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CORLEARS HOOK IN 1820 
 
 THE WAGNERIAN CULT, AND 
 
 OUR MANNERS 
 
The original of tinis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://archive.org/details/cu31924022464568 
 
CORLEARS HOOK IN 
 1830 
 
 THE WAGNERIAN CULT, 
 
 AND 
 OUR MANNERS 
 
 BY 
 RUSH C. HAWKINS 
 
 J. W. BOUTON 
 
 Ten West Twenty-Eighth Street 
 
 New York 
 
 1904 
 
 w 
 
 euiuKi: lU 
 U N I V li 1^ ^^-' I V Y 
 UlMUAKY . 
 
2- -r CT) 
 Copyright, 1904, by Rash C. Hawkins 
 
 THE LITERARY COLLECTOR PRESS 
 GREENWICH, CONNECTICUT 
 
Dedicated to and published for the select 
 few who love unconditional honesty, hate 
 shams, and have the courage of their con- 
 victions. 
 
APOLOGY 
 
 NEARLY half a century ago I spent the 
 better part of a beautiful spring Sunday 
 with Erastus Dow Palmer, a man of correct 
 taste, a charming companion and talented 
 sculptor, in walking through the streets of 
 Albany, searching outside of nature for a 
 thing of beauty. We were not particular 
 about the kind of a thing provided it had 
 about it a little of beauty — in reality a little 
 of the truly beautiful. 
 
 But what a hopelessly useless undertaking 
 it was! We saw the churches, public edi- 
 fices, schools, dwellings, stores, shops, and 
 other erections of the usual order, or rather 
 disorder ; and found only size and quantity. 
 Quality was entirely wanting, and the whole 
 reached the dead level of the unimaginative 
 and tasteless commonplace. 
 
 After a rather thorough going over of the 
 town, we came out of our search at the lower 
 
APOLOGY 
 
 end of the principal street, and halted in 
 front of a new banking house building just 
 completed. It bore evidence — outward sig- 
 nification — of interior use. It w^as solid and 
 honestly constructed, without the usual zinc 
 or wood cornice painted and sprinkled with 
 sand to represent stone ; and was adorned 
 with only a small amount of ornamentation 
 executed in fairly good taste. 
 
 While contemplating the new found wonder, 
 my friend said to me: "What do you think 
 of the day's work — how many buildings have 
 we seen w^hich from an architectural point of 
 view ought to exist ? " 
 
 The answer was: "Fruitless, unsatisfac- 
 tory, and but one." 
 
 "What proportion of the people, in your 
 opinion, ought to be professional grum- 
 blers?" 
 
 "About one in ten might find enough to do 
 to keep the other nine in order." 
 
 "You are all wrong, the proportion should 
 be the other way — ten to one instead of one 
 in ten." 
 
 I accepted his opinion, and ever since have 
 tried to do my duty, faithfully, as one of the 
 the ten. 
 
 R. C. H. 
 
CORLEARS HOOK IN 1820 
 
CORLEARS HOOK IN 1820 
 
 IN the good old days before the unscrupu- 
 lous grasping foreigners had taken pos- 
 session of the trades and the retail business 
 of New York, and the Irish had contracted 
 with themselves and their Church for its mis- 
 government and the handing it over, tongue- 
 tied, type-muffled, and bound hand and foot, 
 to the powers of Popery, for jobbery and rob- 
 bery, it was a pleasant place for human abode. 
 It was Christian without being puritanic ; its 
 inhabitants were active in politics without 
 being corrupt, and the laws for the protection 
 of life and property were as honestly admin- 
 istered as elsewhere. Of course, those who 
 know human nature will understand that, 
 even in those primitive days, a hundred 
 thousand, or two hundred thousand, or more, 
 of the superior animal could not be brought 
 together and exist in a condition altogether 
 Arcadian. Their habits of business and social 
 11 
 
CORLEARS HOOK IN 1820 
 
 intercourse had to be of the human sort. The 
 knowledge that a policeman's club was near 
 at hand ready for use, then, as now, had its 
 share of potent influence in protecting the 
 property of one Christian from the ravages 
 of another of the same faith. But it may be 
 safely contended that there was not as much 
 work for the club, per capita, then as now. 
 Notwithstanding the unpleasant conditions 
 which always obtain, and often govern, 
 where a large number of men and women are 
 brought together, the New York of those 
 days was a pleasant city to live in. 
 
 Possibly there might have been some little 
 attempt at class distinction ; but, if at all 
 effectual, the lines were so intangibly drawn 
 as to be almost imperceptible. Probably 
 those who styled themselves the "Uppers" 
 were, chiefly, the descendants of the early 
 Dutch. They could not have been particu- 
 larly open in their declarations of superior 
 social position, for the reason that a large 
 majority of thein were still engaged in small 
 occupations, the leading characteristics of 
 which would not have furnished pictorial 
 material for aristocratic heraldic quarterings. 
 If we only knew the facts, no doubt truth 
 would compel us to acknowledge that not 
 one in a hundred of those plodding Dutch 
 12 
 
CORLEARS HOOK IN 1820 
 
 traders, in a small way, ever dreamed that 
 within a hundred years he or any of his kind 
 would be catalogued as being the founder of 
 "one of the old Knickerbocker families of 
 New York." At that time the active propa- 
 gation of the "American Old Family" idea, 
 since so wonderfully pushed, was quite un- 
 known. The rule was to let the present work 
 quild up the character of the individual doing 
 it, and not to waste time in vsrriting and talk- 
 ing about the great value of an ancestry that 
 never existed. 
 
 Scattered throughout the State, with 
 branches in the cities, there were a few fam- 
 ilies of Anglo-Saxon descent who had per- 
 formed honorable service for the State and 
 bore unblemished records for personal integ- 
 rity ; but they were not numerous enough to 
 constitute a class, and, in their relations to 
 society, were not regarded as an existing class 
 by themselves. From this brief summary of 
 social conditions the reader might be led to 
 believe that the New York of the last half of 
 the eighteenth century and the first half of 
 the nineteenth century, in its general features, 
 was, to say the least, devoid of color. Such, 
 however, was not the fact. 
 
 For several decades before the close of what 
 may be designated as the reputable period of 
 13 
 
CORLBARS HOOK IN 1820 
 
 its history, there had grown up a distinctive 
 industrial middle class, descendants from the 
 English, Scotch and Protestant Irish, which 
 was strongly marked by a new set of charac- 
 teristics previously unknown outside of the 
 Puritan class in New England. These New 
 Yorkers had the sterling virtues of the East- 
 ern first settlers without their sombre de- 
 meanor and religious intolerance. They -w'ere 
 honest, industrious, and proud of their re- 
 spective occupations ; and, as mechanics of 
 skill, -were never happier than when "turning 
 out an honest job " for a reasonable compen- 
 sation. The thought of taking advantage of 
 the ignorance of a customer, and cheating 
 him either as to quantity or quality, -was not 
 to be thought of. 
 
 As late as 1850 the "American Mechanic 
 of New York" was a title to be proud 
 of; and, as a rule, he was independent 
 and "carried his head high." He often 
 boasted of his calling, and was ever ready 
 to state openly and boldly his utter detes- 
 tation of the deceitful and unfaithful meth- 
 ods of foreigners, who, by their double dealing, 
 were beginning to cheapen the reputation of 
 the honorable American workman. 
 
 This class, to a luan, was patriotic to the 
 core, believed in George Washington, Paul 
 14 
 
CORLEARS HOOK IN 1820 
 
 Jones, and the American Constitution, and 
 had the history of the " Glorious Revolution" 
 at their fingers' ends. In their intercourse 
 with others, they were good-natured, kindly, 
 and jocose, returning joke for joke, and 
 always ready to engage in disputations con- 
 cerning the topics of the day. In relation to 
 one matter they were bitterly intolerant. 
 They had inherited from their ancestors an 
 intense, ardent, and deep-seated detestation 
 of Popery. They had no use for the Romish 
 Hierarchy or for those who believed in it, and 
 would tolerate no fellowship with them. In 
 all affairs of everyday life they drew the line 
 so as to exclude contact with Papists, and 
 long before the first native American demon- 
 stration came to the surface, they had coined 
 the battle cry of "America for Americans," 
 and fought for it on many a bloody field. 
 These men were of the period of honesty and 
 manly courage, before the Roman Catholic 
 Irish and the Jesuits had become strong 
 enough to prevent the utterance of an honest 
 thought in relation to their misdeeds. At 
 that time, Americans were willing to fight 
 and stand up for their, ideas of a real lifelike 
 Americanism and their rights. 
 
 The thought that those truly manly speci- 
 mens, who formed a reliableclass of the high- 
 15 
 
COSLEARS HOOK IN 1820 
 
 est type of American citizenship, have passed 
 a'way, never to return, is not a pleasant one. 
 They formed a poHtical force of great value 
 to the body politic. Being strong, fearless, 
 and honest as they were in action, they were 
 of invaluable assistance in maintaining and 
 enforcing decency in politics. Election day 
 was their great occasion. The whole atmos- 
 phere of the city seemed to be filled with 
 the warning voice that "No Irish need 
 apply." They were permitted to work and 
 exist, but not to misgovern and rob as they 
 do now. 
 
 During the whole of the decent period in the 
 history of New York, there existed another 
 class, not as stalwart, strong, and bold as the 
 American mechanic, but quite as worthy, in 
 several respects, of being catalogued with him. 
 It was composed of the retail merchants — 
 the small traders who delivered good goods 
 and honest measure for a fair profit; who 
 never stopped to think if "honesty was the 
 best policy," but in all their dealing were hon- 
 est because it w^as right to be so. They w^ere 
 hand in hand with the stronger class, and 
 constituted a reserve force which the other 
 could rely upon for encouragement and sup- 
 port. This combination formed a powerful 
 and useful body of liberty-loving and worthy 
 16 
 
CORLBARS HOOK IN 1820 
 
 citizens, who paid their taxes, voted right, 
 and educated their children to be useful mem- 
 bers of society, and it goes without saying 
 that they were Christians to whom the ex- 
 ample of Christ's life and sayings, to a con- 
 siderable extent, was a reality and a living 
 lesson for daily use. 
 
 These two classes of right thinkers and 
 honest doers were, in their time, a potent 
 power for good ; and the candidates who as- 
 pired to office had to come into the political 
 court with clean hands. In those days the 
 boss of the present would have been an im- 
 possibility, and the Catholic priest, working 
 foul politics for the benefit of his organiza- 
 tion, kept so completely under the rose as 
 never to arouse a suspicion of his deeds of 
 darkness. 
 
 Notwithstanding it may not be necessary to 
 state that New York was emphatically an 
 American city, we may as well emphasize the 
 fact that it w^as quite as much so as Boston, 
 which had always prided itself upon staunch 
 and ultra-national characteristics. New 
 York was quite as American, but with a dif- 
 ferent complexion, composed of neutral tints, 
 social, political, and religious, blended to- 
 gether and presenting an outline of pleasant 
 aspect, rather than a bringing together 
 17 
 
CORLEARS HOOK IN 1820 
 
 of a group of unsympathetic angular forms, 
 which repel rather than attract. 
 
