Monday, Mar. 24, 1924
The Fabulous Forties*
Albinos, Charles Dickens, Croup
The Story. America's "Awkward Age," depicted to perfection-- 1840-1850, the days of hair-oil and Ascot ties--of paternal editorials in the Press and family albums in the Home--of P. T. Barnum and his "industrious fleas," his "Anatomical Venus," his "Magnificant Moving Diorama of the Funeral of Napoleon Bonaparte," his educated dogs, his Albinos, his questionable "Fejee Mermaid" (which turned out to be a gruesome object "made from parts of a monkey and a fish, and purchased from a Japanese sailor who must have had a great deal of time on his hands")--the days of elegant soirees attended by "the very elite of society--scientific, elegant, highly respectable, and probably the richest and purest in town."
The days of Dickens' visit to America--his final arrival in Manhattan, "replete with New England dinners"--the wonderful Boz ball, in his honor, acclaimed "the greatest affair in modern times." His triumphant entrance and forced march (unhappy man!) around the hall, preceded by the Mayor and Mayoress and the "perspiring City Fathers" and followed by the entire assemblage which fell in behind, "whooping and cheering like a Sunday School class at a picnic"--and then, the ungrateful wretch returning to England and writing his dreadful American Notes.
The arrival of Ferdinand, Prince de Joinville, third son of Louis Phillippe of France--and the delighted outcries and social genuflexions of "Society" in all the important cities of the Atlantic seaboard.
The days of indignant editorials in the press about Trashy Literature: ". . . We allude to the productions of Bulwer, Dickens and others in England . . ." (the American Notes had not yet been forgotten nor forgiven) -- "and those of Sue and others [presumably Dumas] in France; all of which are abominable trash and hardly worth the paper on which they are printed. . . ." But, by way of contrast, and apparently commended, the vogue for Literary Annuals and Gift Books-- the Casket of Love, Deivdrops Gathered and Presented in Their Brightness and Purity, the Cypress Wreath, a Book of Consolation for Those Who Mourn.
The days of patent medicines, cordials, elixirs, tonics, stomach bitters for dyspepsia and "night sweats."
The days of the gold rush to California, when ships laden with optimists were dashing madly from the East coast to the West, around Cape Horn, in ISO days. Eastern papers blazoning forth "California advertisements"--sales of trunks, guidebooks, tools, cough-drops, coffee grinders, collapsible boats, patent medicines, rubber garments-- every conceivable article a gold digger might conceivably require--even one enterprising concern announcing: "Ho for California! Last, not least! Persons going to the gold regions are seriously advised to take, among other necessaries, a good lot of monuments and tombstones. A great saving can be effected by having their inscriptions cut in New York beforehand."
Days of "congenital credulity," monumentally serious yet manifestly absurd, a "brilliant three ring circus filled with marvelous side shows and prodigious natural curiosities"--fantastic naive, provoking, absurd, heroic, delightful--the fabulous Forties.
The Significance. Mr. Minnigerode has dived into dusty newspaper files, countless annuals, programs, periodicals, Godey's Lady's Books--and, a bit choked with the dust and blinded by the blaze of innumerable candelabras, mirrors and chandeliers, has come gallantly up, nevertheless, with both hands full of treasure. When the last page is turned, one discovers oneself to have acquired an attitude piquantly detached from the present day; one is already beginning to picture the zest with which our own age will be jumped upon, genially dissected and held up to the amused and sophisticated eye of our descendants; and one ruminates, not a little ruefully, on the wealth of material we are piling up for that future reference. A stimulating and innocuous pastime. Salve the Forties!
The Author. Meade Minnigerode was born in London, of American parents, in 1887. He served with the A. E. F. and the American Red Cross, and was a representative in France of the U. S. Snipping Board. He has written niany stories for the Saturday Evening Post, Collier's, The Bookman, The Outlook. His novels include Laughing Lady, The Big Year, Oh Susanna.
* THE FABULOUS FORTIES--Meade Minniger-ode--Putnam ($3.50).