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diff --git a/7445.txt b/7445.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0622383 --- /dev/null +++ b/7445.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2179 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Ars Recte Vivende, by George William Curtis + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Ars Recte Vivende + Being Essays Contributed to "The Easy Chair" + +Author: George William Curtis + + +Release Date: February, 2005 [EBook #7445] +This file was first posted on April 30, 2003 +Last updated: April 30, 2013 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ARS RECTE VIVENDE *** + + + + +Produced by Eric Eldred, William Flis and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + + + + + + +ARS RECTE VIVENDI + +BEING ESSAYS CONTRIBUTED TO "THE EASY CHAIR" + + +By George William Curtis + + + + +PREFACE + + +The publication of this collection of Essays was suggested by some remarks +of a college professor, in the course of which he said that about a dozen +of the "Easy Chair" Essays in Harper's Magazine so nearly cover the more +vital questions of hygiene, courtesy, and morality that they might be +gathered into a volume entitled "Ars Recte Vivendi," and as such they are +offered to the public. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +EXTRAVAGANCE AT COLLEGE + +BRAINS AND BRAWN + +HAZING + +THE SOUL OF THE GENTLEMAN + +THEATRE MANNERS + +WOMAN'S DRESS + +SECRET SOCIETIES + +TOBACCO AND HEALTH + +TOBACCO AND MANNERS + +DUELLING + +NEWSPAPER ETHICS + + + + +EXTRAVAGANCE AT COLLEGE + + +Young Sardanapalus recently remarked that the only trouble with his life +in college was that the societies and clubs, the boating and balling, +and music and acting, and social occupations of many kinds, left him no +time for study. He had the best disposition to treat the faculty fairly, +and to devote a proper attention to various branches of learning, and +he was sincerely sorry that his other college engagements made it +quite impossible. Before coming to college he thought that it might be +practicable to mingle a little Latin and Greek, and possibly a touch of +history and mathematics, with the more pressing duties of college life; but +unless you could put more hours into the day, or more days into the week, +he really did not see how it could be done. + +It was the life of Sardanapalus in college which was the text of some sober +speeches at Commencement dinners during the summer, and of many excellent +articles in the newspapers. They all expressed a feeling which has been +growing very rapidly and becoming very strong among old graduates, +that college is now a very different place from the college which they +remembered, and that young men now spend in a college year what young men +in college formerly thought would be a very handsome sum for them to spend +annually when they were established in the world. If any reader should +chance to recall a little book of reminiscences by Dr. Tomes, which was +published a few years ago, he will have a vivid picture of the life of +forty and more years ago at a small New England college; and the similar +records of other colleges at that time show how it was possible for a poor +clergyman starving upon a meagre salary to send son after son to college. +The collegian lived in a plain room, and upon very plain fare; he had no +"extras," and the decorative expense of Sardanapalus was unknown. In the +vacations he taught school or worked upon the farm. He knew that his father +had paid by his own hard work for every dollar that he spent, and the +relaxation of the sense of the duty of economy which always accompanies +great riches had not yet begun. Sixty years ago the number of Americans who +did not feel that they must live by their own labor was so small that it +was not a class. But there is now a class of rich men's sons. + +The average rate of living at college differs. One of the newspapers, in +discussing the question, said that in most of the New England colleges a +steady and sturdy young man need not spend more than six hundred dollars +during the four years. This is obviously too low an estimate. Another +thinks that the average rate at Harvard is probably from six hundred to ten +hundred a year. Another computes a fair liberal average in the smaller New +England colleges to be from twenty-four to twenty-six hundred dollars for +the four years, and the last class at Williams is reported to have ranged +from an average of six hundred and fifty dollars in the first year to seven +hundred and twenty-eight dollars in the Senior. But the trouble lies in +Sardanapalus. The mischief that he does is quite disproportioned to the +number of him. In a class of one hundred the number of rich youth may be +very small. But a college class is an American community in which every +member is necessarily strongly affected by all social influences. + +A few "fellows" living in princely extravagance in superbly furnished +rooms, with every device of luxury, entertaining profusely, elected into +all the desirable clubs and societies, conforming to another taste and +another fashion than that of the college, form a class which is separate +and exclusive, and which looks down on those who cannot enter the charmed +circle. This is galling to the pride of the young man who cannot compete. +The sense of the inequality is constantly refreshed. He may, indeed, attend +closely to his studies. He may "scorn delights, and live laborious days." +He may hug his threadbare coat and gloat over his unrugged floor as the +fitting circumstance of "plain living and high thinking." It is always +open to character and intellect to perceive and to assert their essential +superiority. Why should Socrates heed Sardanapalus? Why indeed? But the +average young man at college is not an ascetic, nor a devotee, nor an +absorbed student unmindful of cold and heat, and disdainful of elegance +and ease and the nameless magic of social accomplishment and grace. He is +a youth peculiarly susceptible to the very influence that Sardanapalus +typifies, and the wise parent will hesitate before sending his son to +Sybaris rather than to Sparta. + +When the presence of Sardanapalus at Harvard was criticised as dangerous +and lamentable, the President promptly denied that the youth abounded +at the university, or that his influence was wide-spread. He was there +undoubtedly, and he sometimes misused his riches. But he had not +established a standard, and he had not affected the life of the university, +whose moral character could be favorably compared with that of any college. +But even if the case were worse, it is not evident that a remedy is at +hand. As the President suggested, there are two kinds of rich youth at +college. There are the sons of those who have been always accustomed to +riches, and who are generally neither vulgar nor extravagant, neither +ostentatious nor profuse; and the sons of the "new rich," who are like men +drunk with new wine, and who act accordingly. + +The "new rich" parent will naturally send his son to Harvard, because it +is the oldest of our colleges and of great renown, and because he supposes +that through his college associations his son may pave a path with +gold into "society." Harvard, on her part, opens her doors upon the +same conditions to rich and poor, and gives her instruction equally, +and requires only obedience to her rules of order and discipline. If +Sardanapalus fails in his examination he will be dropped, and that he is +Sardanapalus will not save him. If his revels disturb the college peace, he +will be warned and dismissed. All that can be asked of the college is that +it shall grant no grace to the golden youth in the hope of endowment from +his father, and that it shall keep its own peace. + +This last condition includes more than keeping technical order. To remove +for cause in the civil service really means not only to remove for a penal +offence, but for habits and methods that destroy discipline and efficiency. +So to keep the peace in a college means to remove the necessary causes of +disturbance and disorder. If young Sardanapalus, by his extravagance and +riotous profusion and dissipation, constantly thwarts the essential purpose +of the college, demoralizing the students and obstructing the peaceful +course of its instruction, he ought to be dismissed. The college must judge +the conditions under which its work may be most properly and efficiently +accomplished, and to achieve its purpose it may justly limit the liberty of +its students. + +The solution of the difficulty lies more in the power of the students than +of the college. If the young men who are the natural social leaders make +simplicity the unwritten law of college social life, young Sardanapalus +will spend his money and heap up luxury in vain. The simplicity and good +sense of wealth will conquer its ostentation and reckless waste. + +(_October_, 1886) + + + + +BRAINS AND BRAWN + + +It is towards the end of June and in the first days of July that the great +college aquatic contests occur, and it is about that time, as the soldiers +at Monmouth knew in 1778, that Sirius is lord of the ascendant. This year +it was the hottest day of the summer, as marked by the mercury in New York, +when the Harvard and Yale men drew out at New London for their race. Fifty +years ago the crowd at Commencement filled the town green and streets, and +the meeting-house in which the graduating class were the heroes of the +hour. The valedictorian, the salutatorian, the philosophical orator, walked +on air, and the halo of after-triumphs of many kinds was not brighter or +more intoxicating than the brief glory of the moment on which they took the +graduating stage, under the beaming eyes of maiden beauty and the profound +admiration of college comrades. + +Willis, as Phil Slingsby, has told the story of that college life fifty and +sixty years ago. The collegian danced and drove and flirted and dined and +sang the night away. Robert Tomes echoed the strain in his tale of college +life a little later, under stricter social and ecclesiastical conditions. +There was a more serious vein also. In 1827 the Kappa Alpha Society was the +first of the younger brood of the Greek alphabet--descendants of the Phi +Beta Kappa of 1781--and in 1832 Father Eells, as he is affectionately +called, founded Alpha Delta Phi, a brotherhood based upon other aims and +sympathies than those of Mr. Philip Slingsby, but one which appealed +instantly to clever men in college, and has not ceased to attract them to +this happy hour, as the Easy Chair has just now commemorated. + +But neither in the sketches of Slingsby nor in the memories of those +Commencement triumphs is there any record of an absorbing and universal +and overpowering enthusiasm such as attends the modern college boat-race. +The race of this year between the two great New England universities, +Harvard and Yale--the Crimson and the Blue--was a twilight contest, for +"high-water," says the careful chronicler, "did not occur until seven +o'clock." At half-past six he describes the coming of the grand armada and +the expectant scene in these words: "The _Block Island_ came down from +Norwich with every square foot of her three decks occupied, the _Elm +City_ brought a mass of Yale sympathizers from New Haven, and the +big _City of New York_ filled her long saloon-deck with New London +spectators. A special train of eighteen cars came up from New Haven, a +blue flag fluttering from every window. The striking contrast to the life +and bustle of the lower end of the course was the quiet river at the +starting-point. The college launches, the huge tug _America_, +the press-boat _Manhasset_, loaded with correspondents, the tug +_Burnside_, swathed in crimson by her charter party of Harvard men, +and the steam-yacht _Norma_, gay with party-colored bunting, floated +idly up-stream, waiting for the start. The long train of twenty-five +observation-cars stood quietly by the river-side, its occupants closely +watching the boat-houses across the river." + +Did any fleet of steamers solid with eager spectators, or special train +of eighteen cars, or long train of twenty-five observation-cars, a vast, +enthusiastic multitude, ever arrive at any college upon any Commencement +Day in Philip Slingsby's time to greet with prolonged roars of cheers and +frenzied excitement the surpassing eloquence of Salutatorian Smith, or the +melting pathos of Valedictorian Jones? Did ever--for so we read in the +veracious history of a day, the newspaper--did ever a college town resound +with "a perfect babel of noises" from eight in the summer evening until +three in the summer morning, the town lighted with burning tar-barrels +and blazing with fireworks, the chimes ringing, and ten thousand +people hastening to the illuminated station to receive the victors in +triumph--because Brown had vanquished the calculus, or Jones discovered a +comet, or Robinson translated the _Daily Gong and Gas Blower_ into +the purest Choctaw? In a word, was such tumult of acclamation--even the +President himself swinging his reverend hat, and the illustrious alumni, +far and near, when the glad tidings were told, beaming with joyful +complacency, like Mr. Pickwick going down the slide, while Samivel Weller +adjured him and the company to keep the pot a-bilin'--ever produced by any +scholastic performance