 Besides these important factors in the gen- 
 eral political and citizen make-ups of the 
 metropolis, there were other outlying groups 
 of men engaged in various occupations, none 
 of which was sufficiently numerous to form a 
 distinctive unit by itself. Among these were 
 themilk, coal, meat, fish, fruit, and other mer- 
 chants on wheels and other distributors of 
 supplies for daily use. In those primitive 
 times the great markets were not as much in 
 evidence as now, and the little local-supply 
 shops, •where we are permitted to pay from 
 two to four times the fair valuation for our 
 ■larder necessities, were fe-w and far between. 
 For these reasons the work of the butcher, 
 fishmonger, and vegetable-man w^as carried 
 on by the aid of the wagon. These honest 
 perambulating providers for the inner man 
 were not regarded with disrespect or treated 
 as outcasts, as is the costermonger of 
 London. Like other small traders they were 
 industrious, thriftj^ and heads of families 
 with homes. They assisted to maintain the 
 church of their choice, and in the affairs of 
 governmental concerns were active and al- 
 ways found on the right side, and, like their 
 friends engaged in other occupations, they 
 18 
 
CORLBARS HOOK IN 1820 
 
 were uncompromising belligerent Americans. 
 They possessed a stalwart belief in the supe- 
 riority of everything American, hated any- 
 thing English with all their might, and would 
 not have hesitated at the roasting of a Pope 
 or two. Their beliefs were honest and deep- 
 rooted, and, at all times, they were ready to 
 give convincing evidence of the sincerity of 
 their convictions. 
 
 One of the residence and business centres 
 for the particular classes described was a dis- 
 trict known as Corlears Hook. In a group 
 of a dozen blocks were located the well- 
 organized shops of many of these well-to-do 
 mechanics and small traders, all dwelling to- 
 gether, upon terms of mutual respect, in peace 
 and harmony. Their social intercourse was 
 simple, without restraint, and cordial. In 
 sickness and ill-fortune they were ardently 
 helpful to each other ; and in death all sym- 
 pathized with the sorrows of the afflicted 
 neighbor. To the looker-on this intercourse 
 with each other appeared more like that of a 
 country neighborhood than that which usu- 
 ally obtains in a section of a large city. 
 
 In the little community around and about 
 the "Hook" there was one real live institu- 
 tion valued above all others. It was known 
 as the "Saturday Night Session," and was 
 19 
 
CORLBARS HOOK IN 1820 
 
 held at the corner shop of " Cox the Cooper," 
 who presided and took a leading part in all 
 the discussions brought before the savants 
 and local pundits of the "Hook." 
 
 Cox, the character of the location, was a 
 noted -workman, who had built honest water 
 and air tight barrels on the same corner for 
 more than two scores of years. His trade 
 with Sag Harbor, New London, and New Bed- 
 ford was as reliable as the pointing of the 
 needle to the pole. It was said that the 
 whalers of those good old towns believed that 
 no other barrel ever existed that could hold 
 whale oil half as securely as those made by 
 " Cox of the Hook ; " and none of their ships 
 were considered properly outfitted without a 
 supply of oil-holders from the shop of the reli- 
 able Cox. This reputation for honest -work 
 at a fair price brought wealth and happiness 
 its owner, and made him the ideal of 
 the whole neighborhood. He was held up 
 as a model for the boys, and had the 
 privilege, in a fatherly way, of kissing all the 
 pretty cherubs in petticoats who chanced to 
 pass his way; and it was a general belief 
 about the Hook that a majority of the pink- 
 cheeked sweet fifteeners would deviate several 
 blocks from the most direct course to school 
 for the purpose of receiving the clean honest 
 20 
 
CORLEARS HOOK IN 1820 
 
 smack always ready for them. Those were 
 the days when acknowledged virtue had its 
 cash-down rewards. 
 
 The w^eekly Sessions at the cooper-shop 
 were, in their way, picturesque, and, if not as 
 important as the sittings of the "Tobacco 
 Cabinet" of the father of Frederick the 
 Great, they were quite as interesting to those 
 fortunate ones who ^vere permitted to par- 
 ticipate in their deliberations. Subjects of 
 local interest usually absorbed the attention 
 of the Sessions, but, once in a while, the wan- 
 dering council for selections w^ould inject their 
 pokings into the domain of neighborhood 
 scandals, involving the deviations of some 
 backsliding brother or sister, who had 
 yielded to the ardent persuasions of a brother 
 seeking to make recruits for some struggling 
 rival congregation. These backslidings from 
 the kirk of one denomination to that of an- 
 other were always regarded with serious dis- 
 favor, and usually provoked emphatic con- 
 demnation. One of the dictums of the Hook 
 was, that the religion of the fathers and 
 ihothers was good enough for the children, 
 and that a change of front, in relation to 
 Christian creed, was the unforgivable sin. 
 For many acknowledged reasons, theology 
 held the topmost position among the subjects 
 21 
 
CORLEARS HOOK IN 1820 
 
 brought before the Sessions for discussion; 
 but questions concerning what constituted 
 true Americanism, and the poHtical situation 
 generally, were more frequently considered. 
 
 It may be written of these subjects that the 
 debates upon theology were the most learned; 
 those about Americanism the most exciting, 
 and those upon politics the most varied. 
 Among the debaters were several standard 
 talkers, always on tap, and ready with an 
 overflow of words of wisdom. The Ses- 
 sions were informal, but, by general con- 
 sent. Cox presided, and opened proceedings 
 by asking if there was any news, or if any- 
 body had anything to say. Nothing more 
 was needed than this usual starter to set in 
 motion the vibrating procession of intellects. 
 Josiah Jenkinson, a leading milkman and a 
 close-communion Baptist, was a staunch and 
 sturdy defender of infant damnation, was 
 well up in his orthodoxy, and a dealer of 
 heavy blows against all new-fangled innova- 
 tions. Pilkington, the successfiil saddler, was 
 high authority on all matters pertaining to 
 higher politics as applied to historic Ameri- 
 canism. He knew the history of the Revolu- 
 tion, could quote George Washington by the 
 hour, and had at the tip of his tongue, ready 
 for action, the entire doings of "the Fathers" 
 22 
 
CORLEARS HOOK IN 1820 
 
 at the time of the formation of the Constitu- 
 tion. In short, he was high authority, and 
 when he had once called an opponent down, 
 no one dared question his act. Joseph 
 Holden, the stalwart blacksmith of Madison 
 Street, or " Big Joe," as he was called by his 
 familiars because of his great size and 
 strength as well as his good-nature, was per- 
 fectly at home in the field of American and 
 English naval history. From two directions 
 he was of illustrious descent. On his father's 
 side, in direct line, he could go back to a war- 
 rant-officer on board the "Victory" with 
 Nelson, and his mother's father had been on 
 a bloody deck with Decatur. Among his 
 household treasures were relics of both an- 
 cestral patriots. These were exhibited on 
 Washington's birthday and the Fourth of 
 July, when the whole population of the city 
 was invited to inspect. Upon these occasions 
 the American flag was profusely in evidence, 
 and the glories of true Americanism the only 
 subject discussed. At the Sessions Holden 
 w^as not a great talker, but his few words 
 were often quite as effectual as the blows of 
 his hammer upon his anvil, and every one 
 told. Seth Hathaway was the acknowledged 
 head of the master-shipwrights of the Hook. 
 Born near the end of the eighteenth century, 
 23 
 
CORLEARS HOOK IN 1820 
 
 he was old enough to have been a boy on 
 board the "Constitution" in her famous 
 cruise when she captured the "Guerriere." 
 He was blessed with a remarkable memory 
 and was a most notable spinner of sea-yarns. 
 Occasionally, when Holden would make a 
 slip in relation to the date of some naval in- 
 cident, Hathawaj' would call him down and 
 set his history to rights. Corporal Pearson, 
 the cutler of East Broadway, who had 
 earned his military signification while serv- 
 ing at Lundy's Lane with Scott and in a local 
 militia company, known to the irreverent 
 urchins of the neighborhood as the "Hook- 
 town Rangers," Avas a constant attendant 
 at the Sessions, and, although not bril- 
 liant as a talker or notable in debate, he was 
 known to be somewhat profound -when it 
 came to thinking, and -was a sturdy supporter 
 of the Methodist side of all theological ques- 
 tions. He often made it warm for the gentle- 
 men on the other side, and, when he had fin- 
 ished his argument, his audience had to 
 admit that Pearson carried brimstone on 
 both shoulders. 
 
 These personages were not leaders: they 
 have been outlined for the purpose of show- 
 ing the human quality of the Sessions 
 rather than the quantity. There were half 
 24 
 
CORLBARS HOOK IN 1820 
 
 a score or more, besides, who, in many re- 
 spects, were the equals of those described. 
 Each had his special field, and knew how to 
 set forth his propositions with force and suf- 
 ficient clearness to interest an audience of 
 "Hookites." In those days there were 
 neither stenographers nor typewriters, and 
 so, unfortunately, the tons of wisdom that 
 were let fall those nights at Cox's, which 
 ought to have become historic, are lost, and 
 cannot be cited among the rare examples of 
 exceptional American eloquence. 
 
 The traditions of the "Hook" are singu- 
 larly uniform in setting forth the usual good 
 order -which prevailed during the meetings 
 of the Sessions. No matter how warm the 
 discussion, order and good-nature ruled the 
 proceedings. There was, however, one w^ell- 
 remembered exception to the general rule. A 
 certain Yankee skipper, named Jabez Blaisdell, 
 hailing from Gloucester, who fished on the 
 ' ' Banks ' ' during the cod season, and freighted 
 through Long Island Sound all other sea- 
 sons, had, by stress of breakage on the part 
 of the good schooner "Eliza Blaisdell," been 
 compelled to go into the repair yard of the 
 reliable Seth Hathaway for repairs. 
 
 It so happened that during the detention 
 of the "Eliza B." there was to be a Session, 
 25 
 
CORLBARS HOOK IN 1820 
 
 and the good ship-doctor, suspecting no 
 harm, asked the bold skipper of the Cod 
 Banks to attend. The night arrived, and 
 Captain Blaisdell, in his best suit of brass 
 buttons, on short sea-blue broadcloth, jacket 
 and all, was steered into port under the pilot- 
 age of the confiding mender of ships. The 
 guest was duly presented to the assembled 
 members, his history recounted, and his mer- 
 its as an accomplished seaman of experience 
 elaborated. Peace reigned and a high pres- 
 sure of happiness filled the air. It so 
 happened, as it often does, w^hen the unex- 
 pected is about to occur, that there was an 
 unseen sword, capable of doing decisive exe- 
 cution, dangling in the air. That unfortunate 
 night there was a careless manager of the 
 fates on duty, who shaped the course of the 
 Session nearly to a point of fatal disaster. 
 In regular order, after the usual questions of 
 the presiding official, Jeroloman Purdy, chief 
 workman in the fashionable hat-shop of 
 Catharine Street, responded to the call, and 
 announced that he had something to say. 
 He had lately been seduced from the ironclad 
 mysteries of the Westminster Creed and gone 
 over to the more liberal and fascinating 
 allurements of the Thirty-Nine Articles. He 
 ventured to suggest, with logical exactitude, 
 26 
 
CORLEARS HOOK IN 1820 
 
 and in far too pleasing colors for his audi- 
 ence, the superiority of the thirty-nine over 
 all other creeds known to the various ortho- 
 doxies then in vogue. This was before the 
 Mormons had launched their new^ ark of 
 many matrimonial covenants ; the Spiritual- 
 ists were in the -wromb of the future, and the 
 most disordered dream could not have pic- 
 tured the fantasies of the Christian Scientists. 
 Had these existed we might be called upon to 
 record a still deeper fall from the grace of 
 serpent-made sin. 
 
