The Continental Monthly, Vol. 2, No 3, September, 1862: Devoted to Literature and National Policy.Various
General
The Continental Monthly, Vol. 2, No 3, September, 1862: Devoted to Literature and National Policy.
Various
Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; United States -- Politics and government -- 19th century -- Periodicals
to serve it; who have taken its wages in the days of its great struggle,
and at the same time have filched from its coffers; who have undertaken
the task of steering the ship through the storm, in order that their
hands might be deep in the meal-tub and the bread-basket, and that they
might stuff their own sacks with the ship's provisions. These are the
men who must be loathed by the nation--whose fate must be held up as a
warning to others--before good can come.' How long are the American
people to allow this pool of iniquity to stagnate, and sap the vitals of
the nation? How long, O Lord! how long?
On the subject of education, Mr. Trollope--though indulging in a little
pleasantry on young girls who analyze Milton--does us full justice. 'The
one matter in which, as far as my judgment goes, the people of the
United States have excelled us Englishmen, so as to justify them in
taking to themselves praise which we can not take to ourselves or refuse
to them, is the matter of education.... The coachman who drives you, the
man who mends your window, the boy who brings home your purchases, the
girl who stitches your wife's dress--they all carry with them sure signs
of education, and show it in every word they utter.' But much as Mr.
Trollope admires our system of public schools, he does not see much to
extol in the at least Western way of rearing children. 'I must protest
that American babies are an unhappy race. They eat and drink just as
they please; they are never punished; they are never banished, snubbed,
and kept in the background, as children are kept with us; and yet they
are wretched and uncomfortable. My heart has bled for them as I have
heard them squalling, by the hour together, in agonies of discontent and
dyspepsia.' This is the type of child found by Mr. Trollope on Western
steamboats; and we agree with him that beef-steaks, _with pickles_,
produce a bad type of child; and it is unnecessary to confess to Mr.
Trollope what he already knows, that pertness and irreverence to parents
are the great faults of American youth. No doubt the pickles have much
to do with this state of things.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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