or success or triumph whatever? + +Echo undoubtedly answers No; and she asks, also, whether in such a +competition, when the appeal is to youth, eager, strong, combative, full of +physical impulse and prowess, in the time of romantic enjoyment and heroic +susceptibility, study is not heavily handicapped, and books at a sorry +disadvantage with boats. This is what Echo distinctly inquiries; and what +answer shall be made to Echo? Who is the real hero to young Slingsby, who +has just fitted himself to enter college--the victor in the boat-race or +the noblest scholar of them all? The answer seems to be given unconsciously +in the statement that the number of students applying for entrance is +notably larger when the college has scored an athletic victory. But this +answer is not wholly satisfactory. There may be an observable coincidence, +but young men usually prepare themselves to enter a particular college, and +do not await the result of boat-races. + +But the fact remains that the true college hero of to-day is the victor in +games and sports, not in studies; and it is not unnatural that it should +be so. It is partly a reaction of feeling against the old notion that a +scholar is an invalid, and that a boy must be down in his muscle because he +is up in his mathematics. But, as Lincoln said in his debate with Douglas, +it does not follow, because I think that innocent men should have equal +rights, that I wish my daughter to marry a negro. It does not follow, +because the sound mind should be lodged in a sound body, that the care of +the body should become the main, and virtually the exclusive, interest. + +Yet that this is now somewhat the prevailing tendency of average feeling is +undeniable, and it is a tendency to be considered by intelligent collegians +themselves. For the true academic prizes are spiritual, not material; and +the heroes for college emulation are not the gladiators, but the sages +and poets of the ancient day and of all time. The men that the college +remembers and cherishes are not ball-players, and boat-racers, and +high-jumpers, and boxers, and fencers, and heroes of single-stick, good +fellows as they are, but the patriots and scholars and poets and orators +and philosophers. Three cheers for brawn, but three times three for brain! + +(_September_, 1887) + + + + +HAZING + + +As if a bell had rung, and the venerable dormitories and halls upon +the green were pouring forth a crowd of youth loitering towards the +recitation-room, the Easy Chair, like a college professor, meditating +serious themes, and with a grave purpose, steps to the lecture-desk. It +begins by asking the young gentlemen who have loitered into the room, and +are now seated, what they think of bullying boys and hunting cats and tying +kettles to a dog's tail, and seating a comrade upon tacks with the point +upward. Undoubtedly they reply, with dignified nonchalance, that it is all +child's play and contemptible. Undoubtedly, young gentlemen, answers the +professor, and, to multiply Nathan's remark to David, You are the men! + +As American youth you cherish wrathful scorn for the English boy who makes +another boy his fag, and you express a sneering pity for the boy who +consents to fag. You have read _Dr. Birch and His Young Friends_, and +you would like to break the head of Master Hewlett, who shies his shoe at +the poor shivering, craven Nightingale, and you justly remark that close +observation of John Bull seems to warrant the conclusion that the nature of +his bovine ancestor is still far from eliminated from his descendant. And +what is the secret of your feeling? Simply that you hate bullying. Why, +then, young gentlemen, do you bully? + +You retort perhaps that fagging is unknown in America, and that +high-spirited youth would not tolerate it. But permit the professor to +tell you what is not unknown in America: a crowd of older young gentlemen +surrounding one younger fellow, forcing him to do disagreeable and +disgusting things, pouring cold water down his back, making a fool of him +to his personal injury, he being solitary, helpless, and abused--all this +is not unknown in America, young gentlemen. But it is all very different +from what we have been accustomed to consider American. If we would morally +define or paraphrase the word America, I think we should say fair-play. +That is what it means. That is what the Brownist Puritans, the precursors +of the Plymouth Pilgrims, left England to secure. They did not bring +it indeed, at least in all its fulness, across the sea. Let us say, +young gentlemen, that its potentiality, its possibility, rather than its +actuality, stepped out of the _Mayflower_ upon Plymouth Rock. But from +the moment of its landing it has been asserting itself. You need not say +"Baptist" and "Quaker." I understand it and allow for it all. But fair-play +has prevailed over ecclesiastical hatred and over personal slavery, and +what are called the new questions--corporate power, monopoly, capital, and +labor--are only new forms of the old effort to secure fair-play. + +Now the petty bullying of hazing and the whole system of college tyranny is +a most contemptible denial of fair-play. It is a disgrace to the American +name, and when you stop in the wretched business to sneer at English +fagging you merely advertise the beam in your own eyes. It is not possible, +surely, that any honorable young gentleman now attending to the lecture of +the professor really supposes that there is any fun or humor or joke in +this form of college bullying. Turn to your _Evelina_ and see what +was accounted humorous, what passed for practical joking, in Miss Burney's +time, at the end of the last century. It is not difficult to imagine Dr. +Johnson, who greatly delighted in _Evelina_, supposing the intentional +upsetting into the ditch of the old French lady in the carriage to be a +joke. For a man who unconsciously has made so much fun for others as "the +great lexicographer," Dr. Johnson seems to have been curiously devoid of a +sense of humor. But he was a genuine Englishman of his time, a true John +Bull, and the fun of the John Bull of that time, recorded in the novels and +traditions, was entirely bovine. + +The bovine or brutal quality is by no means wholly worked out of the +blood even yet. The taste for pugilism, or the pummelling of the human +frame into a jelly by the force of fisticuffs, as a form of enjoyment or +entertainment, is a relapse into barbarism. It is the instinct of the tiger +still surviving in the white cat transformed into the princess. I will not +call it, young gentlemen, the fond return of Melusina to the gambols of the +mermaid, or Undine's momentary unconsciousness of a soul, because these are +poetic and pathetic suggestions. The prize-ring is disgusting and inhuman, +but at least it is a voluntary encounter of two individuals. But college +bullying is unredeemed brutality. It is the extinction of Dr. Jekyll in Mr. +Hyde. It is not humorous, nor manly, nor generous, nor decent. It is bald +and vulgar cruelty, and no class in college should feel itself worthy of +the respect of others, or respect itself, until it has searched out all +offenders of this kind who disgrace it, and banished them to the remotest +Coventry. + +The meanest and most cowardly fellows in college may shine most in hazing. +The generous and manly men despise it. There are noble and inspiring ways +for working off the high spirits of youth: games which are rich in poetic +tradition; athletic exercises which mould the young Apollo. To drive +a young fellow upon the thin ice, through which he breaks, and by the +icy submersion becomes at last a cripple, helpless with inflammatory +rheumatism--surely no young man in his senses thinks this to be funny, or +anything but an unspeakable outrage. Or to overwhelm with terror a comrade +of sensitive temperament until his mind reels--imps of Satan might delight +in such a revel, but young Americans!--never, young gentlemen, never! + +The hazers in college are the men who have been bred upon dime novels and +the prize-ring--in spirit, at least, if not in fact--to whom the training +and instincts of the gentleman are unknown. That word is one of the most +precious among English words. The man who is justly entitled to it wears +a diamond of the purest lustre. Tennyson, in sweeping the whole range of +tender praise for his dead friend Arthur Hallam, says that he bore without +abuse the grand old name of gentleman. "Without abuse"--that is the wise +qualification. The name may be foully abused. I read in the morning's +paper, young gentlemen, a pitiful story of a woman trying to throw herself +from the bridge. You may recall one like it in Hood's "Bridge of Sighs." +The report was headed: "To hide her shame." "_Her_ shame?" Why, +gentlemen, at that very moment, in bright and bewildering rooms, the arms +of Lothario and Lovelace were encircling your sisters' waists in the +intoxicating waltz. These men go unwhipped of an epithet. They are even +enticed and flattered by the mothers of the girls. But, for all that, they +do not bear without abuse the name of gentleman, and Sidney and Bayard and +Hallam would scorn their profanation and betrayal of the name. + +The soul of the gentleman, what is it? Is it anything but kindly and +thoughtful respect for others, helping the helpless, succoring the needy, +befriending the friendless and forlorn, doing justice, requiring fair-play, +and withstanding with every honorable means the bully of the church and +caucus, of the drawing-room, the street, the college? Respect, young +gentlemen, like charity, begins at home. Only the man who respects himself +can be a gentleman, and no gentleman will willingly annoy, torment, or +injure another. + +There will be no further recitation today. The class is dismissed. + +(_March_, 1888) + + + + +THE SOUL OF THE GENTLEMAN + + +To find a satisfactory definition of gentleman is as difficult as to +discover the philosopher's stone; and yet if we may not say just what +a gentleman is, we can certainly say what he is not. We may affirm +indisputably that a man, however rich, and of however fine a title in +countries where rank is acknowledged, if he behave selfishly, coarsely, and +indecently, is not a gentleman. "From which, young gentlemen, it follows," +as the good professor used to say at college, as he emerged from a hopeless +labyrinth of postulates and preliminaries an hour long, that the guests who +abused the courtesy of their hosts, upon the late transcontinental trip to +drive the golden spike, may have been persons of social eminence, but were +in no honorable sense gentlemen. + +It is undoubtedly a difficult word to manage. But gentlemanly conduct and +ungentlemanly conduct are expressions which are perfectly intelligible, and +that fact shows that there is a distinct standard in every intelligent +mind by which behavior is measured. To say that a man was born a gentleman +means not at all that he is courteous, refined, and intelligent, but only +that he was born of a family whose circumstances at some time had been +easy and agreeable, and which belonged to a traditionally "good society." +But such a man may be false and mean, and ignorant and coarse. Is he a +gentleman because he was born such? On the other hand, the child of long +generations of ignorant and laborious boors may be humane, honorable, and +modest, but with total ignorance of the usages of good society. He may +be as upright as Washington, as unselfish as Sidney, as brave as Bayard, +as modest as Falkland. But he may also outrage all the little social +proprieties. Is he a gentleman because he is honest and modest and humane? +In describing Lovelace, should we not say that he was a gentleman? Should +we naturally say so of Burns? But, again, is it not a joke to describe +George IV. as a gentleman, while it would be impossible to deny the name to +Major Dobbin? + +The catch, however, is simple. Using the same word, we interchange its +different meanings. To say that a man is born a gentleman is to say that +he was born under certain social conditions. To say in commendation or +description of a man that he is a gentleman, or gentlemanly, is to say +that he has certain qualities of character or manner which are wholly +independent of the circumstances of his family or training. In the latter +case, we speak of individual and personal qualities; in the former, we +speak of external conditions. In the one case we refer to the man himself; +in the other, to certain circumstances around him. The quality which is +called gentlemanly is that which, theoretically, and often actually, +distinguishes the person who is born in a certain social position. It +describes the manner in which such a person ought to behave. + +Behavior, however, can be imitated. Therefore, neither the fact of birth +under certain conditions, nor a certain ease and grace and charm of manner, +certify the essential character of gentleman. Lovelace had the air and +breeding of a gentleman like Don Giovanni; he was familiar with polite +society; he was refined and pleasing and fascinating in manner. Even the +severe Astarte could not call him a boor. She does not know a gentleman, +probably, more gentlemanly than Lovelace. She must, then, admit that +she can not arbitrarily deny Lovelace to be a gentleman because he is a +libertine, or because he is false, or mean, or of a coarse mind. She may, +indeed, insist