The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1892-06-03
Snnthern Literatnre.

II
To the Young Contestants at the Pub
Tic Schools
We notice in our local columns the
commendable forethought of Mr.. JnO.
c.. Dexter, one of your alumni, who
has offered a beautiful medal to that |
one of you who will write the best
original literary prOductiOn-the
sweetest bud springing from the |
Young rose-bush of your mind-tO be |
your own, your very own; brought
into life by your first attempt to
gather with youthful hand and
flushed cheek q bouquet OF all tie |
sweet flowers of thought that have
sprung up in the dollhouse of your |
hearts. And this is great thing for |
you. For this is your first attempt at
becoming a maker, designer, ere
ator; heretofore you have been
COPPER. follower, an imitatOr; your
work has been an effect, not cause
a result, not an action; a star-beam,
not Il star.
We are proud to see this work. 1t
is a change in the right direction.
You have acclaimed and recited;
you have learned your algebra, your
Latin and your philosophy; and
those exercises, like the glimmer of
the sunshine on the rounded spiders
web, have sent the silver rays of light
along the delicate threads of your
mind, and lighted up paths and chan
nels and fibers and Silken tissues that
have always been there but never
seen before, and perhaps had been
lost forever, but for the mental work
that brought them to light but for
the sunshine of the school-room,
flashing along the dark channels
which God had created for noble
purposes. These channels being dis
covered, now you are to use them
now you begin to work for yourself.
How important that your work
should be that of truth and purity!
What a sin to manufacture in this
already surcharged world of fraud,
the false and the base!
We wish you to erase from your
mind any precOnceived idea you may
have entertained that this kind OF
work is effeminate and ignOble.
What q grand and glorious thing 1T Is
To be a maker of thought, a mouider
of other mems opinions and maker
of other peoples lives! Did you ever
read the simp story OF GOldsmlth's
Vicar of Wakefield" If not, lead
l., and twenty, yes, forty years from
then, il alive, it will throw its sweet
influence on your clouded mind some
day and help you to overcome temp,
tation. 1t will strengthen your moral
character for life. If we knew there
was young man i'll Columbia, Wh",
after reading il, would not resolve to
lead purer lie, We would conclude
he was born only "for treason,
strategy and spoiIs" Gray's Elegy
will live and sOothe and strengthen
men when the names OF Babylon,
Rome and Waterloo are forgotten.
| We would rather have been the au-
thor of The COtter's Saturday
Night than to have been the Duse
Of Wellington, himself, so far as me
| honor OF his victory Is co1cerLe d
"Malse Chan viii! 1--we longer tran
the memory of Fl zhugh Lei, and the
"House Of Seven Gables" Viii be
printed, reissued and re-read "fth the
memory of Andrew Jackson, tie
greatest American that has ever IlNtG
after Washington, viii have been
dinmrd :" de. ~ III .hv nist OF the
past AS . waVCr, like the gods 81
| Ancient Rome, between the ghost OF
a legend and the reality OF a Tact
Ii these be true, and we believe 1t,
yea, we know it, such prize should
be sacrei in your minds, for you
know not the chance you may have
10 be of some good in the world
And another thought. There never
was a time in the history Of the
South, when she needed more WORN
of a literary character than now.
She ueeCs authors; men and women
who will print on Times granite
side the story Of her trials, her Ia
bors, her truth, her valor, her Frln-
youth to follow the sweet,
still waters of quiet, honest labor
and steady growth of moral character,
and not rush aimlessly along the ship
wrecked shores where lie the wrecked
galleys of a thousand speculations
and the ruined ambition of iunumera-
BILE false prides and aims. She needs
literature; becauRe, for other reasons,
a country is what its literature Is.
Commodore Lawrence's words, when
in his death wound, he gave his no"
immortal command, and Frances
| KEYS song, 1.-THE Star-Spangled Ban
ner'' are tuiI brothers, the offspring OF
the same sire-American liberty.
Thomas Campbell in "Ye Mariners oil
England" and Nelson of Gibralter
fame-each wrote Poem-the same
poem-the one in a book, the other Ill
battle. And lastly, coming home to
the hearts Of us all, do you think the
soldiers of Robert Lee. as they stormed
up those bastiOns of bayOnets and
swarmed over the cannon capped
SUBMITS OF MaTys helShIS' Cal
ried only their guns in their hands
II that were all they would have
turned and fled under that canister OF
shot and shell. They carried in their
hearts the same spirit that made
maryland, my Maryland" This Is
a practical age, but good wholesome
literature gives solid strength to the
practical, and balances the too eager
idea, the too common error, the fan
too general opinion that in wealth
alone is happiness. "Fhe Kingdom
of God is within you" says the great,
est writer that has ever lived, and il
you set up q kingdom of beautiful
sentiment, pure thought, lofty ideal
ism-set it up in your own hearts
and in the souls of OtheIs-yOu have
won kingdom here, if no where else
the kingdom of a happy life.