New York, January 5, 1866. HAD the Spectator of December
16 arrived in New York a few hours sooner, my letter of last week would have been devoted to the subject of this one. For since I wrote upon Culture in America " apropos of Marian Rooke, that novel has been published
country. is true, Sir, as the needle to the pole, to them immutable knowledge of the people of this country appears in the language first took its proud stand and mocked the embattled world ! That's which he puts into the mouths of New England folk. A most so !"—we have not the slightest objection. But, all the same, important defect, I venture to say ; for if a man, native or alien, Pangburn is but magnified Pogram. And the idea of an editor has not observed the people whom he undertakes to represent closely here, of whatever class, or however he might pronounce writing
and intelligently enough to use their ordinary speech, his por- " Forgit the feverish thirst for gold in Kanner pursoots," and traiture, whatever his opportunities of observation, is very little half a page more like this, as Pangburn does, is too absurd to to be trusted. And should it appear that he not only could not merit a moment's attention. And how can I sufficiently charac- use their speech, but that he put into their mouths the very phrases terize the ignorance of manners exhibited (although perhaps not distinctive of another people, the case against him would be still possessed, if negation can be possessed) by an author who describes stronger. In both these predicaments the author of Marian Rooke among the guests at the elegant Mrs. Egremont's ball Broadway is placed. He makes the Armstrongs, New England farmer folk, shopmen in militia uniforms, and who represents Mr. Dyce talk, men and women again and again, of " toting," i.e., carrying Parapet, the serenest and most transparent of all his highnesses, things about. Now " tote" is a distinctively Southern word, coined as walking down Fifth Avenue in the morning dressed in pearl- by the negro slaves, and caught from them by their masters. It is coloured trousers, a glossy black coat, and a white cravat I A never heard in New England, but appears in most of the imitations black coat and pearl-coloured trousers I A black coat and a white of the " American language" which are attempted by British writers. cravat in the morning, and in the street! Which would cause I pass over other indications of a similar ignorance, to notice the more more amazement, the militia uniforms at Mrs. Egremont's ball, or significant use of words and phrases peculiarly and very strikingly Mr. Parapet's costume in the Fifth Avenue, I cannot undertake to British. In my previous letter I remarked the use of " nothink " decide, but when I read these two passages to a little innocent in the passages quoted by the reviewer; and this word, and any- and unsuspecting circle, there went up such a chorus of laughter as think," and " everythink," are scattered plentifully through the it did my heart good to hear. I have already told my readers how book. Now this vulgarism is distinctive here of people of Sairey false the character of Mr. Parapet is as the representation of any Gamp's origin and breeding, and is as foreign to any and all of class in this country, however small. This may perhaps be regarded our people as Greek or German. And yet the author even makes as mere matter of opinion, or it may be said that the Parapets are his absurd editor write " nothink." So again and again he makes so elevated as to be beyond your correspondent's range of vision_ Yankees use " leastways." Thus, " There won't be no fight ; least- And I frankly admit that if there be a class of Parapets here, ways, not if he says not." This word is absolutely unknown here. So however small, they are so high-born, so cultivated, so rich, and so also are " scholard," " credick," " twict," and " allus" for exclusive that I have not even heard of their existence. But my " always." These corruptions-which the author puts into Yankee humble eyes are good enough to see a stone wall or a house, even mouths, are all distinctive cockneyisms ; the shibboleths by although a Parapet dwell therein. Mr. Parapet's house in New which, even failing other peculiar traits, we can tell that an York is described as built "of solid sombre old grey granite and illiterate person was born and bred in the Old England and not dingy red bricks," and as standing alone " in its own grounds, in the New. He makes Lafayette Sloper call a man a "ring- which were large enough to contain a whole block of parvenu fabrics, tailed, high-falootin top-sawyer," and Mrs. Armstrong, a Yankee and shaded by vast elms, which threw their protecting arms far farmer's wife, say that " the hard lines was rather tucked on to above even its own lofty gables." Now I