The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1902-02-25

CullIOIi ~ DltCI AC
thar a week ago. Its day Of publication
was yesterday. 1t promises to have
considerable run Of Iuck" whatever IL
may be as an artistic and literary work
1t is sufficiently sensational. we suppose.
TO make it popular. He is a gifted man
"a lecturer Of remarkable paris. and
of no little brilliancy. He is a native
Of North Carolina.
Professor Woodbury., OF the Uniyer-
sity OF New York, is a GENUINE man of
letters. He wrote a volume on Poe.
which gave offence to many. and he is
to publish soon a volume on Haw-
thorne. He has in these two writers
high themes as Poe Is not only the
greatest genius born in the south. but
the greatest in America according to
the opinions Of many critical a
airy men in Great Britain and in
France. Hawthorne is beyond fair
question the greatest writer that the
north has produced, and as a novelist
he is easily first among all Americans.
He holds a high rank in England, Inc
he is written about most appreciatively
in leading literary publications. The
literature of the six OF eight foremost
reviews, and the chief opponents among
the m~onthlies. and of the five or six
great weeklies is of d commanding and
interesting kind. Another American
man of letters. Henry James. who has
distinction. some years e wrote a
biography of Nathaniel Hawthorne.
New biographies of Motlev. the histo-
rian. and of Whittier. the abolition
Quaker poet. are to be issued also.
Biography is delightful and informing
when it does not degenerate n hero
worship and over-straIned laudation.
:. + 81
A biography Of Charles Robinson.
who was the first state governor of
bleeding" Kansas. has appeared. He
was a native of Massachusetts,. 1t was
during his term of office that the old
cut-throat John Brown figured and
played the devil" in that distressed
land. Old Brown is quite a hero yet
among lots Of folks In the north. He
was specially worshipped by Longfel-
Tow and others OF the New England
literati. Professor r. w. Blackmar
writes the life of Robinson. In it the
old scoundrel Brown figures, fal-atical.
bloody-minded as he was. The review
er Of h biography is James H. Can
field, formerly professor Of history III
the State University Of Kansas. 1t is
evident that John Brown is still a
name to c~oniure with for he is to the
front in the minds OF certain people
who hove n rascal n believe hat
fanaticism of an extreme type if ex-
pressed in sympathy for Il low race
consecrates brutality and crime. The
reviewer says of the bad. bloody fell
low:
His place and value in our history,
in world-hiStOry, are still mysterious.
not easily defined. eve questionable.
His life and character and purpose and
methods do not yield readily to analy-
sis. In attempting to make the Amer
lean people see what q horrible thing
human slavery was, he gave evidence
OF marvellous personal power, of the
very highest form of I~ndividualism. in
both thought and action. He was full
OF contradictions II seems IMPOSSIBLE
that the man who planned the massa-
ere of Dutch Henry's Crossing and the
man who wrote that last letter to his
wife and children. from under the very
shadow of the gallows. car De one and
h same"
One OF the most extraordinary things
that have yer happened IN the north.
marring and disgracinG. is the astound-
ing worship offered to this murderer
and disturber. His first ~biographer,
90 or 80 years after sending out his
work over his own signature repudiated
his estimate OF Brown. ilnd declared
that after ample study of records ne
was compelled to brand him as a mur-
derer. But he is still worshipped in the
north alongside of several other men.
but little better If any. of this cut
throat. Think Of the following. We
clip from the reviewers notice M the
excerpts are extremely suggestive n
Illuminating. They make the best liv-
ing men IN the south lament that the
south did not triumph. The" can have
no desire to fraternize with n lanai
les who can adore the memory of such
a superstitious. incarnated devil Read:
Hundreds then and thousands later
held him to be almost the first man
who in fifty years had proved that all
ens OF honor and justice and SYM
pathy and responsibility was not dead.
and that this country was really worth
living in and living for. ]. His
face and name were known all over
Europe even before they were as well
known in the United States. Somehow.
the instincts Of men are not often
astray when they decide who deserves
the credit for great movements-and his
name still lives. Strange it was that.
we who had set ourselves against the
fanatics" and had sneered at them
and driven them from pulpit and plat
form-we who had spoken scornfully
OF the old haff-crazeJ fanatic of a
per's Ferryy-only eighteen months
later marched across tile Long Bridge
and I'll the sacred soli.fE touching ell
bow: 81 that magical way. and singing
hee-oI song! He himself
ADMIT ed that he went there Ito Kans-)
nef- much to assist IN u~pbuilding a