but in a new,
rough country like ours, where pickets can be approached furtively,
and where all the country people are first-rate marksmen, there is
no better means of harassing and exhausting an invading army than
by cutting off its outposts in detail.
'It is the obvious interest of the North to make the persons of
pickets sacred; and equally _our_ obvious policy to shoot them down
at every opportunity.'
In the midst of these slightly confused arguments on war, the writer
suddenly introduces a very out of place eulogy of '_De Bow's Review,
Industrial Resources_, etc.,' as a periodical 'which occupies a much
wider range than any English periodical, and which, _as an
Encyclopedia_, would be more valuable than any other Review, were equal
pains and labor bestowed upon its articles.' We suspect this bit to be
office-made--it has the heavy, clumsy ring of the great cracked bell of
De Bow. For instance:
'I know, Mr. Editor, you intend, so soon as the war is over, to
enlarge the _Review_, without increasing the subscription-price
... and then if Southern patronage ceases to be bestowed chiefly
on the flimsy and immoral literature of the North, and Southern
pens cease to prostitute themselves for pay by ministering to the
vile and sensual literary appetites of the Yankees, then, we say,
this _Review_ will rank with the ablest for ability, and far above
them for usefulness. But this result can be attained only when we
cease to be Yankee-worshipers, and when the semi-traitorous
imbeciles of the Virginia Convention and of Kentucky are remembered
only to be detested and despised. Already hundreds of scientific
and philosophic minds who have thrown off the debasing influence of
Yankee authority have contributed learned and valuable articles to
your pages.'
Unfortunately the character of De Bow as a deliberate and accomplished
liar, and the exposure of his infamous falsification of statistics, have
somewhat sunk the character of his '_Review, Industrial Resources_,
etc.,' out of Dixie, where, only, due honor is paid to those who are
like him
----'for profound
And solid lying much renowned.'
'Art. II.' or Article the Second, in this magazine, 'which only needs
equal pains and labor' [we might add paper, ink, and a Yankee Grammar
and Dictionary] to be made equal to 'any other Review'--treats of 'The
Bastile
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