 The launching of the joyful experience in 
 relation to the newly found theological 
 Elysium, proved to be a w^hole load of apples 
 of discord roughlj cast upon the quiet waters 
 of the Session, and, long before the offen- 
 der had resumed his seat, hot shot were pour- 
 ing in from the heavy ordnance mounted 
 upon the outworks of the various orthodox- 
 ies represented. When the speaker sat down, 
 there was a great uproar. Condemnation 
 unanimous was on top and temperate exhor- 
 tation out of the question. As usual, when 
 dissension and disorder came to the surface, 
 Cox, with his level appreciation of conditions, 
 came to the rescue with a proposition that 
 the matter under discussion, being of serious 
 import, should go over to a coming meeting 
 27 
 
CORLBARS HOOK IN 1820 
 
 for further consideration, when members 
 would be better prepared to answer the ar- 
 gument of their fellow^-member. After a 
 temperate speech of five minutes by Holden, 
 sustaining the Chair, a majority vote was 
 cast for the going over. 
 
 Peace having been restored, and the evening 
 still young, the chairman suggested that 
 there -waStimefor further observations if any 
 gentleman present desired to speak. This 
 invitation brought the mender of ships to his 
 feet, who, after clearing his throat, remarked 
 that there w^as present among them a stran- 
 ger from the good old Commonwealth of 
 Massachusetts, who knew the sea and, in his 
 day, had seen many foreign parts ; and he, no 
 doubt, could tell them many things that they 
 would like to hear, and he begged permission 
 of the chairman to ask Captain Blaisdell of 
 the schooner "Eliza Blaisdell" of the good 
 old sea-town of Gloucester, to favor the 
 Session with a few remarks. This propo- 
 sition was received with becoming applause, 
 and the chairman hoped the honored Captain 
 would respond. The guest fairly jumped to 
 the occasion with as much alacrity as in the 
 early days of his career, when ordered to go 
 aloft during his first voyage, on the good ship 
 "Rainbow," when hesailed the world around. 
 28 
 
CORLBARS HOOK IN 1820 
 
 It may not be out of place to write that 
 the gallant captain, who was about to go 
 into the business of distributing firebrands, 
 was the most distinguished-looking person- 
 age in that whole assemblage. He was little 
 above the medium height, straight as the oft- 
 quoted arrow, compact, and so solidly put 
 together that it was easy to see that his snug 
 fitting sailorman clothes covered no super- 
 fluous adipose matter. Muscle, fiber, and 
 bones were represented in due proportion, 
 and the whole was topped off by a head of 
 almost classic mould, which carried brows 
 that partially concealed beneath their ample 
 projections a pair of clear, piercing gray eyes 
 which might have been equal to the work of 
 the highest-perching eagle that ever soared 
 above the everlasting snows of the Andes. 
 The whole make-up indicated strength, cour- 
 age, and conviction. If he had lived at the 
 time of the Athenian games, and had entered 
 to contest, Pericles would have chosen him 
 for the highest honors and Aspasia bestowed 
 upon him her most fascinating and enticing 
 smile. 
 
 This was the man on his feet. After a pro- 
 forma clearing of his throat and apologizing 
 for presuming to attempt to entertain so dis- 
 tinguished an audience, he struck out for 
 29 
 
CORLBARS HOOK IN 1820 
 
 several well-defined objectives with a vigor 
 which, figuratively, shook the rafters of the 
 old cooper-shop as they had never been 
 shaken before — at least since the great wind- 
 storm near the end of the previous century — 
 when the "whole roof was lifted and dropped 
 in the lot beyond." 
 
 He acted like one who had cut loose from 
 all hindering bearings, and dashed into the 
 fight without fear or wish for support. He 
 said : — " I have listened to the discussion this 
 evening with a great deal of interest, more, 
 perhaps, than any of you can imagine. For 
 you must know that this whole Bible business 
 has been a sort of a specialty of mine ever 
 since I knew an anchor from a bowsprit. My 
 father commenced fighting his side of the 
 battle before I was born, and, as soon as I 
 got old enough, I was mustered in as a re- 
 cruit for his gun's crew, and that is one of 
 the reasons why I have been firing hot shot 
 ever since I was old enough to bite a cart- 
 ridge. 
 
 "I'm not aboard either of your crafts. 
 Down where w^e sail from, we cut the cables 
 and went adrift from the old brimstone hulks 
 years and years ago, to sail on the ocean of 
 freedom where men count for something, 
 and creeds, articles of faith, and iron-clad 
 30 
 
CORLEARS HOOK IN 1820 
 
 meek-faced professions very little, and I tell 
 you none of us have regretted the cutting 
 away with the strong old pilot who went 
 before us. 
 
 " ' Way back in the last century, we had a 
 message from out the Kingdom of Common 
 Sense and set up a new light, and the messen- 
 ger w^ho brought it stopped over night at 
 Charity Four Corners, and, when he sailed 
 a-way, he was loaded down to the rail with 
 the best cargo a skipper ever carried from a 
 port. He came in under full canvas to the 
 good old sea-town of Gloucester, on the 
 shores of Massachusetts, with a cargo to 
 gladden the hearts of the heavy-laden, and, 
 to assist in lifting the burdens from shoulders 
 not strong enough to bear them, he pro- 
 claimed 'Peace on Earth and Good- Will to 
 Man,' and told us that was the ever-living 
 rule of action which had been taught by the 
 loving, gentle representative on earth of the 
 Great Captain. 
 
 "At first the brimstone divisions of the 
 Lord's army were shocked, and did not dare 
 look at the man who had courage to utter 
 such unheard-of heresy, and they w^ould have 
 driven the blasphemer out of town. But a 
 few brave men and women said he was hon- 
 est and that he should have fair treatment, 
 31 
 
CORLEARS HOOK IN 1820 
 
 and stay with them long enough to tell them 
 what he had to say ; and what he said and 
 taught has remained a living lesson in the 
 staunch old Yankee town from that day to 
 this. With a brave backing to sustain him, 
 he opened ports and spread all sail to the 
 breeze, nor feared shoals, rocks, or headwinds. 
 The good ship 'Charity,' Captain John 
 Murray, Able Seaman, kept right on her 
 course on the boundless ocean of humanity, 
 with her master at the w^heel, until the 
 greater Captain of all called him to a higher 
 command. 
 
 "Before he came among us to the rescue, 
 our plain simple-minded people had been told, 
 in one breath, that an all-merciful and loving 
 God had, from the very outset of his work in 
 this world, damned all of his children to 
 everlasting flames, because a silly woman had 
 eaten a bit of fruit which she had taken- 
 from the mouth of a snake in the Garden of 
 Eden. And the worst of it was, if you can 
 believe it, they were fools enough to swallow 
 such a repulsive dose. If you will stop and 
 think the matter over, and don't believe too 
 quick, you will come to the conclusion that 
 the kind of love your orthodox God bestows 
 upon his children is of the sort you would 
 not care to accept from your own father; and 
 32 
 
CORLBARS HOOK IN 1820 
 
 if you are half-way honest and decent, you 
 would not deal it out to your own children. 
 
 "The light that came to us from out the 
 new Kingdom gave us some novelideas about 
 love and charity. We were told that the one 
 particular representative of the God we were 
 to worship had upon an occasion been called 
 upon to listen to accusations against an un- 
 fortunate woman who had deviated from the 
 straight course, and, after hearing all her 
 accusers had to say, lifted her up, and, in gen- 
 tle tones of compassion, said : ' Go thy way, 
 and sin no more.' The good men, like the 
 orthodox of to-day, who had brought her 
 before Him were doubtless horrified and scan- 
 dalized, because the terrors of Hell were not 
 invoked for the unfortunate sinner and she 
 consigned to the regions of torture. In this 
 connection you will remember that, when her 
 accusers were the loudest in their demands 
 for condemnation, the same gentle voice said 
 something about the casting of stones at the 
 unfortunate before him. And if what he said 
 was right, and I believe it was, none of us can 
 afford to throw stones at the most degraded 
 or unfortunate of the human race. 
 
 In these two sayings, compressed in a nut- 
 shell, are the entire teachings of the Master 
 teacher we all pretend to follow and w^orship; 
 33 
 
CORLEARS HOOli IN 1820 
 
 and yet how far we fall short of Hving up to 
 the least of his admonitions. Admitting this 
 is the knowing of our own shortcomings, 
 then why should we be so exacting with 
 others? Christianity without charity for 
 each other — I mean real living charity — not 
 that dead-and-alive sort of stuff that is active 
 in prosperity and inactive in adversity, which 
 is an empty shell with no meat inside. A 
 profession of religion v^ithout charity for the 
 weaknesses and misfortunes of others is a 
 morally deforming pretence as empty as it is 
 worthless to its o-wner. Do you knowr what 
 our Captain v^ould say, if he were here to- 
 night, about such professors? It would be 
 something like this : ' Oh, ye praying hypo- 
 crites, how little ye are of me and how 
 much of your deceitful selves.' 
 
 ' ' Ever since I was old enough to see through 
 a ship's glass I have been on and of the salt 
 water, and, as I look back, it seems to me that 
 I took my love for it in with my mother's milk, 
 and, soon as I got old enough to toddle, I pad- 
 dled in it, and threw stones into it, to see the 
 splash they made upon the surface of that 
 ocean which, in after years, was to become 
 my home. Since then I have been everything 
 from cabin-boy to master; and the more I 
 know of my second mother the more I love 
 34 
 
CORLBARS HOOK IN 1820 
 
 her. Even her furious moods bring her 
 closer to my heart, and I am never so happy 
 as when holding the course of a staunch ves- 
 sel through a great storm, which makes us 
 feel and. appreciate in all its fearful might and 
 power the grandeur of the great unseen force 
 of the Almighty. Many a night, when alone 
 on the deck with the wheel, I have looked 
 aloft into the clear blue sky and tried to 
 pierce the mysteries beyond the stars to find 
 out what there is hidden beyond them. And 
 the morel have tried the greater the mystery, 
 and the more I am convinced that it was not 
 intended w^e should know the secrets of the 
 unseen worlds beyond. So I am compelled to 
 take it for granted that the great power that 
 placed us where we are to-day will look after 
 us in the never-ending to-morrow. But one 
 or two things we do know : we must do our 
 part in the way of honesty, good faith in all 
 things, and deal out charity and kindness 
 wherever we can, and, if we do all these, we 
 need have no fears about the future. When 
 we reach our last port of entry, the question 
 of what we believed down here will not be 
 asked, but the Captain of the port will want 
 a clear log, telling of deeds done. So sail the 
 right course, and have no fear either for here 
 or for the hereafter. 
 
 35 
 
CORLBARS HOOK IN 1820 
 
 " I suppose I ought to beg pardon for what 
 I have said, but I do n't feel very much like it ; 
 and if I have thrown out a kedge in the 
 wrong direction, I couldn't help it. I'm not 
 a missionary ; that sort of business is not in 
 my line, but I've tried, now and then, to drop 
 an anchor where I know the bottom is good, 
 but a little hard. It will not be my fault if it 
 doesn't hold. 
 
 "Now, in parting, let me say another word 
 which I hope you '11 take in good part. Over- 
 haul your charts, take new observations for 
 correcting bearings, and, my v^^ord for it, 
 before you have got through with your work 
 you'll want a complete set of new sailing 
 directions. Now, good night, and may health 
 and prosperity be with you." 
 
