These views are somewhat difficult to reconcile with those expressed in other parts of the paper about the same time. An eminent conductor and composer has recently stated that no noise which is deliberately made can be said to be ugly—e.g. a railway whistle or a boy whistling in the street. So in letters a similar creed had already come into fashion—any subject was fit for treatment if it was "arresting" or "elemental," a doctrine that Punch outside his "Booking Office" found it hard to swallow. In "The Qualities that Count" one of his writers applied this principle to the poetry and letters of the hour:—
If you're anxious to acquire a reputation
For enlightened and emancipated views,
You must hold it as a duty to discard the cult of Beauty,
And discourage all endeavours to amuse.
You must back the man who, obloquy enduring,
Subconsciousness determines to express,
Who in short is "elemental," "unalluring,"
But "arresting" in his Art—or in his dress.
Or is your cup habitually brimming