that only upright and honorable men of refined mind and +manner are gentlemen, and she may also maintain that only men of truly +lofty and royal souls are princes; but there will still remain crowds of +immoral gentlemen and unworthy kings. + +The persons who abused the generous courtesy of the Northern Pacific trip +were gentlemen in one sense, and not in the other. They were gentlemen so +far as they could not help themselves, but they were not gentlemen in what +depended upon their own will. According to the story, they did not even +imitate the conduct of gentlemen, and Astarte must admit that they belonged +to the large class of ungentlemanly gentlemen. + +(_December_, 1883) + + + + +THEATRE MANNERS + + +An admirable actress said the other day that the audience in the theatre +was probably little aware how much its conduct affected the performance. A +listless, whispering, uneasy house makes a distracted and ineffective play. +To an orator, or an actor, or an artist of any kind who appeals personally +to the public, nothing is so fatal as indifference. In the original +Wallack's Theatre, many years ago, the Easy Chair was one of a party in +a stage-box during a fine performance of one of the plays in which the +acting of the manager was most effective. It was a gay party, and with the +carelessness of youth it made merry while the play went on. As the box was +directly upon the stage, the merriment was a gross discourtesy, although +unintentional, both to the actors and to the audience; and at last the old +Wallack, still gayly playing his part, moved towards the box, and without +turning his head, in a voice audible to the offenders but not to the rest +of the audience, politely reminded the thoughtless group that they were +seriously disturbing the play. There was some indignation in the box, but +the rebuke was courteous and richly deserved. Nothing is more unpardonable +than such disturbance. + +During this winter a gentleman at one of the theatres commented severely +upon the loud talking of a party of ladies, which prevented his enjoyment +of the play, and when the gentleman attending the ladies retorted warmly, +the disturbed gentleman resorted to the wild justice of a blow. There was +an altercation, a publication in the newspapers, and finally an apology and +a reconciliation. But it is to be hoped that there was some good result +from the incident. A waggish clergyman once saw a pompous clerical brother +march quite to the head of the aisle of a crowded church to find a seat, +with an air of expectation that all pew-doors would fly open at his +approach. But as every seat was full, and nobody stirred, the crestfallen +brother was obliged to retrace his steps. As he retreated by the pew, far +down the aisle, where the clerical wag was sitting, that pleasant man +leaned over the door, and greeted his comrade with the sententious whisper, +"May it be sanctified to you, dear brother!" Every right-minded man will +wish the same blessing to the rebuke of the loud-talking maids and youths +in theatres and concert-halls, whose conversation, however lively, is not +the entertainment which their neighbors have come to hear. + +Two or three winters ago the Easy Chair applauded the conduct of Mr. +Thomas, who, at the head of his orchestra, was interrupted in the midst of +a concert in Washington by the entry of a party, which advanced towards the +front of the hall with much chattering and rustling, and seated themselves +and continued the disturbance. The orchestra was in full career, but +Thomas rapped sharply upon his stand, and brought the performance to an +abrupt pause. Then, turning to the audience, he said--and doubtless with +evident and natural feeling: "I am afraid that the music interrupts the +conversation." The remark was greeted with warm and general applause; and, +waiting until entire silence was restored, the conductor raised his baton +again, and the performance ended without further interruption. + +The Easy Chair improved the occasion to preach a short sermon upon bad +manners in public places. But to its great surprise it was severely rebuked +some time afterward by Cleopatra herself, who said, with some feeling, that +she had two reasons for complaint. The first was, that her ancient friend +the Easy Chair should place her in the pillory of its public animadversion; +and the other was, that the Easy Chair should gravely defend such conduct +as that of Mr. Thomas. No remonstrance could be more surprising and nothing +more unexpected than that Cleopatra should differ in opinion upon such a +point. To the personal aspect of the matter the Easy Chair could say only +that it had never heard who the offenders were, and that it declined to +believe that Cleopatra herself could ever be guilty of such conduct. Her +Majesty then explained that she was not guilty. She was not of the party. +But it was composed of friends of hers who seated themselves near her, and +when the words of Mr. Thomas concentrated the gaze of the audience upon the +disturbers of the peace, her Majesty, known to everybody, was supposed to +be the ringleader of the _emeute_. The story at once flew abroad, upon +the wings of those swift birds of prey--as she called them--the Washington +correspondents, and she was mentioned by name as the chief offender. + +It was not difficult to persuade the most placable of queens that the Easy +Chair could not have intended a personal censure. But the Chair could not +agree that Thomas's conduct was unjustifiable. Cleopatra urged that the +conductor of an orchestra at a concert is not responsible for the behavior +of the audience. An audience, she said, can take care of itself, and it is +an unwarrantable impertinence for a conductor to arrest the performance +because he is irritated by a noise of whispering voices or of slamming +doors. "I saw you, Mr. Easy Chair," she said, "on the evening of Rachel's +first performance in this country. What would you have thought if she had +stopped short in the play--it was Corneille's _Les Horaces_, you +remember--because she was annoyed by the rustling of the leaves of a +thousand books of the play which the audience turned over at the same +moment?" + +The Easy Chair declined to step into the snare which was plainly set in its +sight. It would not accept an illustration as an argument. The enjoyment at +a concert, it contended, for which the audience has paid in advance, and to +which it is entitled, depends upon conditions of silence and order which +it can not itself maintain without serious disturbance. It may indeed cry +"Hush!" and "Put him out!" but not only would that cry be of doubtful +effect, but experience proves that a concert audience will not raise it. If +the audience were left to itself, it would permit late arrivals, and all +the disturbance of chatter and movement. To twist the line of Goldsmith, +those who came to pray would be at the mercy of those who came to scoff; +and such mercy is merciless. The conductor stands _in loco parentis_. +He is the _advocatus angeli_. He does for the audience what it would +not do for itself. He protects it against its own fatal good-nature. He +insists that it shall receive what it has paid for, and he will deal with +disturbers as they deserve. The audience, conscious of its own good-humored +impotence, recognizes at once its protector, and gladly applauds him for +doing for it what it has not the nerve to do for itself. No audience whose +rights were defended as Thomas defended those of his Washington audience +ever resented the defence. + +"No," responded Cleopatra, briskly; "the same imbecility prevents." + +"Very well; then such an audience plainly needs a strong and resolute +leadership; and that is precisely what Thomas supplied. A crowd is always +grateful to the man who will do what everybody in the crowd feels ought to +be done, but what no individual is quite ready to undertake." + +When Cleopatra said that an audience is quite competent to take care of +itself, her remark was natural, for she instinctively conceived the +audience as herself extended into a thousand persons. Such an audience +would certainly be capable of dispensing with any mentor or guide. But when +the Easy Chair asked her if she was annoyed by the chattering interruption +which Thomas rebuked, she replied that of course she was annoyed. Yet +when she was further asked if she cried "Hush!" or resorted to any means +whatever to quell the disturbance, the royal lady could not help smiling as +she answered, "I did not," and the Easy Chair retorted, "Yet an audience is +capable of protecting itself!" + +Meanwhile, whatever the conductor or the audience may or may not do, +nothing is more vulgar than audible conversation, or any other kind of +disturbance, during a concert. Sometimes it may be mere thoughtlessness; +sometimes boorishness, the want of the fine instinct which avoids +occasioning any annoyance; but usually it is due to a desire to attract +attention and to affect superiority to the common interest. It is, indeed, +mere coarse ostentation, like wearing diamonds at a hotel table or a purple +velvet train in the street. If the audience had the courage which Cleopatra +attributed to it, that part which was annoyed by the barbarians who chatter +and disturb would at once suppress the annoyance by an emphatic and +unmistakable hiss. If this were the practice in public assemblies, such +incidents as that at the Washington concert would be unknown. Until +it is the practice, even were Cleopatra's self the offender, every +self-respecting conductor who has a proper sense of his duties to the +audience will do with its sincere approval what Mr. Thomas did. + +(_April_, 1883) + + + + +WOMAN'S DRESS + + +The American who sits in a street omnibus or railroad-car and sees a young +woman whose waist is pinched to a point that makes her breathing mere +panting and puffing, and whose feet are squeezed into shoes with a high +heel in the middle of the sole, which compels her to stump and hobble as +she tries to walk, should be very wary of praising the superiority of +European and American civilization to that of the East. The grade of +civilization which squeezes a waist into deformity is not, in that respect +at least, superior to that which squeezes a foot into deformity. It is in +both instances a barbarous conception alike of beauty and of the function +of woman. The squeezed waist and the squeezed foot equally assume that +distortion of the human frame may be beautiful, and that helpless idleness +is the highest sphere of woman. + +But the imperfection of our Western civilization shows itself in more +serious forms involving women. The promiscuous herding of men and women +prisoners in jails, the opposition to reformatories and penitentiaries +exclusively for women, and, in general, the failure to provide, as a matter +of course, women attendants and women nurses for all women prisoners and +patients, is a signal illustration of a low tone of civilization. The most +revolting instance of this abuse was the discovery during the summer that +the patients in a woman's insane hospital in New Orleans were bathed by +male attendants. + +It should not need such outrages to apprise us of the worth of the general +principle that humanity and decency require that in all public institutions +women should be employed in the care of women. A wise proposition during +the year to provide women at the police-stations for the examination of +women who are arrested failed to become law. It is hard, upon the merits of +the proposal, to understand why. Women who are arrested may be criminals, +or drunkards, or vagabonds, or insane, or witless, or sick. But whatever +the reason of the arrest, there can be no good reason whatever, in a truly +civilized community, that a woman taken under such circumstances should be +abandoned to personal search and examination by the kind of men to whom +that business is usually allotted. The surest sign of the civilization +of any community is its treatment of women, and the progress of our +civilization is shown by the constant amelioration of that condition. But +the unreasonable and even revolting circumstances of much of the public +treatment of them may wisely modify ecstasies over our vast superiority. + +The squeezed waists and other tokens of the kind show that our civilization +has not yet outgrown the conception of the most meretricious epochs, that +woman exists for the delight of man, and is meant to be a kind of decorated +appendage of his life, while the men attendants and men nurses of women +prisoners and patients show a most uncivilized disregard of the just +instincts of sex. We are far from asserting that therefore the position of +women in this country is to be likened to their position in China, where +the contempt of men denied them souls, or to that among savage tribes, +where they are treated as beasts of burden. But because we are not +wallowing in the Slough of Despond, it does not follow that we are sitting +in the House Beautiful. The traveller who has climbed to the _mer de +glace_ at Chamouni, and sees the valley wide outstretched far below him, +sees also far above him the awful sunlit dome of "Sovran Blanc." Whatever +point we may have reached, there is still a higher point to gain. Nowhere +in the world are women so truly respected as here, nowhere ought they to be +more happy than in this country. But that is no