 During the preaching of this unexpected 
 sermon, silent astonishment reigned supreme, 
 and upon the countenance of each hearer 
 there ■was to be seen an expression which told 
 of a new and startling sensation. At first 
 there was a feeling on the part of the most 
 indurated of the truly orthodox to call down 
 the daring blasphemer. But, as he proceeded, 
 disapproval and interest had so increased, 
 that the call for a halt died an unobserved 
 death. When the orator took his seat, there 
 was neither applause nor congratulations. 
 36 
 
CORLBARS HOOK IN 1820 
 
 The hearers looked in every direction save 
 towards the offending skipper. Hathaway, 
 the innocent cause of the evening's offence, 
 seeing the reigning embarrassment, and suf- 
 fering under the weight of guilt he was com- 
 pelled to bear, moved to adjourn. The vote, 
 unanimous, like the toast usually drunk 
 standing and in silence for a recently de- 
 parted, was recorded in the affirmative. The 
 audience, passing out, avoided the side of the 
 room occupied by the fearless offender. 
 
 No proposition could be further out of the 
 way than to judge this community by its 
 faith in a varied assortment of case-hardened 
 orthodox merciless creeds. It is true that 
 they were relentless sticklers, each for the per- 
 fect directness of his own particular road to 
 eternity; and none would admit that the 
 right sort of salvation could be reached by 
 going over another. And as for probation 
 after death, indulgence in such a thought 
 w^ould have been regarded as an unforgivable 
 heterodoxy; and yet, notwithstanding the 
 hardness of their Christianity, they were hon- 
 est men and women and good citizens. 
 
 Running along, hand in hand with their 
 hardened beliefs, was the living, active, deep- 
 rooted conviction that honesty and good 
 faith in all affairs of life should be the rule of 
 37 
 
CORLBARS HOOK IN 1820 
 
 action. Religion to them meant something 
 besides a hymn book, the family bible, a meek 
 face and a Sunday suit of clothes. A contract 
 once made with them was perfectly' sure of 
 faithful performance as to time, quality, and 
 quantity ; no watching, as in these days, to 
 prevent the practice of every conceivable 
 species of fraud. 
 
 These purely Protestant American com- 
 munities no longer exist. Abut 1850, vicious 
 foreigners, for the most part of a very low 
 strain, commenced to flood our unfortunate 
 shores, and now, in the place of our passed- 
 away splendid specimens of strong, true 
 manhood, we have the habitual foreign-born 
 cheat and time-serving trickster, bent upon 
 deception, and giving the worst possible 
 "job " for the highest possible price. 
 
 LETTER FROM JOSEPH HOLDENTO HIS MOTHER 
 
 Dear Mother : 
 
 We had a first-class stirring-up at the "Session" the 
 other night. Jerry Purdy commenced the performance 
 by telling how happy he had been since he quit the old 
 meeting-house and went over to the Piscople. This did 
 not amount to much, and wouldn't have made much of 
 a disturbance, but he had to go on with his foolish talk 
 about the superiority of his thirty-nine articles over all 
 other creeds. That was a little bit more than most of us 
 could stand ; and, soon as he got through, the whole 
 38 
 
CORLEARS HOOK IN 1820 
 
 place was in ahowl. Everybody was up and wanted to 
 have his say all at the same time, and I tell you it 
 looked pretty squally. But Cox, as usual, was the only 
 cool head of the whole lot, and when he said the matter 
 under consideration was serious and weighty, wanted a 
 great deal of thinking over, and needed more time, it 
 was dropped — I suppose until the next "Session." 
 
 But what we had gone through wasn't a, priming 
 for the hot shot to come. Seth Hathaway had under his 
 wing a full-blooded Yankee skipper from Massachusetts, 
 who had put in for repairs, and, without knowing any- 
 thing about him, got him on his feet for a speech. And 
 didn't we get it. Hot shot for a full half-hour ! Such a 
 talk as was never heard in that old Cooper's shop 
 before. He said they'd had a minister down in the old 
 seaport town he came from who had invented a new 
 religion leaving Hell out altogether; that there wouldn't 
 be any punishment after death, and that we needn't be 
 afraid of Hell, save only for the one we make for our- 
 selves here. And he went on with a lot more about 
 Christ having come on earth to teach love and charity 
 and good-will and all that for everybody, sinners in- 
 cluded. He told us that creeds and beliefs weren't of so 
 much account as most folks pretend, but that to act 
 right was the great business of life ; and that when we 
 get to Heaven w^e won't be asked what we believed 
 down here, but would have to show a clean log of life's 
 voyage. And, finally, that we were all wrong in our 
 bearings, and if we'd overhaul the facts in the case, we 
 would call for a new^ chart with better and plainer sail- 
 ing directions. 
 
 Such depravity none of us had ever heard before, and 
 some of them said it was a vironder the roof hadn't tum- 
 bled in and destroyed us all. The talkers were so dumb- 
 founded that, when he sat down, not one could say a 
 39 
 
CORLEARS HOOK IN 1820 
 
 word. We all believed the feller was honest, and Hatha- 
 way said he was as square as a brick, but on the wrong 
 tack. We all shunned him as we would a small-pox 
 wagon. But, somehow, I could n't quite feel that he was 
 all wrong — he looked so honest and bold and strong. 
 Soon as I can get time I intend to study the matter up 
 for myself and see what there is to it. Like as not his 
 doctrine may not be so bad, after all. 1 wish you could 
 have been there and seen how they took it. 
 Your affectionate son, 
 
 Joseph Holden. 
 
 Eighteen hundred and forty-seven was 
 known as the "Great Famine Year" in 
 Ireland, and a year of plenty in our own 
 country; and, as usual, our ships were loaded 
 with food and sent to succor the starving. 
 These acts of charity were blessings for them, 
 but a resulting curse for us. For then it was, 
 for the first time, that the Irish priests came 
 to a realizing sense of our resources. They 
 examined more carefully than before our 
 scheme of government, and recognized our 
 utter silliness in attempting to found a well- 
 regulated and reputable government upon 
 manhood suffrage ; and they immediately set 
 to work the usual Romish machinery, in- 
 tended for its ultimate capture and degrada- 
 tion ; so that by 1850 it was in full opera- 
 tion, and has been working at high-pressure 
 40 
 
CORLEARS HOOK IN 1820 
 
 point from that |time to the present. And 
 now the taxpayers, the pohce forces, criminal 
 judges, managers of eleemosynary institu- 
 tions, and keepers of prisons of all our large 
 cities, and a majority of the lesser, are fully 
 and feelingly aware of the results. 
 
 Before the advancing accumulations of 
 these and other invading priest-ridden hordes 
 of semi-savages, our purely American com- 
 munities have melted away and left no trace 
 behind or evidence of what they once -were. 
 The little community of the Hook held on to 
 its distinctive individuality with characteris- 
 tic tenacity until the middle of the last cen- 
 tury, and then disappeared. It could not 
 stand against the great deluge of degraded 
 humanity from foreign shores; and, in the 
 presence of that mighty onward-moving 
 procession of evil purpose, headed by a 
 brazen standard-bearer who carried, figura- 
 tively, the ill-omened green flag of Erin with 
 mitre and cross keys surmounting, the old true 
 spirit of the Stars and Stripes went down. 
 That was the beginning of a period which 
 has ended in our complete subjugation, accom- 
 panied by our moral and political degra- 
 dation. 
 
 If called upon to write an appropriate 
 inscription for their final resting-place, what 
 41 
 
CORLBARS HOOK IN 1820 
 
 could be more appropriate than this: — 
 " Here are buried the mortal remains of hon- 
 est men and women who once formed a 
 community of true Americans. They be- 
 lieved in virtue and patriotism, and fought 
 valiantly for their beliefs until compelled to 
 surrender to the overwhelming power of 
 foreign invaders. They feared God, and the 
 Hell of their day, and did right." 
 
 42 
 
THE WAGNERIAN CULT 
 
THE WAGNERIAN CULT 
 
 UNDOUBTEDLY the greatest art-incident 
 of the last century was the launching 
 upon the peaceful sea of musical content of 
 the startling and original works of Richard 
 Wagner. They came like the often-cited dark 
 cloud from out the clear sky of a placid 
 summer's day; and the only immediate 
 questions asked w^ere : who and w^hy? 
 
 At first the musicians were bewildered ; the 
 amateur and the average lover of music were 
 overwhelmed with astonishment, and won- 
 dered what it Mv^s all about; and only a 
 venturesome few attempted a solution of 
 musical puzzles which appeared to be beyond 
 the power of classification. 
 
 After a while, orchestras distant from the 
 Wagnerian centers began to perform care- 
 fully-arranged selections from the most tak- 
 ing and comprehensible parts of the different 
 scores, and the music critics began to try to 
 45 
 
THE WAGNERIAN CULT 
 
 explain the subtle secrets of the new lyric 
 mysteries. But all the information imparted 
 from these sources failed to give even an in- 
 dex perception of the surprises which were in 
 store for those who had studied the works of 
 the most notable of the past composers. 
 
 The selections performed by the orchestras 
 were arranged, for the most part, from the 
 simplest harmonic and melodious parts of 
 the stage compositions, and were justly re- 
 garded as being remarkable for their com- 
 plete originality, convincing expression, and 
 newprogressions of tone-combinations, which 
 resulted in original harmonies of rare gran- 
 deur and melodies of unqualified beauty. In 
 each there abounded characteristics quite 
 their own which at once stamped their com- 
 poser as a master-genius of exceptional and 
 original power. 
 
 In this limited orchestral way, communi- 
 ties and even nations were partly educated 
 to a point of sanguine expectation seldom 
 equalled, and, when the opportunities ar- 
 rived for witnessing the completed works of 
 the master, they were prepared for novel 
 feasts of exceptional beauties which they had 
 been led to believe were in store for them. 
 
 What follows in this paper is not a serious 
 attempt to either question or « analyze the 
 46 
 
THE WAGNERIAN CULT 
 
 works of an admittedly great genius. It 
 proposes, only, in an ad captandum way, by 
 direct statement, and also by anecdotal or 
 historic indirection, to give some of the 
 reasons why a considerable portion of the 
 expectants were disappointed when they 
 witnessed the completed works of the master. 
 
 The fact that one of the layman class — an 
 individual of no particular importance, with 
 little or no pretence to musical culture — had 
 been to see and hear the opera, or whatever 
 else it may be called, of Tristan and Isolde 
 by Richard Wagner, and managed to sit 
 through the whole performance, is not of 
 special importance; but the people who 
 constitute the public are usually more or less 
 interested in the entertainments to which 
 they are invited to contribute towards sus- 
 taining, and for that reason I am putting 
 down a few thoughts, queries, and anecdotes 
 which seem to be germane to the Wagnerian 
 proposition, and, possibty, worthy of some 
 little consideration. 
 
 The strenuous advocates and ardent 
 admirers of that composer claim that his 
 works have attained to the highest level of 
 excellence in musical composition yet known ; 
 and some of his most partial advocates now 
 call him the "Shakespeare of Music." 
 47 
 
THE WAGNERIAN CULT 
 
 Up to the time of Wagner's discovery of his 
 peculiar methods, the intelligent portion of 
 the civilized world had possessed themselves 
 of some rather clear, definite, and somewhat 
 fixed and settled ideas as to what the term 
 music meant. But since the advent of the 
 forceful "Music of the Future," a goodly- 
 number, many of -whom are more or less 
 musical, are beginning to doubt if they ever 
 clearly comprehended the meaning of that old 
 and simple word. Beyond all reasonable 
 doubt, for several centuries, it had indicated 
 a combination of art and science the practi- 
 cal results of which have pleased the senses 
 and soothed the troubled nerves, rather than 
 stood for seemingly enigmatical abstractions, 
 or a series of strange sounds which mystifies 
 and confuses all minds save those that are 
 metaphysically disposed or are severely 
 classical, according to the newest interpreta- 
 tion of that term. Possibly, to those who 
 are so exceptionally favored, anything, how- 
 ever strange, fierce, grotesque, or out of the 
 ordinary, may appear to be pleasant or 
 beautiful. 
 
