New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1889-08-04
THE SOUTH AND WEST,
HOW "THE NEW" IN BOTH LOOKS TO AN
EASTERN MAN:

Harper Brothers, New-fork, 1855 asa PIP
12mO.
These studies all appeared in liarpers Monthly,
.xcant one which was printed in "Thc New Prince
ton Review In this well printed and elegantly
hound volume, they embrace so much of real in
terest and value that one is moved TO regret that
they were not prepared under circumstances more
favorable to thorough digestion OF materials MI
Warner repeatedly asks the cause of lack of sat
isfactory bookstores in American cities 1t
is at least possible that writers growing in the
habit OF giving their freshest impressions to daily
weekly and monthly publications, and readers In
the habit of relying upon such publications Tor
the hest that writer's have to offer and that these
habits tend 20 deprive writers of stimulus LOT
works OF the most permanent character, ana readefs
Of what might be the writers best.
Mr. Warner appears 10 have seen his great OPP
portupity There was real need of letter OF
introduction making the older States acanalntea
with the New South and the New West. Inc
changes in population and development OF resources
have been less important than in temper, con-
trolling thoughts and social character so that these
who have recently visited the South or the west
after an absence OF ten or twenty years frequently
realize that they have found, not merely ne"
towns new railroads and furnaces, mines ana
wheat fields, but peoples hitherto quite unknown
better mutual understanding and makes an honest
endeayor to meet it. lie has travelled and OBJ
served with genuine spirit Of kindly and ap
preciative inquiry. a little too often so kindly
that it slurs over faults, httle
roo often, so appreciatiye that ~
smaels of the puff. With more deliberate
preparation. he might have removed these defects,
and exercised more Judgment in the selection Oh
the large body of statistics for which readers
ordinarily look 10 Poor's Manual, Board of Trade
reports, or a gazetteer. relegated most OF them
to carefully prepared tables at the end OF the
work.
Perhaps a graycr criticism is demanded In the
treatment of the more serious questions, ABOUT
which the people of different sections want most
TO be rightly informed, there is more than once
reason to suspect that this hasty writing lor
monthly publications, perhaps under the fresh
influence OF intercourse or sympathies when larger
acquaintance or more careful thought might nave
modified, has led Mr.. Warner 10 give super
fetal If not at times partial and misleading i'm
preston. Apparently he started with an idea that
the North had been doing injustice TO the South
and that the East had failed to understand or
appreciate the West These impressions
quite likely to be strengthened by gracious hospl-
tality and cordial personal intercourse, and where
ever there is grave question, there Is certain to
be something to say on both sides. Mr. warner
relations and natural surroundings were such that
he could not fail TO hear one side; his time Tor
inquiry, or even for cool consideration OF what
he did hear, did not always suffice to put the other
side in its true aspect.
Regarding the suppression of the negro vote
for example Mr.. Warner hears the most earnest
and touching appeals from authors or instlgatofs
of the shotgun policy for whom he Vohches
as in tile highest sense patriotic and worthy men,
who calmly assume. as he seems to have calmly
believed that civilized life under Republican gov
eminent at the South was impossible. But he
does not quote and perhaps il may he FAR TO
infer that he did not hear any statement Oh The
subject from either white Republicans or dis
franchised colored men, and how they regarded
the shotgun policy perhaps he never came to
understand lie was taken TO many excellent
colored schools, and it may be presumed that he
was not taken to the worst Of them, and he found
very much to commend in their appearance and
management and in the interest av0wed by white
citizens in rOlOred education; but he does not
profess to have examined schools in rural DIS
tricts; has been informed that outside the cites
and larger towns tie schools are by no means as
satisfactory and candidly reports that even in
the towns the selection of teachers
for political considerations was in some cases
such that colorcd people would not send
their children TO those schools. He abounds III
descriptions of the genial and lavish hospitality
Of the weather. whites, but it does not appear
that ne had any interviews at all with the work
ing people, white or black, as TO their condition
prospects, their mode of living. their earnings
or hours of labor, or the prices of necessaries of
life TO them. He says the treatment of labor
depends, have no doubt as elsewhere, upon the
nature of the employer Most workingmen at
the North will understand this remark without
further suggestion. No exception need be taken
to Mr.. Warmers statement, in several forms re-
peated that this or that part of the South was
never in its whole history consciously loyal TO
the United States as it is to-day since his mean
ing of tie term loyal is interpreted by his
acknowledgment that government by the ma Ority
was upset by revolutions at the South and that
the substance of replies by hundreds at the South,
when asked why this state of revolution con-
tinued was, I" We dare not let go long the
ne groes all vote together After such an illus
tration, Northern men will not be at loss TO give
TO the word loyal, as used by Mr.. Warner, it's
proper and limited meaning.
The treatment of industrial and social problems
at the South and West is marked by something of
the same haste 10 adopt the opinion of kindly and
hesptable friends, whose expressions were both
freSh IN mlnd ana strongly pun. lhe people OF
Chicago do in fact sustain Chicago newspapers,
but they are like people in some other cities who
do not want it supposed that their moral tone is
correctly represented by their journals, and Mr.
Warner faithfully chronicles their wish Even the
Western railroad presidents themselves, who find
very harsh words to of each other would
hardly agree with Mr. Warmers sweeping common
aatien of their morality and integrity. AMI TIE m st
gaseous enthusiast in natural gas could hardly
say with more junction than Mr.. Warner that il
{" is the fuel Of the future at the West" Indeed
so fer does his conplaisance go, that
even the Reputation of debts by Memphis is men
toned half unconsciously, as if it had been
proyidrtially rewarded by the discovery OF rare