_Prudery.--"Shocking" Expressions.--Transformation of the
Vocabulary.--War on Nudities.--The Venus of Milo does not
escape the Wrath of the Puritans.--Mr. Anthony Comstock in
Chief Command.--New England Prudes.--Tattling or Calumny?_
The New England descendants of the Puritans have inherited a more than
British prudery.
Charles Dickens speaks, in his _American Notes_, of people who covered
the nakedness of their piano legs with little ornamental frills.
There still exist worthy creatures who would think it indecent to speak
of such and such a star as being visible to the naked eye.
The word "leg" is improper; you must say "lower limb." Trousers have
become "lower garments." Instead of going to bed, people "retire"; so
that the bedroom becomes "retiring-room."
A lady having said, not long ago, in a Philadelphian drawing-room, that
she felt shivers down her back, created a veritable panic among the
hostess's guests.
I read the following piece of information in a New York paper among the
news from a certain New England city:
"The authorities have begun a crusade against the nude in art. One of
the wealthiest gentlemen in the city will be proceeded against for
keeping in his house copies of the Venus de Milo, the Venus de Medici,
Canova's Venus, Power's Greek Slave, the Laocoon, and other works."
* * * * *
During my stay in New York, I was constantly hearing of a certain Mr.
Anthony Comstock, who had attained celebrity by a campaign he had
undertaken against nudities. Mr. Comstock visited the museums,
galleries, exhibitions, and shops, and, whenever he found a bit of human
flesh portrayed in paint or marble, he went before the magistrates and
had a grand field-day. I must say, for the credit of the New Yorkers,
that Mr. Comstock had earned for himself a reputation as grotesque as it
was noisy. To take up such a line of censorship is, it seems to me, to
publish one's own perversity; and the individual whose mind is so
ill-formed that he cannot look at an artistic counterfeit presentment of
the human form divine, without thinking evil thoughts, is to be pitied,
if not despised.
But I suppose there will always be quack doctors with the cant of virtue
on their lips, and vile and filthy imaginations in their hearts.
Be that as it may, the nude in art has been having a hard time of it
lately.
Meanwhile, the Americans newspaper seemed to look upon Mr. Comstock as a
legitimate target for their jokes and satire.
The New England ladies have the reputation of being the most
easily-shocked women in the world. An American gentleman told me that a
Philadelphia lady, at whose side he was seated one day at table, grew
red to her very ears at his asking her which part of a chicken she
preferred, the wing or the leg.
Are the New England women _Saintes--Nitouches_?
Baron Salvador says that he received from a correspondent the following
information:
"There exists, in a certain New England city, a fashionable
man-milliner, who has a room reserved ostensibly for fitting, but really
for ladies who do not disdain to imbibe privately, through a straw,
certain American drinks which they would not dare touch in public. In
this dissimulated bar, under cover of silks and satins, they delight to
chat on fashion and frivolities, while absorbing pretty tipples invented
for their lords."
The prettiest part of the affair is, that the husbands pay for the
beverages without knowing it.
On the bills, the milliner has added so much for trimmings (read: iced
champagne), so much for lace (read: sherry-cobbler); and the duped
husbands have nothing to complain of, except that the new fashions
demand a great deal of trimming.
Is this tattle or calumny?
I am inclined myself to give very little credence to the story.