The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-02-20

Correspondence The st. Paul Globe.
NEW YORK, Feb. 17.--Aside from
the extraordinary popularity of "Quo
Vadis," nothing in contemporary lit
erature has been more remarkable in
this country than the vogue of books
relating to the Revolution. The cen
tennial Of 1876 did great things in many
directions; but none of these direc-
items were literary. They were mainly
artistic, and artistic in an Oriental
sense. 1t was to that celebration that
We owed the interest taken in the art
Of China and Japan-a rather curious
outcome of a celebration that was dis
tinctly local and patriotic. 1t was
long after 1876 that Americans began
to take special interest in their own
history. When the patriotic societies
had been formed-the Sons of the Rev
clution, the Daughters Of the Revolu-
ton. the Colonial Danes and all the
otheIs-then the minds of men and
women turned to the war which wrest-
ed from England what might have
been the fairest jewel in the imperial
crown. Persons joining any of those
~ocieties found it necessary, in quail
flying fer membership, to study the
war ard the colonial period. Thus was
created an appetite for literature Of
all sorts throwing light on the period.
Whatever merit a story like DIR.
Mitcht MS Hugh Wynne" may have as
literature, pure and simple. its splen-
did success in sales can be accredited
to TO other cause than the theme it
deals with-the Revolutionary war.
Some $4,000 copies of the book have
been 50 d already, and it is not yet six
months old. Meanwhile, other stories
of the same period, books for boys on
the Revolution; magazine articles like
the one Henry Cabot Lodge is now en-
gagged in; the books of John FHiske and
innumerable lectures on the Revolution
have exemplified still further this de-
mand for knowledge of that era when
ION Ame rican soil was acted an lliad
which, as yet, no Homer has sung.
= Some weeks ago I listened in Cooper
union TO an illustrated lecture on the
Revolution, delivered to an audience OF
$500 wOrkingmen, and, however beau
= tlful the pictures were, and however
- interesting the lecturers words, the
most striking thing Of the evening was
the Wrapt attention of the listeners in
their recognition of pictures before they
had been explained to them; their en-
thusiasm at sight of Faneuil hall or
Independence hall, at portraits of Paul
Revere, Lafayette or Washington.
Curiously enough, along with this
Revolutionary literary development,
has come A new phase of interest in the
Civil war. Most school histories of that
conflict have been written by Northern
men. They have naturally been col
Ored with Northern sympathies and
very naturally also they have been
disliked in the South. AS, practically,
all the books published in this country
are published in Northern cities. the
South has been at a hopeless disadvan-
tage, and the result has been that
Southern writer's have at last come for
ward with books Of their own in which
equally strong sympathies were shown
with the side which lost. Hence has
arisen demand for books which can
satisfy both sections. 1t is recognized
by the saner minds on both sides that
the time has come when such books
ought to be written and should be ac-
cepted. The patriotism and devotion
OF Lincoln can be acknowledged by the
South. and the valor and integrity Of
Lee by the North. Joel Chandler Harris
has come forward with a suggestion
That John Fiske, New England man
by birth and education alike, could
write the book needed. Ex-Gov. Cham
berlafn, Of South Carolina, saws Carl
Schurz could write it. Whoever it NAV
pc that shall write the book satisfac.
tory to both, it is obvious that the wav
IS opening for some one to do it-that
the time is ripening, and that the man
alone is wanting.
The days Of Robert Burns Ia = cen
Jury behind US: in very few wears all
ocotchmen and many others will he
celebrating the hundredth anniyarsory