have gone to and fro in us just then." Now both these phrases are dinstinctive British New York from one end to the other, and from one side to the other, slang. "Top Sawyer" might possibly be understood by a Yankee since I was a boy in my teens, and I assure you that there is not farmer ; but " hard lines " would be Greek to any Yankee, even of and has not been for twenty years, a house in the city which the instructed classes, who had not heard it used in England or here in the slightest degree resembles this picture. I heartily wish there by Englishmen who affect it, and who I have observed are generally were many. Not more correct is the description of the "treeless educated men. But again, Mr. Rivingstone, an intelligent and wastes which surrounded" the houses in New England, and "the cultivate I man of sup3rior social position, is made to say, " She mathematically straight roads which led to them." I have driven thought you had qualities which would ripen into valuable ones and ridden not a little through all parts of New England except for your country. A great politician is Marian;" and the author Maine, and what is better, walked over its roads and through its himself, describing his hero, writes, " He had a great many good lanes with knapsack on shoulder or rod in hand, and I assure you qualities, had Hugh." This reminds us of Mr. Dickens's that around houses there trees are not only left standing, but care- " Todgers's ; it hadn't bean painted for a long while, hadn't fully preserved and highly prized. There there are elms which Todgers's." This construction is unknown here ; and so singular lift their great branches over gabled or gambrilled roofs, and as always to excite remark and amusement when we meet it in maples, walnuts and great oaks. New England elms are famous books written by British authors. " Luggage," and " van," used the country over, and their girth and spread are truly vast. Old by the author himself for baggage and waggon, excite remark ; elms and maples line the whole main street on both aides is many but not so much as Mrs. Armstrong's calling her sheets and a New England farming village. And as to the roads being towels " linen fixins," a ludicrous misapplication of the Western mathematically straight, or anything of the kind, it might as phrase " fixin," just such as might be made by, and pardoned truly be said that in New England all S's are made straight like in, a British tourist. Of the pertinence of these criticisms to I's. This sounds like a repetition, with a difference, of the old the question of the value of Marian Rooke as a representation of tourist's complaint of the straigh'tness of the streets in our cities America, by an American, no matter what may be author's —a complaint which is well founded as regards the new streets, birth, you can easily judge. Suppose a writer professing to and with which I heartily sympathize. But in the old part of represent society in England should make an English farmer New York the streets are crooked and narrow enough, and in or professional man say, " Coom, stranger, bide a wee, an' Boston they are almost all so crooked that the tradition that liquor up. I rayther guess we con 'ave soom wary hegatraw- they are ancient cow tracks seems well founded, and there is nary yil yer, an' aiblins a brandy smash, sown • arf-an'-arf, or a reason for believing that many persons who have unaccountably
here ; and a careful reading of it so strongly confirmed my opinion drap poonch. Ye can put hourselves houtside o' some svipes hany- of its authorship, formed and expressed upon an acquaintance with how. Yes, Sir-ee !" What would the observation which resulted only three passages quoted in a review of it, that, regarded as it in such a hotchpot of Scotticism, cockneyism, provincialism, and appeared to be on all sides in England as a book of unusual im• Americanism be valued at? Would it not be regarded as proof portance and interest because of its being " a picture of the of alien ignorance? that some Yankee had used his indiscriminate Americans by one of themselves," I thought that an examination reminiscences of the language he had met with in English novels, of it by " one of themselves " might not be unprofitable. The and betrayed himself as well by his mixture of your dialects, as statement by the editors of the Spectator that they know that the by the unconscious use of that of his own country? And even if author of Marian Rooke is a New Englander confirmed rather you did know that he was born in England, would that add value than changed my purpose. For although there is no more profit- to his book in this respect? And yet the passage in the case sup- less occupation, to say the least, than attempting to show that that posed above is only a true, although it is a condensed