reason that the New Orleans +outrage should be possible, while the same good sense and love of justice +which have removed so many barriers to fair-play for women should press on +more cheerfully than ever to remove those that remain. + +(_December_, 1882) + + + + +SECRET SOCIETIES + + +The melancholy death of young Mr. Leggett, a student at the Cornell +University, has undoubtedly occasioned a great deal of thought in every +college in the country upon secret societies. Professor Wilder, of Cornell, +has written a very careful and serious letter, in which he strongly opposes +them, plainly stating their great disadvantages, and citing the order +of Jesuits as the most powerful and thoroughly organized of all secret +associations, and therefore the one in which their character and tendency +may best be observed. The debate recalls the history of the Antimasonic +excitement in this country, which is, however, seldom mentioned in recent +years, so that the facts may not be familiar to the reader. + +In the year 1826 William Morgan, living in Batavia, in the western part of +New York, near Buffalo, was supposed to intend the publication of a book +which would reveal the secrets of Masonry. The Masons in the vicinity were +angry, and resolved to prevent the publication, and made several forcible +but ineffective attempts for that purpose. On the 11th of September, 1826, +a party of persons from Canandaigua came to Batavia and procured the arrest +of Morgan upon a criminal charge, and he was carried to Canandaigua for +examination. He was acquitted, but was immediately arrested upon a civil +process, upon which an execution was issued, and he was imprisoned in the +jail at Canandaigua. The next evening he was discharged at the instance of +those who had caused his arrest, and was taken from the jail after nine +o'clock in the evening. Those who had obtained the discharge instantly +seized him, gagged and bound him, and throwing him into a carriage, hurried +off to Rochester. By relays of horses and by different hands he was borne +along, until he was lodged in the magazine of Fort Niagara, at the mouth of +the Niagara River. + +The circumstances of his arrest, and those that had preceded it, +had aroused and inflamed the minds of the people in Batavia and the +neighborhood. A committee was appointed at a public meeting to ascertain +all the facts, and to bring to justice any criminals that might be found. +They could discover only that Morgan had been seized upon his discharge in +Canandaigua and hurried off towards Rochester; but beyond that, nothing. +The excitement deepened and spread. A great crime had apparently been +committed, and it was hidden in absolute secrecy. Other meetings were held +in other towns, and other committees were appointed, and both meetings and +committees were composed of men of both political parties. Investigation +showed that Masons only were implicated in the crime, and that scarcely a +Mason aided the inquiry; that many Masons ridiculed and even justified the +offence; that the committees were taunted with their inability to procure +the punishment of the offenders in courts where judges, sheriffs, juries, +and witnesses were Masons; that witnesses disappeared; that the committees +were reviled; and gradually Masonry itself was held responsible for the +mysterious doom of Morgan. + +The excitement became a frenzy. The Masons were hated and denounced as the +Irish were in London after the "Irish night," or the Roman Catholics during +the Titus Oates fury. In January, 1827, some of those who had been arrested +were tried, and it was hoped that the evidence at their trials would clear +the mystery. But they pleaded guilty, and this hope was baffled. Meanwhile +a body of delegates from the various committees met at Lewiston to +ascertain the fate of Morgan, and they discovered that in or near the +magazine in which he had been confined he had been put to death. His book, +with its revelations, had been published, and what was not told was, of +course, declared to be infinitely worse than the actual disclosures. The +excitement now became political. It was alleged that Masonry held itself +superior to the laws, and that Masons were more loyal to their Masonic +oaths than to their duty as citizens. Masonry, therefore, was held to be a +fatal foe to the government and to the country, which must be destroyed; +and in several town-meetings in Genesee and Monroe counties, in the spring +of 1827, Masons, as such, were excluded from office. At the next general +election the Antimasons nominated a separate ticket, and they carried the +counties of Genesee, Monroe, Livingston, Orleans, and Niagara against both +the great parties. A State organization followed, and in the election +of 1830 the Antimasonic candidate, Francis Granger, was adopted by the +National Republicans, and received one hundred and twenty thousand votes, +against one hundred and twenty-eight thousand for Mr. Throop. From a State +organization the Antimasons became a national party, and in 1832 nominated +William Wirt for the presidency. The Antimasonic electoral ticket was +adopted by the National Republicans, and the union became the Whig party, +which, in 1838, elected Mr. Seward Governor of New York, and in 1840 +General Harrison President of the United States. + +The spring of this triumphant political movement was hostility to a secret +society. Many of the most distinguished political names of Western New +York, including Millard Fillmore, William H. Seward, Thurlow Weed, Francis +Granger, James Wadsworth, George W. Patterson, were associated with it. And +as the larger portion of the Whig party was merged in the Republican, the +dominant party of to-day has a certain lineal descent from the feelings +aroused by the abduction of Morgan from the jail at Canandaigua. And as +his disappearance and the odium consequent upon it stigmatized Masonry, so +that it lay for a long time moribund, and although revived in later years, +cannot hope to regain its old importance, so the death of young Leggett is +likely to wound fatally the system of college secret societies. + +The young man was undergoing initiation into a secret society. He was +blind-folded, and two companions were leading him along the edge of a cliff +over a deep ravine, when the earth gave way, or they slipped and fell from +the precipice, and Leggett was so injured that he died in two hours. There +was no allegation or suspicion of blame. There was, indeed, an attempt of +some enemies of the Cornell University--a hostility due either to supposed +conflict of interests or sectarian jealousy--to stigmatize the institution, +but it failed instantly and utterly. Indeed, General Leggett, of the +Patent-office in Washington, the father of the unfortunate youth, at once +wrote a very noble and touching letter to shield the university and the +companions of his son from blame or responsibility. He would not allow his +grief to keep him silent when a word could avert injustice, and his modest +magnanimity won for his sorrow the tender sympathy of all who read his +letter. + +Every collegian knows that there is no secrecy whatever in what is called +a secret society. Everybody knows, not in particular, but in general, +that its object is really "good-fellowship," with the charm of mystery +added. Everybody knows--for the details of such societies in all countries +are essentially the same--that there are certain practical jokes of +initiation--tossings in blankets, layings in coffins, dippings in cold +water, stringent catechisms, moral exhortations, with darkness and sudden +light and mysterious voices from forms invisible, and then mystic signs +and clasps and mottoes, "the whole to conclude" with the best supper that +the treasury can afford. Literary brotherhood, philosophic fraternity, +intellectual emulation, these are the noble names by which the youth +deceive themselves and allure the Freshmen; but the real business of the +society is to keep the secret, and to get all the members possible from the +entering class. + +Each society, of course, gets "the best fellows." Every touter informs the +callow Freshman that all men of character and talent hasten to join his +society, and impresses the fresh imagination with the names of the famous +honorary members. The Freshman, if he be acute--and he is more so every +year--naturally wonders how the youth, who are undeniably commonplace in +the daily intercourse of college, should become such lofty beings in the +hall of a secret society; or, more probably, he thinks of nothing but the +sport or the mysterious incentive to a studious and higher life which the +society is to furnish. He feels the passionate curiosity of the neophyte. +He is smitten with the zeal of the hermetical philosophy. He would learn +more than Rosicrucian lore. That is a vision soon dispelled. But the +earnest curiosity changes into _esprit du corps_, and the mischief is +that the secrecy and the society feeling are likely to take precedence of +the really desirable motives in college. There is a hundredfold greater +zeal to obtain members than there is generous rivalry among the societies +to carry off the true college honors. And if the purpose be admirable, why, +as Professor Wilder asks, the secrecy? What more can the secret society +do for the intellectual or social training of the student than the open +society? Has any secret society in an American college done, or can it do, +more for the intelligent and ambitious young man than the Union Debating +Society at the English Cambridge University, or the similar club at Oxford? +There Macaulay, Gladstone, the Austins, Charles Buller, Tooke, Ellis, and +the long illustrious list of noted and able Englishmen were trained, and +in the only way that manly minds can be trained, by open, free, generous +rivalry and collision. The member of a secret society in college is really +confined, socially and intellectually, to its membership, for it is found +that the secret gradually supplant the open societies. But that membership +depends upon luck, not upon merit, while it has the capital disadvantage +of erecting false standards of measurement, so that the _Mu Nu_ man +cannot be just to the hero of _Zeta Eta_. The secrecy is a spice that +overbears the food. The mystic paraphernalia is a relic of the baby-house, +which a generous youth disdains. + +There is, indeed, an agreeable sentiment in the veiled friendship of the +secret society which every social nature understands. But as students +are now becoming more truly "men" as they enter college, because of the +higher standard of requirement, it is probable that the glory of the +secret society is already waning, and that the allegiance of the older +universities to the open arenas of frank and manly intellectual contests, +involving no expense, no dissipation, and no perilous temptation, is +returning. At least there will now be an urgent question among many of the +best men in college whether it ought not to return. + +(_January_, 1874) + + + + +TOBACCO AND HEALTH + + +We do not know if readers upon your side of the water have watched with +any interest the present violent onslaught in both England and France upon +the use of tobacco. Sir Benjamin Brodie (of London) has declared strongly +against its use; and at a recent meeting at Edinburgh of the British +Anti-Tobacco Society, Professor Miller, moving the first resolution, as +follows: "That as the constituent principles which tobacco contains are +highly poisonous, the practices of smoking and snuffing tend in a variety +of ways to injure the physical and mental constitution," continued: "No man +who was a hard smoker had a steady hand. But not only had it a debilitating +and paralyzing effect; but he could tell of patients who were completely +paralyzed in their limbs by inveterate smoking. He might tell of a +patient of his who brought on an attack of paralysis by smoking; who was +cured, indeed, by simple means enough, accompanied with the complete +discontinuance of the practice; but who afterwards took to it again, and +got a new attack of paralysis; and who could now play with himself, as it +were, because when he wanted a day's paralysis or an approach to it, he +had nothing to do but to indulge more or less freely with the weed. Only +the other day, the French--among whom the practice was carried even to +a greater extent than with us--made an estimate of its effects in their +schools, and academies, and colleges. They took the young men attending +these institutions, classified them into those who smoked habitually and +those who did not, and estimated their physical and intellectual standing, +perhaps their moral standing too, but he could not say. The result was, +that they found that those who did not smoke were the stronger lads and +better scholars, were altogether more reputable people, and more useful +members of society than those who habitually used the drug. What was +the consequence? Louis Napoleon--one of the good things which he had +done--instantly issued an edict that no smoking should be permitted in any +school, college, or academy. In one day he put out about 30,000 pipes in +Paris alone. Let our young smokers put that in their pipe and smoke it." +The resolution was agreed to. + +Is it possible to entertain the idea that Louis Napoleon has increased +the tax on tobacco, latterly, very largely, in the hope of discouraging +its