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The Project Gutenberg EBook of Justice in the By-Ways, by F. Colburn Adams
#2 in our series by F. Colburn Adams
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Title: Justice in the By-Ways
A Tale of Life
Author: F. Colburn Adams
Release Date: January, 2004 [EBook #4958]
[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
[This file was first posted on April 4, 2002]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JUSTICE IN THE BY-WAYS ***
This eBook was edited by Charles Aldarondo (www.aldarondo.net).
JUSTICE IN THE BY-WAYS. A TALE OF LIFE.
BY F. COLBURN ADAMS,
AUTHOR
OF "OUR WORLD," ETC., ETC., ETC.
"A rebellion or an invasion alarms,
And puts the people upon its defence;
But a corruption of principles
Works its ruin more slowly perhaps,
But more surely."
NEW YORK:
LONDON:
1856.
PREFACE.
PREFACES, like long sermons to fashionable congregations, are
distasteful to most readers, and in no very high favor with us. A
deep interest in the welfare of South Carolina, and the high esteem
in which we held the better, and more sensible class of her
citizens, prompted us to sit down in Charleston, some four years ago
(as a few of our friends are aware), and write this history. The
malady of her chivalry had then broken out, and such was its
virulence that very serious consequences were apprehended. We had
done something, and were unwise enough to think we could do more, to
stay its spread. We say unwise, inasmuch as we see, and regret that
we do see, the malady breaking out anew, in a more virulent type-one
which threatens dire consequences to this glorious Union, and bids
fair soon to see the Insane Hospital of South Carolina crammed with
her mad-politicians.
Our purpose, the reader will not fail to discover, was a high moral
one. He must overlook the means we have called to our aid in some
instances, remember that the spirit of the work is in harmony with a
just sense of duty to a people among whom we have long resided, and
whose follies deserve our pity, perhaps, rather than our
condemnation. To remain blind to their own follies, is the sin of
weak States; and we venture nothing when we say that it would be
difficult to find a people more dragged down by their own ignorance
than are the South Carolinians. And yet, strange as it may seem, no
people are more energetic in laying claim to a high intellectual
standard. For a stranger to level his shafts against the very evils
they themselves most deprecate, is to consign himself an exile
worthy only of that domestic garment
Tar and feathers. in which all who think and write too freely, are
clothed and sent away.
And though the sentiments we have put forth in this work may not be
in fashion with our Southern friends, they will give us credit for
at least one thing-picturing in truthful colors the errors that, by
their own confessions, are sapping the very foundations of their
society. Our aim is to suggest reforms, and in carrying it out we
have consulted no popular prejudice, enlarged upon no enormities to
please the lover of tragedy, regarded neither beauty nor the art of
novel making, nor created suffering heroines to excite an outpouring
of sorrow and tears. The incidents of our story, which at best is
but a mere thread, are founded in facts; and these facts we have so
modified as to make them acceptable to the reader, while shielding
ourself from the charge of exaggeration. And, too, we are conscious
that our humble influence, heretofore exerted, has contributed to
the benefit of a certain class in Charleston, and trust that in this
instance it may have a wider field.
Three years and upwards, then, has the MS. of this work laid in the
hands of a Philadelphia publisher, who was kind enough to say more
good things of it than it deserved, and only (as he said, and what
publishers say no one ever thinks of doubting) regretted that fear
of offending his Southern customers, who were exceedingly stiff in
some places, and tender in others, prevented him publishing it.
Thankful for the very flattering but undeserved reception two works
from our pen (both written at a subsequent period) met, in England
as well as this country, we resolved a few weeks ago to drag the MS.
from the obscurity in which it had so long remained, and having
resigned it to the rude hands of our printer, let it pass to the
public. But there seemed another difficulty in the way: the time,
every one said, and every one ought to know, was a hazardous one for
works of a light character. Splash & Dash, my old publishers, (noble
fellows), had no less than three Presidents on their shoulders, and
could not be expected to take up anything "light" for several
months. Brick, of the very respectable but somewhat slow firm of
Brick & Brother, a firm that had singular scruples about publishing
a work not thickly sprinkled with the author's knowledge of French,
had one candidate by the neck, and had made a large bet that he
could carry him into the "White House" with a rush, while the junior
partner was deeply immersed in the study of Greek. Puff, of the firm
of Puff & Bluff, a house that had recently moved into the city to
teach the art of blowing books into the market, was foaming over
with his two Presidential candidates, and thought the public could
not be got to read a book without at least one candidate in it. It
was not prudent to give the reading world more than a book of
travels or so, said Munch, of the house of Munch & Muddle, until the
candidates for the White House were got nicely out of the way.
Indeed, there were good reasons for being alarmed, seeing that the
publishing world had given up literature, and, following the example
set by the New York Corporation, taken itself very generally to the
trade of President-making. Wilkins, whose publications were so
highly respectable that they invariably remained on his shelves, and
had in more than one instance become so weighty that they had
dragged the house down, thought the pretty feet of some few of the
female characters in this volume a little too much exposed to suit
the delicate sensibilities of his fair readers. Applejack, than
whose taste none could be more exquisite, and who only wanted to
feel a manuscript to tell whether it would do to publish it, made it
a point, he said, not to publish novels with characters in them that
would drink to excess. As for the very fast firm of Blowers &
Windspin, celebrated for flooding the country with cheap books of a
very tragic character, why, it had work enough on hand for the
present. Blowers was blessed with a wife of a literary turn of mind,
which was very convenient, inasmuch as all the novels with which the
house astonished the world were submitted to her, and what she could
not read she was sure to pass a favorable judgment upon. The house
had in press four highly worked up novels of Mrs. Blowers' own, Mr.
Blowers said,--all written in the very short space of six weeks. She
was a remarkable woman, and extraordinary clever at novels, Blowers
concluded with an air of magnificent self-satisfaction. These works,
having been written by steam, Mr. Windspin, the unior partner, was
expected to put into the market with a very large amount of high
pressure.
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