The times., 1899-10-29
The Recornition Of Talent

Periodically there appears a complaint
in newspapers Of Georgia, of South Caro-
lima, or of Louisiana, that the poets and
noyelists of the South are not "recogniz-
ed in the North; that they do not attain
/ justly deserved popularity. This may be
/ true, and it may not be. 1t is hard to tell
/ just what the deserts of any author are.
+ When, apropos of Uncle Remus
/ Harris one Georgia paper pensively re-
marks that it hardly knows whether to
compare him with Shakespeare or with
+ Harris himself could hardly claim that
! sort of encomium; and while a Boston
/ newspaper would not hail him with just
/ that degree OF delight it would not speak
/ Of New England writer in such terms,
/ either.
/ It is quite natural that an author should
be more appreciatlvely received at his
home than elsewhere. IN spite of the
proverb about a prophet having no honor
in his own country, people do enjoy read
/ ing romances which deal with their own
! familiar scenes. The Californian reads
/ Bret Harte with a keen relish because he
/ has himself Travelled over the wild, pic
/ turesque country described in the authors
/ tales of the Forty miners; the countryman
/ living in the city delights in stories of the
/ scenes among which his childhood was
passed; the New Yorker reads "Chimmie
/ Fadden" or The Nidge" with avidity.
! All that is human nature Why should
the Georgian expect Massachusetts fami-
~ to prefer Two Runaways" or Major
Jones Courtship" to Bunner or Mary E.
Wilkins? Why should a South Carolina
newspaper demand, as one did not very
long ago, the sympathy OF the entire read
ing world because Longfellow made Paul
Reyere's Ride" famous instead of cele-
braung the achievement of one Emily
Geiger, q heroine OF the Carolinas?
As a matter of fact, the works of South
ern novelists do have a very large sale in
the North, and it may be added that for
some reason or other they are all published
in the North in magazine or book form,
Half the short stories and at least a third
of the novels of prominence in the last
decade have been the work of Southern
writer's, and they have certainly been more
widely advertised, and at least as widely
read, in the North as Northern books have
been in the South during the same period
Some Southern reviewers have a way OF
treating a story of Northern life with a
sort of disdainful courtesy which is not
very agreeable to the reader who likes fair
play. Both sections of the country are
thoroughly American: there are as many
interesting types in one as in the other,
and the preference of one over the other
is a matter Of personal taste and early as
sociations To Harris "Marse TumIin" the
countryman of Miss wilkins stories would
seem miserly, stiff, and formal; to Miss
Wilkins Jane Field it might seem that
'Marse Tumlin, with his readiness to live
on the earnings Of others and to avenge a
slight by the use Of pistol, was something
like a barbarian. Both would be mistaken.
and they would find out their misconception
if they ever came to know each other thor
oughly. Il is rather small business for
scribblers, in or out of the book review
business, to be fomenting prejudice. and
per5uading their not too well informed
readers that the whole country north OF
Mason and DiXon's line is in conspiracy
to prevent Southern writers from getting d
fair living; because nothing Of the kind ex-
lists