use, and so contributing to the weal of the nation? If so, it would +illustrate one of the beautiful uses of despotic privilege. + +(_February_, 1861) + + + + +TOBACCO AND MANNERS + + +I + +The "old school" of manners has fallen into disrepute. Sir Charles +Grandison is a comical rather than a courtly figure to this generation; and +the man whose manners may be described as Grandisonian is usually called +a pompous and grandiloquent old prig. Certainly the elaborately dressed +gentleman speaking to a lady only with polished courtesy of phrase, and +avoiding in her presence all coarse words and acts, handing her in the +minuet with inexpressible grace and deference, and showing an exquisite +homage in every motion, was a very different figure from the gentleman in a +shooting-jacket or morning sack "chaffing" a lady with the freshest slang, +and smoking in her face. They are undeniably different, and the later +figure is wholly free from Grandisonian elegance and elaboration. But is he +much more truly a gentleman? Is he our Sidney, our Chevalier Bayard, our +Admirable Crichton? Is that refined consideration and gentle deference, +which is the flower of courtesy, an old-fashioned folly? + +The overwrought politeness is made very ridiculous upon the stage, and +Richardson is undoubtedly hard reading for the general consumer of novels. +It is true, also, that fine morals do not always go with fine manners, and +that Lovelace had a fascination of address which John Knox lacked. The +chaff and slang of the Bayard of to-day are at least decent, and his morals +probably purer than those of the courtly and punctilious old Sir Roger +de Coverleys. Possibly; but it has been wisely said that hypocrisy is the +homage paid by vice to virtue. The good manners of a bad man are a rich +dress upon a diseased body. They are the graceful form of a vase full of +dirty water. The liquid may be poisonous, but the vessel is beautiful. +Some of the worst Lotharios in the world have a personal charm which is +irresistible. Many a stately compliment was paid by a graciously bowing +satyr in laced velvet coat and periwig, at the court of Louis the Great, +and paid for the basest purpose; but the grace and the courtesy were +borrowed, like plumage of living hues to deck carrion. They were not a part +of the baseness, and you do not escape dirty water by breaking the vase. +If the older morals were worse than the new, and the older manners were +better, cannot we who live to-day, and who may have everything, combine the +new morals and the old manners? + +We can spare some elaboration of form, but we cannot safely spare the +substance of refined deference. If Romeo be permitted to treat Juliet as +hostlers are supposed to treat barmaids, and as the heroes of Fielding and +Smollett treat Abigails upon a journey, they will both lose self-respect +and mutual respect. It was a wise father who said to his son, "Beware of +the woman who allows you to kiss her." The woman who does not require +of a man the form of respect invites him to discard the substance. And +there is one violation of the form which is recent and gross, and might +be well cited as a striking illustration of the decay of manners. It +is the practice of smoking in the society of ladies in public places, +whether driving, or walking, or sailing, or sitting. There are _preux +chevaliers_ who would be honestly amazed if they were told they did +not behave like gentlemen, who, sitting with a lady on a hotel piazza, or +strolling on a public park, whip out a cigarette, light it, and puff as +tranquilly as if they were alone in their rooms. Or a young man comes alone +upon the deck of a steamer, where throngs of ladies are sitting, and blows +clouds of tobacco smoke in their faces, without even remarking that tobacco +is disagreeable to some people. This is not, indeed, one of the seven +deadly sins, but a man who unconcernedly sings false betrays that he has +no ear for music, and the man who smokes in this way shows that he is not +quite a gentleman. + +But some ladies smoke? Yes, and some ladies drink liquor. Does that mend +the matter? The Easy Chair has seen a lady at the head of her own table +smoking a fine cigar. You will see a great many highly dressed women in +Paris smoking cigarettes. Does all this change the situation? Does this +make it more gentlemanly to smoke with a lady beside you in a carriage, or +upon a bench on the piazza? But some ladies like the odor of a cigar? Not +many; and the taste of those who sincerely do so cannot justify the habit +of promiscuous puffing in their presence. The intimacy of domesticity is +governed by other rules; but a gentleman smoking would hardly enter his +own drawing-room, where other ladies sat with his wife, without a word +of apology. The Easy Chair is no King James, and is more likely to issue +blasts of tobacco than blasts against it. But King James belonged to a very +selfish sex--a sex which seems often to suppose that its indulgences and +habits are to be tenderly tolerated, for no other reason than that they +are its habits. Therefore the young woman must defend herself by showing +plainly that she prohibits the intrusion of which, if suffered, she is +really the victim. In other times the Easy Chair has seen the lovely Laura +Matilda unwilling to refuse to dance with the partner who had bespoken her +hand for the german, although when he presented himself he was plainly +flown with wine. The Easy Chair has seen the hapless, foolish maid +encircled by those Bacchic arms, and then a headlong whirl and dash down +the room, ending in the promiscuous overthrow and downfall of maid, +Bacchus, and musicians. + +If in the Grandisonian day the morals were wanting, it was something to +have the manners. They at least were to the imagination a memory and a +prophecy. They recalled the idyllic age when fine manners expressed fine +feelings, and they foretold the return of Astraea to her ancient haunts. +Here is young Adonis dreaming of a four-in-hand and a yacht, like any other +gentleman. Let us hope that he knows the test of a gentleman not to be the +ownership of blood-horses and a unique drag, but perfect courtesy founded +upon fine human feeling--that rare and indescribable gentleness and +consideration which rests upon manner as lightly as the bloom upon a fruit. +It may be imitated, as gold and diamonds are. But no counterfeit can harm +it; and, Adonis, it is incompatible with smoking in a lady's face, even if +she acquiesces. + +(_September_, 1879) + + +II + +Apollodorus came in the other morning and announced to the Easy Chair that +it had been made by common consent arbiter of a dispute in a circle of +young men. "The question," said he, "is not a new one in itself, but it +constantly recurs, for it is the inquiry under what conditions a gentleman +may smoke in the presence of ladies." + +The Easy Chair replied that it could not answer more pertinently than in +the words of the famous Princess Emilia, who, upon being asked by a youth +who was attending her in a promenade around the garden, "What should you +say if a gentleman asked to smoke as he walked with you?" replied, "It is +not supposable, for no gentleman would propose it." + +Naturally that youth did not venture to light even a cigarette. Emilia had +parried his question so dexterously that, although the rebuke was stinging, +he could not even pretend to be offended. His question was merely a form of +saying, "I am about to smoke, and what have you to say?" That he asked the +question was evidence of a lingering persuasion, inherited from an ancestry +of gentlemen, that it was not seemly to puff tobacco smoke around a lady +with whom he was walking. + +Apollodorus was silent for a moment, as if reflecting whether this anecdote +was to be regarded as a general judgment of the arbiter that a gentleman +will never smoke in the presence of a lady. But the Easy Chair broke in +upon his meditation with a question, "If you had a son, should you wish to +meet him smoking as he accompanied a lady upon the avenue? or, were you +the father of a daughter, should you wish to see her cavalier smoking as +he walked by her side? Upon your own theory of what is gentlemanly and +courteous and respectful and becoming in the manner of a man towards a +woman, should you regard the spectacle with satisfaction?" + +"Well," replied Apollodorus, "isn't that rather a high-flying view? When +can a man smoke--" + +"But you are not answering," interrupted the Easy Chair. "Of two youths +walking with your daughter, one of whom was smoking a cigarette, or a +cigar, or a pipe, as he attended her, and the other was not smoking, which +would seem to you the more gentlemanly?" + +"The latter," said Apollodorus, promptly and frankly. + +"It appears, then," returned the Easy Chair, assuming the Socratic manner, +"that there are circumstances under which a gentleman will not smoke in +the presence of a lady. But to answer your question directly, it is not +possible to prescribe an exact code, although certain conditions may be +definitely stated. For instance, a gentleman will not smoke while walking +with a lady in the street. He will not smoke while paying her an evening +visit in her drawing-room. He will not smoke while driving with her in the +Park." + +It is significant of a radical change in manners that such rules can +be laid down, because formerly the question could not have arisen. The +grandfather of Apollodorus, who was the flower of courtesy, could no more +have smoked with a lady with whom he was walking or driving than he could +have attended her without a coat or collar. Yet manners change, and the +grandfather must not insist that those of his time were best because they +were those of his time. It is but a little while since that a gentleman +who appeared at a party without gloves would have been a "queer" figure. +But now should he wear gloves he would be remarked as unfamiliar with good +usage. + +It does not argue a decline of courtesy that the Grandisonian compliment +and the ineffable bending over a lady's hand and respectful kissing of the +finger-tips have yielded to a simpler and less stately manner. The woman +of the minuet was not really more respected than the woman of the waltz. +However the word gentlemanly may be defined, it will not be questioned +that the quality which it describes is sympathetic regard for the feelings +of others and the manner which evinces it. The manner, of course, may be +counterfeited and put to base uses. To say that Lovelace has a gentlemanly +manner is not to say that he is a gentleman, but only that he has caught +the trick of a gentleman. To call him or Robert Macaire or Richard Turpin a +gentleman is to say only that he behaves as a gentleman behaves. But he is +not a gentleman, unless that word describes manners and nothing more. + +This is the key to the question of Apollodorus. It is not easy to define a +gentleman, but it is perfectly easy to see that in his pleasures and in the +little indifferent practices of society the gentleman will do nothing which +is disagreeable to others. He certainly will not assume that a personal +gratification or indulgence must necessarily be pleasant to others, nor +will he make the selfish habits of others a plea for his own. + +Apollodorus listened patiently, and then said slowly that he understood the +judgment to be that a gentleman would smoke in the presence of ladies only +when he knew that it was agreeable to them, but that, as the infinite grace +and courtesy of women often led them, as an act of self-denial, to persuade +themselves that what others wish to do ought not to annoy them, it was very +difficult to know whether the practice was or was not offensive to any +particular lady, and therefore--therefore-- + +The youth seemed to be unable to draw the conclusion. + +"Therefore," said the mentor, "it is well to remember the old rule in +whist." + +"Which is--?" asked Apollodorus. + +"When in doubt, trump the trick." + +"But what is the special application of that rule to this case?" + +"Precisely this, that the doubting smoker should follow the advice of +_Punch_ to those about to marry." + +"Which is--?" asked Apollodorus. + +"Don't." + +(_September_, 1883) + + + + +DUELLING + + +Twenty-five years ago, at the table of a gentleman whose father had fallen +in a duel, the conversation fell upon duelling, and after it had proceeded +for some time the host remarked, emphatically, that there were occasions +when it was a man's solemn duty to fight. The personal reference was too +significant to permit further insistence at that table that duelling was +criminal folly, and the subject of conversation was changed. + +The host, however, had only reiterated the familiar view of General +Hamilton. His plea was, that in the state of public opinion at the time +when Burr challenged him, to refuse to fight under circumstances which +by the "code of honor" authorized a challenge, was to accept a brand of +cowardice and of a want of gentlemanly feeling, which would banish him to a +moral and social Coventry, and throw a cloud of discredit upon his family. +So Hamilton, one of the bravest men and one of the acutest intellects of +his time, permitted a worthless fellow to murder him. Yet there is no doubt +that he stated accurately the general feeling of the social circle in which +he lived. There was probably not a conspicuous member of that society who +was of