example, of which is, is impossible, yet Hallam well says that we must even the confusion of tongues throughout Marian Rooks. Zelotes distrust positive testimony when the thing by its very self cries out Pangburn, too, is taken not from life, but from Dickens. He is (rea ipsa per as vociferatur) to the contrary. Yet even on this a careful, although a caricatured, imitation of Elijah Pogram, ground .I should not think of devoting a letter to the examination himself so monstrous a caricature as to be almost " a chimera in of a question of authorship upon internal evidence, were it not for a vacuum." If any one likes to believe that any creature here out the incidental revelation of traits of speech and manners in this of the madhouse talks in this style, " The Mounting Clarion country. is true, Sir, as the needle to the pole, to them immutable The first striking indication in Marian Rooke of very imperfect principles of public weal and commercial rectitood, whereon it knowledge of the people of this country appears in the language first took its proud stand and mocked the embattled world ! That's which he puts into the mouths of New England folk. A most so !"—we have not the slightest objection. But, all the same, important defect, I venture to say ; for if a man, native or alien, Pangburn is but magnified Pogram. And the idea of an editor has not observed the people whom he undertakes to represent closely here, of whatever class, or however he might pronounce writing
and intelligently enough to use their ordinary speech, his por- " Forgit the feverish thirst for gold in Kanner pursoots," and traiture, whatever his opportunities of observation, is very little half a page more like this, as Pangburn does, is too absurd to to be trusted. And should it appear that he not only could not merit a moment's attention. And how can I sufficiently charac- use their speech, but that he put into their mouths the very phrases terize the ignorance of manners exhibited (although perhaps not distinctive of another people, the case against him would be still possessed, if negation can be possessed) by an author who describes stronger. In both these predicaments the author of Marian Rooke among the guests at the elegant Mrs. Egremont's ball Broadway is placed. He makes the Armstrongs, New England farmer folk, shopmen in militia uniforms, and who represents Mr. Dyce talk, men and women again and again, of " toting," i.e., carrying Parapet, the serenest and most transparent of all his highnesses, things about. Now " tote" is a distinctively Southern word, coined as walking down Fifth Avenue in the morning dressed in pearl- by the negro slaves, and caught from them by their masters. It is coloured trousers, a glossy black coat, and a white cravat I A never heard in New England, but appears in most of the imitations black coat and pearl-coloured trousers I A black coat and a white of the " American language" which are attempted by British writers. cravat in the morning, and in the street! Which would cause I pass over other indications of a similar ignorance, to notice the more more amazement, the militia uniforms at Mrs. Egremont's ball, or significant use of words and phrases peculiarly and very strikingly Mr. Parapet's costume in the Fifth Avenue, I cannot undertake to British. In my previous letter I remarked the use of " nothink " decide, but when I read these two passages to a little innocent in the passages quoted by the reviewer; and this word, and any- and unsuspecting circle, there went up such a chorus of laughter as think," and " everythink," are scattered plentifully through the it did my heart good to hear. I have already told my readers how book. Now this vulgarism is distinctive here of people of Sairey false the character of Mr. Parapet is as the representation of any Gamp's origin and breeding, and is as foreign to any and all of class in this country, however small. This may perhaps be regarded our people as Greek or German. And yet the author even makes as mere matter of opinion, or it may be said that the Parapets are his absurd editor write " nothink." So again and again he makes so elevated as to be beyond your correspondent's range of vision_ Yankees use " leastways." Thus, " There won't be no fight ; least- And I frankly admit that if there be a class of Parapets here, ways, not if he says not." This word is absolutely unknown here. So however small, they are so high-born, so cultivated, so rich, and so also are " scholard," " credick," " twict," and " allus" for exclusive that I have not even heard of their existence. But my " always." These corruptions-which the author puts into Yankee humble eyes are good enough to see a stone wall or a house, even mouths, are all distinctive cockneyisms ; the shibboleths by although a Parapet dwell