Virginian-pilot. (Norfolk, Va.) 1898-1911, 1900-10-03
THE SUMS PERvERSIoN OF
FAC is.

that Northern sentiment which may
very well be expressed in the nara
phrase, mo good thing can come out
OF Dixie" Such has been it's rancor,
and such is its rancor still, that it
constitutes a singular instance OF that
perpetuity of the passion of hate that
we are apt to think has found ex-
preston only in the melodramatic
novels of a half-century ago. AS a
study in rage, the Sun is a perennial
delight to any who may be sufficiently
philosophic to keep in mind the i'm
potence of it's Nominations while Civ
ing himself up to the enjoyment of
their high picturesqueness.
After the recent disgraceful race
riots in New York the Sun promptly
blamed them on the South. A South
erner in New York protested, having
taken the Sun seriously. In it's issue
of Tuesday the Sun replies in a col
umn and a-half article that is the
most remarkable pot-pourri of fact
and fiction, of fragrant assumption and
clever distortion. that the Sun has
produced in a decade. 1t pretends to
find in the solidity of the South a me-
mace to the welfare of the whole Union
and rates the South for being solid.
Yet, in the next sentence, it says: I'm
1895 there was no danger of the tri-
umph of destructive Organism except
as 1t came from those old slave States.
and there is none from it now In any
other Quarter" Is this not strangely
contradictory? The South can not
elect President by itself, and more
over the Sun declares herein that the
North was as solid as-the South. We
could retort with equal justice that but
for the solid North there would be
no menace in monarchistic Mckinley
ism.
But here is the part of the Suns
screed which is worthy of special at
tention:
THE people of this Republic outside
Of the old secession Confederacy, win
out regard to their political affiliations
are tired of the endless soreness and
morbid sensitiveness of the Southern
people'-moRe especially as they are
expressed in a stubborn and stupid no.
litical solidity which has no regard for
the welfare of the vast body of the
CAiiCii OotSieiC VI lIlelT own narrow
bounds The Southern peo-
ple, that is, the people who happen to
live in the Southern States, have
usurped a share of the attention of
the Union and imposed on 1t n ter
rible sacrifice during the last fifty
years altogether disproportionate TO
their relative Importance. We want to
go ahead and work out our national
destiny without further disturbance
from them; for at present they con-
stitute a brake on the national pro
gress."
This is so grotesque a perversion of
it's humor. In view OF the known cir
cumstances. to accuse the South of
morbid senstiveness" can not be re-
garded as other than a jest, though n
sorry enough one For a quarter Of
century after the civil war the in
genuity of the press of the North was
exhausted in vituperation and misrep-
resentation of the South; the Republic
can party kept itself in power from
1864 to 1884 by the same brutal and
cowardly means: the relations of the
two sections for that whole period
were justly summed up in the famous
phrase: THE South can forgive the
North for whipping 1t. but the North
can not forgive the South for being
SO darned hard to whip" To charac-
terize the South's resentment of the
insensate persecution Of which 1t was
the victim as morbid sensitiveness"
is CHASTITY atrocity.
OF an even sorrier humor Is the as
sertion that the people of the South
have Imposed n terrible sacrifice" up
on the people OF the North. What
sacrifice? The Sun nor any other
paper can name it. The South "usurp-
ed share of the attention of the
Union?" The South has usurped the
attention of the North just as any
unfortunate is liable to usurp the at
tention of a common scold. if he come
in ear-shot of her. The South has not
asked for any attention.: she has ask
ed merely to be let alone, and has ask
ed in vain. Northern sacrifices for the
South have been mainly summed up
in tariff bills that bied the Southern
people for the Northern manufacturer
and in pension laws that drained the
South of its money to empty 1t into
the pockets of Northern pensioners.
And now. after thirty-five years of
peace. the New York Sun, which
claims to stand, par excellence. for en-
lightened Northern opinion. goes out
of its way to charge upon the South
| the shortcomings of New York;
=-I=
In the face of Teddy.s Strenuous
ness" and Mr.. NJ. Hanna's vitupera-
ton. VIM. Jennings Bryan seems TO be
ambing along towards the White