Page:Free Opinions, Freely Expressed on Certain Phases of Modern Social Life and Conduct.djvu/273

 so dull and dense of comprehension as to reject this marvellous, this classic Podgers, what say you to Stodgers? Stodgers is a "young" poet (forty-five last birthday), entirely free from "manner" and manners. He has resorted to the last and lowest method employed by Little Poets for obtaining temporary notoriety, namely,—outraging decency. Coarseness and blasphemy are the prevailing themes of his verse, but to the Superannuated these grave blemishes constitute "power." A "strong" line is a lewd line; a "masterful" stanza contains a prurient suggestion. It suits the purpose of the Superannuated to compare his two "discoveries," Podgers and Stodgers, and to work them against each other in those quarters of the Press he controls, like the "toy millers" one buys for children. It is a case of "Podgers come up and Stodgers come down," as fits his humour and digestion. Meanwhile the vital test of the whole matter is that notwithstanding all this energetic "hawking about" of the Little Poets by the Superannuated, neither Podgers nor Stodgers sell. Everything is done to secure for them this desired result; unavailingly. And it is not as if they came out in a "common" way, Podgers and Stodgers. No publishing-firm with a simple name such as Messrs. Smith or Brown would suit the Little Poets. They must come out singularly, and apart from others. So they elect a publisher who, as it were, puts up a sign, as though he were a Tavern. "Published at the Dragon's Mouth" or "At the Sign of the Flagon" would seem to be more convincing than "Published by Messrs. So and So." Now Podgers's little book has a fanciful title-page stating that it