therein. Mr. Parapet's house in New which, even failing other peculiar traits, we can tell that an York is described as built "of solid sombre old grey granite and illiterate person was born and bred in the Old England and not dingy red bricks," and as standing alone " in its own grounds, in the New. He makes Lafayette Sloper call a man a "ring- which were large enough to contain a whole block of parvenu fabrics, tailed, high-falootin top-sawyer," and Mrs. Armstrong, a Yankee and shaded by vast elms, which threw their protecting arms far farmer's wife, say that " the hard lines was rather tucked on to above even its own lofty gables." Now I have gone to and fro in us just then." Now both these phrases are dinstinctive British New York from one end to the other, and from one side to the other, slang. "Top Sawyer" might possibly be understood by a Yankee since I was a boy in my teens, and I assure you that there is not farmer ; but " hard lines " would be Greek to any Yankee, even of and has not been for twenty years, a house in the city which the instructed classes, who had not heard it used in England or here in the slightest degree resembles this picture. I heartily wish there by Englishmen who affect it, and who I have observed are generally were many. Not more correct is the description of the "treeless educated men. But again, Mr. Rivingstone, an intelligent and wastes which surrounded" the houses in New England, and "the cultivate I man of sup3rior social position, is made to say, " She mathematically straight roads which led to them." I have driven thought you had qualities which would ripen into valuable ones and ridden not a little through all parts of New England except for your country. A great politician is Marian;" and the author Maine, and what is better, walked over its roads and through its himself, describing his hero, writes, " He had a great many good lanes with knapsack on shoulder or rod in hand, and I assure you qualities, had Hugh." This reminds us of Mr. Dickens's that around houses there trees are not only left standing, but care- " Todgers's ; it hadn't bean painted for a long while, hadn't fully preserved and highly prized. There there are elms which Todgers's." This construction is unknown here ; and so singular lift their great branches over gabled or gambrilled roofs, and as always to excite remark and amusement when we meet it in maples, walnuts and great oaks. New England elms are famous books written by British authors. " Luggage," and " van," used the country over, and their girth and spread are truly vast. Old by the author himself for baggage and waggon, excite remark ; elms and maples line the whole main street on both aides is many but not so much as Mrs. Armstrong's calling her sheets and a New England farming village. And as to the roads being towels " linen fixins," a ludicrous misapplication of the Western mathematically straight, or anything of the kind, it might as phrase " fixin," just such as might be made by, and pardoned truly be said that in New England all S's are made straight like in, a British tourist. Of the pertinence of these criticisms to I's. This sounds like a repetition, with a difference, of the old the question of the value of Marian Rooke as a representation of tourist's complaint of the straigh'tness of the streets in our cities America, by an American, no matter what may be author's —a complaint which is well founded as regards the new streets, birth, you can easily judge. Suppose a writer professing to and with which I heartily sympathize. But in the old part of represent society in England should make an English farmer New York the streets are crooked and narrow enough, and in or professional man say, " Coom, stranger, bide a wee, an' Boston they are almost all so crooked that the tradition that liquor up. I rayther guess we con 'ave soom wary hegatraw- they are ancient cow tracks seems well founded, and there is nary yil yer, an' aiblins a brandy smash, sown • arf-an'-arf, or a reason for believing that many persons who have unaccountably
disappeared there in past years are still wandering about in those labyrinthine ways, vainly seeking the spot from which they started. The truth is, that streets being made for the convenience of traffic or passage, when laid out here by the surveyor and the engineer they are made straight if possible, because a straight line is the shortest distance between any two points. Streets which were not laid out, but grew, turn and wind in a way that pleases the eye and worries carmen and drivers generally. How it is with streets laid out in European cities within the last thirty or forty years my readers can tell better than I can. If they are crooked, the drivers, like the author of Marian Rooke, may attribute the inconvenient picturesqueness to " democracy."
