The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1903-11-15

word-'it Is too strong a way of putting
of putting-the-'
Truth I ventured.
Miss Magruder laughed.
mo, the proposition" she retorted gay
~. There IL no denying the fact thai
we southerners are deplorably narrow.
I'VE persistently refuse to see two SIDES
to a question. especially when the ques-
lions concern social problems. 1 should
not say that we needed more national pa
triot,sn, but I should say emphaticaliy
that we needs must rid ourselves Of a GER
tain superfiuity Of sectional fanaticism. 1t
Is seriously hamperlng our growth
I'm h way?'
I'm many ways. One is the failure to
punish homicide in the South. Another Is
the partial condoning Of lynchings. 1t Is
also retarding our progress in literature
and art.
"The Southern fiction writer isn't hold
ing his own at all with the novelist of the
North. He sees things with too narrow
n vision. was reading a short time ago
an article in the Critic on this very SUB
3ect. II was written by a Southern woman
and Was a sharp arraignment of the
| methods of our most widely known ro-
mancers.
'I agreed with that article to the letter.
although 1t will doubtless raise no end OF
OlscuSelOn anu D1tteT ietih6 dhiohS S"s
literary people Of the South.
SHE DISCUSSES
| THE SOUTHERN VIEWPOINT.
1.-THE narrowness of vision and lack of
| perspective which distinguish us South
erners liz nowhere more evident than in
| the so-called novel Of Southern life, which
really does not reflect that life at all.
"A large plantation, a house with a
veranda supported by white columns. an
old black nanny int a retinue of col
ored servants. the irascible Colonel, a few
poor whites and a bevy of bellies. about
whose beauty n sweetness we are being
constantly reminded-these are in greater
or less proportion the salient features in
the typical Southern novel.
IA certain plot, also more or less hack
neyed. fuses these elements into a whole
which Is rarely ever either convincing or
artistic.
specifically there Is a passion. but one
Il conscious as one reads that there is
really NO spiritual conflict going on in the
hearts and minds Of the characters"
.sBut DO you think that this failing IL
peculiar to the Southern novel alone?
isn't II likely TO be found in the Northern
story, tool"
Certainly, but not universally so, and
not In the corresponding class Of Northern
noyels. In order to write clearly and logic
| ally one must tuinA cAea1iy ana logically.
ewhether our ideas be right or whether
they be wrong. there must be no doubt in
our minds that we are right, else We car
never make them convincing to others
For that very reason the author Of the
South writes best lin the literary sense
upon the subjects on which he is mos,
VIGOROUSLY ~prejudiced."
Miss Magruder rose from Thomas Jefer
sons chair and, moving to the table,
picked up q book.
"But please don't understand me to say
that all writer's who are prejudiced must
necessarily write well.
Here is a book. for ~instance-a North
ern book. too-which is not only full OF
false prejudices. but very badly written
and she passed me a recently issued vol.
ume purporting to deal with the economic
and social conditions of the. American
working woman. saying. as she did go: