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Als Martin Chuzzlewit een exemplaar van de krant heeft gelezen
en door Colonel Diver naar zijn mening wordt gevraagd, zegt hij:
"Why, it's horrible personal", said Martin.
The colonel seemed much flattered by this remark; and said he
hoped it was.
"We are independent here, sir" said Mr. Jefferson Brick, "we do as
we like.'.
Het blijkt later dat journalisten van de "New York Rowdy Journal"
de ingezonden brieven zelf schrijven, en aldus invloed uitoefenen op
de manier zoals door De Tocqueville aangegeven
De bloemrijke taal van de Amerikanen.
In een hoofdstuk getiteld "Of the inflated style of American writers
and orators" schrijft De Tocqueville:
"I have frequently remarked that the Americans, who generally treat
of business in clear, plain language, devoid of all ornament, and so
extremely simple as to be often coarse, are apt to become inflated as
soon as they attempt a more poetical diction. They then vent their
pomposity from one end of a harangue to the other; and to hear them
lavish imagery on every occasion, one might fancy that they never
spoke of anything with simplicity The English are more rarely given
to a similar failing. The cause of this may be pointed out without
much difficulty. In democratic communities each citizen is
habitually engaged in the contemplation of a very puny object,
namely himself. If he ever raises his looks higher, he then perceives
nothing but the immense form of society at large, or the still more
imposing aspect of mankind. His ideas are all either extremely
minute and clear, or extremely general and vague: what lies between
is an open void. When he has been drawn out of his own sphere,
therefore, he always expects that some amazing object will be
offered to his attention; and it is on these terms alone that he
consents to tear himself for an instant from the petty complicated
cares which form the charm and the excitement of his life. This
appears to me sufficiently to explain why men in democracies,
whose concerns are in general so paltry, call upon their poets for
conceptions so vast and descriptions so unlimited".
Dickens beschrijft uitbundig het bloemrijk taalgebruik, ik geef als
voorbeeld de toast die de oorlogscorrespondent Jefferson Brick
uitbrengt:
"I will give you, sir, The Rowdy Journal and its brethren; the well of
Truth, whose waters are black from being composed of printers' ink,
but are quite clear enough for my country to behold the shadow of
her Destiny reflected in."