Besides all these, there are many other passages in this book which, by a slight turn of thought and phrase, seem to betray the unconscious mood of an outside observer ; such as one in which the gold-hunters are spoken of as seeking for " what they called a paying location," the phrase being common the country over ; and Luke Armstrong being said to have waited for his oppor- tunity with the ," cool, steadfast perseverance of his countrymen." But, passing by such indirect revelations of mental attitude as these, what shall we say of a New England man who writes thus of his countrymen?—" And yet, although his [Hugh Gifford's] kinsmen were hard and base-minded men, in this particular respect they differed not from most New Englanders around them." But I at least shall not dispute this point with any one, least of all with a New England man, who going abroad to tell the world that most New England men are base-minded, thus does what is in his power to verify his accusation. But when he makes Luke Arm- strong, sitting in the great old Connecticut farmhouse standing on acres which had been in his family for two hundred years, say to Hugh Gifford, " Why, you know, you are educated—a gentle- man, and we are only poor farmers. It is not natural, even in a Republic, for us to be exactly like equals," I will say that he so misrepresents the relations of society in New England in this respect, that faithful as his pictures are in some others, he cannot be trusted as a safe guide in any. The most democratic of all rights is the right to choose one's companions, and people here have the sense to choose those whose tastes and habits are like their own, and with whom companionship may be mutually agree- able. A man like Luke Armstrong would never thrust himself into company where he was not welcome, but the same self-respect which would prevent his doing that, would also make it quite impossible for him to talk to another man about not being his equal because that other had more book learning and more of the conventional ways of polished society. Moreover, New England farmers of the position of the Armstrongs do not talk and act in the uncouth manner attributed to them by the author. I have sat at table with a New Eugland farmer, not an exceptional man, who came in from workings in the field with his harvesters, and heard him reason well upon theology and politics, and his wife, who had had no small part in the preparation of our dinner, talk with taste and knowledge of Colley Cibber and his contemporaries. I must confess, however, that the good lady called the theatrical exquisite " Kibber ;" but that was a chance solecism in which she would have been corrected by almost any of her circle of acquaintances.
But the most extraordinary misrepresentation in this book is in respect to the position of its heroine. Marian Rooke is plainly a quadroon girl, who had been at once the daughter and the slave of a Southern planter. This is not distinctly stated, but it is very plainly intimated, yet almost superfluously, for the mere descrip- tion of her person shows at once what she is. And yet this quad- roon, or posssibly octoroon—it makes no difference—is repre- sented as being eagerly sought in marriage by two New Englanders, who do not exhibit the least hesitation at the prospect of an infusion of negro blood into their families—a condition of things so un- heard of, so abnormal, as to be justly set down among those possibilities so remote that we call them impossible. A New Englander like Hugh Gifford might possibly, although it is very improbable, become so enamoured of a girl like Marian Rooke as to follow her, if she fled him, the world over. But make her his wife ? Never. And as to Luke Armstrong, he would turn even more resolutely away. Witness recent events in Connecticut, where the offending white was not a Yankee, but an Irish emi- grant. And yet Marian Rooke is made by this author not only to have two Yankee suitors, but to live in a family of Yankees, and to enter the best circles of New York society without the -slightest demur on any side. Such a thing is unheard of,— qbsolutely impossible. As to her parentage, which is known to her farmer friends and her lovers, being unsuspected by others,
that is not to be presumed. The quadroon or the octoroon is known at a glance, not by darkness of skin, but by other signs more unmistakeable. Remember, I beg, that the question here is not as to the justice of a prejudice, but the truthfulness of a professed representation of society.
And now, after all this criticism, it is only right that I should say, and I say it with great pleasure, that Marian Rooke is a book full of ability and of the evidences of close observation. Faulty as it is in detail, in the general conduct of its story it is good and true. Its representations of early California life are according to my information correct in the main, although much exag- gerated and caricatured, as indeed all its pictures of inferior society are; and its revelations of the working of political machinery inNew York may be trusted in all respects, always making allowance for a strong tinge of caricature and a great heightening oflocal colour. With the general chastening purpose and sober spirit of the book I also beg leave to express my entire accordance. I only wish to show that, whether written by a New or an Old Englander, it is the production of a man who has lived so much out of the current of New England life, that his testimony on all points cannot
Previous page
