themselves a school, and whose efforts are devoted to fostering immorality. They write books which overflow with filth. These books are widely read, perhaps not by the best people, but certainly by those who are much more likely to be hurt by them. The rapid multiplication, and the undeniable popularity of the "erotic novel," is a menace to American morals, and a disgrace to American letters. How are we to account for this phenomenon, for which the history of the literature of our language affords no precedent or parallel, unless it be in the corrupt literature of the Restoration? Does it not occur to us first of all to seek for a like cause, a foreign influence? In my judgment this is the true explanation, a foreign influence coming through two channels. It seems indisputable, that a principal cause must be found in the fact that in the centres of thought and population in this country, the AngloSaxon modes of thought and belief have been for the time superseded by a sort of cosmopolitan sentiment with a large Gallic constituent. The tremendous influx of foreigners of other races than our own has created a hybrid population, and unsettled conviction on almost every subject. and Sardou have a seasoning more to their taste. Hence, the S., P., R., A. J. school, of New York realists, producing such books as- -but we will not advertise them. It is not to be disputed that, first of all, the New York publisher consults New York taste, and while it is probably true that the American element is superior in intelligence and culture, it is certain that a considerable majority of the readers of ordinary current fiction in that city are foreign born. The larger cities of the country are nearly all under the dominion of foreign, un-American sentiment. It is in these cities, with their publishers, their papers, and magazines, that the writers congregate. Books of the kind we speak of are printed in New York because there is in that city a demand for them. They are indices of the intellectual desires and moral status of a great mass of readers in the metropolis. New York begot them, and New York sustains them and is begetting more of the kind. It But, it will be said, the argument is defective, because a large portion of our immigrant population is Teutonic. must be borne in mind that the allegation of moral superiority applies especially to the Anglo-Saxon people and literature. It is by the Anglo-Saxons, I submit, that the old German institutions and characteristics have been best preserved and developed. The developed. It is also true that the Teutonic as well as other immigrants are drawn from the lower classes of population, and are not, therefore, thoroughly representative. It may be admitted that the objection to the argument is in a measure valid. But who will stultify himself by denying to our foreign population a tremendous influence in literature, as in everything else; and who will deny that the great mass of this population is unEnglish, un-American, and inferior intellectually and morally? The thought centres of this country are undoubtedly Boston and New York. The reading public is largely made up of the inhabitants of the great cities. The population of Boston is 70 per cent foreign, that of New York is 80 per cent foreign, and that of Chicago, 90 per cent foreign. Consider together the facts that literature in England has constantly improved in moral tone even to this day, that the same spirit prevailed in American letters until recently, and that now the literature of this country is produced principally where foreign population and influences are ascendant, and can we reach any other conclusion than that the. immoral tendency of our popular fiction is largely the result of a moral decline among the people, caused by the presence of a numerous, unassimilated and inferior foreign population? Prosy, moral, English and American books and plays are not palatable to the twelve hundred thousand foreigners of New York City. Zola This is one source of foreign influence. The other is described in the one wordParis. A prominent man of letters said to me recently, that in his judgment the French were almost entirely responsible for our immoral fiction. There are ten thousand Americans resident in Paris. Thousands more annually visit that allur ing capital. Paris sets the fashion. These Americans readily yield to its fascinations, and become converts to its ways of acting and thinking. Pilgrims returning home bring with them the Parisian ideas. If they are only ladies and gentlemen, it is probable that this will appear most strikingly in a certain un-American and Gallic freedom in the range of conversation. If they are artists, a decided preference for unflinching nudity in art will be perceptible. If they are writers, they will laud the liberality of French sentiment, and long for the freedom of Balzac and Zola. I have heard it asserted that it is possible to trace directly to Paris the responsibility for all our erotic writers, who with accurate knowledge of our national conditions have begun at a propitious time the imitation of French romance. The French theatre has had not a little to do with the matter. Sardou and his high priestess of indecency, Sara Bernhardt, have visibly impressed us. They have greatly aided in degrading both the stage and the press. A little while ago La Tosca would have been hissed off the stage. Even now the newspapers denounce it; but cosmopolitan New York applauded it, and the provinces looked at it between their fingers, and its trail has been left all over the country. An older generation of New Yorkers would have shuddered at the sight of such books as Thou