登陆注册
15676500000051

第51章

The Journalistic World has its own diversity of mountain and plain, and its own variety of inhabitants. There are its mountain ranges and upland regions of clear skies and pure airs, where are wide outlooks and horizons whose dim lines fade beyond the reach of clear vision. Amid these mountain ranges and upon these uplands dwell men among the immortals to whom has come the "vision splendid" and whose are the voices that in the crisis of a man or of a nation give forth the call that turns the face upward to life eternal and divine. To these men such words as Duty, Honour, Patriotism, Purity, stand for things of intrinsic value worth a man's while to seek and, having found, to die for.

Level plains there are, too, where harvests are sown and reaped.

But there these same words often become mere implements of cultivation, tools for mechanical industries or currency for the conduct of business. Here dwell the practical men of affairs, as they love to call themselves, for whom has faded the vision in the glare of opportunism.

And far down by the water-fronts are the slum wastes where the sewers of politics and business and social life pour forth their fetid filth. Here the journals of yellow shade grub and fatten.

In this ooze and slime puddle the hordes of sewer rats, scavengers of the world's garbage, from whose collected stores the editor selects his daily mess for the delectation of the great unwashed, whether of the classes or of the masses, and from which he grabs in large handfuls that viscous mud that sticks and stings where it sticks.

The Daily Telegraph was born yellow, a frank yellow of the barbaric type that despises neutral tints. By the Daily Telegraph things were called by their uneuphemistic names. A spade was a spade, and mud was mud, and nothing was sacred from its sewer rats. The highest paid official on its staff was a criminal lawyer celebrated in the libel courts. Everybody cursed it and everybody read it.

After a season, having thus firmly established itself in the enmities of the community, and having become, in consequence, financially secure, it began to aspire toward the uplands, where the harvests were as rich and at the same time less perilous as well as less offensive in the reaping. It began to study euphemism. A spade became an agricultural implement and mud alluvial deposit. Having become by long experience a specialist in the business of moral scavenging, it proceeded to devote itself with most vehement energy to the business of moral reform. All indecencies that could not successfully cover themselves with such gilding as good hard gold can give were ruthlessly held up to public contempt. It continued to be cursed, but gradually came to be respected and feared.

It was to aid in this upward climb that the editor of the Daily Telegraph seized upon Dick. That young man was peculiarly fitted for the part which was to be assigned to him. He was a theological student and, therefore, his ethical standards were unimpeachable.

His university training guaranteed his literary sense, and his connection with the University and College papers had revealed him a master of terse English. He was the very man, indeed, but he must serve his apprenticeship with the sewer rats. For months he toiled amid much slime and filth, breathing in its stinking odours, gaining knowledge, it is true, but paying dear for it in the golden coin of that finer sensibility and that vigorous moral health which had formerly made his life, to himself and to others, a joy and beauty. For the slime would stick, do what he could, and with the smells he must become so familiar that they no longer offended.

That delicate discrimination that immediately detects the presence of decay departed from him, and in its place there developed a coarser sense whose characteristic was its power to distinguish between sewage and sewage. Hence, morality, with him, came to consist in the choosing of sewage of the less offensive forms. On the other hand, consciousness of the brand of heresy drove him from those scenes where the air is pure and from association with those high souls who by mere living exhale spiritual health and fragrance.

"We do not see much of Mr. Boyle these days, Margaret," Mrs.

Macdougall would say to her friend, carefully modulating her tone lest she should betray the anxiety of her gentle, loyal heart.

"But I doubt not he is very busy with his new duties."

"Yes, he is very busy," Margaret would reply, striving to guard her voice with equal care, but with less success. For Margaret was cursed, nay blessed, with that heart of infinite motherhood that yearns over the broken or the weak or the straying of humankind, and makes their pain its own.

"Bring him with you to tea next Sabbath evening, my dear," the little lady would say, with never a quiver or inflection of voice betraying that she had detected the girl's anxiety for her friend.