 The amorous Knight Don of Cervantes, 
 
 transformed, to suit his ideal, the coarsest 
 
 type of a village wench into the fairest Dulci- 
 
 nea the world ever beheld; a professional 
 
 48 
 
THE WAGNERIAN CULT 
 
 gourmet prefers decayed game to fresh; 
 the gentleman from Kentucky prefers even 
 the raw staple of his place and period, if he 
 cannot get old, to champagne; and many, 
 among those of to-day seeking the confused 
 lights of the murky etherial, prefer Browning 
 to Byron. The Chinese have a kind of music 
 about six thousand years old, which, to un- 
 tutored and uncultivated ears, seems to be 
 like that of the present school of the future ; 
 and these unsanctified heathens prefer the 
 music of their ancient and peculiar school to 
 that of any other. They appear to be very 
 fond of noise and some little rhythm thrown 
 in here and there in detached spots ; but they 
 are as innocent of self-evident continuity 
 of motive as the most ardent disciple of 
 Bayreuth could demand. 
 
 The lexicographers agree that music is a 
 science which teaches the properties, depen- 
 dencies, and relations of melodious sounds 
 — an art over which the Muses preside; any 
 combination of sounds agreeable to the ear, 
 melody, harmony, and symphony. . Shakes- 
 peare believed that aconcord of sweet sounds 
 and music are the same. Congreve assures 
 us "that music hath charms to soothe the 
 savage breast," and many other notable 
 poets and writers of all times have written 
 49 
 
THE WAGNERIAN CULT 
 
 of it as though they considered melody and 
 harmony the most essential parts of music. 
 
 It has been generally believed that sym- 
 pathetic melodies have a tendency to soothe 
 and calm the troubled spirits of those burden- 
 ed with sorrow; and that the simple, solid 
 harmonies of such unpretending composi- 
 tions as "Old Hundred," "God Save the 
 King," and hundreds of other kindred com- 
 positions, with their steady onflowing pro- 
 gressions, thrill through the human organism, 
 and lift the mind to realms of reverence, 
 patriotism, peace, and noble aspirations. 
 The words and simple melody of such — un- 
 fortunately now out of date — fireside songs 
 as "Home, Sweet Home," the "Last Rose 
 of Summer," and many scores of others 
 that might be mentioned, appeal to the 
 sentimental side of our natures and touch the 
 innermost recess of the human heart. Their 
 simplicity of construction evokes emotional 
 responses from all kindly natures and often 
 excites the emotions of several kinds of the 
 lower animals. 
 
 Many of the national airs of the various 
 nations are truly inspiring in the simple 
 grandeur of their expression of patriotic 
 sentiments; but the "Marseillaise" is the 
 greatest of all the marching and fighting 
 50 
 
THE WAGNERIAN CULT 
 
 songs. As a combination of patriotic words 
 and appropriate moving musical sounds it 
 has never been surpassed. Its words inspire 
 the loftiest sentiments of patriotism, while its 
 impassioned stirring strains lead those ,who 
 sing them to deeds of heroic daring. It is 
 possible that this single popular composition 
 of Roger de Lisle may outlive the whole 
 school of the purely exclamatory composi- 
 tions. 
 
 While I am an ardent believer in the popu- 
 lar and patriotic compositions which are 
 known to the civilized nations, and am with 
 Dibdin, to an extent, in his saying that he 
 did not care who made the laws of a country 
 so long as he could write their songs, I can- 
 not forget or cease to admire the works of 
 such composers as Beethoven, Mozart, and 
 other great Germans, and the more notable 
 among the Italians and French whose com- 
 positions are known and, even now, are the 
 household property of the refined and cul- 
 tured wherever music is known. And some 
 of the later composers of our own time, 
 Meyerbeer, Mendelssohn, Weber, Verdi, 
 Gounod, Thomas, Chopin, and others, have 
 erected musical monuments which will never 
 perish. These were melodists and harmo- 
 nists, and their works prove, as plainly as 
 51 
 
THE WAGNERIAN CULT 
 
 possible, that they believed in the power of 
 those simple progressions which produce the 
 grandest harmony and the simplest melodies. 
 It evidently never occurred to them that de- 
 tached noises should be the chief end and aim 
 of musical composition. 
 
 A musical composition, in its established 
 and better sense, means an independent quan- 
 tity and quality, each composition standing 
 quite by itself and wholly independent of col- 
 lateral support. Logically an opera is an 
 absolute absurdity, but not always an un- 
 pleasant one. It may have airs, duets, trios, 
 quartets, and choruses, which can be appro- 
 priately rendered in the concert room without 
 the aid of machinery, scenery, properties, or 
 dresses ; but there are several of Wagner's 
 exclamatory specialities that have not a sin- 
 gle voice composition worthj' or susceptible 
 of an independent performance. This is not- 
 ably the case with his admittedly acute 
 masterpiece, Tristan and Isolde, which has not 
 a single singable air or melody in it ; and it 
 may be said of nearly all of his stage and 
 scenic works that, if the orchestral supports 
 were left out, the vocal parts of the scores could 
 not be performed — i. e., to pleasurable profit. 
 
 I hold it as a great and dominant truth 
 that the first ofiice of all the arts is to 
 52 
 
THE WAGNERIAN CULT 
 
 interpret beautj^ — to express joy, and there- 
 by to add something to the sum total of 
 human happiness, and when either of the 
 greater arts fails to accomplish this it might 
 as well not exist. 
 
 Of all the sisterhood of the arts, music is 
 the one which comes the nearest to taking 
 full possession of the human heart. If very 
 beautiful and sympathetic in its continuity of 
 noble harmony and appealing melody, it 
 takes possession of our most active and acute 
 sense, and through that finds its way to the 
 seat of human emotions. But it is a popular 
 mistake to suppose it goes directly to the 
 seat of our physical emotions. These 
 pleasurable vibrations find their way to the 
 heart through the finer and most sympa- 
 thetic sense which adorns the human intellect. 
 The capture of that appreciation is involun- 
 tary and imperceptible, and it comes to us as 
 a joyous perception which takes and holds 
 whether we will or not, and only releases 
 when the last beautiful strain has lost itself 
 in the depths of our rapt appreciation. 
 
 It is very difficult for the unmusical man to 
 comprehend what Wagner did believe in more 
 than noise. It is absolutely certain that in 
 that one quality he had unbounded faith; 
 and, when he exemplified that faith to the 
 53 
 
THE WAGNERIAN CULT 
 
 extent of his capacity and modern resources, 
 he produced his music of the future. 
 
 In verity, in Paris Wagner had a hard 
 time. His efforts for a foothold never suc- 
 ceeded, and his long period of waiting, cover- 
 ing years of disappointments, was crowned 
 with that w^eight of poverty which crushes 
 without killing. Promises were made by 
 those in authority which were never intended 
 to be kept; but, through all the vexations 
 he was compelled to endure, there were a few 
 friends of great influence who stood by him 
 and had made up their minds that he should 
 be granted a hearing. Among them were the 
 Prince and Princess Metternich, the Princess 
 Mathilde, some other of the notables and a 
 small number from among the men of letters. 
 
 The Emperor Napoleon like the others, had 
 made promises which were not kept, and the 
 Princess Mathilde, who among all his rela- 
 tives was the favorite, had often chided 
 him for his want of good faith. In fact, 
 as the story goes, she had upon several occa- 
 sions made it rather torrid for his Imperial 
 Highness, and at one certain Sunday even- 
 ing gathering, at the Tuileries, she became 
 so fervent in her demand for promise keeping 
 that the Emperor, conditionally, was com- 
 pelled to yield. At that time Paris had a 
 54 
 
THE WAGNERIAN CULT 
 
 ■woman. Paris usually has a woman. She 
 •was one of those coarse-voiced singers, so- 
 called, -we often find at the Ambassadeurs 
 and other like places. She was vigorously 
 graceful, and did the highest kicks, by one of 
 her sex, up to that time, ever seen in Paris. 
 In answer to the appeal of Princess Mathilde 
 the Emperor said : — "I will send for my hat, 
 
 and if you will do for it what on the 
 
 stage does for the hats of others every night, 
 here, now^, and in the presence of this com- 
 pany, Taanizauser shall be produced." Not 
 to be foiled by any such test of her earnest- 
 ness as the one proposed, the brave little 
 woman said: "Produce the hat." It was 
 sent for; the Emperor placed it upon his 
 head, and, taking his position in the middle 
 of the room, the Princess, gathering her 
 skirts appropriately out of the way of the 
 kicking member, with a sudden quickness, 
 that no other woman on earth could manage 
 so well as a French woman, shot out the toe 
 of her right slipper to the needed height, and 
 sent the Imperial hat bounding against the 
 nearest chandelier. In due time Tannhauser 
 was produced and recorded a failure, said to 
 have been promoted by a conspiracy planned 
 at the Jockey Club and carried to a success 
 in the Opera House. 
 
 55 
 
THE WAGNERIAN CULT 
 
 The performance was followed by the 
 consequent wonderment of all Paris, and not 
 one among those who witnessed it could 
 understand the why of its existence. Its 
 music to them was absolutely incomprehen- 
 sible. One critic described it as a volcanic 
 eruption from the other side of the Rhine 
 purposely sent to Paris for creating a panic 
 among the French. Prosper Merim&, when 
 asked by Theophile Gautier what he thought 
 of it, replied: — "I don't know, nor does 
 any one else, anything about it. Its existence 
 can be accounted for upon onty one possible 
 theory. It may have been composed and 
 performed in Paris to pay off the French for 
 having captured and occupied Berlin in 1806 ; 
 and, if it was, the Germans have got the best 
 of it. Their revenge is complete, and we 
 must be careful about interfering with their 
 capital a second time." 
 
 The first serious operatic incursion of 
 "Wagnerians into the West created as much 
 consternation as had its predecessor when it 
 made its entrance into the capital of France. 
 A correspondent, then living in Chicago, of 
 one of the well-known trans-Mississippi jour- 
 nals, wrote a graphic description of w^hat he 
 had seen and heard, and the following is 
 transcribed, not quite literally, from the end 
 56 
 
THE WAGNERIAN CULT 
 
 of his communication: "More interesting 
 than the performance was the audience of 
 which I was a part. Nothing could be more 
 curious than the various facial expressions by 
 which I w^as surrounded. Some expressed 
 impatience at not having reached the end, 
 others determination to sit it out, and occa- 
 sionally could be seen a countenance showing 
 mental distress and worriment, while the 
 majority of the audience looked as though 
 they were saying to themselves 'I wonder 
 what it is all about and what a fool I was to 
 come,' and towardstheend everybody looked 
 intensely bored." This quotation is inserted 
 to show the effect of the new school upon an 
 unknowing Philistine of the Western type. 
 