military antecedents who would not have challenged any man who had +said of him what Hamilton had said of Burr. Hamilton disdained explanation +or recantation, and the result was accepted as tragical, but in a certain +sense inevitable. + +Yet that result aroused public sentiment to the atrocity of this barbarous +survival of the ordeal of private battle. That one of the most justly +renowned of public men, of unsurpassed ability, should be shot to death +like a mad dog, because he had expressed the general feeling about an +unprincipled schemer, was an exasperating public misfortune. But that he +should have been murdered in deference to a practice which was approved in +the best society, yet which placed every other valuable life at the mercy +of any wily vagabond, was a public peril. From that day to this there has +been no duel which could be said to have commanded public sympathy or +approval. From the bright June morning, eighty years ago, when Hamilton +fell at Weehawken, to the June of this year, when two foolish men shot at +each other in Virginia, there has been a steady and complete change of +public opinion, and the performance of this year was received with almost +universal contempt, and with indignant censure of a dilatory police. + +The most celebrated duel in this country since that of Hamilton and Burr +was the encounter between Commodores Decatur and Barron, in 1820, near +Washington, in which Decatur, like Hamilton, was mortally wounded, and +likewise lived but a few hours. The quarrel was one of professional, as +Burr's of political, jealousy. But as the only conceivable advantage of +the Hamilton duel lay in its arousing the public mind to the barbarity of +duelling, the only gain from the Decatur duel was that it confirmed this +conviction. In both instances there was an unspeakable shock to the country +and infinite domestic anguish. Nothing else was achieved. Neither general +manners nor morals were improved, nor was the fame of either combatant +heightened, nor public confidence in the men or admiration of their public +services increased. In both cases it was a calamity alleviated solely by +the resolution which it awakened that such calamities should not occur +again. + +Such a resolution, indeed, could not at once prevail, and eighteen years +after Decatur was killed, Jonathan Cilley, of Maine, was killed in a duel +at Washington by William J. Graves, of Kentucky. This event occurred +forty-five years ago, but the outcry with which it was received even at +that time--one of the newspaper moralists lapsing into rhyme as he deplored +the cruel custom which led excellent men to the fatal field, + + "where Cilleys meet their Graves"-- + +and the practical disappearance of Mr. Graves from public life, showed how +deep and strong was the public condemnation, and how radically the general +view of the duel was changed. + +Even in the burning height of the political and sectional animosity of +1856, when Brooks had assaulted Charles Sumner, the challenge of Brooks +by some of Sumner's friends met with little public sympathy. During the +excitement the Easy Chair met the late Count Gurowski, who was a constant +and devoted friend of Mr. Sumner, but an old-world man, with all the +hereditary social prejudices of the old world. The count was furious +that such a dastardly blow had not been avenged. "Has he no friends?" he +exclaimed. "Is there no honor left in your country?" And, as if he would +burst with indignant impatience, he shook both his fists in the air, and +thundered out, "Good God! will not somebody challenge anybody?" + +No, that time is passed. The elderly club dude may lament the decay +of the good old code of honor--a word of which he has a very ludicrous +conception--as Major Pendennis, when he pulled off his wig, and took out +his false teeth, and removed the padded calves of his legs, used to hope +that the world was not sinking into shams in its old age. Quarrelling +editors may win a morning's notoriety by stealing to the field, furnishing +a paragraph for the reporters, and running away from the police. But they +gain only the unsavory notoriety of the man in a curled wig and flowered +waistcoat and huge flapped coat of the last century who used to parade +Broadway. The costume was merely an advertisement, and of very contemptible +wares. The man who fights a duel to-day excites but one comment. Should he +escape, he is ridiculous. Should he fall, the common opinion of enlightened +mankind writes upon his head-stone, "He died as the fool dieth." + +(_September_, 1883) + + + + +NEWSPAPER ETHICS + + +I + +Newspaper manners and morals hardly fall into the category of minor manners +and morals, which are supposed to be the especial care of the Easy Chair, +but there are frequent texts upon which the preacher might dilate, and +push a discourse upon the subject even to the fifteenthly. Indeed, in +this hot time of an opening election campaign, the stress of the contest +is so severe that the first condition of a good newspaper is sometimes +frightfully maltreated. The first duty of a newspaper is to tell the news; +to tell it fairly, honestly, and accurately, which are here only differing +aspects of the same adverb. "Cooking the news" is the worst use to which +cooking and news can be put. The old divine spoke truly, if with exceeding +care, in saying, "It has been sometimes observed that men will lie." So it +has been sometimes suspected that newspapers will cook the news. + +A courteous interviewer called upon a gentleman to obtain his opinions, +let us say, upon the smelt fishery. After the usual civilities upon such +occasions, the interviewer remarked, with conscious pride: "The paper that +I represent and you, sir, do not agree upon the great smelt question. But +it is a newspaper. It prints the facts. It does not pervert them for its +own purpose, and it finds its account in it. You may be sure that whatever +you may say will be reproduced exactly as you say it. This is the news +department. Meanwhile the editorial department will make such comments upon +the news as it chooses." This was fair, and the interviewer kept his word. +The opinions might be editorially ridiculed from the other smelt point of +view, and they probably were so. But the reader of the paper could judge +between the opinion and the comment. + +Now an interview is no more news than much else that is printed in a paper, +and it is no more pardonable to misrepresent other facts than to distort +the opinions of the victim of an interview. Yet it has been possible at +times to read in the newspapers of the same day accounts of the same +proceedings of--of--let us say, as this is election time--of a political +convention. The _Banner_ informs us that the spirit was unmistakable, +and the opinion most decided in favor of Jones. True, the convention voted, +by nine hundred to four, for Smith, but there is no doubt that Jones is the +name written on the popular heart. The _Standard_, on the other hand, +proclaims that the popular heart is engraved all over with the inspiring +name of Smith, and that it is impossible to find any trace of feeling for +Jones, except, possibly, in the case of one delegate, who is probably an +idiot or a lunatic. This is gravely served up as news, and the papers pay +for it. They even hire men to write this, and pay them for it. How Ude +and Careme would have disdained this kind of cookery! It is questionable +whether hanging is not a better use to put a man to than cooking news. Sir +Henry Wotton defined an ambassador as an honest man sent to lie abroad for +the commonwealth. This kind of purveyor, however, does not lie for his +country, but for a party or a person. + +It is done with a purpose, the purpose of influencing other action. It is +intended to swell the paean for Jones or for Smith, and to procure results +under false pretences. Procuring goods under false pretences is a crime, +but everybody is supposed to read the newspapers at his own risk. Has the +reader yet to learn that newspapers are very human? A paper, for instance, +takes a position upon the Jones or Smith question. It decides, upon all the +information it can obtain, and by its own deliberate judgment, that Jones +is the coming man, or ("it has been observed that men will sometimes lie") +it has illicit reasons for the success of Smith. Having thus taken its +course, it cooks all the news upon the Smith and Jones controversy, in +order that by encouraging the Jonesites or the Smithians, according to the +color that it wears, it may promote the success of the side upon which its +opinion has been staked. It is a ludicrous and desperate game, but it is +certainly not the honest collection and diffusion of news. It is a losing +game also, because, whatever the sympathies of the reader, he does not care +to be foolishly deceived about the situation. If he is told day after day +that Smith is immensely ahead and has a clear field, he is terribly shaken +by the shock of learning at the final moment that he has been cheated from +the beginning, and that poor Smith is dead upon the field of dishonor. + +Everybody is willing to undertake everybody else's business, and an Easy +Chair naturally supposes, therefore, that it could show the able editor a +plan of securing and retaining a large audience. The plan would be that +described by the urbane reporter as the plan of his own paper. It is +nothing else than truth-telling in the news column, and the peremptory +punishment of all criminals who cook the news, and "write up" the +situation, not as it is, but as the paper wishes it to be. This is more +than an affair of the private wishes or preferences of the paper. To cook +the news is a public wrong, and a violation of the moral contract which +the newspaper makes with the public to supply the news, and to use every +reasonable effort to obtain it, not to manufacture it, either in the office +or by correspondence. + +(_July_, 1880) + + +II + +If, as a New York paper recently said, the journalist is superseding the +orator, it is full time for the work upon _Journals and Journalism_, +which has been lately issued in London. The New York writer holds that in +our political contests the "campaign speech" is not intended or adapted +to persuade or convert opponents, but merely to stimulate and encourage +friends. The party meetings on each side, he thinks, are composed of +partisans, and the more extravagant the assertion and the more unsparing +the denunciation of "the enemy," the more rapturous the enthusiasm of the +audience. In fact, his theory of campaign speeches is that they are merely +the addresses of generals to their armies on the eve of battle, which are +not arguments, since argument is not needed, but mere urgent appeals to +party feeling. "Thirty centuries look down from yonder Pyramid" is the +Napoleonic tone of the campaign speech. + +As an election is an appeal to the final tribunal of the popular judgment, +the apparent object of election oratory is to affect the popular decision. +But this, the journalist asserts, is not done by the orator, for the reason +just stated, but by the journal. The newspaper addresses the voter, not +with rhetorical periods and vapid declamation, but with facts and figures +and arguments which the voter can verify and ponder at his leisure, and not +under the excitement or the tedium of a spoken harangue. The newspaper, +also, unless it be a mere party "organ," is candid to the other side, and +states the situation fairly. Moreover, the exigencies of a daily issue and +of great space to fill produce a fulness and variety of information and of +argument which are really the source of most of the speeches, so that the +orator repeats to his audience an imperfect abstract of a complete and +ample plea, and the orator, it is asserted, would often serve his cause +infinitely better by reading a carefully written newspaper article than by +pouring out his loose and illogical declamation. + +But the argument for the newspaper can be pushed still further. Since +phonographic reporting has become universal, and the speaker is conscious +that his very words will be spread the next morning before hundreds of +thousands of readers, it is of those readers, and not of the thousand +hearers before him, of whom he thinks, and for whom his address is really +prepared. Formerly a single charge was all that was needed for the +fusillade of a whole political campaign. The speech that was originally +carefully prepared was known practically only to the audience that heard +it. It grew better and brighter with the attrition of repeated delivery, +and was fresh and new to every new audience. But now, when delivered to an +audience, it is spoken to the whole country. It is often in type before +it is uttered, so that the orator is in fact repeating the article of +to-morrow morning. The result is good so far as it compels him to precision +of statement, but it inevitably suggests the question whether the newspaper +is not correct in its assertion that the great object of the oration is +accomplished not by the orator, but by the writer. + +But this, after all, is like asking whether a chromo copy of a great +picture does not supersede painting, and prove it to be an antiquated or +obsolete art. Oratory is an art, and its peculiar charm and power cannot be +superseded by any other art. Great orations are now prepared with care, and +may be printed