best newspapers ever published in America , to all who valued originality , earnestness , and thorough independence . To this journal Horace " Greeley devoted himself with untiring energy for some four or five years , but all his eflbrts tailed to render it successful , owing to various causes , which the biographer explains at length . An incident connected with the early days of the New Yorker thus introduces a notorious American journalist , whose life , if honestly written , would form , a striking eontrast to that of Greeley : — One James Cordon Dennett , a person then wall known a * a smart writer for tho press , camo to Horace Greeley , and exhibiting a fifty-dollar bill and some other notes of smaller denomination as his cash capital , invited him to join in setting up a now daily paper , tho Xao York Herald . Our hero declined the oiler , but recommended James Gordon to apply to another printer , naming one who he thought would join in such nn enterprise . To him the editor of the Herald did apply , and with success . Tho Herald appeared soon after , under tho joint proprietorship of Bennett and tho printer alluded to . Upon tho subsequent burning of tho Herald otlieo tho partnore separated , nnd tho Herald was thenceforth conducted by Bennett alone . In 1841 Horace Greeley started the New York Tribune , a small daily paper , price one cent , on a borrowed capital of one thousand do lars , nu with n character anil credit , according to his biographer , " ° < l '™ "f "L * round 50 , 000 dollars . " From the very commencement its success apn to have been certain . For some weeks he had to ^^ " ^ T ' ^ SS'Vd u rival journal , but that , only served to draw attention to the X / *« £ < » ™ * excite popular sympathy in his favour . Year * te * 7 ° * c ^ " ^^ day has carried on the war against the social and pohtioj 1 ewfa o the ^ ay , constantly making new enemies , but alway s contriving to make more
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 1, 1855, page 847, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2104/page/19/
-