Excerpt

Excerpt from The Complete Works of Brann, the Iconoclast — Volume 10, by William Cowper Brann

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    SALMAGUNDI.

The daily press announces that there is to be another Cleveland
baby. It is to make its debut some time this month. "Mrs.
Cleveland has been sewing dainty garments all summer." "Presents
of beautiful baby clothes are arriving from friends and
relatives." Same old gush, gush, gush! slop, slop, slop! that has
set the nation retching three times already. Good Lord! will it
never end? The fecundity of that family is becoming an American
nightmare. Will the time ever come when a married woman of social
prominence can get into "a delicate condition" without having the
fact heralded over the country as brazenly as though she had
committed a crime? There being little hope that the daily
press--"public educator," "guardian of morality," etc.--will
suffer a renascence of decency, we can only appeal to Grover not
to let it happen again. He certainly owes it to the nation to
apply the soft pedal to himself. In no other way can he protect a
long-suffering nation from seasickness, or his estimable wife
from the unclean harpies of the press. I do not believe that Mrs.
Cleveland is particeps criminis in these pre-natal proclamations
to which the h'upper suckkles of New York are so shockingly
addicted. I do not believe that she cares to have the public
contemplating her profile portrait just previous to a
confinement. Of course it will be urged that a woman of much
native delicacy could never have married so crass an animal as
Grover Cleveland, have taken him fresh from the embraces of an
old harlot like Widow Halpin; but these forget that he held the
most exalted position of any man on earth, and his $50,000 per
annum had been touched by the genie-wand jobbery--forget that

"--pomp and power alone are woman's care And where these are
light Eros finds a feere; Maidens like moths, are eer caught by
glare, And Mammon wins his way where Seraphs might despair."

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Explanation

William Cowper Brann’s Salmagundi excerpt from The Complete Works of Brann, the Iconoclast (Volume 10) is a scathing satirical rant targeting the media’s obsession with the personal lives of public figures—specifically, the repeated pregnancies of Frances Folsom Cleveland, wife of President Grover Cleveland. Brann, a fiery 19th-century journalist and social critic known for his unapologetic iconoclasm, uses this piece to skewer the press, societal hypocrisy, and the cult of celebrity surrounding political families. Below is a detailed breakdown of the text, its context, themes, and stylistic devices, with an emphasis on close reading.

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Context

1. Historical Background:

   • Grover Cleveland (1837–1908) was the 22nd and 24th U.S. President, the only president to serve non-consecutive terms. His marriage to Frances Folsom (1864–1947) in 1886 was controversial: she was 21, he was 49, and rumors swirled about his prior relationship with a widow named Maria Halpin (who accused him of fathering her child out of wedlock).
   • The Clevelands’ pregnancies were sensationalized by the press. Frances gave birth to five children (1891, 1893, 1895, 1897, 1903), and each announcement was met with intrusive media coverage—something Brann finds repulsive.

2. Brann’s Persona:

   • Brann was a populist provocateur who railed against corruption, religious hypocrisy, and the excesses of the Gilded Age. His magazine, The Iconoclast, was notorious for its vitriolic tone. This excerpt is classic Brann: irreverent, misanthropic, and laced with moral outrage.

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Themes

1. Media Exploitation and Sensationalism:

   • Brann mocks the press’s prurient fascination with Frances Cleveland’s pregnancies, calling it "gush, gush, gush! slop, slop, slop!" The repetitive, onomatopoeic phrasing mimics the nauseating excess of tabloid coverage. He frames the media as "unclean harpies" (mythological monsters) preying on private lives, reducing a natural biological event to a spectacle.
   • The line "heralded over the country as brazenly as though she had committed a crime" underscores the hypocrisy: society simultaneously glorifies and shames women’s reproductive roles.

2. Public vs. Private Life:

   • Brann argues that the Clevelands’ personal life should not be national news. His appeal to Grover—"apply the soft pedal to himself"—suggests that even presidents should resist feeding the media machine. The phrase "seasickness" implies the public is weary of the relentless coverage.

3. Class and Gender Hypocrisy:

   • Brann’s misogyny is unmistakable (e.g., calling Grover a "crass animal" while implying Frances married him for "pomp and power"). Yet he also critiques the double standards for women:
     • He doubts Frances wants the publicity ("I do not believe she cares to have the public contemplating her profile portrait").
     • The quoted poetry (likely Brann’s own or an adaptation) reinforces this: women are drawn to power ("Maidens like moths, are eer caught by glare"), and wealth ("Mammon") trumps morality ("Seraphs might despair").
   • The reference to "Widow Halpin" alludes to Cleveland’s scandal, implying Frances overlooked his past for status—a jab at both Grover’s hypocrisy and societal transactional marriages.

