The Eagle Turned Critic
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THE EAGLE TURNED CRITIC.—
The Western District “organ”1 ground out a scurvy little paragraph on Saturday about an inconsiderable slip of the pen or of the types which it had discovered in a letter from our correspondent T.W.V.2 This is good on the part of the Western District “organ,” every issue of which contains blunders enough to make a decent proof-reader’s hair stand on end, and set his teeth on edge.
The “organ’s” criticisms are hardly less unfortunate than its ex cathedra opinions concerning the topics of the day. It did its best from first to last to throw a damper on the Atlantic Telegraph3 enterprise. In its issue of July 21st it says, “We have stood alone from first to last in regard to the project of laying a submarine telegraph across the Atlantic Ocean as one of the most chimerical enterprises of the day.” In the course of the article it calls the enterprise “folly and absurdity,” and compares its projectors to the “Millerites4 waiting to be taken up to heaven.” Further on, the “organ” says most emphatically and dogmatically—“It is one of those things that cannot be done.”
When Mr. Thomas Prosser, in reply to the repeated attacks that had been made in its columns upon the practicability of laying the cable, wrote a brief and sensible letter, demonstrating that there was no impracticability about the matter, at least so far as regarded the Eagle’s objections, that journal published a column of mingled abuse of Mr. Prosser and a hodge-podge of its own, which it denominated a “scientific disquisition”—all to the effect that the pressure of the water upon the telegraph “would destroy the insulation of the central wire and intercept electric currents.”
When the despatch of Mr. Field5 arrived, announcing the success of the enterprise, it affected to discredit the news, and attempted to make it appear that if the news were true the achievement would be “no great shakes after all.” On Saturday, when the great tidings were fully confirmed, and the whole country was palpitating with joyous excitement, not a word of editorial comment appeared in that paper, the editor probably having found enough to do, for that day, in the nauseating task of eating his own words. Let the bilious Bunsby6 of the Western District organ haul in his horns for awhile and meditate upon the unlucky fate of his ex cathedra7 opinions.
Notes:
1. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle was the leading daily newspaper of the independent city of Brooklyn for much of Whitman's adult life. Founded in 1841, it became the main organ of the Democratic party in town. Whitman had been the Eagle's editor between 1846 and 1848 and still occasionally contributed to the paper into the late 1850s (see Amy Kapp, "A Long-Lost Eagle Article Puts Walt and Jeff on the Map," Walt Whitman Quarterly Review, vol. 40 [Winter/Spring 2023]: 140–49). For more information on Whitman and the Eagle, see Dennis K. Renner, "Brooklyn Daily Eagle," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
2. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle was the leading daily newspaper of the independent city of Brooklyn for much of Whitman's adult life. Founded in 1841, it became the main organ of the Democratic party in town. Whitman had been the Eagle's editor between 1846 and 1848 and still occasionally contributed to the paper into the late 1850s (see Amy Kapp, "A Long-Lost Eagle Article Puts Walt and Jeff on the Map," Walt Whitman Quarterly Review, vol. 40 [Winter/Spring 2023]: 140–49). For more information on Whitman and the Eagle, see Dennis K. Renner, "Brooklyn Daily Eagle," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
3. The Transatlantic Telegraph was the first cable connection between the United States and Europe, built by Cyrus West Field and the Atlantic Telegraph Company. It sent its initial message—a note from the British Queen—in 1858 and, although the cable spanning from Canada's Trinity Bay to Ireland was only in operation for three weeks, had a major impact on transatlantic relations of the antebellum period. [back]
4. Millerites were followers of the teachings of preacher William Miller (1782–1849). He and his followers believed the Second Advent of Jesus Christ would occur sometime between 1843 and 1844. [back]
5. Cyrus West Field (1819–1892) was a financier and entrepreneur, whose company laid the first transatlantic telegraph cable in 1858.. [back]
6. Likely Captain Jack Bunsby, a character from Charles Dickens' (1812–1870) novel Dombey and Son which was published in 1846 by Bradbury and Evans. [back]
7. Ex cathedra is Latin for "from the chair" or "from the seat of authority." [back]