But more infrequently, as the days went on, could she secure Dick for an hour on Sabbath evening in the quiet, sweet little nook of the professor's dining-room. He was so often held by his work, but more often by his attendance upon Iola, for between Iola and him there had grown up and ripened rapidly an intimacy that Margaret regarded with distrust and fear. How she hated herself for her suspicions! How she fought to forbid them harbour in her heart!

But how persistently they made entrance and to abide.

The World of Fashion is, for the most part, a desert island of gleaming sands, at times fanned by perfume-laden zephyrs and lapped by shining waters. Then those who dwell there disport themselves, careless of all save the lapping, shining waters and the gleaming sands out of which they build their sand castles with such concentrated eagerness and such painful industry. At other times there come tempests, sudden and out of clear skies, which sweep, with ruthless besom, castles and castle-builders alike, and leave desolation and empty spaces for a time.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • tfboys的擦肩后遇

    tfboys的擦肩后遇

    本作品献给那些四叶草们,如果不喜欢,多提建议O(∩_∩)O
  • 林间拾韵

    林间拾韵

    本书收录作者2006年以来所创作的古典诗词近400首。从内容看,题材丰富,感情真挚,思想深刻。从形式上看,体裁多样,手法得当,语言精美,从内容和形式的统一上看,意境深远,风格自然。
  • 都市超人系统

    都市超人系统

    “先生请留步,请问你想做一个超人吗?”“我去,这不废话吗?”“小伙,来,我这里有一个系统,只卖5元钱。”……做人难,做好人更难!依靠神奇系统,林峰能把好人也做得酣畅淋漓。装逼装到底,打脸不客气。系统伴我行,誓做万人迷!
  • 迪诺和基友们不得不说的故事

    迪诺和基友们不得不说的故事

    迪诺与基友们苦逼又充满基情的大学生涯以及如何正确的攻陷自家小受教程【误
  • 全职剑神现代游

    全职剑神现代游

    医道!练丹!毒门!玄法!各神通无一不精!逍凌,斗天大陆全职剑神!在一次突破中,被九色神雷劈中,反穿都市,意外成了三大美女的小师叔。从此开启了香艳诱色的护花之旅!
  • 天道升级中

    天道升级中

    穿越者都去死吧,快把规则还给我。真·强迫症司道瘫着脸说。犹九渊的阴谋,深渊的叹息,真相一步步揭开。司道只能在一个个世界中干掉穿越者,然后给主角铺平道路。在现实中活了几千岁的司道表示,老人家真的受不了这种活。因为主角都是一群熊孩子啊!司礼:“加油哦。”司道:“闭着嘴没人把你当哑巴。”道的消失,法则的解离造成了犹九渊的破坏。“好久不见。”那个人说。“终于见面了,风先生。”司道看着眼前书卷气很重的男子,点了点头,“你究竟是谁?”“当然是,想毁灭你的人啊……”无cp,主角永远的反派。
  • 慈悲药师宝忏

    慈悲药师宝忏

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 重生之携手

    重生之携手

    宋可欣前世在被姐姐排挤、闺蜜陷害、老公家暴中惨死,死后才知道这个世界唯一一个还爱着她的人竟就是她避之唯恐不及的冷亦箫。含恨重生后宋可欣再也不敢信任任何人,她发誓要让所有前一世欺骗过她,迫害过她,不把她当回事的人尝尝以其人之道还治其人之身的滋味。令人慰藉的是,在这条注定冰冷的路上,有人愿意牵着她的手,包容她的小脾气,纵容她的小任性……这一世,她要活的比任何人都幸福!
  • 花千骨之流城逝光

    花千骨之流城逝光

    此文暂时停更,有事联系作者QQ:497627350贴吧id:逝光飞雪i
  • 我的僵尸恋人,顾悦

    我的僵尸恋人,顾悦

    冥冥之中,或许早就注定,一个穿越到农家现代少女因机缘巧合进入祁云山学习道术,因嫉妒被人送进了刚挖出来尸棺之中。。。。。。。不过谁能告诉我眼前这个唇红齿白样貌阴柔的少年是躺尸里的浑身长满绿毛的东西?