 The Wagner cult came in time, appropri- 
 ately and in natural order, out of a period 
 which gave birth to such exceptionals as 
 Browning, with his well-nigh incomprehen- 
 sible and complicated so-called poetry. Whit- 
 man with his barbaric yawpings, Burne- 
 Jones with his sickly, sentimental, boneless 
 sinuosities, which, if alive, could neither 
 move, think, nor speak; Manet, with his 
 splashings and streakings of paint, w^hich are 
 usually devoid of intelligible purpose, form, 
 or expression, Rodin, a sculptor of wondrous 
 power, but with the abnormal strain which 
 57 
 
THE WAGNERIAN CULT 
 
 culminated in the production of his night- 
 mare statue of Balzac, and others of the 
 nineteenth century abnormals that might be 
 mentioned. Such as these have been en- 
 throned by their worshippers, who have set 
 aside all that has gone before in the way of 
 beauty in form or bearing the charm of sim- 
 plicity in expression. These are the apostles 
 of disorder who have tried to set the arts by 
 the ears and banish forever from use those 
 old methods of composition and execution 
 which have produced the great masterpieces 
 of all ages. So it seems that the Wagnerian 
 discovery was an essential which came in 
 time to completethecircleof abnormals, who, 
 with their period, had to be set to music, and 
 ■we are regretfully compelled to place to the 
 credit of its power, greater, and more far- 
 reaching influence in its particular field than 
 we can give to either of the others. 
 
 The triumphant coming in of this disregard 
 for simplicity of form, without which the 
 expression of the beautiful is impossible, 
 sounded the death knell of the real dilettante 
 and left little else in its place than an indis- 
 criminate non-intelligent patronage for the 
 confused mechanical deformities produced by 
 the abnormals and the half-instructed pre- 
 tenders, who have usurped the places once 
 58 
 
THE WAGNERIAN CULT 
 
 occupied by earnest and honest workers, who 
 w^ere guided by lofty aspirations and a proper 
 appreciation of the proprieties involved in 
 their undertakings. 
 
 It is claimed by the ardent advocates of 
 the Wagnerian innovations that they have 
 achieved a dominant influence — have driven 
 out of the musical field a large proportion of 
 the favorite compositions enjoyed by past 
 generations, and have influenced to an entire 
 change of method, spirit, and color nearly all 
 of our later compositions; and, it must be 
 acknowledged, to such an extent that a large 
 number of present composers are content to 
 be imitators of their be-worshipped proto- 
 type. The harm, in this direction, is beyond 
 estimation, as anyone who keeps au courant 
 w^ith present-time compositions can appreci- 
 ate, and especially with the instrumental, 
 which often consist of a series of disconnected 
 noises, more or less violently executed, with- 
 out a discernible motive, and usuallj^ most 
 offensive to the ear. These compositions find 
 their most fitting and offensive expression in 
 the Fest Marsch and the Vorspiel. They 
 are, evidently, test compositions to be handed 
 in at the entrance of the Wagnerian temple 
 before the neophyte can be admitted to full 
 communion. 
 
 59 
 
THE WAGNERIAN CULT 
 
 These compositions and their kindred stand 
 for all that is incomprehensible, unsympa- 
 thetic and repulsive in the new school ; and 
 are nothing if not musical nightmares that 
 disturb to the point of distraction — almost 
 ■without exciting a single pleasurable emo- 
 tion. Apparently, to the non-expert, they 
 show only detached groups of short pas- 
 sages, of a few bars each, which seem to stand 
 quite by themselves, having no connection 
 with the passage that preceded or the one 
 that follows ; and the whole appears to show 
 but one motive : a succession of outre difficul- 
 ties which none outside a learned few can 
 understand. 
 
 The influence of this kind of composition 
 has also affected to a disheartening extent 
 the composers who have and others who 
 might have written real operas, but who in- 
 stead have given to the world such incompre- 
 hensible sound-rubbish as MeSstofeles, Es- 
 clarmonde, Le Cid, Die Konigin von Saba, 
 Sigurd, and others of the same order, with 
 which a too-patient world has been afflicted 
 within the last thirty years. 
 
 But the harm done in the way of demorali- 
 zation among the composers is nothing com- 
 pared to the destruction of vocalism and the 
 wrecking of human voices. The male singers 
 60 
 
THE WAGNERIAN CULT 
 
 after having yelled and bellowed their parts, 
 and the ill-fated women who have screamed 
 and screeched through the Wagnerian reper- 
 toire, are no longer vocalists. And, often, 
 when too late, find themselves compelled to 
 delve in their limited field a few years, 
 and then retire with a broken voice to regret 
 the past and to wonder what they might 
 have been had they chosen another path. 
 The Wagnerian cemetery is strewn with the 
 bones of these unfortunates, who might have 
 been real singers. 
 
 Possibly the most complete expression of 
 this peculiar kind of composition, which an 
 irreverent American has designated as "Boiler 
 Shop Music," appeared in Philadelphia at 
 the opening of the Centennial Exhibition 
 of 1876. The directors of that Exhibition 
 wanted a centennial march worthy of the 
 occasion, and were induced by an authority, 
 of German origin, in matters of music, to 
 engage Wagner to undertake the composition 
 of such a work. The agreed-upon price was 
 ten thousand dollars. In due time the score 
 was delivered and the price paid. It was 
 performed at the opening of the exhibition 
 under the leadership of Theodore Thomas at 
 the head of a large orchestra of selected per- 
 formers. 
 
 61 
 
THE WAGNERIAN CULT 
 
 When the command to commence was given 
 by the raising of the baton tens of thousands 
 of patriotic citizens were crowding the upper 
 heights of supreme expectation. But -what 
 a wondrous disappointment they were des- 
 tined to experience ! Those untutored simple 
 people had expected to hear something in the 
 real old historic marching time, cast in a 
 heroic mould, with a movement which in the 
 ages past had carried millions of brave men 
 to deeds of valor and glorious victory — such 
 as had excited the patriotic emotions of our 
 own who had fought and fallen upon the 
 many fields which have made our people 
 known for their deeds of daring. But instead 
 they were treated to a series lasting about 
 fifteen minutes, of roars, bangs, blasts and 
 blares of unmeaning sound without rhythm, 
 form, color or expression. From the begin- 
 ning to the end it was an impudent imperti- 
 nence. With its first performance, -without 
 regret or applause, it went to the immeasur- 
 able depths of an avenging oblivion and has 
 never been heard of since. 
 
 It is not only for music that I make the 
 plea for simplicity of form and expression, but 
 for the other arts as well. The masterpieces 
 of all the greater periods are chiefly char- 
 acteristic for their directness both as to 
 62 
 
THE WAGNERIAN CULT 
 
 composition and execution. In their archi- 
 tecture, sculpture, poetry, and prose, the 
 Greeks carried these quahties to the extreme 
 limit of perfection; and achieved a degree 
 of lofty dignity and harmonious grandeur 
 not known before, which perished with their 
 decadence never to reappear. 
 
 Her arts and culture made Athens the 
 Queen of the ancient civilizations, and no mon- 
 arch ever wore a more befitting crown than 
 the noble structure that adorned the heights 
 of the Acropolis. It was at once the sign of 
 her glory and culture ; and never before nor 
 since has there been seen a structure which in 
 itself embodied so much that stood for and 
 illustrated the greater qualities of a nation 
 — its strength, its refinement, its education, 
 and complete appreciation of the appropri- 
 ately artistic. The solemnity of its dignified 
 and symmetrical outline made it appear 
 as though fashioned by nature for the place 
 upon which it rests. Viewed from any point 
 it proved grandeur of conception and perfec- 
 tion of purpose. The Parthenon illustrates, 
 by standing at the head of its line, only one 
 division in the field of Greek culture and re- 
 finement. In sculpture her artists excelled 
 all others in their noble conceptions and sim- 
 ple methods of execution. Without ornament 
 63 
 
THE WAGNERIAN CULT 
 
 or exceptional poses they managed to 
 express the emotions and human realities of 
 everyday life. When they executed a portrait 
 statue, it was of the man, showing quality 
 of position, often the plane of occupation and 
 mental habit. We see these qualities com- 
 pletely exemplified in the Lateran Statue of 
 Sophocles, the Dying Gladiator of the Capitol 
 Museum and the Athlete in the Braccio 
 NuoYO of the Vatican. The latter represents 
 a semi-heroic ideal, but undoubtedly from 
 nature, conceived and executed in the better 
 Greek spirit, showing a real man. 
 
 Of the later sculptors since the culmination 
 of the Greek period only three can be named : 
 Donatello, Michael Angelo and Rodin, who 
 in some of their works have shown to com- 
 pleteness the true Greek spirit. The St. John 
 of the first has the merit of originality of 
 conception, charm of unaffected simplicity as 
 to treatment and other qualities which stand 
 for and illustrate the characteristics intended 
 to be represented. The Moses of the second 
 — simple, dignified and strong — impresses 
 more than it pleases, but having been seen can 
 never be forgotten. It has about it so much 
 of each — the sculptor and the law-giver. 
 His sitting statue of Lorenzo, Duke of 
 Urbino — known as "II Pensoso" in the 
 64 
 
THE WAGNERIAN CULT 
 
 Medicean Chapel, more than any other re- 
 veals to us the greatest genius known to 
 history. Although unlike the Greeks in the 
 details of its execution, its bigness of purpose 
 and exceptional power for expression, make 
 it one of the most striking among the fasci- 
 nating art monuments of the world. Rodin 
 is the only sculptor of our later times, who, 
 without imitating, in some of his works has 
 shown a rare appreciation of Greek methods. 
 His nude statue of the Aryan Age, executed 
 in the truest spirit of directness and simplic- 
 ity, and his exceptionally impressive group of 
 the " Bourgeois de Calais" entitle him to be 
 ranked with the best who have gone before. 
 Among our own countrymen who have inade 
 good statues may be mentioned St. Gaudens, 
 in whose statue of Lincoln we see in its tru- 
 est sense a rare greatness of purpose and suc- 
 cessful execution. Bartlett's Michael Angelo 
 is another successful effort in the same direc- 
 tion ; and no sculptor of our own times has 
 sent to posterity a more characteristic pre- 
 sentment of an exceptional character than 
 the Tribune statue of Greeley, executed by J. 
 Q. A. Ward. 
 
 The same rules the Greeks applied so suc- 
 cessfully we readily recognize in many of the 
 w^orks of the more notable painters of the later 
 65 
 
THE WAGNERIAN CULT 
 
 times. The Sistine Madonna and portrait of 
 Julius II. of Raphael, the Anatomical Lesson 
 and Portrait of the Gilder by Rembrandt, the 
 Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci, the Innocent 
 X. by Velasquez, the Sacred and Profane Love 
 and the Bella Donna of Titian, the Decadence 
 of Couture, the Portrait of Leon Coignet by 
 Bonnat and Whistler's portrait of his mother. 
 These and more by the same masters, and 
 others, prove the lasting value of what might 
 almost be designated as the Greek formula in 
 relation to the execution of the veritable 
 artistic. 
 
 The beauty of, and truths expressed in the 
 works enumerated, strike the beholder at 
 once, and need no labored explanations or 
 strenuous arguments to convince of their 
 superior value as real works of art in its 
 better, universally acknowledged, and legiti- 
 mate sense. While music appeals to another 
 sense — hearing instead of seeing — it is a fact 
 that beauty of form and expression, in each 
 instance, are the qualities that captivate and 
 hold our realization of the beautiful — in the 
 sounds we hear the same as in the objects we 
 see. 
 
 If in the Wagnerian scheme there lurked an 
 intent to do away with the bel canto in 
 vocalism, we may record the absolute fact of 
 66 
 
THB WAGNERIAN CULT 
 
 its success. For now within the whole field 
 of the Wagnerian Cult there is not a single 
 vocalist who could present to us the faintest 
 shadow of the truly beautiful of the supreme 
 art, which in the past had among its votaries 
 some of the greatest names known to the 
 history of the divine art of sympathetic and 
 sentimental vocalism. It has been said of 
 Wagner that, when he was remonstrated 
 with in relation to the seeming impossibility 
 of executing some of the so-called vocal parts 
 of his scores, and the probable destructive ef- 
 fects upon the voices of those who might 
 attempt to sing them, he answered "destruc- 
 tion of voices is no affair of mine : there is the 
 score." 
 
