IMPOSTORS.

Westport Times, Volume 1, Issue 137, 8 January 1868, Page 2

IMPOSTORS.

Of the many different professions or occupations in which educated persons are accustomed to finu honorable employment for their abilities there is scarcely one which can keep its rants entirely free from impostors or quacks. Laws of the most stringent and exclusive character may be in force to fence in the social position of an order, and the most searching examinations may apparently put the abilities of a new candidate to the severest possible test ; yet the professional quack, in a most inscrutable manner, laughs at these difficulties and like the conventional "ghost" passes unrestrained through all protective barriers. In spite of his university training we see him oftea in the pulpit, either filching with becoming meekness the sermons of clever but obscure preachers, or endeavoring to conceal his mental shortcomings by violent speech and gesticulations—by some one considered good substitutes for logical argument. He is likewise observable at the Bar, seated side with men of genuine legal 1 and forensic talent. Irreproachable in costume and attitude he is weak in j law; voluble and demonstrative he is i yet profoundly ignorant, rarely deceiving a practical observer yet the admiration of those who consider long wind to be as necessary a quality in a lawyer as in a race-horse. He is apparent in the senate, where he is the terror of sensible men, and frequent amongst the faculty who first gave him the name by which he is generally distinguished. In fact in every pursuit requiring the exercise of the head rather than of the hands, representatives of the genus are to be found; for in a profession which is for the most part a purely intellectual one it is far easier for a man, by a judicious exercise of mere cunning and effrontery, to pass for clever, and gain a position over the heads of hisless scrupulous but more deserving fellows, than it is for those engaged in pursuits requiring more decided and tangible results to practise deceptions of a similar nature. A carpenter or mason engaged to construct a table or build a house cannot so deceive their employers. Their handiwork stands as evidence for or ; against them. But the mere assumption of a higher order of talent is too often taken for the actual possession of it, tho practice of the world being rather to assess a man at his own value in this respect than to wait until he has given undoubted proof of capacity before they give him credit for it.

It is this fact which enables quacks of all descriptions to exist and flourish whilst debasing the callings they pretend to follow.

Perhaps next to the medical quack, the literary impostor may be fairly considered the most obnoxious, and this ia not so much on account of the actual harm occasioned by his frauds—which perhaps is not so great as that caused by others of his fraternity—but because the means he employs to gain his end are of an unusually despicable nature. To succeed well as a clerical, a legal, or a medical quack, some knowledge and attributes are required which are not at all necessary in the literary one. With a slight smattering of his native tongue, and an unbounded stock of impudence to draw upon, he may, with the assistance of other persons' composition and a knowledge of penmanship, gain and maintain a very fair position. In his repertoire are generally to be found voluminous files of old and forgotten journals ; books published in the last century and long out of print ; and those very useful little compilations in which quotations from every known author are found ready to hand. With the aid of these he can generally manage to throw dust in the eyes of his employers and the public, and if he holds his tongue and only looks wise when any important subject is under discussion, he may pass muster toleraby well, and for long escape detection. Quacks such as these are not fools enough to copy articles wholesale from recent and wellknown journals, or from books the public are likely to read, or have read. He is far too well up in his business for such a proceeding He is content sometimes doubtless with launching upon his readers the thunder of a writer, perhaps long since dead, in its original form, but in general it is found more convenient to select ideas and sentences from a variety of sources, which he dovetails together, in a manner which is as ingenious as it is dishonest, making a kind of literary patchwork or olla podrida which it is exceedingly difficult to detect as spurious. Again, where criticisms on operatic or theatrical performances are required, the mode pursued by the literary quack is similar. Nothing can be easier than to refer to the back numbers of journals which have either favorably or unfavorably noticed the same pieces, and entirely ignoring the justice of their application, to select well written critiques and so with slight verbal alterations, palm them off as original. To such trickery as this the quack is mainly indebted for his livelihood. In general, however, it is observable that the genuine newspaper quack is not satisfied with having gone thus far. He is ready, should anything appearing in his paper be more than usually appreciated by the public, to father the composition on himself. If asked whether he is the author, he smiles perhaps, whilst quietly and blushingly reminding the questioner that his query caunot, consistently with newspaper etiquette, be answered, his manner at the same time plainly telling the lie suggested by his vanity. Such persons as these are the curse of newspaper proprietors, and whenever detected a litte less feeling should be shown against the latter who are invariably as much taken in as the public, and who have in reality more reason to complain. They stipulate for original matter at a fixed salary, and if a member of their staff copies, or publishes from memory an article not his own it is not their fault. The only method of judging of a writer is from his writings, and if these are cleverly stolen, the punishment of the offender can only take place on the discovery of his delinquency.