Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1886-06-16
[From the Louisiana Journal of Education.l ]
il DON MIFF.

[Fromfhe Louisiana Journal of Education.l
.faH DON MIFF.
1t has been charged that we have no
Southern literature, but three such books
as this will make US literature. Don Milf
is novel. Why, Don Milf, instead, say
of AlphOnso Fitz Montmerency? You
must read and see. The reason is better
than it seems, and will not need an apology
when found out. This is an odd book
Smiles ahd tears-wit, philosophy, pathos
you cannot afford to miss line.
But, then, in spite of the quaint turns of
thought and speech, it is a novel-a real
novel, full of courting- old fashion
ed, love making, like to fire the blood of
age.
The new nil admirari cynics laugh at
Superf1uous Lags, the veteran, because he
thinks the sunsets, and the moonshine, now
are not like what we had before the war.
But are they? Does not a dudish snpercil-
iousness penetrate the post diluvial court
ship? Is an eye to the main chance con-
sistent with the genuine article? Well,
Don Milf gives the antediluvian formation.
volcanic or aqueous, of love.
true, picture of life in Virginia just quar-
Southern man, who has taken up his abode
in New York, but who does not need to
tell you that every pulse beats with his be-
loved Virginia, and with all the South. Yet
he sees most hunorously, and puts his fin.
ger on the weaknesses of his compatriOts,
and we, and they all, must laugh with him.
His attitude is not the attitude of Mr.. Ca
BILE, who, with all his talents and pietism,
lacks that reverence and delicacy which are
essentially the attributes of genius. In
deed, if this author exhibits gall once-he
does not oftener-it is when he comes to
touch upon Mr.. Cables inauspicious treat
ment of the Louisiana Creoles. While we
have not space for much quotation, we re-
print this passage, because it is one of the
best expressions of Southern feeling in re-
gard to this somewhat warped son of the
South,
ga mere handful; but hearts of English
oak! The ancestors of these men fought
and won at Crecy and Agincourt; and they
are going to fight and lose at Cedar Creek.
The result was different; but the odds and
the spirit we're the same.
Have forgotten the brigade of Louisi-
ana Creoleso No; but when would speak
of them, certain indignant sorrow chokes
my utterance. They came to us many,
and they went away few; and the Valley
has been made historic by their blood,
mingled with ours.
And now is heard the voice of one speak
ing as with authority, voice of a Lou
isianian, proclaiming to the world that these
Louisisnians died in an unjust cause. Un-
just! 1t is a word not to be used lightly
Your share Of the obloquy, living comrades,
you can bear, but theirs? For they are not
here to speak for themselves.
And to say it to their widows and their
orphans! That word could not help the
slave He is free, thank heaven. Nor was
the war in which these men died waged to
free him. He was freed to wage the war,
rather, as everybody knew when the proc
lamation of emancipation was promulga-
ted. In point of fact the struggle was be-
tween conflicting interpretations of the
Constitution; and the Northern people, by
a great and successful war, established
their view of its obligations; the freedom of
the slave being a corollary of victory.
Unjust! had it not been as well to leave
that word to others. IT'S an ill-bird that
fouls its own nest.
The war wrought wide ruin; but it has
been boon to the South in this, at least
that it has jostled our minds out of their
accustomed grooves. Bold thinking has
come to be the fashion. And so we should
not find fault with the author of DIR. Sc
vier, if, dazzled by the voluptuous beauty
of quadroon and octoroon, he should find
a solution of our race troubles in intermar
riage Let him think his little thought
Let him say his little say. 1t will do no
harm On one question be will find, l
think, a ''solid'' North and 'solid"
South. Both are content to choose their
wives from among the daughters of that
great Aryan race which boasts so many IL
lustrious women; and which boasts still
more the millions of gentle mothers and
brave wives, whose names the trump OF
fame has never sounded. And with such,
l think, both the blue and the gray are
likely to rest content. Content. too, that
their children, like themselves, should be
of that pure Indo-Germanic stock whence
has sprung Socrates and Homer; Ca-
sar and Galileo; Descartes and Pas
cal; Goethe and Beethoven; Newton
and Shakespeare. The countrymen OF
Cervantes and of Cortes, failing to keep
their blood pure, have peopled continent
with Greasers and with Gauchos. And
shall the children Of Washington become
L
room heroines-be their eyes never so lus-
trous?
But such matters are legitimate subjects
of discussion. So let him have his say. But
there are things which it is more seemly to
leave unsaid.
When a step-mother is installed in the
house, you may think her vastly superior,
if you will, with her velvets and her laces
and her diamonds, to her that bore you;
and you may, perhaps, win fame as an
original thinker by saying so to the world;
but there is certain instinct of manhood
that would seal the lips of most mon. And
I, for my part, know many, very many,
Northern men; and not one of them seems
to wish to have me grovel in the dust and
cry pecavi. Would it not have been dis
grace to them to have spent, with all their
resources and odds, four years in subduing
a race of snivellers? No; let us say to the
end; you we're right in fighting for your
country, we equally right in battling for
ours The North will, the North does, re-
spect US all the more for it,"
AS read these words, Charley rose, and,
opening a bookcase, took out a volume
Finding, apparently, the passage he sought,
he closed the book upon his fore-fnger.
"When man takes upon himself" he
began, "to rise up before Israel to confess
and make atonement for the sins of the
people, he should be quite sure that he has
the right to exercise the functions of high
priest.
eff either his father or his mother, fol
example, sprang from the region round
about Tyre and Sidon, that should bid him
pause. 1t is not enough that one wields the
pen of ready writer. One must be an He
brew of the Hebrews. Else the confession
goes for naught."
sWhat Jack had just read," added he,
'sbrought to my mind passage which |
have thought of for ages. You must know,
Alice, that after the death of Cyrus at the
battle of Cunaxa, the ten thousand made a
truce with Tissaphernes, lieutenant of Ar
taxerxes, who agreed to conduct them back
to Greece. After journeying together for
some time, he invited the Greek general
to conference at his headquarters. Clear.
chus, and almost all of the leading officers,
accepted the invitation, and at given sig
nal were seized and murdered.
sThe ten thousand were in as bad plight
as ever an army was. Without leaders
| kad hvy had Ioi