word for word. But the reading cannot produce the impression +of the hearing. We can all read the words that Webster spoke on Bunker Hill +at the laying of the corner-stone of the monument fifty years after the +battle. But those who saw him standing there, in his majestic prime, and +speaking to that vast throng, heard and saw and felt something that we +cannot know. The ordinary stump speech which imperfectly echoes a leading +article can well be spared. But the speech of an orator still remains a +work of art, the words of which may be accurately lithographed, while the +spirit and glow and inspiration of utterance which made it a work of art +cannot be reproduced. + +The general statement of the critic, however, remains true, and the +effective work of a political campaign is certainly done by the newspaper. +The newspaper is of two kinds, again--that which shows exclusively the +virtue and advantage of the party it favors, and that which aims to be +judicial and impartial. The tendency of the first kind is obvious enough, +but that of the last is not less positive if less obvious. The tendency +of the independent newspaper is to good-natured indifference. The very +ardor, often intemperate and indiscreet, with which a side is advocated, +prejudices such a paper against the cause itself. Because the hot orator +exclaims that the success of the adversary would ruin the country, the +independent Mentor gayly suggests that the country is not so easily ruined, +and that such an argument is a reason for voting against the orator. The +position that in a party contest it is six on one side and half a dozen +on the other is too much akin to the doctrine that naught is everything +and everything is naught to be very persuasive with men who are really +in earnest. Such a position in public affairs inevitably, and often very +unjustly to them, produces an impression of want of hearty conviction, +which paralyzes influence as effectually as the evident prejudice and +partiality of the party advocate. Thorough independence is perfectly +compatible with the strongest conviction that the public welfare will be +best promoted by the success of this or that party. Such independence +criticises its own party and partisans, but it would not have wavered in +the support of the Revolution because Gates and Conway were intriguers, and +Charles Lee an adventurer, and it would have sustained Sir Robert Walpole +although he would not repeal the Corporation and Test laws, and withdrew +his excise act. + +Journalism, if it be true that it really shapes the policy of nations, well +deserves to be treated as thoughtfully as Mr. "John Oldcastle" apparently +treats it in the book we have mentioned, for it is the most exacting of +professions in the ready use of various knowledge. Mr. Anthony Trollope +says that anybody can set up the business or profession of literature who +can command a room, a table, and pen, ink, and paper. Would he also say +that any man may set up the trade of an artist who can buy an easel, a +palette, a few brushes, and some colors? It can be done, indeed, but only +as a man who can hire a boat may set up for an East India merchant. + +(_December_, 1880) + + +III + +"If you find that you have no case," the old lawyer is reported to have +said to the young, "abuse the plaintiff's attorney," and Judge Martin +Grover, of New York, used to say that it was apparently a great relief to +a lawyer who had lost a case to betake himself to the nearest tavern and +swear at the court. Abuse, in any event, seems to have been regarded by +both of these authorities as a consolation in defeat. It is but carrying +the theory a step further to resort to abuse in argument. Timon, who is a +club cynic--which is perhaps the most useless specimen of humanity--says +that 'pon his honor nothing entertains him more than to see how little +argument goes to the discussion of any question, and how immediate is +the recourse to blackguardism. "The other day," he said, recently, "I +was sitting in the smoking-room, and Blunt and Sharp began to talk about +yachts. Sharp thinks that he knows all that can be known of yachts, and +Blunt thinks that what he thinks is unqualified truth. Sharp made a strong +assertion, and Blunt smiled. It was that lofty smile of amused pity and +superiority, which is, I suppose, very exasperating. Sharp was evidently +surprised, but he continued, and at another observation Blunt looked at +him, and said, simply, 'Ridiculous!' As it seemed to me," said Timon, "the +stronger and truer were the remarks of Sharp, the more Blunt's tone changed +from contempt to anger, until he came to a torrent of vituperation, under +which Sharp retired from the room with dignity. + +"I presume," said the cynic, "that Sharp was correct upon every point. +But the more correct Sharp was, the more angry Blunt became. It was very +entertaining, and it seems to me very much the way of more serious +discussion." Timon was certainly right, and those who heard his remarks, +and have since then seen him chuckling over the newspapers, are confident +it is because he observes in them the same method of carrying on +discussion. Much public debate recalls the two barbaric methods of warfare, +which consist in making a loud noise and in emitting vile odors. A +member of Congress pours out a flood of denunciatory words in the utmost +rhetorical confusion, and seems to suppose that he has dismayed his +opponent because he has made a tremendous noise. He is only an overgrown +boy, who, like some other boys, imagines that he is very heroic when he +shakes his head, and pouts his lip, and clinches his fist, and "calls +names" in a shrill and rasping tone. Other members, who ought to know +better, pretend to regard his performances as worthy of applause, and +metaphorically pat him on the back and cry, "St, boy!" They only share--and +in a greater degree, because they know better--the contempt with which he +is regarded. + +In the same way a newspaper writer attacks views which are not acceptable +to him, not with argument, or satire, or wit, or direct refutation, but by +metaphorically emptying slops, and directing whirlwinds of bad smells upon +their supporters. The intention seems to be, not to confute the arguments, +but to disgust the advocates. The proceeding is a confession that the views +are so evidently correct that they will inevitably prevail unless their +supporters can be driven away. This is an ingenious policy, for guns +certainly cannot be served if the gunners are dispersed. Men shrink from +ridicule and ludicrous publicity. However conscious of rectitude a man +may be, it is exceedingly disagreeable for him to see the dead-walls and +pavements covered with posters proclaiming that he is a liar and a fool. If +he recoils, the enemy laughs in triumph; if he is indifferent, there is a +fresh whirlwind. + +A public man wrote recently to a friend that he had seen an attack upon his +conduct in a great journal, and had asked his lawyer to take the necessary +legal steps to bring the offender to justice. His friend replied that he +had seen the attack, but that it had no more effect upon him than the +smells from Newtown Creek. They were very disgusting, but that was all. +This is the inevitable result of blackguardism. The newspaper reader, +as he sees that one man supports one measure because his wife's uncle is +interested in it, and another man another measure to gratify his grudge +against a rival, gradually learns from his daily morning mentor that there +is no such thing as honor, decency, or public spirit in public affairs; he +chuckles with the club cynic, although for a very different reason, and +forgets the contents of one column as he begins upon the next. If a man +covers his milk toast, his breakfast, his lunch, dinner, and supper with a +coating of Cayenne pepper, the pepper becomes as things in general became +to Mr. Toots--of no consequence. + +This kind of fury in personal denunciation is not force, as young writers +suppose; it is feebleness. Wit, satire, brilliant sarcasm, are, indeed, +legitimate weapons. It was these which Sydney Smith wielded in the early +_Edinburgh Review_. But "calling names," and echoing the commonplaces +of affected contempt, that is too weak even for Timon to chuckle over, +except as evidence of mental vacuity. The real object in honest controversy +is to defeat your opponent and leave him a friend. But the Newtown Creek +method is fatal to such a result. Of course that method often apparently +wins. But it always fails when directed against a resolute and earnest +purpose. The great causes persist through seeming defeat to victory. But to +oppose them with sneers and blackguardism is to affect to dam Niagara with +a piece of paper. The crafty old lawyer advised the younger to reserve his +abuse until he felt that he had no case. Judge Grover remarked that it was +when the case was lost that the profanity began. + +(_September_, 1882) + + +IV + +There is a delicate question in newspaper ethics which is sometimes widely +discussed, namely, whether "journalism" may be regarded as a distinct +profession which has a moral standard of its own. The question arises when +an editorial writer transfers his services from one journal to another of +different political opinions. Is a man justified in arguing strenuously for +free trade to-day and for protection to-morrow? Are political questions and +measures of public policy merely points of law upon which an editor is an +advocate to be retained indifferently and with equal morality upon either +side? + +This question may be illuminated by another. Would John Bright be a man of +equal renown, character, and weight of influence if, being an adherent of +peace principles, he had remained in an administration whose policy was +war? This question will be thought to beg the whole question. But does +it? Must it not be assumed that a man of adequate ability for the proper +discussion of political questions must have positive political convictions, +and can a man who has such convictions honorably devote himself to +discrediting them, and to defeating the policy which they demand, under the +plea that he has professionally accepted a retainer or a salary to do so? +Would his arguments have any moral weight if they were known to be those of +a man who was not himself convinced by them? And is not the concealment of +the fact indispensable to the value of his services? + +To continue this interrogation: is not the parallel sought to be +established between the editorial writer and the lawyer vitiated by +the fact that it is universally understood that a lawyer's service is +perfunctory and official; that he takes one side rather than another +because he is paid for it, and because that is the condition of his +profession, and that that condition springs from the nature of legal +procedure, society not choosing to take life or to inflict punishment +of any kind until the whole case has been stated according to certain +stipulated forms? For this reason the advocate who defends a criminal +is not supposed necessarily to believe him to be innocent. But no such +reason existing in the case of the editor, is it not an equally universal +understanding that an editor does honestly and personally hold the view +that he presents and defends? For instance, the _Times_ in New York +is a Republican and free-trade journal. If it should suddenly appear some +morning as a Democratic and protectionist paper, would not the general +conclusion be that it had changed hands? But if it should be announced that +it was in the same hands, and had changed its views because of a pecuniary +arrangement, could the _Times_ continue to have the same standing and +influence which it has now? + +A distinction may be attempted between the owner of a paper and the editor. +But for the public are they not practically the same? It is not, in fact, +the owner or the editor, it is the paper, which is known to the public. If +the public considers at all the probable relation of the owner and editor, +it necessarily assumes their harmony, because it does not suppose that an +owner would employ an editor who is injuring the property, and if the paper +flourishes under the editor, it is because the owner yields his private +opinion to the editor's, if they happen to differ, so that there is no +discord. On the other hand, if the paper flags and fails, and the owner, +to rescue his property, employs another editor, who holds other views, +and changes the tone of the paper, the result is the same so far as the +public is concerned. The profit of the paper may increase, but its power +and influence surely decline. In the illustration that we have supposed, +the proprietorship of the _Times_ might decide that a Democratic and +protection paper would have a larger sale and greatly increase the profit. +But could the change be made without a terrible blow to the character and +influence of the paper? Now why is not an editor in the same position? He +has a certain standing, and he holds certain views, like the paper. The +paper changes its tone for a price. He does the same thing. The paper loses +character and influence. Why does not he? + +Journalism is not a profession in the sense claimed. It does not demand a +certain course of study, which is finally tested by an examination and +certified by a degree. It is a pursuit rather than a profession. Of course +special