Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-05-18
NOTES ON THE SOUTH.
The Land Of Poetry-JOaquin MilIer's
View of the Negro.

The Land OF POetry-JOaquin Miller's
View of the Negro.
Anropos Of the Blair educational bill,
saws joaquin Miller in a Washington
letter TO the Philadelphia Press, have
made it my business to look into the con-
ALTON of a large class most likely to be
benefited 10y a bill of this kind, which,
sooner OF later, and i'm some form or other,
must become a law. And, rs is best in all
cases Of inquiry; I began right at home
aud 30 the bottom.
In the first place, l went to the prison
here IN W Washington; l found twenty-One
.--o women i'm Jail: found three white
women i'm Jail. II justice is administered
si-.F. and I hear no question on this
-rore. this is a bad showing for the blacks
-- begin with. I tried to find out what
rqf seen the educational advantages of
"a. prisoners; and, so far as | could ap-
rr.Nmate % the truth, the white women
could read aud write, while about half of
She blacks claimed TO be able to do the
same. The ohenses of blacks were almost
entirely % "a trivial kind, if one may call
r.ttv thieVlng trivial: the whites had
-raver ohenses to answer for. But there
was enc old negress-crazy, / think-un-
Der sentence of death for numbering two
O.lJrtn. The other sex of the two races
same sad disproportioR.
NOT VICIOUS, But WEAK.
But really we get not much light here
u his prison inspection teaches anything,
t teaches that the negro is not vicious at
all. hut weak. I'm his capacity Of servant
lc is al The time tempted. One remarka-
DIE discovery l made in my prison inquiry
was chat he steals not for himself half
Cr more than half the time. but for
others. He steals food. clothes, cheap
Jewels. etc. from his employer 70 give
away. He is generous. YOU see, with
other peoples property az least. So | give
it as my conviction that the worst feature
in The black mans character + that of
petty thieYing. as shown by the prisoners
and prison records. A bad trait, ii is
true. but not the worst by a great deal.
After Z had bought land ard settled
down on she Hill here overlooking Wash
ington } found % ms horror that / was
within 9 stones throw Of negro sem
nary or academy, as both sexes are
taught here. and that l had established
myself within mailing distance of about
rw0 hEudred blacks.
thought it strange that j had not dis
covered the fact Cf the immediate Tres-
Cuce of ms black neighbO-s ~ once.
Slault Ike 20 see school Of 200 prOmis-
cuals whites keep still long enOt Oh to
sli q man To buy land and build house
w-l0ut letting themselves be known. FL
ur-lyl DO began 70 dawn 1-pOn me that my
u.i-hhor9 were neither noisy, INDECENT or
vicious in any degree, or at all. AS the
blossoms ri spring cane out ! began to
quiet groups of my black students on
.l. hills. here and there, with the r books.
Bul chat was about all the sight or sound
tn. negro school Z have yef cncOun-
t.rei. 7 have not % this day heard a sin
-Ie voice. unless I first spoke GO him or
n- as we have sometimes mt i'm our
HI #ttIN-a ND nH fnFnD of
tlem has ever VeutCred inside of my en-
.~are.
MODEL SCHOOL
And 8s these black people treated me
with respect / came finally to respect
chem Boo return; and when their principal,
a white man, possessed of that quiet force
which means conquest from the first. call
I'D and asked me TO see his scholars, L
gladly went 20 one of their receptions
almost hesitate 10 tell of the perfect order
here. the perfect everything. lest / might
u.t he entirely Endorsed. Bear in mind it
has been my business, as a scribe and re-
porter of the progress of the earth to visit
many schools ] have lived at oxford, at
Cambridge, loated about Heidelberg and
had something to say to the stu
dents in Athens, Alexandria, and
even Jerusalem, bat such exact dis
cplinc, vet hOme-like behavior. l have
found nowhere at all. / call attention to
Known that the educated negro does not
mouth his words or abL reYiate them or
speak in any other way than as an edu-
Gated white man. Turn your back and
Fou would not be able TO detect the white
from The black speaker These students
are masking the very most of their OppOr-
rGuIry.
And this, / think, is all that there is of
lie, all that God or the country asks of
amy human being. And tits the one great
argument fer the bill. How far they have
advanced OF how fast they have advanced
tits not 50 easy TO define positively.
THE LAND OF POETRY.
While on this subject of books and
scholars. l invite attention to some books
thar have been sent me from the South
and not entirely for what they are, but
tHr what they promise mainly, the first
little. sweet flowers after the storm and
winter. The South is the land of poetry.
Whether some new Byron OF Keats or
Shelley shall come down and conquer the
American Italy with his cross of song re-
mains % be seen.
I have nearly a dozen volumes Of verse
sent me from the South recently. OF
course the ADLER poets, such as Paul
Hayue and Father Ryan, are not to be con-
sider1t. But before taking up these books
please look at these lines from the late
sidney Lanier and tell me what YOU think
Cf their splendOr. And only q reflect that
tll> man was four years Confederate
soldier. private in the ranks. refusing to
b. promoted because he would then nave
ta leave his little brother who had fought
SD many battles at his side still in the
ranks. Poor, dear lad And then he died
JUST AS he got place to sit down and rest.
br. w ard, Of the New York independents
is -oIng To publish his life and works soon.
8ut hear this great cry Of pity and of pain
as De drew near to the river Of darkness:
Tolerant PLAINS, that suffer the sea and the
>. spread and span like the Catholic Nan
who hath nightly won
Coed out u knowledge and good out Of in
Ana sht out Of blindness and purity out of a
stain.
AS the marsh-h hen secretly builds on the
Watery sod.
Behold win build me a nest on the great
ness II God!
Iwu NJ in the greatness Of God as the marsh
ben lilies
la ,ae freedom that fills all the space 'twixt
thc marsh and the skies.
by So many roots as the marsh grass sends in
viii heartily lay me a-hoId on the greatness
oa.uEe the greatness Of God is the greatness
The range OF the marshes, the liberal marshes
oi Glynn
Here is little story in just dozen
lines from another dead Southern poet,
hr. Frank TicknOr, and it seems to me
there is nothing in our land as good and
graphic IN its way:
Olt " the focal and foremost FIRE,
out DO the hospitals walls dire;
>mltteu of grape-shot and Cangrene,
Eighteenth battle and he sixteeng
spectre, such you seldom see,
Little GiHn, Of Tennessee.
.
Weird " gloom from the war one day;
Jolnston is pressed on the 'front.'" they say,
Little o. fin up and away;
A tear-hi= first-as he bade good bye,
bmmed the CLINT OF his steel blue eye;
"ll write il spared.'-there was news Of the
fight.
But none Of Gilin-he did not write.
Tho most ambitions Of OH these hnnls