Shalt Not, Fatima, and The Pace That Kills. But this generation of foreign birth, or Parisian taste, exhausts edition after edition of them. These are not the only causes of the outbreak, but they are the most important. It is not uncommon to charge the fault upon the newspapers. But if these are sensational, and sometimes unclean, is it not for the same reason that the books are bad, that is because they suit the public taste? The newspaper is now more than ever devoted to the news. The day of learned editorials and great editors seems to have passed away. The policy of the elder Bennett prevails. The journals no longer seek to mould and direct opinion; they run with it and cater to it. The public prints the newspapers as well as the books. Our inquiry must go to the forces which move the public and give form and direction to opinion. A subordinate cause of this demand for literature of a low order, intellectually and morally, is the fact that there is a numerous reading public of limited intelligence. There are millions of readers, of inferior culture and refinement. This is more attributable to immigration than to anything else. Everybody almost can read, and does read; and the standard of fiction has been adjusted to the level of common-school readers. It is necessary to limit the application of this criticism. It is not true that American novelists of the higher order and established reputation have been infected. The atmosphere in which Howells, Aldrich, and Lew Wallace move is still undefiled. But a low sentiment and culture have produced a class of vicious writers to supply their own wants, who are ready to devote their poor talents to the gratification of a depraved appetite, finding thus a grateful notoriety and substantial rewards. The condition cannot continue. Our capacity of assimilation is only temporarily exceeded by the tremendous increase of foreign population. Moreover we shall relieve the situation by judicious legislation, if necessary, and that in the near future. The Anglo-Saxon character and sentiment will again prove themselves stronger than the French and all others. At the heart we are still sound. American institutions, a higher education, and the general advance of civilization, will triumph over these temporary evils; and the pitiful pessimist and eroticist will lose their audience and find their occupation gone. IMPERIOUS, throned above the blue expanse Of flowing tide that laps the cliffs and slips, The Old ill brooks the New; old world romance Dream-shades of vanished night. Morn, breaking, glows, Of sunlight, presage of a new-born day! W ANTI-SLAVERY BOSTON. By Archibald H. Grimke. WITHIN the Boston of to-day are contained many Bostons; for a great city, like a great soul, is a many-sided subject. It too has its epochal experiences, its circle within circle of history, growth, and character. Banyan-tree like, the great city, starting from a single parent stock, branches out ultimately into a whole forest of interrelated and complex facts and forces. The Boston of colonial times is not the Boston of the Revolution, nor is the Boston of the Revolution the Boston of the Anti In Slavery period. Each possesses a historic interest and distinction all its own. spiring and illustrious is the Boston of Otis and Quincy, of Adams and Hancock; but not less so is the Boston of Garrison, Phillips, Sumner, and Parker. The enduring endeavor of these men, their courage, eloquence, and superb devotion to human liberty, make this third epoch of the city's growth as glorious as any chapter of her history. The places whereon the Abolitionists stood and struggled and achieved have become holy ground. To point out, broadly, the localities and landmarks thus consecrated, and the associations connected with them, is the main purpose of this paper. young reformer had unfurled the banner of immediate and universal emancipation, in the slave city of Baltimore. The slave power had manifested its resentment by flinging the prophet into prison. There he had remained seven weeks, a martyr to free speech and the freedom of the press. When his prison door opened, it was upon a man consumed by a supreme, unconquerable purpose. The iron of oppression had entered into his soul and made him one with the slave. There was a gigantic wrong to overthrow, and he, with nothing in his hand save a pen, resolved to overthrow it. He needed, in these circumstances, a place to stand, and he selected Boston. He needed also a lever, and he chose the power of the press. Thus equipped, and standing where the men of 1776 had stood and battled before him for political liberty, he began with unrivalled zeal to throw the whole weight of his great soul upon the end of his lever of more than Archimedean power. The precise spot where he began operations by the publication of the Liberator was in one of the upper rooms of the building then standing on the northeast corner of Congress and Water Streets and known as Merchants' Hall. Oliver Johnson, a life-long friend and coadjutor has left this photographic impression of the place: "The dingy walls, the small windows bespattered with printers' ink, the press standing in one corner, the composing stands opposite, the long editorial and mailing tables covered with newspapers, the bed of the editor and publisher on the floor." Had he introduced into his negative a negro boy and the office cat, the picture would have been REDUCED FAC-SIMILE OF THE HEADING OF "THE LIBERATOR." LIBERATOR. Our Country is the World, our Countrymen are all Mankind. Anti-Slavery Boston had its origin in Garrison and the Liberator. The time was the winter of 1831. In 1829 the complete. |