The courier. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1894-1903, 1896-09-26
MR.. HOWE.LS DISCOVERS A POET
IN PAUL DUNBAR-A NEGRO.

bAN nun bSAsohtt ~ AsoSJttI.
At last an intellectual bridge has
been cast across the chasm dividing the
black from the white race. At last. for
the first lime in the histor, OF this
country-or. so far as We are aware, in
the history OF any other country-a man
OF pure African blood has arisen to
speak for his people in the person Of Mr..
Paul Lawrence Dunbar.
For several years poems bearing this
name have been appearing in the lead
ing magazines, but they bore on the sur
face no racial mark. and the fact that
some OF them were in the negro dialect
counted for nothing, since many white
writers have attempted that. although
with less success. 1t was not, there
fore. until slender. quiet. shabby little
volume of verse, dateless. placeless and
without publisher, drifted out Of the
west and accidentally reached Mr..
Howells-who is always quick to see
and never reluctant 10 praise what is
really good-that the young Africo-
American poet was introduced to the
larger audience which the importance
OF his work deserved.
Only then did it become generally
known that the author was black. that
his parents were slaves who learned to
read after they were free. and that he
himself had stood shoulder to shoulder
with the heaviest laden of his race. He
was educated in the public schools OF
his birthplace. Dayton. o.. and was I'M
til recently an elevator boy.
As these facts came out. the signifi-
canoe OF Mr.. Dunbar's poetry stood re-
vealed. and it was recognized not only
for it's intrinsic worth, for its lyric
beauty and metrical quality, which are
quite enough 10 lift it into prominence,
but as the first authoritative utterance
OF the inner lie OF race which had
hitherto been dumb. The little book
thus yoicing what had never before been
spoken was privately printed and called
Majors and Minors" the Majors being
in English and the Minors in dialect.
sometimes the dialect OF the middle
south negroes and sometimes the middle
south whites, and in the case Of the
negro dialect reproduced with perfec-
ton that no white writer has attained.
These poems. covering a wide range
of thought and feeling. have been gath
cred with number OF new poems into a
much larger volume soon to be pub
lishec by Dodd, Mead & Co. Mr.. How
ellis has written an introduction to the
new work, aud in it says:
What struck me in readiGg Mr.. Dun
bars poetry was what had already
struck his friends in Ohio and Indiana,
in Kentucky and Illinois. They had
felt as felt that however gifted his
race had proven itself in music. in ora
tory. 10 several other arts, here was the
first instance OF an American negro who
had evinced innate literature. In my
criticism OF his book l had alleged
Dumas in France. and had forgotten to
allege the far greater Pushkin in Rus
sia, but these were both mulattoes, who
might have supposed to derive their
qualities from white blood vastly more
artistic than ours. and who were the
creatures of an environment more fav-
orable to their literary development. So
far as l could remember. Paul Dunbar
was the only man Of pure African blood
and American civilization TO feel the
negro life aestheticslly and express it
lyricslly. Ii seemed to me that this had
come to its most modern consciousness