The Chilhowee echo. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1899-19??, 1900-03-24
SOUTHERN LITERATURE.
MRS. j. FOSTER SCOTT.

ed the century closing, muSt nave
cause. Great names of famous mel
come down to us, in science, in theol
ogy, in law. Statesmen whose far
reaching thought, saved and shaped
this broad commonwealth, for the free
dom and progression of its life today
The Alexanders, Maury, Audubon, JEFF
ferson and Henry, with many others
protect us from the charge of menta
poverty. The South really possessed
the 'Culture of the classics, the mos
fertilizing of all intellectual forces,
and held recognized supremacy, in bat
ties of statecraft, and tilts in the forum
A predominating cause of our lack O.
literature was the agricultural life ant
employment of the people and conse
quent separated homes. Literary life
largely grows aud lives with menta
friction and association as sparks of fire
ignite and glow against each other.
The isolated homestead and few town
ships afforded no centering birthplace
for undeveloped talent, nor sheltering
arms for smothered genius.
Our standard of literature was form
ed by the finish and purity of English
writers, which true criterion justly
made home effort more timerOus
Again, State preferment and politica
distinction was the goal to which al
mental energy was directed, as afford
ing the widest range, and largest posi-
bilities.
Our Southern women were long fa
miliar with letters, being fluent and
graceful in expression, both with per
and tongue. Many an unpublisb ed
manuscript, delicately inscribed, vel
lowed with age, an 'in memoriam" es
say, poem, or perhaps letter, comes tt
memory the work of grandmother OF
great grandmother. How reverently
we open it's worn foldings, saying
"There is more life and truth in one
page here than betwean the coyecso
Tour best modern magazines. Woman's
life was not "herself?" with aims and
missions, with the world thrown open
to her professional step, to literary
career, or to the many opening doors
which advanced civilization has grant
ed her.
The Southern woman's life was in and
through, her father, brother, son and
husband. Their fame was her fame.
Their State and political questions be-
came vital home questions to her.
Their fall or degradation was only suf-
fering and misfortune to both, provok-
ing her tenderest help and sympathy.
Such were the mothers that gave us
the soldier in gray with the heart of
gold" The hero who coming home
to desolation, drove the ploughshare
through fields in September, that were
moistened with blood in April. Such
were the mothers who handed us their
faith in God, pure as it came to them,
"covert from the tempest" as it was
to them, unstained by an ''ism, as it
now is ours. God grant we may send
it's blessing on till time shall end! Such
were the mothers that gave us the
women who stood the storm of the six
ties, brave, cheering, broken hearted
and resolute. Turning from the graves
of the men they worshipped, gathering
the old and helpless to the sheds that
were left for homes, they faced the
question of bread, balancing their pos
sibilities and capacities, how many, and
how sure, for how much bread. Hun
dreds became teachers, hundreds tried
authorship. Most of the hundreds
wrought successfully in the school room,
and there is no mead of honor to be
withheld, because most of the hundreds
failed with the pen. The failure of a
noble effort means only an experience
to the wise, and often proves stepping
stone to the real place of work.
Carlyle says, Literature is the
thought of thinking souls" and in this
day of inexorable demand for the best,
that mind, body or soul, can give,
thought must be given, clear, direct
and simple, if it is to seize and hold the
public Life is so fast and full, and days
so crowded we ask finely pulverized
mental food, easy to catch and to alb.
sorb. We no longer think of trailing
through long elaborate detail, and our
popular writer's recognizing this, greet
us simply and directly.
OF the older and more assured min
strels, Mrs. Preston remains, bringing
the harvestings of the old era, to be
gathered with the unripened fields o.
the new. She wrote because she
''thought in numbers, and the number.
came" neither spurred by popular ap
plause, nor harried by pinching neces
sity. Her style is clear, pure, lofty il
thought, and graceful in expression
1--WE have all felt the spiritual uplifting