The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1896-12-20

Tom" Page, as his friends call him
in the South has been very happy in his
dedication. Here it is: ITO my People
This Fragmentary record of their life
is dedicated" He deserves all the sue
cess he has won. AS he has sped along
higher and higher, there have been those
who seem to have detected certain
treatment here and there of Southern
phases which they say they would have
had otherwise; but / am glad that Page
comes to my mind only as the lovely sim
ple-heartcd fellow he is whose heart is as
much his peoples as his own. In this
connection, it may not be breaking conf
dence beyond the allowable to say that in
some instances certain of his lines as first
written have been changed by the pub
fishers to mean not unkindly, even if
some would have had them as he first
wrote them. And just here, let is be
said that his readers" have not always
been the artists they should be. In one
instance at least, they have weakened
what was one of the strongest passages
in the story of Meh Lady. When that
story was in manuscript it happened one
evening that Page was reading it to
a family group, in the midst of which
there was an old Virginia gentleman,
UiEH Out0 on. VI GouESet HIS 1uIi, Teu
checks were glistening with tears, as they
always did under the voice and pathos
of the man. There were young and old
listening and too, one young woman
whose literary discernment was high and
cultivated. / win give the passage from
Afeh Lady.
AN when de preacher git to dat part
whar AK who gin dis woman to de man
to be he wife, he sort o. wait an he eye.
sort o rove to me BILLY, the old negro)
discontinued like he ak me eff | know; an
| dom know hucc0me twuz, but | think
bout Marse Jeems an Mistis when he
ak me dat, an bout Marse Phil whar
all dead, an all de scuffin' we done been
th'oo, an how de chile ain got nobody
to teck her part now sep jes' me; an
now, when he wait an look at me dat
way. an ak me dat, / bleeged to speak
up: jes' step for'ard an say:
'''Gordr
AN jes' den de sun crawl roun' de
winder shelter an res on her like it
pourin' light all over her"
When the word Cord" was uttered,
the little group was breathless with adj
miration for truth and dramatic power;
of the fitness of the reverence of the old
negro who would have stood himself, but
who looked upon his young "mistis" as
something too sacred in her orphanhood
to be sponsored by anything under
heaven, specially by one who loved her
so humbly as he This and much more
that cannot be written came to the minds
Of the listeners, who were almost awed
by the pathetic majesty of the response.
Exactly the right string had been touch
cd and all knew 1t. "And do you know"
said the young woman to me afterward,
that in the story when l turned to that
passage, found it changed from Cord"
to what do you supposeE'
"Ole Billy" she replied, and | felt as
if the man who made that change would
better be an expert body-snatcher, pro-
flaming the sacredness of the dead than
a bungling blacksmith in one of the first
class publishing houses.
Yet in this book, there stands sole
Billy" stale as an auction-bell by the
music of the hallowed old Mission Bells
OF Southern California's Sweet-Water
Valley. Now, that Page has the pub
fishers running after him, and is a prince
among story -tellers, let him see to it for
the sake OF his friends that the next
xime Scribner sends out a Christmas
/, edition, "Ole Billy gets the grand bcsnce,
and what the old negro really did say
| and feel be put in its place, Cord" as
it stood before.
| 1t is of no use to go into any talk about
these stories: they are almost as classic
| as Roast Pig" or Irying's tender sketch
es,or "Old Rip" or any of them. Truth
has stamped them on the human heart
and they will stick.
Tt is hard to pick up anything that
Page writes without finding ones self
taken up somehow among the other
Southern writers, also, that have de-
yeloped not politically, if beautifully, in
the last score of years. They are mostly
just what we would have them We let
the young fellows plod along saying little
| about them ourselves, but letting them
wait upon Northern critics for their
praises. AT the moment. as to this,
remark comes to me that the late Mr.
Boyesen, a few years ago, made to
young acquaintance from the South who
was walking with him: 81 know Thomas
Nelson Page from your country" that
was among the first remarks made by this
charming scholar, and in the same spirit
many years ago Gillette, the actor, said
between acts, while playing in Richmond:
''The best thing you've got here is
Thomas Nelson Page" / hope ! am not
too querulous, but it may seem absurd
to say that our own Jerome Stockard is
better known in New York than in North
Carolina, and yet, in some senses, he is
the greatest living North Carolinian. For
he is a poet within the real meaning OF
the word. Some day, if he lives, people
who don't know this will know it. | am
not anxious to record this before schedule
time, but why don't somebody happen TO
say so sometimes. w. G. Randall ia
another of the South's artists suppose
he and Stockard will have to go through
the Valley and the Shadow before they
find the reward they merit. viii we
wait as Virginia waited for the North's
imprimatur to be set upon Page. And
ON | within bounds when | say that
Grady, whose greatness was known by all
who knew him in Georgia. had his Oval
ton deferred until after the story Of
his power had been told inthe New York
papers. He was not only great: his heart
and mind have developed many literary