The western sentinel. [volume] (Winston-Salem, N.C.) 1887-1926, 1889-01-03
WINSTON-SALEM, n. G. THURSDAY, JANUARY 3, 1889.

over the Negro as SER
want, being an altogether new charac-
ter in fiction. The slaves devotion to
the master is trite in the remote antiq-
uity of letters; but the slave as a man,
with his hopes, his fears, his faith, has
been touched, and only touched, by
the pen of the novelist. The traditions
of the freedman's freside are richer
and far more tragic than the folk lore
which genius has recently put into his
quaint vernacular. The freedman as
a man-not as a "brother in black"
with the curse of Cain yet upon him,
but man with hopes and aspirations,
quick to suffer, patient to endure, full
ofhot passion, fervid Imagination, de-
sirous of being equal to the best-is
sure to be character Of enduring in
terest.
The mere fact ,ihaving suffered or
enjoyed does not imply the power to
portray; but the Negro race in Amer
lea has other attributes besides mere
Imagination. 1t has absorbed the best
blood of the South, and it is quite
within the possibilities that it may it.
self become power in literature, of
which even the descendents of the old
regime shall be as proud as they now
are of the dwellers in "Broomsedge
Cove" and on the "Great Smoky"
Pathos lies at the bottom of all en-
during fiction. Agony is the key of
Immortality. The ills of fate, irrepa-
rable misfortune, untoward but una
voidable destiny: these are the things
that make enduring fame The
"realists" profess to be truth-telling.
but are in fact the worst of falsifers,
since they tell only the weakest and
meanest part of the grand truth which
makes up the continued story of every
life. AS rule, humanity is in seri.
Gus earnest, and loves to have its sym
pathy moved with woes that are
heavy enough to leave an impress ot
actuality on the heart. Sweetmeats
may afford greater scope for the skill
of the chef, but it is "the roast beef OF
Old England" that sticks to the ribs
and nourishes race of giants. Dain.
ties-peacocks' tongues and sparrows
brains may bring delight to the epicure
who loves to close his eyes and dream
that he detects the hint of a flavor; but
the strong man despises neutral things
and vigorous people demand Wig.
orous literature.
1t is the poet Of action whose clutcf
on the human soul is eternal, not the
professor of analytics or the heirophanl
of doubt and uncertainty. In sin
cerity of passion and aspiration
as we'll as in the woefulnes.
and humiliation that attended it.
downfall, the history of the Confeder
acy stands pre- eminent in human
epoch.. Everything about it was OF
grand scale. Everything was rea
and sincere. The soldier fought il
defense of his home, in vindication O
what he deemed his right. Their
was proud assumption of superiori
ty, regal contempt of their foe
which, like Hector's boastfulness, ad
ded wonderfully to the pathos of th'
result. Then, too, a civilization fel
with it-a civilization full of wonder
full contrasts, horrible beyond tn
power Of imag gination to conceive il
its injustice, cruelty, and barbarou
debasement of subject race, yet ex
quisitely charming in its assumption
Of pastoral purity and Immaculate ex
cellence. 1t believed that the slav
loved his chains and was all the bet
ter physically and morally for wear
ing them.
But then came the catastrophe, ant
all was changed. The man VIII
fights and wins is only common in hu
man esteem. The downfall of empir
is always the epoch of romance. Tb
brave but unfortunate reap alway
the richest measure of Immortality
The roundheads are accounted bas
and common realities, but the cava
liers are gloriied by disaster. In a
history, no cause had so many of tn
elements of pathos as that which fai
ed at Appomattox, and no peopl
ever presented to the novelist such
marvellous array of curiously contras
ed lives. Added to the various ele
ments of the white race are those 9th
er exceptional and unparalleled cor
ditions of this epoch, springing froI
"race, color, and previous condition {
servitude" The dominant class itse
presents the accumulated pathos of
million abdications. "We are all poe
whites now," is the touching phrase i
which the results OF the conflict al
I expressed with instructive accuracy b
those to whom it meant social as we
as political disaster. 1t is truth .
yet but half appreciated. The lev
of Caucasian life at the South mu
hereafter be run from the bench lir
of the poor white, and there cannot /
any leveling upward. The distant
between its upper and lower stra'
cannot be maintained indeed it
rapidly disappearing. To the woefu
ness Of the conquered is added the p
thos of a myriad of deposed sovereign
Around them will cluster the halo
romantic glory, and the epoch of the
overthrow will live again in Americs
literature.
It matters not whence the gre
names of the literary epoch which
soon to. dawn may derive their origi
No doubt there is something of trui
in Herbert Spencer's suggestion, th
the poets and novelists as well as tt
rulers of the future will come from Il
great plains and dwell in the shadow
Of the stern and silent mountains
the West. Greatness is rarely bol
where humanity swarms. Indlyidu
power is the product of a wide horizo
Inspiration visits men in solitude, n
the Infinite comes ne~rer as the fini