The western sentinel. [volume] (Winston-Salem, N.C.) 1887-1926, 1888-01-19
THOMAS NELSON PAGE.

addresses were good and were we'll re-
;eived.
THOMAS NELSON PAGE.
Author Of sMeh Lady Talks of South
ern Writers and their Works.
Thomas Nelson Page, in his paper
on the 'South in the Field of Litera-
,pge," recently read before the stu
dents of the Vanderbilt University
md also before the Southern Society
of New York, contains the. following
comments upon some of our young
southern writer's, which possess no lit
tie interest:
A writer in Virginia, bowed with
physical infrmities, and compelled
like these I have mentioned, by the
exactions of poverty, to grind in the
tread mill for bread struck out prose
in the same direction to record the
spirit OF the old life; bat it was in
the form of lectures which bear their
condemnation to obliv on on their
backs.
Unfer the i'll spelled name, "Mozis
dun . George w. Bagby acqu' red
pr.o] . the war, reputation w5ic,.
h nins should have linked to lis
r, name and have made national.
[ do not care as much for his hum
or as for his pathos. His GLOW Ru.
beastein Played" "Meekin.es
TY nses" and other brochures which
we 'osaed off L. the Write heat c1
newspape per DR., !, cry, are rep;ete wit
wit end humor. But his si1esche, d
Virginia life arc master pieces.
OF ali the southern writer's he W.
the first to give the real picture Of tie
southern home n its sweet and unor,
.-:,Se t istt- lie dehneated Il OLD
homestead not as {, palace, but as il
really existed, with the flowers II lif
ferons levels, the porches with ..:eil
ci.,mbering rosennshes, and the un
light without A.: within.
His "Old v mia Ger.!. man. Is
noble = rtrait : the last !, the cav
liers. lis sket LES, sucI .s "Fishin
in the Appomattox," and "My Uncle
Flatback's Plantation" ETC., are tn,
most exquisite bits of Virginia lif
ever drawn. When time and mod err
progress shall have destroyed ever.
remnant of the old country home-lif
in Virginia, our descendents will b
able to find it, Just as our fathers live
it, preserved in George w. Bagby'
sketches.
Just at the time that Miss Murfre,
secured the prize, another story o
mountain life appeared, almost a
strihing as those which foc.sed tn
| gaze oi the world on the young enc.
see authoress. The scene, however
was laid in the mountains of Nortl
Carolina. Possibly the name "OhIiv
ion" was not as felicitious as thos
which Miss Murfree gave her stories
but the work exhibited rare ability
The author of this is also q young va
man, Miss McClelland, a member G
an old Virginia family. She has nc
yet written another story equal to this
but she has the will and she has tn
| ability not only to equal it but to sur
pass it.
By this time the South had bee
awakened by the North to a sense {
its literary prowess. The great month
! ly magazines which had become tn
vehicle of transmission OF Iiterar
work were not only open as never b,
fore to the Southern contributors, br
welcomed eagerly this new acquisitio
to their stores, and the effect was s
immediate that the impulse of literar
movement was more marked In th
South than in the longer worked an
less romantic fields of the North.
Under this fostering influence nun
bers Of writers arose in TIE once siler
land, and pressed forward for tt
guerdon of Reorganization, until the q
tenticc ofthe reading world has bee
directed to that section long deems
st lie, as giving the greatest premil
OF 1uture literary productiveness to
found among the English-speakin
race.
As the young pines spring spontan
ousiy from the exhausted ields OF ii
lana, So all over the South yoau
writers appeaTe., With all the resi- le
! tAAAN si1hAeJ OA 1SOAooo JoutA LII 4e
ions which have lain fallow for gen
rations.
They are not confined to an ol
section hut are distributed fror. OF
esld of the South to the other.
Their work is not the product
any local and adventurous imp,ils
nor the creation cf any sectiona: Ii
erary atmosphese; for hey are
scattered that -iley lack she stimuli
of immediate Each one b
sprung spontaneously fren the So
without assistance and without e
couragement, impelled by inhere
and individual forces. The best to
en- of new life was this individualit
Hot merely a few, but = multitude
writer's arose under the vivifyi
warmth of prospective recognize
and wrote not on the old squared a
; ruled lines~ but as they saw and
} they felt.