 One argument frequently used in favor of 
 the Wagnerian music is that it is not popu- 
 lar ; and I believe it is true that the vocal is 
 seldom heard outside of an opera-house and 
 the instrumental mostly in the concert-room. 
 This certainly indicates an exceptional 
 mercy. If the hand-organs were to appro- 
 priate some parts of it for daily use they 
 -would send whole communities to lunatic- 
 asylums, and make life for those who remain 
 outside their walls a burden quite beyond 
 human endurance. There has always existed 
 a rather well-founded belief that musicians 
 67 
 
THE WAGNERIAN CULT 
 
 were pleased when their compositions be- 
 came popular. Popularity oftentimes brings 
 profit and pleasure, both of which are grati- 
 fying to that quality of vanity which is as 
 universal as humanity. But we are led to 
 infer that the music of the future is above 
 any such trifling consideration. Its votaries 
 appear to be satisfied with what they 
 assume ought to be the approval of all 
 mankind. 
 
 One of the most curious of all the curiosities 
 this musical revolution has developed is the 
 professional American musical critic. He is 
 at once all-knowing and imperial. He brooks 
 no dissension from his dictums, and sits 
 enthroned upon an upper level of omnipotent 
 superiority. Upon his favorite subject he is 
 always eloquent, if not convincing ; but it is 
 only after listening to Tristan and Isolde, 
 the magnum opus of his God, that he ascends 
 to the celestial altitudes where he reaps an 
 abundance of the special beatitudes appro- 
 priate to his greater occasion. When this 
 particular kind of an upward movement 
 comes over him he lets himself go — wings, 
 inkppt, and the whole beatitude outfit, and 
 the world is then treated to an account of 
 special soarings such as the celestials never 
 scheduled in their wildest dreams. 
 
 68 
 
THB WAGNERIAN CULT 
 
 Sometimes this gentleman wastes a little 
 of his time for the purpose of noting what 
 to avoid in seeing performed some of the 
 works of the older operatic composers. 
 Upon the occasion of the performance of one 
 of the old Italian operas, when Sembrich 
 and Caruso were making a display of their 
 rare qualities as bel canto singers, the critic 
 of one of our "great metropolitan dailies" 
 ventured to look in upon the audience, and, 
 to his surprise, the house was filled to over- 
 flowing with seemingly happy people, ignor- 
 ant of their shortcomings, who were show- 
 ing indications of real pleasure. The next 
 day there appeared in his column an account 
 of the full house and his surprise at the joy- 
 ous and satisfied expression of the audience 
 while witnessing the performance of such an 
 inferior and out-of-date composition. It was 
 as evident as possible, from his point of view, 
 that those miserable people, who did not 
 know that they ought to be unhappy, had 
 no right to enjoy themselves — in such a man- 
 ner. They should have gone to an opera (?) 
 to observe, to study, to calculate, and then 
 go to their homes, get out the Euclids, their 
 boxes of mathematical instruments, their 
 logarithms, and metaphysical works, and 
 set themselves to trying to find out what it 
 69 
 
THE WAGNERIAN CULT 
 
 all meant. This, according to the ardent 
 disciples of the Wagnerian Cult, would afford 
 the highest enjoyment to which the human 
 understanding could attain. 
 
 It would be difficult to find either a man 
 or woman, of reasonable culture, possessing 
 a fair amount of knowledge of the theory 
 and practice of music, who would assert that 
 Richard Wagner was not a great master of 
 his art-science. His high standing as a musi- 
 cian has become solidly historical. His 
 methods and work were completely original, 
 and the results to the human ear often repul- 
 sive and always difficult to comprehend; 
 but, occasionally, when he indulges in lucid 
 moments and condescends to open, not very 
 w^ide, the gate to an exceptional musical 
 paradise, we are treated to some rare ex- 
 amples of his calmer and better qualities, 
 such as human beings who had not had the 
 good fortune to be able to climb to his 
 awful heights can appreciate and enjoy. 
 These beauty spots, having charms all their 
 own, come to us like some soothing spirit of 
 sound, from out his dreary and oftentimes 
 aw^ful deserts of outre and unearthly noises, 
 illustrating the wondrous power of a great 
 genius and an accomplished artist; and 
 make us wish he had cut loose from his 
 70 
 
THE WAGNERIAN CULT 
 
 singular theories and worked himself down 
 to a level of artistic beauty that the un- 
 initiated could understand. 
 
 Personally I feel that Aida is about as far 
 in the Wagnerian direction as any composer 
 ought to venture. That composition is both 
 understandable and enjoyable, and has never 
 needed the strenuous efforts of intolerant 
 partisans to maintain its meritorious posi- 
 tion among the greater operatic composi- 
 tions. It has neither the sweet tum-tum of 
 the old Italian compositions nor the brain- 
 worrying and tympanum-splitting of all 
 that is dreary and repulsive in the Wagner- 
 ian masterpieces. 
 
 71 
 
OUR MANNERS 
 
OUR MANNERS 
 
 TN the social world the question of manners 
 -^ for at least two centuries has been one of 
 considerable importance; and, possibly, un- 
 due weight has been attached to their posses- 
 sion and too much condemnation bestowed 
 for their absence; and for those reasons it 
 may not be out of place to give the results of 
 a brief inquiry into the origin of the word, its 
 adoption into the English language, and its 
 present signification. It is quite clear that 
 its present acceptation and applications are 
 in the main arbitrary, and the word has no 
 well-defined, exact foundation in a root. 
 
 In 1425, Charles the VII. of France had 
 for a Father Confessor an Augustine monk 
 called Jacques Le Grand, who wrote for the 
 instruction of the royal household a consid- 
 erable series of short stories of purely moral 
 and ennobling tendencies. They were written 
 in Latin, and, in 1487, Caxton translated 
 75 
 
OUR MANNERS 
 
 them into English, and issued an edition of 
 them from his London press under the title of 
 the Book of Good Manners. Here was a 
 clear substitution for the word morals and, 
 possibly, the first prominent instance of its 
 false use in our language. After Caxton's 
 translation there came several in French 
 under the title of Livre de bonne moeurs 
 which literally translated means the book of 
 good morals. 
 
 Its present application, and possibly its 
 existence, is probably due to the use made 
 of it by the early English translators of the 
 Old and New Testaments. The earliest 
 English editions have not been examined, but 
 the word is found so often in the King James 
 version that we are inevitabl^^ led to the con- 
 clusion that it must have been used in its 
 present sense by the earlier translators, prob- 
 abl}'- by Wj-clif in 1360 and Tyndale and 
 Coverdale in 1535. In 1611 was issued the 
 King James version, and in it we find fre- 
 quent use of the word in its present sense. 
 The better known instance is to be found in 
 Cor. 1, XV : "Evil communications corrupt 
 good manners." Here, undoubtedly, we 
 have an arbitrary application of a compara- 
 tively new word ; and, until convinced to the 
 contrary, we are compelled to believe that 
 76 
 
OUR MANNERS 
 
 morals are more corrupted by evil communi- 
 cations than manners. 
 
 It maybe said that, during the first quarter 
 of the seventeenth century, it was fairly in- 
 corporated into our language, and became, by 
 the poets and other writers, an acknowledged 
 part of it. Since then several authors have 
 maintained that it means mi.nor morals and 
 nothing more. 
 
 The French have the word moeurs, -which 
 with them stands for manners, morals, hab- 
 its; and when they say sans moeurs they 
 mean unprincipled ; but custom has made the 
 word apply to a nation or other unit of 
 population rather than to persons. When 
 the French say "Les bonnes manieres" they 
 convey the idea, if applied to a person, that 
 he is polite, of pleasant ways, of good de- 
 meanor, that he has done something plea- 
 sant, is civil, polished, or that he is charming 
 of speech. This phrase, like many others in 
 the French language, is elastic, and can be 
 stretched in many directions. In several 
 other modern languages they have the 
 equivalent with substantially the same appli- 
 cations. 
 
 An exhaustive investigation would un- 
 doubtedly prove that the now generally 
 accepted meaning and application of the 
 77 
 
OUR MANNERS 
 
 word manners grew out of a loose conception 
 of an expression intended to stand for mor- 
 als; and, gradually, we have come to accept 
 an outward show of artificial manifesta- 
 tions, bowings, and scrapings, so to speak, 
 or, as the French better express it, "La po- 
 litesse dttchapeau," for something very much 
 beyond their real value. Morality is a reality 
 — a well defined quality — while manners are 
 but shadows, standing as much for real man- 
 hood as the posings of a charlatan, and no 
 more. But the worst of it is we do not pos- 
 sess the much prized shadow: as a rule we 
 rest our claims to social superiority upon the 
 unsupported fact of a bank account. We 
 assume, and quite correctly, from an Ameri- 
 can standpoint, that all things and qualities 
 can be purchased with a cheque, or, in other 
 words, millionnaires can go to a society 
 exchange, give an order for a certain style 
 or grade of social position, and pay for it 
 on delivery. 
 
 Plain John Tadpole of to-day, floundering 
 about in his little pool in search of his daily 
 necessities, by a fortunate accident becomes 
 the mighty millionnaire bull-frog of to-mor- 
 row, and then commence the real troubles 
 of the frog family. The puffing up and ex- 
 panding out to fill new conditions; the 
 78 
 
OVR MANNERS 
 
 creation or the reconstruction of a visiting- 
 list; who to put on and who to leave off; 
 the selection of a coat-of-arms ; whether to 
 join the rather high church of St. Vanitas or 
 that of the Holy something else, and, among 
 other items, a new set of manners are taken 
 on, which are often as ill-fitting and unbe- 
 coming as the habitual overdressing of our 
 new recruits to the national peerage. When 
 thus armed and duly equipped, then comes 
 the greater struggle of all — often Napoleonic 
 in its conception and execution — the how to 
 get in. That's the question! The tactical 
 taking up of arms against a world of kicks 
 and snubs from those fortunates who 
 guard the entrance to plutocracy's para- 
 dise. 
 
 By careful observation of these struggles, be- 
 holders may see how much easier it is for the 
 average man to stand up heroically against 
 a whole deluge of adversity than to float 
 easily and gracefully upon the topmost crest 
 of the wave of prosperity. 
 
 This description stands for a numerous and 
 all-powerful class which has fairly deluged 
 our social surface since 1861. At that time 
 commenced the departure from the quiet old 
 ways to the ostentatious new which now 
 prevail. Corruptly obtained land-grants by 
 79 
 
OUR MANNERS 
 
 the millions of acres, the potent stock- 
 watering-pot in the hands of railroad mana- 
 gers, the extortionate trusts, successful stock- 
 sharpery, and unprecedented success in 
 manufacturing and mercantile affairs over 
 the whole countr3% have contributed their 
 full share to our social disorders. From out 
 this mass of raw human material, grown 
 wealthy by the means described, we have 
 manufactured a sort of tailor-made mock- 
 duke aristocracy which we would pass off 
 upon the world for the real article. It resem- 
 bles an ideal and well-bred aristocracy about 
 as much as one of its anise-seed bag chases 
 does a real hunt. All that money could do 
 has been done; but even the po"wer of the 
 million must stop somewhere. It can neither 
 purchase good-breeding nor refinement ; and 
 yet there are still a small number of over- 
 particular people who are so unreasonable as 
 to find fault with present American fashions 
 in manners. We forget that it has taken 
 several of tlie prominent European nations 
 many centuries to plant , and grow to flower 
 an aristocracy, and, even with the most 
 patient care and steady soil-enriching, the 
 favored plant has often failed to mature. 
 It is a well-known fact that the English snob 
 and cad is as often of noble birth as any 
 80 
 
OVR MANNERS 
 
 other, and that the towering uniformed 
 German brute is usually from the top range 
 of Teutonic nobility. Our aristocracy, how- 
 ever, has produced an article which possesses 
 the offensive qualities of these, to which may 
 be added an appearance of idiocy w^hich those 
 described do not possess. The American 
 "dude" stands alone, and, so far as we 
 know, there is nothing like him under the sun; 
 nor do we know what the word means, but 
 when we see the thing we feel its value and 
 realize its real significance. 
 
