The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1893-04-11
IS THOMAS y. PAGE AND CARL
TON

mFssRs. THOMAS y. PAGE AND CARL
TON MCCARTHY.
The Times has not the slightest idea
OF taking any part In the controversy
which is ''on" between MessIs. Thomas n.
Pase and Carlton Mccarthy. Each of
those gentlemen is amply able TO take
care of his own side of the case, ana
neither needs any aid or assistance from
The Times or from any one else. But
The Times wants 10 say that Mr.. Nc
Carthy's remarks on what. for want Of a
better word. we call the yeomanry or
Virginia. were most delightful and agree
able reading TO 1t. The great body OF
the Virginia people Of whom Mr.. McCar-
thy has discoursed constitutes a popula-
ton. endowed with n courage. a patience,
a gentleness. a tenacity. and a devotion
10 duty that has had no superior in
those qualities on this globe. At the
same time. the old Virginian who valued
himself upon his ancestry, his family
connections, and all the pardonable van
tiles of life. furnished a great body OF
citizens to our ante-bellum civilization
that contained the very highest elements
of men that the world has so far shown.
Mr.. Pages Mars Chan" Is a heroic
type Of this class, and Mars Chan was
no whit better than many thousands Of
the others.
In the remarks we are now about 10
make, we do not single out Mr.. Page.
His writings are less liable to the criti-
cism we are about 10 make than those
Of cny other Southern author. Dut even
his writings have a tinge Of material
that falls under the censure Of what we
are going to say, which is this: The
writer's Of the South. within the past
twenty years. have attracted a great
the South. Yet, when We ask why, we
are compelled to admit that the South
has not, in that time. contributed much
to literature that has a permanent value.
principally by the fact that 1t inculcates
the lesson Of a new South" and hat
implies necessarily something Of regret
at and shame for the "oli South" Our
Yankee friends welcome all publications
from Southern authors that talk Of the
New South" because they understand
them to express an apology Of our people
for our past. They get the idea that we
are "sorter sorry for what we have
done, and welcome the hope that we will
soon get up pretty near TO the Yankee
level. This is very much the idea of what
Mr.. Wise is reported to have said to the
Republican club in New York about
General Lee
Now. no greater injustice can be done
a people than for this idea TO take root
away from here about the people Of the
South Of this day. They are not ashamed
Of their part, before and after the war,
but they glory in it, and would repeat it
If the occasion offered. There is no
New South" but it is exactly the same
''Old South that IL has always been.
Our writers do us a great wrong. there
fore, when they make the world believe
that we have any sort of regret for the
past. We love our past, and strew flow
ers over its grave whenever it is brought
before us.
Whilst we acquit Mr. Page almost en-
tirely Of fostering this idea-the cherished
Of Henry Grady and his like
we still have a word of mild censure for
for falling to rebuke Grady and his
fellows for misrepresenting us.
But we have one substantial quarrel
with Mr.. Page. His Uncle Billy" is the
type Of the negro that he draws. Mr..
Page tells us personally that he and
Uncle Billy's" old owners vouch for his
qualities. That ends the discussion as
far as Uncle Billy is concerned. But
we never saw an Uncle Billy" and he
is the sole representative of his class.
Uncle Billy" as Mr.. Page has drawn
him, is a very fine fellow-a very heroic
man. When the outsider reads Mr.. Pages
works and sees this picture OF the negro,
he. OF course, supposes ali negroes are
Uncle Billys." What conclusions, then,
does he draw in mis- mind concerning the
people who would hold such a race as this
I
in bondage for their own pleasures and
advantage? He says to himself that
we're a cruel race of freebooters to
do such a thing. This is the logical effect
that Mr.. Pages works of fiction have
outside Of the South. He has. therefore,,
done the South an incalculable injury
his stories-unintentional, Of course,
Tor no more patriotic Nirginian thar
n. Page lives or ever lived. But
he harm has been done. and we have
often met with evidences of it. The
negro is not. and is very far from being.
/ race OF "Uncle Billys." If there was
)ne Uncle Billy" he was the beginning
the ending of his kind. The others
ire the plain. everyday negroes. that we
III know, with some most excellent quail
les. but negroes and nothing more, after
I'll.
A Dangerous Car.
Car 76 on the UIion Passenger Electric