The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1894-08-13
ARP is ONE OF THEM.
HE HASBEEN READING MISS RUTH
ERTORD'S "AMERICANA nth RS."
From Literature the Major Falls Into q
Meditation on What the English
Think of This Country.

| "
book, american Authors was before me.
L had just finished reading her pleasant
| sketch of my old friend, Richard Malcolm
| Johnston, and was looking at his picture
| the genial kindly lace that neither age nor
| wrinkles nor crows feet deprive OF It's
| charm-when it occurred to me that IL
| had been more than year since we had
| exchanged letters. While 1 gazed anu
pondered on the picture the morning 5
mail was laid upon my table and the
! topmost letter was from Dick. 1t seemed
! to come as a matter of course. 1t was the
| right thing to happen and 1t happened.
| Dear old Dick! How much pleasure ne
! has given US all! How many southern boys
has he taught, beginning a the university
| and then at Rockby and for twenty
| years past at Pen Lucy, near Baltimore.
| How many characters has he moidedF how
| many sincere friends he has made VINO
! love him in life and will mourn him when
dead. If anybody deserves mUnument'
| it is the successful. conscientious teacher
who has made it his life work. Ana ms
reminds ME that Dick is a Roman Cathollc
! and so is my good friend Ranulll' VINO
wrote MY Maryland" that thrlhng war
lyric that oliver Wendell Holmes SAID
| was the best poem produced on either side
| duriLy the late war. But the American
| Protective Association will retire them
to poverty if they can. And Father RYAN,
who wrote the Conquered Banner. was
| Roman Catholic priest. Miss RutherIora
| says Of him: He was honored by Protest
ants-loved by native Americ ms ana Out
| side Of race and creed was respected by
all for lis true manhood" The American
Protective Association cannot harm hlh
now. When the chaplain or the state
prison fled from the pcsrilence IN lo'4'
Father Ryan took his place and mlmstered
day and night to the suffering.
This book of Miss Rutherfords is
~, ba It deals kindly ana
| truthfuIIy with the living and the "ead.
Not even George w. Gable nor Mrs. Stowe
can Justly complain of her gentle crltt
cisms Her galaxy of southern writers
| cannot be found extensive ana so starry
| in any other book She says truthIuiiS
! that prior to the late war there were as
many gifted writer's at the south as al
| tho north but there were no PUBLISHING
| houses for books and but few literary
! MAGAZINES to encourage talent. but tiie
! south has always excelled in scholarship
! in craftsmanship, in oratory. Her ueau
poets did not live long enough " wiz
| many books but the quality OF their
| poaus was unsurpassed save by three or
| four northern writer's. Lord Byron declar-
! ed that "My Life Is Like a Summer
! Rose" was the nnest poem oil the cent
! urv We owe it TO John Forsy the 'ia'
this poem was ever published. VICTOR llub"
! said that Zoe was the prince OF American
/ T,anier and RYAN would nave written
( had they lived to the allotted age, we can
only surmise from their youthful EFFORTS.
Poor timid, wOmanly Itmrod. Knew
him well IN college. He was ike a starued
fawn. Many a time have 1 seen HIM IN
the early morn
s.BrIshing the dew frcm off the upland
lawn"
or srirt!ng the elades around Athens in
search II flowers. What a Struggling Ite
he lived and how ptitully poor NJ ul1u'
Miss Rutherford's book is Instructive ell
tertaining and refining. 1t should be IN
every family as Il ready book OF reference
Most of our people are too poor 10 aHofu
eucvclopedias and if we were not We
would not find any work from the horth
that is faithful to southern writers Inc
publishers may be ever so kindly dlspoSeu'
but they do not know us. Some OF Iheh
know who would put you IN IL you WIZ
nav for your picture-say $50-and IN some
of these ponderous volumes scores are
omitted who could not pay and hundreds
inserted who could and did ana whose
names will go own to posterity
"Irnwept unhonored and unknown
The south has not many friends any
whore and il becomes us to treasure those
we have II is amazing how We survive
the ISLANDERS OF our foes and prosper IN
der oppression.
have a son and a son-in-law in England
who were called there on business, ana now
they are kept hot IN defending the south
from the Ida Wells ISLANDERS. They feel like
they are held responsible and are under the
ban of public opinion The English people
are sharnefully ignorant of our manners
and customs and are as fun of prejudices
as our northern frineds were before the
war AT a dining one evening a lad of ten
years asked my son if he had any boys IN
America. Yes" said he. 81 have four.
Are they blacG?' said the boy. y negro is
n rare sight i'm London, and hence mere
is no colored line neither in cars nor hotels
nor churches and the English people cannot
understand why there should be any dis
tinction here. Negro men intermarry with
white servant girls over there ana notu-
ing is said or thought about it, but white
men 30 not marry negro girls. But il is inn
nossible Cor any Of the Anglo-Sa,Non people
TO understand the social situation until
tuCy are brought face 10 face with 1t. Take
a quiet, unpretendinS village Of 5000 lnhabi-
tants up north and suddenly pour into ii
1000 or 1900 negroes and see now soon
they would draw the color line. They wont
even stand small percentage OF Chlnese-
q people who commit no outrages and are
Industrious and clearly III their habits. 1t
looks like our English neighbors are hunt
ing for excuses to beltttle and abuse cur
nation and our government. My son en-
closes me a chapter from u late issue of
The London Echo, and it reads as bad
as some of the uttcrances Of Herr Most and
other anarchists.
THE signs of the times Indicate that
before the sun rises the LIST OF January,
1900 che great American nation will groan
and writhe in an agony of revolution and
the streets of all her great cities will be
slippery with Dlood-a hundred drops OF
blood for each gem that flashes ON the
necks OF rich and parpered women and ten
drops of blood for each tear that has
washed the faces of the poor. IN the north
every election is carried by Ooolia; II the
south every election is carried by buCkshOt.
(Who saId thatD Politics is so rotten that
it stinks. Everybody knows it and EoDody
cares. America is no longer a republic. 1t
is plutocracy. The president is merely
the creation of bank directors, railroad
kings and coal barOns, and il is the same
with the governors OF the states. The poor
whine about their poverty ana SndW their
crusIs OF bread, DuJ can always be counted
on 10 vote for the ricn, ana nlne-Jantns of
them would shoulder their muskets ana lay
down their lives in defense of the right of
the rich to rob them. a nation such this,
III which one million plutocrats tyrannize
over sixty millions slaves Will be either
overthrown by a foreign Zoe or drowned i'll
II NV blood IN 10 pf rlp 1uR