4. Satire of "Morality":

   • Brann’s irony is razor-sharp. He mocks the press as the "public educator" and "guardian of morality" while it wallows in voyeurism. The phrase "renascence of decency" is sarcastic; he expects no reform.

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Literary Devices

1. Tone and Diction:

   • Sarcasm/Invective: Brann’s tone is caustic. Phrases like "American nightmare" and "long-suffering nation" exaggerate for effect. "H’upper suckkles" (a slur for the upper class) drips with contempt.
   • Hyperbole: "The fecundity of that family is becoming an American nightmare" amplifies his disgust.
   • Colloquialism: "Soft pedal" (to tone down) and "jobbery" (corrupt dealings) ground the rant in blunt, accessible language.

2. Imagery and Metaphor:

   • Nausea/Excess: "Gush, slop", "seasickness", and "retch" paint the media as a sickening, inescapable force.
   • Predatory Media: "Unclean harpies" and "contemplating her profile portrait" suggest violation.
   • Mythological Allusion: "Harpies" (monstrous birds from Greek myth) and "Seraphs" (angelic beings) contrast the press’s vileness with idealized purity.

3. Rhetorical Questions:

   • "Will it never end?" and "Will the time ever come...?" engage the reader while underscoring Brann’s exasperation.

4. Poetic Insertion:

   • The closing stanza (possibly original or adapted) uses archaic spelling ("eer", "feere") to mimic 18th-century satire (e.g., Pope or Swift). Its message—that women are lured by power and wealth—echoes Brann’s cynicism about marriage as a transaction.

5. Irony:

   • Brann critiques the press’s invasiveness while himself intruding on the Clevelands’ privacy. His outrage is performative, part of his iconoclastic brand.

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Significance

1. Media Critique:

   • Brann’s rant predates modern celebrity culture but anticipates its excesses. His disgust with the press’s intrusion resonates today, especially in the age of social media and 24/7 news cycles.

2. Gender and Power:

   • The excerpt reveals the constraints on women in the public eye. Frances Cleveland, as First Lady, had no privacy, and Brann—while sympathetic to her plight—still reduces her to a trophy wife. His critique is thus double-edged: he condemns the media’s exploitation but also participates in it by scrutinizing her motives.

3. Populist Rage:

   • Brann’s anger reflects broader Gilded Age anxieties about elitism and corruption. By targeting the Clevelands, he channels class resentment: the wealthy and powerful are held to different standards, and their personal lives become public property.

4. Literary Legacy:

   • Brann’s style influenced later satirists like H.L. Mencken. His blend of moralizing and vulgarity, high culture and low blows, makes his work both provocative and problematic. This excerpt is a prime example of his ability to marry social critique with entertaining vitriol.

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Close Reading of Key Lines

1. "Same old gush, gush, gush! slop, slop, slop!":

   • The repetition and onomatopoeia mimic the relentless, nauseating nature of tabloid coverage. "Slop" suggests both physical revulsion and intellectual shallowness.

2. "The fecundity of that family is becoming an American nightmare.":

   • "Fecundity" (fertility) is framed as a horror, inverting the usual celebration of childbirth. The hyperbole ("nightmare") underscores Brann’s view of the Clevelands as an inescapable, oppressive presence.

3. "I do not believe that Mrs. Cleveland is particeps criminis in these pre-natal proclamations...":

   • "Particeps criminis" (Latin for "accomplice in crime") legally implicates Frances, but Brann exonerates her—only to immediately undercut this by questioning her marriage’s purity. This tension highlights his contradictory stance on women’s agency.

4. "Pomp and power alone are woman’s care...":

   • The poetry’s archaic tone contrasts with Brann’s otherwise colloquial prose, elevating the critique to a timeless indictment of female ambition. The imagery of moths and glare suggests women are helplessly drawn to destructive forces (power, wealth).

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Conclusion

Brann’s Salmagundi excerpt is a masterclass in satirical invective. Through hyperbole, sarcasm, and moral outrage, he skewers the press’s voyeurism, societal hypocrisy, and the dehumanizing effects of celebrity. While his misogyny and class resentment complicate his critique, the passage remains a potent indictment of media exploitation—a theme that feels eerily contemporary. Brann’s voice is that of the disillusioned everyman, raging against a system that commodifies private lives for public consumption. His work challenges readers to question not just the subjects of his ire (the Clevelands, the press) but also the very act of consuming such criticism.

