The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1899-11-23
"THE MAN WITH THE HOE. "
A West virglnian's Interpretation
Of the Famous Poem Endorsed by
MI. Markham, the Author.
From Chicago Dial. November 16;
Mr.. Markham's Interpretation Of his
Hoe Poem.

M. MaFkham's interpretation OF Els
Hoe Poem.
To the Editor Of the Dial
have just read In your Issue OF NO
Vember a communication from Mr..
Granville DAVIDSON Hall on THE Mean
Ing OF The Man With the Hoe.'". Per
nit me to thank your correspondent Tor
his very clear statement and TO say that
he compartments my idea perfectly. In
deed, In an introduction TO the Hoe poem
recently written at the request OF my
publishers for forthcoming edition OF
my poems, / have expressed substan-
TALLY the same ideas contained In your
correspondents article; and have even
made the same quotations from Carlyle
and Mirbeau. EDWIN MARKHAM. (
Brooklyn. N. y, Nov 9, 1899.
The crItiuue referred to in the forego-
ing which appeared In The Dial OF Mo-
vember Ills the following:
Meaning Of "The Man With the Hoe"
The comment of your reviewer. in
The Dial Of October /, on Mr.. Mark
hams poem Of "The Man with the
Hoe" is falrer than great many things
said on the subject. but still seems to
me not quite to the point.
1.-THE Man with the Hoe" as conceiv-
ed by Millet and understood by air.
Markham. suggest is not the product
Of ordinary social conditions nor the
representative Of the ordinary agrlcul-
tural class. 1t is surely mlsapprehen-
sion of Mr.. Markham's thought to sup
pose he meant to reflect on that class,
that he looked on Mlllets dellneation as
typical Of them. or tina, he charged
such product Of labor.
1t is not labor. duly rewarded and
performed under conditions benetittlng
the dignity of human nature, that pro-
duces the man depicted by the painter.
1t is oppression-labor without compen-
sation, the hardship and wrong of toll
and sacrifice unrcquIted. an undue
share of the burden Of government
running through long periods, that
rIpens such deadly fruit. Such were
the conditions that led, by a long and
toIlsome road, down to the French rev.
olution. Mr. Markham, with the vision
Of seer. sees the menace Of related
conditions. to result from not unlike
causes, in the dnrkenIng and not remote
future even IN this most favored land
In the first volume of Carlyle's
French Revolution" where he Is dig
cling down to the caus 3 that underlay
the mighty CONFUSION which is the
subject OF his history, he secs with
reverted eye "the twenty-hv, million
working people" of France with whom
1t is not so we'll; whom we lump TO-
gether," he says, Into a dim, com
pendious unity, nonstrous but DIM: thr
of, as the canaille"; whom he follows
cover broad France, into their clay
novels, into thelr gnTrets and hutches'
masses yet units, every unit Of whom
has his own heart ard sorrows: stands
covered there with his own skin, and
who II you prick him will bleed.
"DrearS languld do these
struggle In their obscure remoteness;
their hearth cheerlesB, their diet thin.
For them in this world rises no Era of
| Hope. Untausht, uncomfort-
ed, unfed! a dumb generation; their
voice only an lnuTticulnte cry. E.
AT rare Intervals las now In l775) they
will fling down their hoes and ham
mers, and to the astOnishnent Of think
ing mankind flock hither md thither,
dangerous, aimless; get the length even
of Versailles: where in May, 1876. in
answer to their Petition OF Grievances,
two OF them are hanged on new
galows forty feet high and the rest
driven back to their dens-for time. ="
Further along in the same chapter,
| the elder Mirabeau describes the Man
with the Hoe" as he saw him from his
lodgings ut the Baths OF Mt. DOT:
"The saVaGes descending in torrents
from the mountains frlghtful
men. or rather frlghtfui Wild animals.
clad in jupes Of coarse wooden. with
large girdles OF leather studded with
copper nails; OF gigantic stature, height
ened by high wooden sabots
their faces haggard and covered with
| their long greasy hair; the upper part
Of the visage waxing pale, the lower DIS
tortlng itself in an attempt at cruel
laugh and sort Of fcrOcious Impotence.
And these people pay the taille! And you
want further to take their salt from
them! And you know net what 1t is you
ere stripping harer, or, na you call II
| governing; what, by the squirt OF your
pen, In its cold. bastard indifference,
you will fancy you can starve always
with impunlty; always till the catastro-
phe comes!"
Thus the old marquis. And In the next
chapter Carlyle:
"Before those i've and twenty lnborIng
millions could get that haggardncss of
face, which old Mlrnbenu now looks on.
in nation calling Itself Christian. and
calling man the brother OF man-what
unsprakable nigh infinite dishonesty
in all manner Of rulers, and appointed
watchers. spiritual and temporal, must
there not through long ages have gone
on accumulating"
II was such woes rs these. emulAtlnE
through centuries-down to the states
general, TO the fall of the pastlle. to the
later Terror, such woes ma no other CIV
llized country ever produced or endured
-that Mr.. Markham must have seen In
Mlllets distorted image OF outraged hui
mainly when he penned that last ex-
presslve stanZa:
40. masters. lords nnd rulers In all lands.
How VIII the future reckon with this MANI
How answer his brute question In That
when hen 'whlrlwinds of rebellion shake the
How viii it be with kingdoms and with
with those who shaped him to the thing
when luis dumb terror shnll reply to God
After the silence OF the ccnturiesg"
History has recorded, in characters
never TO be expunged. the answer to this
'br,Ite question" when It WINS asked In
the stormy days Of Louis Capct and Ma
rie Antolnette: and we may depend that
whenever and wherever-cven II It
should be in this land Of the free"-a
like question presents Itself, the answer
will bt. Of like character.
Mr. Mnrkham'a poem IL not only Inter
prcted but Justified by history and by
economic philosophy II IL nm nrrnign-
mcnt OF forces that are gathering mem
aclng power for evil In this country II
IL. In his own words, N protest that is