 Those outside of the assumed-to-be upper 
 strata of our local social system several 
 years ago experienced a genuine sensation. 
 Before, an occasional side-light had been let in 
 upon their occupations, and just enough seen 
 to whet the appetite for more, and it was 
 soon gratified by having the front door 
 thrown wide open and the full light of the 
 midday sun let in upon the gilded mysteries. 
 The high-priest of fashion wrote a book! 
 That great man published for the enlighten- 
 ment of the world a veritable history re- 
 counting the doings, as seen by him, in Mam- 
 mon's paradise. What a dull place was pict- 
 ured ! Millinery pertaining to the adornment 
 of both sexes and mentis were our only discov- 
 eries. In other words, the mantua-maker 
 81 
 
OUR MANNERS 
 
 and larder dominate, and are never per- 
 mitted to leave the sight. His scores of 
 dull pages exalt only the commonplace, and 
 he attempts to foist into a position of per- 
 manent prominence a concrete mass com- 
 posed of indescribable nonentities. Through 
 the whole of this discouraging narration we 
 search in vain for a brilliant sally of wit, a 
 bright repartee, a sensible saying, an account 
 of a kind act, a gentle expression of human 
 sympathy, or the record of one useftil deed 
 done, and w^e put the book down with the 
 conviction that those of whom it treats are 
 almost incapable of a noble act or a saying 
 worth remembering. Such a weak laudation 
 of ostentatious vanity was never before 
 printed, and there can be no excuse for its 
 existence save one, and that is, it will serve as 
 a warning in teaching us what to avoid. 
 
 It may be asked what has all this to do 
 with American morals and manners ; the 
 answer is — very much. But, before w^e can 
 fully feel the force of the connection, we must 
 consider the word " morals " in its higher and 
 more comprehensive sense, and not in its 
 limited application as standing only for the 
 opposite of vice. Morality, broadly stated, 
 means avoiding the wrong and doing right, 
 and it is because the laws of morality and of 
 82 
 
OUR MANNERS 
 
 common honesty have been so often openly 
 and defiantly violated by many of the indi- 
 viduals who occupy prominent positions, and 
 are supposed to be high up socially, that our 
 manners are out of joint. For I hold it to be 
 a truism that the better the man the better 
 the manners. The thoroughly honest man 
 may not be an adept in the little qualities, 
 the small talk, and smirks which go so far 
 toward the making of the regulation society 
 manners; but he has a heartiness of speech, a 
 perfect regard for the rights of others, and 
 a manly frankness of demeanor toward all, 
 high and low — which are the attributes of 
 true nobility. 
 
 Society manners, pure and simple, are not 
 necessarily sincere, but very often, and in the 
 main, are insincere and may have behind 
 them no morals, and, in many instances, are 
 but the blowng of a little trumpet to adver- 
 tise a shadow when the substance is want- 
 ing. 
 
 Lord Dunraven, after spending several 
 months with our rough characters on the 
 frontier, said he believed that the only chiv- 
 alry left in the world was to be found in our 
 far West. This remark would lead us to infer 
 that he placed manliness and reckless courage 
 above the superficial qualities which are so 
 83 
 
OUR MANNERS 
 
 abundant in the so-called upper circles of 
 fashionable society. 
 
 Sir Philip Sidney, suffering on the battle- 
 field from a mortal -wound, called for a drink 
 of water, and, on receiving it, seeing a 
 ■wounded soldier nearby, without touching 
 the cup to his lips, handed it to the soldier, 
 saying: "Thy necessity is greater than 
 mine." That was the act of a heroic, honest, 
 and unselfish man. Lord Chesterfield, the 
 selfishly- worldly man of artificial manners, 
 would have emptied the cup himself and jus- 
 tified the act with the assumption that his 
 life was more worth saving than that of a 
 private soldier. 
 
 In France, in the real upper class, the haute 
 noblesse, there is a hold-over clinging to a 
 mixture of the grandiose and formal manners 
 of the Louis XIV. period. The lofty auster- 
 ity of its style has, to an extent, been neu- 
 tralized by the influence of the later demo- 
 cratic spirit ; but there is enough left of the 
 old elegance and well-bred reserve to season 
 social intercourse with unusual attractive- 
 ness. When among these people, we are al- 
 ways sure of meeting with perfect demeanor 
 and of hearing the language of the well-bred, 
 who are so sure of their social position that 
 they can afford to be well mannered towards 
 84 
 
OUR MANNERS 
 
 all with whom they may come in contact, no 
 matter how high up or low down in the 
 social scale they may happen to be. But to- 
 day in all France it is doubtful if we could 
 succeed in finding a commanding officer, as at 
 Fontenoy in 1745, who would insist that the 
 officer in command of the enemy's forces 
 should give the first order to fire. And yet 
 only back in the eighteen hundred and 
 eighties there ^was witnessed at the Monte 
 Carlo railway station an extreme illustration 
 of the ancient spirit of French politeness. 
 Two passed-middle-age Frenchmen were seen 
 to be engaged in such a warm and animated, 
 but completely gentlemanly, discussion about 
 which should enter the railway carriage first, 
 that the train moved out of the station with- 
 out their noticing it and left them still argu- 
 ing the question of precedence. An English 
 spectator, who had witnessed the scene, said 
 to an American present: "Did you ever see 
 such an idiotic performance ? " " Perhaps ; " 
 answered the American, "but, all the same, 
 only Frenchmen could be engaged in such a 
 contest." 
 
 Speaking after the manner of the world; 
 
 i. e., admitting our national want of manners 
 
 is to acknowledge that our civilization is not 
 
 what it ought to be. There is no doubt 
 
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OUR MANNERS 
 
 about our having a sort of civilization quite 
 our own. That it is crude and unsatisfactory 
 there can be no doubt ; and, from one end of 
 the country to the other, it exists, at its best, 
 only in patches. No better illustration of 
 this proposition could be cited than New 
 York City, where, through the centre, there is 
 a streak with fairly well built showy houses, 
 with a few parts of streets passably clean, 
 while, on either side, not far away, there are 
 others most filthy and lined with rickety- 
 tenements swarming with vicious and un- 
 clean population. 
 
 The national shams, also, have their influ- 
 ence, such as sham architecture, with its sham 
 walls ; sham ornamentation, worse than bar- 
 baric; the sham shanty death-trap hotels; 
 sham Christianity, which professes one thing 
 and does another ; sham literature, filled with 
 vicious tendencies and promoting false notions 
 of morals; shams in art; shams in the ad- 
 ministration of hundreds of thousands of 
 pages of incongruous, ill-digested and needless 
 laws, and sham ways of living for keeping 
 up appearances. Add to these shortcomings 
 a perversion for selfish ends of the entire list 
 of political functions, and we have a not 
 much overdrawn picture of present conditions. 
 
 The national trend is chiefly in one direc- 
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OUR MANNERS 
 
 tion : to succeed in the fierce race for money 
 seems to be our one great object of existence. 
 And there are reasons for this national 
 scramble more than appear upon the surface. 
 It is not given to many men to compose im- 
 mortal poems, to paint great pictures, to 
 make important discoveries in science, or to 
 write works w^hich will carry their names 
 to posterity. But wealth is possible. And in 
 the field of commerce, finance, and specula- 
 tion, the great contest isfoughtfor the means 
 w^ith which to purchase, at least, notoriety 
 and a certain sort of so-called social position. 
 If, in this heated struggle, men lose the little 
 gentleness and nobility of character with 
 which nature has endowed them and the 
 women become selfishly adamantine, we 
 must not be disappointed. They are the re- 
 sults to be expected. After the struggle, and 
 the first million, come new conditions and the 
 often futile attempts to level up ; and in many 
 instances its possession may be compared to 
 a child's first rattle : it is apt to make a great 
 deal of offensive noise. With coming age, 
 possibly, something in the right direction 
 may be accomplished ; but that some- 
 thing will be of very slow growth unless 
 we can arouse, and vitalize into an effec- 
 tive force, sufiicient strength of purpose to 
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OUR MANNERS 
 
 completely reform present political methods. 
 
 A purification in that direction and a return 
 to honest methods, would clear the -whole 
 atmosphere and make improvements in social 
 affairs possible. Less national vanity, less 
 personal conceit, and less sharpness in the 
 business affairs of life, are also conditions 
 precedent which must obtain before we can 
 expect a healthier state of social intercourse ; 
 and, above all, let us remember that great 
 financial success does not carry with it the 
 exclusive right to monopolize all the ill 
 breeding, arrogance and ostentation in the 
 world. 
 
 In writing of this subject I have aimed 
 chiefly at one class, and for the reason that 
 that particular class has assumed, at least by 
 indirection and the prominence their wealth 
 gives them, to be the leaders in our national 
 social world, and for its shortcomings the 
 greater part of the blame must rest upon 
 their shoulders. 
 
 Our conservative people, engaged in legiti- 
 mate commercial pursuits and other occupa- 
 tions, who never become millionnaires, have 
 no general code by which to regulate their 
 social intercourse ; but, as a rule, they show 
 the better breeding of the two classes. A 
 Metropolitan Opera House audience is an apt 
 
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OUR MANNERS 
 
 illustration of this proposition. The bois- 
 terous laugh and loud conversation are never 
 heard in the gallery or the pit, but always in 
 the boxes; annoying an audience by noisy 
 demonstrations is only one of the excep- 
 tional methods employed by a certain class 
 to advertise its existence to the outside 
 world. 
 
 Personally, I wish the word manners might 
 be expunged from our dictionaries. It covers 
 more sins than any other in our language, 
 and, in the world's social exchange, gives 
 currency to an enormous amount of spurious 
 coin. In presence of manners we ask no 
 questions about morals, and so long as the 
 required varnish appears upon the surface, 
 we condone the probable shams it may 
 cover. 
 
 With the old French aristocracy originated 
 the glorious saying of "noblesse oblige." 
 Let us recommend its careful study to our 
 would-be nobility. Possibly a fair compre- 
 hension of its value might soften the rudeness 
 of their pretentions. 
 
 It may be set down as a vital principle in 
 our common-sense philosophy, that a fine up- 
 right character finds for itself a fitting out- 
 ward expression, generally accompanied by 
 a charm of demeanor quite unconscious of 
 
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OUR MANNERS 
 
 self — a demeanor which cannot be taught in 
 schools or acquired by contact with others. 
 
 My theory is a very simple one. Let 
 individuals cultivate noble thinking and do- 
 ing, charity for the mistakes, misfortunes, and 
 short-comings of others and kindness for all, 
 and then, if they keep their accounts square 
 with the higher moralities, their manners will 
 take care of themselves. 
 
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