Harper's New Monthly Magazine, No. XXVII, August 1852, Vol. VVarious
History
Harper's New Monthly Magazine, No. XXVII, August 1852, Vol. V
Various
American literature -- Periodicals; Civilization -- Periodicals; Culture -- Periodicals
Our argument might, perhaps, be charged with proving too much--with
invading the sacred domain of poetry--with condemning all works of
fiction and all reading, as well as acting, of plays. We would like
to dispose of these objections if we had time. In some respects, and
to a certain extent, their validity might be candidly admitted. In
others, we might make modifications and distinctions, drawing the
line, as we think we could, in accordance with the demands of right
reason, right faith, right taste, and right morals. But the limits
of our Editorial Table do not permit; and we, therefore, leave our
readers to draw this line for themselves, believing that, in so
doing, a sound moral sense, proceeding on the tests here laid down,
will easily distinguish all healthful and recreative reading
from those inherent evils that must ever belong to dramatic
representations.
Editor's Easy Chair.
"Ouf! ouf!"--The French have a funny way of writing a letter, as
well as of telling a story. For instance, our friend of the
_Courrier_, whose gossip we have time and again transmuted, with
some latitude of construction into our own noon-tide sentences,
commences one of his later epistles with the exclamation, "_Ouf!
ouf!_" "And this," says he, "is the best _resumé_ that I can give
you of the situation of Paris." It is a cry of distress, and of
lassitude, breaking out from the Parisian heart, over-burdened with
plenitude of pleasure; it is the re-action of the fêtes of May. How
many things in ten days! How much dust--cannon-smoke--fire--fury--Roman
candles--thunder--melodramas--and provincials! How much
theatre-going--dining out--spent francs--_demitasses_--and ennui!
It is no wonder that your true Parisian is troubled with the crowd
and uproar that the fêtes bring to Paris, and, above all, with the
uncouth hordes of banditti provincials. The New-Yorker or the
Philadelphian can look complacently upon the throngs that our
Eastern and Northern steamers disgorge upon the city, and upon the
thousand wagons of "Market-street;" for these, all of them, not only
bring their quota of money to his till, but they lend a voice and a
tread to the hurry and the noise in which, and by which, your
true-blooded American feels his fullest life.
But the Parisian--living by daily, methodic, quiet, uninterrupted
indulgence of his tastes and humors--looks harshly upon the stout
wool-growers and plethoric vineyard men, who elbow him out of the
choicest seats at the Theatre of the Palais Royal, and who break
down his appreciative chuckle at a stroke of wit, with their
immoderate guffaw. Then, the dresses of these provincials are a
perpetual eye-sore to his taste. Such coats! such hats! such canes!
The very sight of them makes misery for your habitual frequenter of
the _Maison d'or_, or of the _Café Anglais_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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