Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-10-09
NEW PUBLICATIONS.
Backs WITHOUT STRAW. By Albion W. Tourgee,
LII. D. New York Ferds, Howard & Fuibert.
Sacramento: W. A. c. S. Houghton

No " o1l4OAl4OLsRt
Backs WITHOUT STRAW. By Albion w. Tourgee,
LII. D. New York Ferds, Howard Fuibert.
Sacramento: w. A. / c. S. Houghton.
A new story by the author of "A Fools
Errand" is necessarily q literary event, and
in this case it is the more important for that
the new'story is a formidable rival to the old
one The ''Foels Errand came upon the
people as a revelation. It was not merely
that it was dramatic tale. 1t was not
merely that it dealt with that peculiar South
ern condition of society and politics which
has been SO abnormally discussed of late
years. 1t was because the book was the
embodiment of truth and earnestness,. and
the record of real suffering and persecution,
told as it could only have been told by a
victim Of the outrages described. The style
was lucid, the argument convincing, and
above all the volume was informed with a
temperate and judicial spirit as remarkable
as fascinating. 1t was no wonder that the
"a Fools brand almost instantly sprsng
into favor, and that edition after edition of
it was poured upon the market Here was a
uian who had lived in the South who had
been a Republican there among Demo-
Gratis; who had experienced all the
indignities and insults showered upon
such unfortunates yet who was capa-
bic of telling the story not only without
passion or prejudice but with constant de.
termination to do full justice to the Southern
people. It was felt, in a word, that Judge
Tourgee was a trustworthy witness. Parti-
san journalism and partisan literature and
oratory generally had so persistently forced
into prominence the most ugly and extraya-
gait features of Southern politics, and had,
consciously or unconsciously, SO omitted to
recognize any possibility of sense of right
or duty on the part Of the Southern people,
that those representations were becoming I'M
satisfactory, as would be the pictures OF an
artist who should vigorously refrain from
painting any other human expressions but
those OF agony and fierce unbridled passion.
In the Fools Errand for the first time an
attempt was made to show that after all
there was Southern side to the question,
while the truth was told in the most uncom-
promising way. 1t was the candor and fidel-
lty of the book which commended it to the
public, and those qualities are as conspicu-
ously present in Bricks without Straw"
Judge Tourgees stories are novels with q
purpose, and therefore they are not to be
judged by the canons which apply to works
of fiction written from the standpoint of art
alone. Bricks Without Straw is, like its
predecessor, tale of the South, and it is
much more than q tale. The book in fact is
at least as much al argument as story, and
some of its strongest and most captivating
passages are purely polemical. We are in
troduced to a negro lad who has just achieved
freedom and independence at the close of the
rebellion. 1t is the period when the new era
had just dawned, and when neither the
North nor the South nor the freedman HIM
self comprehenied the situation. Our author
describes the condition of things as follows
The first step in the progress from the prison.
house Of bondage to the citadel OF liberty was
strange one. The war was The struggle for
autonomy and the inviolability of slavery, on the
part OF the South WAS ended, and fate had decided
against them. With this arbitrament OF war fell
also the institution that had been its Slavery
was abolished-by proclamation, by national enact
ment by constitutional amendment-ay, by the
sterner logic which forbade nation TO place shack
les again Upon hands which had been raised in her
defense which had fought for her life and at her
quest. So the slave was slave no more. No other
man could claim his service restrain his votion.
De might 20 or come, work or play, so lar as his
late master was concerned.
But that was all. He could not contract, testify,
marry give in marriage. lie had neither property,
knowledge, right, power. The whole four mill.
ions did not possess that number of dollars Of
dollars worth. Whatever they had acquired in
slavery was their masters, unless he had expressly
made himself trustee for their benefit. Regarded
from the legal standpoint it was indeed, strange
position in which they were. race despi5ed, de-
graded, penniless, ignorant, houseless, homeless,
fatherless, childless, nameless. Husband or wife
there was not in four millions Not child
might call upon father for aid, and no man Of
them all might lift his hand in daughters defense.
Uncle and aunt and cousin, home, family-none Of
these words had any place in the free 1mans vocsb
ulary Right he had in the abstract in the con-
crete none. Justice would not hear his voice The
Law was still color blinded by the past.
The fruit OF sayery-its first ripe harvest gathered
with swords and bloody bayonets, was before the
nation which looked ignorantiy on the fruits OF the
deliverance it had wrought. The North did not
comprehend its work the South could not COM
prehend it's fate. The unbound slave looked to the
future in dull, wondering hope.
1t is at this stage that the characters are
introduced. The negro had not even a
name. Marriage was unknown among his
race. Property he could not hold. And
upon these conditions the new structure of
society had to be erected. The feeling of the
Southern whites was peculiar. What they