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Questions

Question 1

The passage’s depiction of the press as "unclean harpies" primarily serves to:

A. conflate journalistic sensationalism with mythological predation, underscoring the violation of privacy as an almost supernatural transgression.
B. align the media’s behavior with classical virtues, thereby highlighting the ironic gap between their self-proclaimed moral guardianship and their actual conduct.
C. suggest that the press’s actions are legally criminal, given the Latinate connotations of "harpies" in Roman jurisprudence.
D. imply that the Clevelands’ public image is so monstrous that only mythical creatures could adequately represent the media’s fascination with them.
E. evoke a sense of tragic inevitability, framing the press’s intrusion as a force of nature beyond human control or reproach.

Question 2

Brann’s use of the phrase "apply the soft pedal to himself" is most effectively interpreted as:

A. a literal suggestion that Cleveland should reduce his physical presence in public to avoid media scrutiny.
B. an ironic appeal for self-restraint, wherein the very act of making the request underscores the absurdity of expecting a public figure to control media narratives.
C. a veiled accusation that Cleveland’s political power is directly responsible for the media’s invasive coverage of his family.
D. a call for Cleveland to adopt a more humble demeanor in his political rhetoric, thereby deflecting attention from his personal life.
E. a metaphorical plea for Cleveland to limit his family’s reproductive choices, framing procreation as a performative act for public consumption.

Question 3

The poetic stanza’s assertion that "Maidens like moths, are eer caught by glare / And Mammon wins his way where Seraphs might despair" functions in the passage as:

A. a cynical generalization about female agency, reducing Frances Cleveland’s marriage to a transactional surrender to power and wealth, while simultaneously critiquing the societal structures that enable such unions.
B. an empathic defense of Frances Cleveland, portraying her as a victim of irresistible societal pressures that even angelic beings ("Seraphs") cannot overcome.
C. a neutral observation on the universal allure of material success, divorced from any specific judgment on the Clevelands’ relationship.
D. a direct accusation that Frances Cleveland is morally inferior to the "Seraphs" who would resist such temptations, thereby aligning her with the "old harlot" Widow Halpin.
E. an ironic inversion of romantic ideals, suggesting that true love ("Eros") is only possible in the absence of "pomp and power," a condition the Clevelands’ marriage inherently violates.

Question 4

Brann’s rhetorical question "Will the time ever come when a married woman of social prominence can get into 'a delicate condition' without having the fact heralded over the country as brazenly as though she had committed a crime?" is structurally most analogous to:

A. a legal indictment, wherein the press is cast as prosecutor, judge, and jury in a trial of public opinion.
B. a eulogy for lost privacy, mourning an era when personal matters were shielded from collective scrutiny.
C. a paradoxical lament, wherein the act of decrying exploitation itself perpetuates the very exposure it condemns.
D. a feminist manifesto, demanding systemic change to the ways women’s bodies are policed and commodified.
E. a prophetic warning, foreshadowing the eventual collapse of media ethics under the weight of its own hypocrisy.

Question 5

The passage’s closing lines—"pomp and power alone are woman’s care / And where these are light Eros finds a feere"—are most thematically consistent with which of the following interpretations of Brann’s broader critique?

A. Love is an illusion in political marriages, where ambition systematically eradicates genuine affection.
B. Women are inherently corruptible, and their moral failures are inevitable when confronted with wealth and status.
C. The press’s obsession with the Clevelands is a symptom of a deeper cultural fixation on power as a substitute for authentic human connection.
D. Grover Cleveland’s personal flaws are so glaring that even divine love ("Eros") cannot redeem his union with Frances.
E. The public’s fascination with celebrity is a natural response to the inherent drama of power dynamics, absolving the media of culpability.

Solutions and Explanations

1) Correct answer: A

Why A is most correct: The phrase "unclean harpies" explicitly invokes mythological creatures known for their predatory, violent nature (harpies in Greek myth were monstrous birds that abducted and tormented their victims). By applying this label to the press, Brann elevates their intrusion from mere nuisance to a grotesque, almost supernatural violation—one that transcends ordinary human misbehavior. This aligns with the passage’s broader framing of media sensationalism as a sickening, inescapable force ("seasickness," "nightmare"). The mythological allusion also underscores the scale of the transgression: harpies were agents of divine punishment, suggesting the press’s actions are not just unethical but fundamentally unnatural.

Why the distractors are less supported:

• B: The press is not aligned with "classical virtues" anywhere in the passage; Brann’s tone is uniformly scornful. The "ironic gap" is present, but the primary function of the harpies metaphor is not to highlight this irony but to emphasize predation.
• C: There is no legal or Latinate connotation to "harpies" in Roman law; this is a misreading of the mythological reference.
• D: The metaphor targets the press, not the Clevelands. Brann critiques the media’s monstrous behavior, not the family’s public image.
• E: While Brann does frame the press as an overwhelming force, "tragic inevitability" and "force of nature" overstate the passage’s fatalism. The harpies metaphor is active and aggressive, not passive or natural.