knowledge in particular branches of information is of the highest +value, and indeed essential to satisfactory editorial writing, as to all +other public exposition. There are also certain details of the collection +of news, the organization of correspondence, and the "make up" of the +paper, the successful management of which depends upon an energetic +executive faculty, which is desirable in every pursuit. It is sometimes +said that an editor, like the late Mr. Delane of the London _Times_, +should not write himself, but select the topics and procure the writing +upon them by others. And so long as a man is merely an anonymous writer for +a paper, so long as he writes to sustain the views of the paper, his actual +opinions, being unknown to the reader, do not affect the power of the +paper. Such a man, indeed, may write at the same time upon both sides of +the same question for different papers. But if he have any convictions or +opinions upon the subject, he is with one hand consciously injuring what he +believes to be the truth, and a man cannot do that without serious harm to +himself. If he have no convictions, his influence will vanish the moment +that the fact is known. + +Such strictures do not apply to papers which expressly renounce +convictions, and blow hot or cold as the chances of probable profit and +the apparent tenor of public opinion at the moment invite. Such papers, +properly speaking, have no legitimate influence whatever. They produce +a certain effect by mere publicity, and reiteration, and ridicule, and +distortion and suppression of facts, and appeals to prejudice. There is a +legitimate and an illegitimate power of the press. A lion and a skunk both +inspire terror. + +But a paper which represents convictions, and promotes a public policy +in accordance with them, necessarily implies sincerity in its editorial +writing. The public assumes that among papers of all opinions the writer +attaches himself to one with which he agrees. The nature of the pursuit +is such that he cannot make himself a free lance without running the risk +of being thought an adventurer, a soldier without patriotism, a citizen +without convictions. If the best American press did not represent real +convictions, but only the clever ingenuity of paid advocates, it would be +worthless as an exponent of public opinion, and could not be the beneficent +power that it is. + +(_October_, 1882) + + +V + +One public man in a recent angry altercation with another taunted him with +elaborately preparing his invective, and some notoriously vituperative +speeches are known to have been written out and printed before they were +spoken. Such cold venom is undoubtedly as effective in reading as the hot +outbreak of the moment, and it may be even more effective in the delivery, +since self-command is as useful to the orator as to the actor. But if a +man be guilty of a gross offence who upon a dignified scene violates the +self-restraint and respect for the company which are not only becoming, but +so much assumed that whoever violates the requirement is felt to insult his +associates and the public, why do we not consider whether every scene is +not too dignified for mature and intelligent men to attempt to rival in +blackguardism the traditional fishwives of Billingsgate? + +If an orator or a newspaper conducts a discussion without discharging the +fiercest and foulest epithets at the opponent, it is often declared to be +tame and feeble and indifferent. But to whom and to what does vituperation +appeal? When an advocate upon the platform shouts until he is very hot and +very red that the supporter of protection is a thief, a robber, a pampered +pet of an atrociously diabolical system, he inflames passion and prejudice, +indeed, to the highest fury, and he produces a state of mind which is +inaccessible to reason, but he does not show in any degree whatever either +that protection is inexpedient or how it is unjust. In the same way, +to assail an opponent who favors revision of the tariff and incidental +protection as a rascally scoundrel who is trying to ruin American +industry--as if he could have any purpose of injuring himself materially +and fatally--is absurd. The tirade merely injures the cause which the +blackguard intends to help. But the man who carried on discussion in this +style is described by other professors of the same art as manly and virile +and hitting from the shoulder, and he comes perhaps to think himself a +doughty champion of the right. + +The weapon that demolishes an antagonist and an argument is not rhetoric, +but truth. This accumulation of "bad names" and ingenious combination of +scurrility is merely rhetoric. It serves the rhetorical purpose, but it +does not convince. It does not show the hearer or reader that one course +is more expedient than another, nor give him any reason whatever for +any opinion upon the subject. Virility, vigor, masculinity of mind, and +essential force in debate are revealed in quite another way. If an American +were asked to mention the most powerful speech ever made in the debates +of Congress, he would probably mention Mr. Webster's reply to Hayne. It +contained the great statement of nationality and the argument for the +national interpretation of the Constitution, and it was spoken in the +course of a famous controversy. Let any man read it, and ask himself +whether it would have gained in power, in effect, in weight, dignity, or +character, by personal invective and elaborate vituperation of any kind and +any degree whatever. + +The truth is that the fury which is supposed to imply force is the +conclusive proof of weakness. The familiar advice, "If you have no +evidence, abuse the plaintiff's attorney," contains by implication +the whole philosophy of what is called the manliness and force of the +blackguard. He has no reason, therefore he sneers. He has no argument, +therefore he swears. He will get the laugh upon his adversary if he can, +forgetting that those who laugh at the clown may also despise him. + +Of wit, humor, satire, sarcasm, we are not speaking. The ordinary +blackguardism of the political platform and press does not belong to that +category. Caricature, however, easily may. There are certain pictures in +American caricature which are wit made visible. They are the satire of +instructive truth. Indeed, they tell to the eye the indisputable truth +as words cannot easily tell it to the ear. In this way caricature is one +of the most powerful agents in public discussion. But, like speech or +writing, it may be merely blackguard. The incisive wit, the rich humor, the +withering satire of speech, gain all their point and effect from the truth. +They have no power when they are seen to be false. + +So it is with caricature. Nobody can enjoy it more than its subject when it +is merely humorous; nobody perceive so surely its pungent touch of truth; +nobody disregard more completely its mere malice and falsehood. True +wit and humor, whether in controversial letters or art, whether in the +newspaper article or the "cartoon," as we now call it, often reveal to the +subject in himself what otherwise he might not have suspected. It is very +conceivable that an actor, seeing a really clever burlesque of himself, may +become aware of tendencies or peculiarities or faults which otherwise he +would not have known, and quietly address himself to their correction. + +This sanitary service of humor in every form, as well as that of the honest +wrath which shakes many a noble sentence of sinewy English as a mighty +man-of-war is shaken by her own broadside, is something wholly apart from +the billingsgate and blackguardism which are treated as if they were real +forces. Publicity itself, as the Easy Chair has often said, has a certain +power, and to call a man a rascal to a hundred thousand persons at once +produces an undeniable effect. But we must not mistake it for what it is +not. Being false, it is not an effect which endures, nor does it vex the +equal mind. + +It is the fact that the public often seems to demand that kind of +titillation, to enjoy fury instead of force, and ridicule instead of +reason, which suggests the inquiry whether, if self-restraint and wise +discipline are desirable for every faculty of the mind and body, the +tongue and hand alone should be allowed to riot in wanton excess. If even +the legitimate superlative must be handled, like dynamite, with extreme +caution, blackguardism of every degree is a nuisance to be summarily +discountenanced and abated by those who know the difference between +grandeur and bigness, between Mercutio and Tony Lumpkin, between fair-play +and foul. + +(_September_, 1888) + + +VI + +The Easy Chair has been asked whether there is any code of newspaper +manners. It has no doubt that there is. But it is the universal code of +courtesy, and not one restricted to newspapers. Good manners in civilized +society are the same everywhere and in all relations. A newspaper is not +a mystery. It is the work of several men and women, and their manners in +doing the work are subject to the same principles that govern their manners +in society or in any other human relation. If a man is a gentleman, he does +not cease to be one because he enters a newspaper office, and it would seem +to be equally true that if his work on the paper does not prove to be that +of a gentleman, it could not have been a gentleman who did the work. + +A gentleman, we will suppose, does not blackguard his neighbors, nor talk +incessantly about himself and his achievements, nor behave elsewhere as he +would be ashamed to behave in his club or in his own family. If a gentleman +does not do these things, of course a gentleman does not do them in a +newspaper. And does it not seem to follow, if such things are done in a +newspaper, and are traced to a hand supposed to be that of a gentleman, +that there has been some mistake about the hand? + +Good manners are essentially a disposition which moulds conduct. They can +be feigned, indeed, as gilt counterfeits gold, and plate silver. But the +clearest glass is not diamond. A man may smile and smile and be a villain. +Scoundrels are sometimes described as of gentlemanly manners, and Lothario +was not personally a boor. But he was not a gentleman, and he merely +affected good manners. A gentleman, indeed, may sometimes lose his temper +or his self-control, but no one who habitually does it, and swears and +rails vociferously, can be called properly by that name. Here again it is +easy to apply the canon to a newspaper. When a newspaper habitually takes +an insulting tone, and deliberately falsifies, whether by assertion of an +untruth or by a distortion and perversion of the truth, it is not the work +of a gentleman, and if the writer be responsible for the tone of the paper, +the manners of that newspaper are not good manners. + +But there is no uniformity in newspaper manners, as there is none +elsewhere. Therefore it cannot be said that newspapers, as a whole, are +either well-mannered or unmannerly, as you cannot say that men, as a body, +are courteous or uncouth. Some newspapers are unmistakably vulgar, like +some people. They are not so of themselves, however; they are made vulgar +by vulgar people. There are very able newspapers which have very bad +manners, and some which have no other distinction than good manners. A +very dull man may be very urbane, and so may a very dull newspaper. On the +other hand, a newspaper which is both brilliant and clever may be sometimes +guilty of an injustice, a deliberate and persistent misrepresentation, to +attain a particular end--conduct which is sometimes called "journalistic." +But the person who is responsible for the performance, for similar conduct +would be metaphorically kicked out of a club. But gentlemen are not kicked +out of clubs. + +A newspaper gains neither character nor influence by abandoning good +manners. It may indeed make itself disagreeable and annoying, and so +silence opposition, as a polecat may effectually close the wood path which +you had designed to take. It may be feared, and in the same way as that +animal--feared and despised. But this effect must not be confounded with +newspaper power and influence. It is exceedingly annoying, undoubtedly, +to be placarded all over town as a liar or a donkey, a hypocrite or a +sneak-thief. But although the effect is most unpleasant, very little +ability is required to produce it. A little paper and printing, a little +paste, a great deal of malice, and a host of bill-stickers are all that are +needed, and even the pecuniary cost is not large. The effect is produced, +but it does not show ability or force or influence upon the part of its +producer. + +The manners of newspapers, as such, cannot be classified any more than the +manners of legislatures, or of the professions or trades. This, however, +seems to be true, that a well-mannered man will not produce an ill-mannered +newspaper. + +(_April_, 1891) + +THE END + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Ars Recte Vivende, by George William Curtis + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ARS RECTE VIVENDE *** + +***** This file should be named 7445.txt or 7445.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/7/4/4/7445/ + +Produced by Eric Eldred, William Flis and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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