The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1891-04-28
A Week of Southern Authors.
FrOm the NnshriNe An1ericnn-

The last days OF the coming July will wit
ness an important event in the history of
southern literature. For the first time the
magic potency of cooperation will be in
voked. Not with any preconceived idea of
lettering the lusty young industry it is
almost a chance affair; but it is CO.
operation, nevertheless, and even a CO.
instruct a summer audience means
much During the period beginning
July q ard ending July 81 five famous
southern writers will deliver the evening
addresses of the Monteagle assembly, and
on the morning of July 30 literary CON
ference will be held at the same place. The
men who deliver the addresses are T. c.
DeLeon,. James Lane Allen, J. Will
lam Jones, AlCee Fortier aud
Harry Stillwell Edwards. There Is
inspiration in the sound of these names
They have the large suggestiveness of cos
mopolitan personality, the ample dignity of
things familiar to world, and world Of
the greatest consequence, the world of let
ters. AS the aRthor of Gross PURPOSES, :"
Creole aud Puritan" Judy" aud. per
haps, most honorable of all, "Four Years in
Rebel Capitals" T. c. DeLeon has inter-
ested some Of Americas best readers.
James Lane Allen, "SiSter Dolorosa"-
there is not a well informed person in the
country whose nerves do not thrill at the
words. 1t may almost be SAID that this
| man has monopolized the attention of the
| fictlon-loving nation.
Ole of the staunchest types of the old
southern spirit-the untarnished, unalloyed
soul of the south as it has been--ls presented
in the person OF Dr.. Wi liam Jones. As the
| chaplain of Robert Z. Lee, be may be called
| the intercessor of the fortunes of the south
with Almighty God. aud since that time as
the biographer of his general and OF Stone
wall jackson, and as a writer upon kindred
| topics, he has filed an office of almost equal
| sanctity --interlocutor between the old south
and its poSterty.
Alcee Fortier, i'll his love for Creole
! literature as distinct literature, and as a
contributor to the literature of u language
| foreign to the most of us, is TO be priced
more for his scholarship and his patriotic
| devotion to the We ware of the south, but
| his presence at this time must be gladly
| welcomed nevertheless, largely from the
very fact that he is a reminder of the vastly
diversified character OF the yet unorganized
| whole.
Harry Stillwell Edwards has made for
| himself field rich in pathos and Color
! typical of which is de Valley an de
! Shadder,n work which will count for
much in the final summary Of the writing
| OF the period. The selection of speakers
| could scarcely have been improved. Each
man is representative of class, and as
such the combined effect must be of great
| interest to the southern public That
it is profitable to cater to this pub
lie is amply testified by the northern
publishers of periodicals, who fill their pages
with the work of southern writers out of
Difference to the business value OF southern
readers The Chautauqua assembly, of
which the thrifty New Workers have made
a capital financial success, would seize with
delight the opportunity which now presents
itself to the MOnteagle assembly. A liberal
investment would make this feature some>
thing more than nascent crudity. In
crease the conclave of FIVE representa-
tives to a pan-southern literary con-
gresS; call from their distant northern
homes, where many have drifted in search
Of remunerative appreciation, the men and
women who are making the south great in
the eyes of the literary world; draw them
into friendly aud competitive nterc 1ursa,
and the week If authors would ecliuse the
enterprise which fosters it. The modest,
homemade southern resort would attract
30 itself pilgrims from afsr, and the five
days would indeed be al eyeat in the his
tory Of southern literature.