2) Correct answer: B

Why B is most correct: The phrase "apply the soft pedal" is colloquial for "tone it down" or "reduce emphasis." Brann’s appeal to Cleveland is performatively ironic: he asks a public figure to restrain himself as if this were a viable solution, yet the absurdity of the request (given the media’s relentless intrusion) underscores the hopelessness of resisting the system. The irony lies in the fact that Brann, too, is contributing to the spectacle by writing this rant—thus, the appeal itself becomes part of the problem it condemns. This aligns with the passage’s broader critique of media complicity and the futility of individual action against structural voyeurism.

Why the distractors are less supported:

• A: The request is not "literal" in the sense of physical presence; it’s about media exposure and public narrative control.
• C: Brann does not blame Cleveland’s political power for the media’s coverage; he blames the press’s own sensationalism and the public’s appetite for it.
• D: The phrase is not about political rhetoric but about personal privacy. Brann’s focus is on the Clevelands’ family life, not Cleveland’s oratory.
• E: While Brann does mock the performativity of the Clevelands’ pregnancies, the "soft pedal" metaphor is about media narrative control, not reproductive choices.

3) Correct answer: A

Why A is most correct: The stanza reduces Frances Cleveland’s marriage to a transactional exchange ("pomp and power"), stripping it of romantic or personal agency. The "moths and glare" imagery frames women as helplessly drawn to destructive forces (wealth, status), while "Mammon" (the personification of greed) triumphs over "Seraphs" (angelic purity). This aligns with Brann’s broader cynicism about societal structures that commodify women’s choices. However, the critique is not purely misogynistic—it also implicates the systems (patriarchy, class hierarchy) that make such transactions inevitable. The stanza thus serves a dual purpose: it mocks Frances and the culture that produces her.

Why the distractors are less supported:

• B: Brann’s tone is not "empathic"; the stanza is a generalization about women’s susceptibility to power, not a defense of Frances specifically.
• C: The stanza is hardly "neutral"—it’s laced with moral judgment ("Seraphs might despair") and aligns with Brann’s broader critique of hypocrisy.
• D: The stanza does not directly accuse Frances of moral inferiority to "Seraphs"; it frames her as a product of systemic forces. The comparison to Halpin is made earlier in the passage, not here.
• E: While the stanza does invert romantic ideals, the primary function is to critique transactional marriages, not to assert that "true love" is impossible under power. Brann’s focus is on corruption, not the absence of Eros.

4) Correct answer: C

Why C is most correct: The rhetorical question laments the lack of privacy while simultaneously perpetuating the exposure it decries. By even asking the question, Brann ensures that the reader dwells on Frances Cleveland’s "delicate condition," thereby replicating the very intrusion he condemns. This paradox is central to the passage’s satire: Brann’s rant is both a critique of media exploitation and an example of it. The question’s structure—posing an ideal (privacy) while reinforcing its violation—mirrors the broader hypocrisy of public discourse on celebrity.

Why the distractors are less supported:

• A: While the press is cast as judgmental, the question is not structurally analogous to a legal indictment. It’s a lament, not an accusation.
• B: The tone is not elegiac; Brann is angry and sarcastic, not mournful. There’s no nostalgia for a lost era—just disgust at the present.
• D: The question is not a "feminist manifesto" demanding systemic change; it’s a cynical observation that assumes no change is possible.
• E: The question is not "prophetic"; it’s a current critique, not a warning about future collapse.

5) Correct answer: C

Why C is most correct: The closing lines frame "pomp and power" as substitutes for genuine connection ("Eros"). Brann’s critique extends beyond the Clevelands to implicate the cultural obsession with power as a spectacle. The press’s fixation on the family is symptomatic of this broader fixation: society conflates wealth and status with human worth, reducing relationships to transactions. This aligns with the passage’s satire of media sensationalism as a reflection of collective values—where power is fetishized, and privacy is sacrificed to the altar of public curiosity.

Why the distractors are less supported:

• A: While the lines do suggest love is compromised by power, the primary theme is cultural fixation, not the absence of love in political marriages.
• B: Brann’s critique is not that women are "inherently corruptible"; it’s that society corrupts them by offering power as a substitute for love.
• D: The lines do not focus on Grover’s personal flaws; they generalize about power’s corrosive effect on relationships.
• E: Brann does not absolve the media; he holds them accountable for exploiting the public’s fixation on power. The passage is a condemnation, not an absolution.