The Arkansaw traveler., 1886-04-03
THE PROPER LITERATURE

l J0nTpdti d review oi southern writers, Mrs. NJ C. Keller, of Memphis, lady of fine literary cultivation, replied. in the Co,uig-.Journal, as follows:
 The article in the Courier-Journai of re- cent date. headed Southern Literature and signed ]" R, is revelation. That l the south needs stirring up is in some respects true, but the ability of R to do this will be questioned when he be- gins an onslaught on Dickens. Thack- cray, Hugo and George Eliot, and when he goes so far as to place them below a i Falkner or a Crozier, his taste Is exc crable. :" R. seems to be in a bad hu- ! nor because Fa!kner and Crozier have not been appreciated. Observation has l taught me that those southern writers who deserve recognition receive 1t from l the south and from the northern press and people. In the matter of novel reading, the minds of children should be conscientiously trained away from l the milk-and-water slush of Falkner and the high strung monstrosities of Augusta Evans. If the south offers no better, let us not sacrifice youthful minds to sen i tIment But the south does offer better as l shall presently show. R com plains that southern people do not read southern literature. If by southern 1 literature he means that which he is advocating, all hail to those who refuse the unwholesome compound. He calls on the south to foster her own literature God forbid she should do so unless it is deserving. What We need is literature so fine and SO scholarly that it will not depend for support on narrow section, but be recognized by the world This we are slowly and steadily gaining R" 1 laments that we do not sustain southern writers. This is a mistake No writer ! in the north, or in England, was ever more generously recognized than Cable East Tennessee Mountain Stories" by 1 Craddock; Sketches of Plantation Life by Harris; Sherwood Bonner's stories of The Moonshiners,' and l Henry Watterson's oddities of South ern Life, are welcomed as valuable ac- quisitions to American literature An eminent critic, referring to these writers happily calls their work "t the culmina- i tion of the recent rare development of l southern literature so delightful to all readers
 He does not say eastern, western, northern or southern readers, but. "all. ." Each of these writers portrays in sep arate field, the fine shades of peculiar characteristics, with the stroke of genius, 1 aided by the analytical training of close student
 Paul Hayne is appreciated so was the lamented Timrod. John Esten Cooke has faithfully worked himself up to very creditable place. Our men and women of true talent understand that careful study is the only road to dis tinction. They also aspire to the ap- probation of a larger circle than is com prised within small section They have the energy to work, the modestv to be taught and the ability to back them, and will not fail to be recog nized The key note to all success was sounded in Goethe's motto, work is akin to genius"
 R. iS not alone in loving the south and in desiring she shall take promi- nent stand in the world of letters; but man who fails to appreciate the inf mite pathos of Dickens or the fine. clear cut English of George Eliot. and swa- lows instead the skim-milk of Falkner and Crozier, will not be the Joshua lead ing Us to the promised land If Bishop Green, Dr. Palmer and the host of others mentioned by R. did indorse such rubbish, let Us hope that hereafter they i will keep to their sermons. Our boys ! and girls now at college are being taught l. the beauties of Shakespeare and thorough appreciation of the splendid style of Greens English History l. There will be sterner critics of southern books than Bishop Green; and let me add, more capable ones R. evidently | bases an author claim to fame on the | number of books he has written and the | merit of the book by the number of | pages 1t contains. Has he forgotten the | little book that came out, few years | ago, called One SummerY It was al ! most primer in size-it came unher- aided, but so fine were the points made, | so clear the story, so beautiful the style | that the country went into raptures over it.
 According to the standard of excel fences fixed by R., Colonel Prentiss lnghram occupies the front rank He | writes dime novels by the yard, winding them out as an Indian juggler pulls the ribbon from his mouth. R. reminds me of another critic, who, upon reading story of Sherwood Bonners, published in Hdrpte'S 4Nagd-ine, pronounced it not much. It was d bit of thing short, modest but clever and pointed-an ini- mitable pen picture-and was what an artist would, in his line, call study from nature. The self appointed critic never perceived the art, but the na- ton " did, and honored it accordingly,
 R, asserts there are many books written in the north which misrepresent the south This may he true of tho olasS | of books recommended by him as eleva- ting food for young minds, but not of those honored by critical mention and indorsed by cultivated American read CTS Among the latter Uncle Toms Cabin is the only one of which this might be said. About that book, two decided opinions exist even among southern people. There are hundreds of books from northern writers which fall stillborn, just as some do in the