The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-10-30
L.
Preliminary View.

Preliminary View.
There are many indications of an in
creasing interest in things colonial. The
most obvious is the latest fashion in ar
chitecture. with its gambrel roofs. pill
Jared portlcos, yellow and white coloring,
suggesting If not following the style of
building in the last century. Such houses
must be furnished in manner to CORE
spond, and the country side is ransacked
TO lind uncomfortable chairs, clocks
whose altitude is greater than their ac-
curacy, and sideboards with rheunl Ntic
joints. New factories are started 20
make old bric-a-brac, and good plate is
battered into better. The children that
run about these houses answer to an
Client names like Dorothy, Gladys and
Slbyl-the more ancient like Keziah and
Keturah, Benhadad and Barzillai being
dropped as too Hebraic for modern use
Then the colonial spirit spreads from the
family TO the community and societies
and organizations spring up to connect
their members with pilgrims and soldiers
governors and wars We have our coIo-
NAL danes, and they have their wars
There are sons and daughters of this or
that distinguished in proportion to the
femoteness of their ancestry So wide
mas the contagion spread that we have
been threatened with return of the full
sk1rted coat and long waistcoat OF small
clothes and shoe buckles, although no one
mas yet suggested the earlier steepIe hat
doublet and trunk hose of the Puritan.
Indeed, through all this Stuart and Hano-
verian restoration a saving soberness of
Judgment has prevailed sufficient to keep
1t from running away with it's advocates
AT least, they have never taken kindly
to the Cromwellian features of colonial
art. Possibly some may discover signs
of coming imperialism in this, and the
slogan of the future may be the old song
whose burden was:
In good old colony times,
When We lived under a king
After all, this looking backward and
bringing forward is not mere tad Or
temporary craze. It's lghtest move
ments are as the foam on the surface
which goes with a strong current I'M
derneath-the historical spirit of this gen
GRAFTON, combined with patriotism
which means to honor the nations
founders by preserving the records of
their doings. In everybody's desire to
gather up Sibylline leaves before it is too
late, it is not strange that family records
and genealogies, old wills and invento-
RES, surviving plate, spinning wheels, and
even pewter mugs, should get into the
dragnet. Who shall say what value any
of these may have to the historian in
coming centuries?
In view of this retrospective disposition
or our time it would be glaringiy incon-
sistent TO overlook the writings of the
colonial period. If literature is a truer
record of peoples life than the minutes
OF parliaments and town meetings it
cannot be neglected for historical rea-
sons. Besides, literature has a history
RI Of n lob
understood without some knowledge of
what has gone before. A people may
change it's political status in a day, or
declare that it has done so, but in the
domain of letters, as in that of nature,
there is continuous growth which
knows no sudden changes. There is no
broad cleavage between it's after develop
ment and it's early struggles for. life
These may be forgotten or derided, as
man laughs at his own youthful efforts
without which he would never have come
to distinction. 1t is pleasant to look upon
the strong trunk and branches of a tree
with it's wealth of foliage and fruit, and
easy to forget the ungainly roots below
through them comes it's life from remote
fountains, and it's staying. power. Ac-
ccrdingly, when we grow complacent over
our recent attachments in letters, and are
amused, as we cannot help being, at the
recall some sturdy qualities in their lit
terature. as in their life. Above ALL, it
will be needful to keep in mind few cir
cUmstances and conditions which diff
fered from those in which we are placed,