The western sentinel. [volume] (Winston-Salem, N.C.) 1887-1926, 1889-01-03

~ lie OF the East was Lne I5VOTIte
ground of the novelist. The slavery
agitation gave glimpse Of one phase
of Southern life. AS soon as the war
was over, as if to distract attention
from that unpleasant fact, we were in
vited to contrast American crudeness
with English culture. Then the Wes-
tern type came boldly to the front and
the world studied the assimilations of
our early occidental life; its product
has not yet been portrayed. For
time each of these overshadowed in
American fiction all the others. Each
was in turn worked out. The public
relish for that particular diet palled,
and popular taste, which is the tyrant
of the realm of literature, demanded
something else. To-day the South
has unquestionably the preference.
Hardly novelist of prominence, ex-
cept Mr.. Howells and Mr.. james, but
has found it necessary to yield to the
prevailing demand and identify him
self With Southern types. Southern
life does not lend itself readily to the
methods of the former. 1t is earnest,
intense, full of action, and careless to
a remarkable degree of the trivialities
which both these authors esteem the
most important features of real life.
Its types neither subsist upon solilo-
guy nor practice irrelevancy as a fine
art; they are not affected by chronic
selt-distrust nor devoted to anti-cli-
max. Yet despite these imperfections
the public appetite seems to crave
their delineation.
A foreigner studying our current
literature, without knowledge Of our
history, and judging our civilization
by our fiction, would undoubtedly
conclude that the South was the seat
of intellectual empire in America, and
the African the chief romantic element
| of our population. As an evidence of
this, it may be noted that few
months ago every one of our great
popular monthlies presented "South-
ern story" as one of its most promi-
nent features; and during the past
year nearly two-thirds of the stories
and sketches furnished to newspapers
by various syndicates have been OF
this character.
To the Northern man; whose belief
in averages is SO profound, this flood
of Southern fiction seems quite unac-
countable. He iecurs at once to the
statistics of illiteracy, with an unfal-
tering belief that novels, poems, and
all forms of literature are natural
and spontaneous product of the com.
mon-school system. He sees that 2a
out of every hundred of the white peo.
pie of the South cannot read or write
and at once concludes that in literary
production as we'll as in mechanical
and financial achievement the North
must of necessity excel, in about the
same proportion that it does in capac
ity to assimilate the literary product.
Yet the fact ought not to surprise
any one. One of the compensations o.
war is swift ensuing excitation of the
mental faculties, which almost yields
remarkable results. This i. especially
true when fortune turns against {
spirited and ambitious people. Tbs
War Of Rebellion was far more ter
rible experience to the people of th'
South than to those of the North. Th,
humiliation resulting from defeat wa
intense and universal. They had ant
can have no tide of immigration ant
no rush of business life greatly to les
sen the force of these Impressions
while the presence of the Negro il
numbers almost equal to the white
prevents the possibility of forgettln,
the past. The generation which ha
grown up since the war not only ha
the birthmark of the hour of defea
upon it, but has been shaped an,
nodded quite as much by regret 70
the old conditions as by the difhcul
{ ties of the new. To the Southern maj
or woman. therefore, the past, present
and future of Southern life is the mos
interesting and important matte
about which they can possibly concern
themselves. 1t is their world. Thei
hopes and aspirations are bounded b.
its destiny, and their thought is no
diluted by cosmopolitan ideas. Wheth
er seIfabsorption is an essential REG
uisite of literary production or not,
is unquestionably true that almost al
the noted writer's of fiction have bee
singularly enthusiastic lovers of tn
national life of which they have bee
part. In this respect the Souther
novelist has vast advantage over hi
|; Northern contemporary. He ha
never any doubt. He loves the lif
he portrays and sincerely believes i
its superlative excellence. He doe
not study it as curiosity, but know
it by intuition. He never sneers at il
imperfections, but worships even it
defects.
IL The Southern writer, too, has a Gu
riously varied life from which he ma
, select his types, and this life is abse
, lutely terra iAcognita to the Norther
! mind. The "Tyrant of Broomsedg
, Cove" may have parallel on ever
: hillside Mrs. Burnett's miraculousl
transformed "poor-white" Cinderella
may still use the springs for pier -glas.
, es Joel Chandler Harris's quaintnes
Chestnut's curious realism, or th
dreamy idealism that still paints tn
master and the slave as complement
of. a remembered millennial state
t any Of these may be a true picture {
this life so far as the Northern man
} knowledge or conception is concerned
i He has conventional "Souther
man." conventional "poor white,
i with female counterpart of each Al
. ready fitted out in his fancy and 9
i long as the author does not seriousl
: disturb these preconceptions, th
!, Northern reader likes the Souther