The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-09-15
vARDEMAN's ELECTION
Two Interesting Volumes by Ala
 bama Women.

 From savoyard's Washington letter in
 Nashville Banner.
 The nomination of vardaman for Gov ernor of Mississippi looks like reaction, but it Is only a threat of reaction. It is the answer the South gives to that Indianola mess, an admonition to the North to mind It's own business, re- buke to the Hon. Hopkins. of Illinois. who is very unhappy and very discon- solate because he found no negro in the United States Senate to assist him in the grand and mysterious and recondite work of Soionism. But it was unfortun- ate-the nomination of vardaman If the Republicans carry the country next year they are certain to Ego projecting" with the negro. Vardaman's position is an excuse for a Federal educational appro- priation. The excuse will be that the me- gro Is ignorant. that the South is de- termined that he shall not be learned, and therefore 1t is the duty of Chris tian Northern people and a religious Re- publican Congress to educate the man and brother. To that end millions will be voted, offices created and officers ap- pointed. Federal agents will invade the State and apply to education of the me- gro the revenues they don't steal if any be left. States rights will get blow. and the constitution of the United States will be violated.
 | A MT. Patterson. correspondent of Chicago newspaper. very able and very honest man, has been down South | studying the negro question. His let | ters are intensely interesting. Some of his remarks are excellent. He Is as much without prejudice as anybody who has | written on the subject. But like all Northern men, the negro is dense mys- tery to him, and the relations of the two races in the black belts fills him with astonishment. He says the negroes on | the plantations of the South are the best farm laborers in the world and the 1 happiest of all Gods creatures. They are ignorant and they are thriftless. They do not understand that there Is to be a tomorrow, and they feel that the l evil day will not come. Mir. Patterson says they are happy, but he wants them | to partake of the tree of knowledge. Bill Arp said there were negroes in Geor- | gia, 100 years old, in the days of re- construction, demanding to be sent to college. MT. Patterson thinks the field ne- gro of the cotton belt needs education. There are Southern men just as honest as Mr. Patterson. and ten times better | fitted to judge of the matter, who say l that an educated negro Is a ruined ne- gro-that as soon as he learns to read he ceases to grow cotton, and either wants to preach the gospel or run for Congress. It is a big problem-the negro question. and, as Mir. Cleveland remark ed, the best thing to do Is to let those nearest the weight lift it. That is work for the South.
 When a man approaches three score | his days for reading love stories are about over, unless 1t be the courtship of Boaz and Ruth, or something like that; but the other day picked up a lit- tie volume with bewitching title, My Lady Primrose" and finished it at sitting. It is a charming little novel told by charming little woman-Mary Lind | say Watkins. This story by Mrs. Wat l kins is not only well told. but 1t is al- together wholesome It will give happy | thoughts and happy dreams to girls in their teens. and intelligent boys will read it over and over again.
 Mrs. Watkins is very intelligent wo- | man, daughter of the late Robert B. Lindsay. the first Democratic Governor of Alabama after the State was rescued from the reconstruction vermin. There is nothing more Scotch than the name Lindsay. and the Governor was not only the son )f a Scotchman, but he was graduate of St. Andrews College. Edin- burgh. His daughter is an accomplished
 
 French have attracted much attention and received the commentators of numerous literary people. The Romance of a Child" as she translated it, is used as a text book in one of the leading colleges of New England as an example of excel lent translation. Some years ago she competed for prize for the best original short story, ana got the award over more than sixty competitors. and that induced I1 kt.. lu Lt tzf~ Lady Primrose Is the latest. It is a charming Southern love story for South srn young folks.
 Miss Maud Lindsay of Tuscumbia Is a sister of Mrs. Watkins, and has a wonder fully successful kindergarten school at Florence. She wrote book for little peo- pie Mother Stories' that is a valued text book in the London. England. kinder garten schools. Only willie ago she was induced to go to Boston and teach a special kindergarten class In order to H. lustrate her methods for the benefit of New England teachers.
 In all sorts of works of real civilization the women of the South. as well as the men, can be depended on to do a full share. And the glory of 1t is they are not short-haired. nor women we wish were born men.
 The South never exploited herself She was never vain nor puffed up. recollect when I was a boy reading a Southern book, an answer to Uncle Toms Cabin" As I now recollect. the title was 'The Parlor and the Kitchen" though that might have been the alternate title I have searched for that book in several public libraries but never found it, and what is strange, I never saw man who had read 1t: that Is l never discussed 1t with a man who had read 1t. The mate rial difference between it and "Urcle Tom" was this-The author of ''The Par | Tor and the Kitchen knew all about the subject, and Mrs. Stowe knew nothing about it. Mrs. Stowe's book was an ex- travagance;- the answer to it was a sober tale. If Mrs. Stowe had painted slavery as 1t actually was her story would have died in the columns of the periodical in which 1t first appeared. and she would have been known only as sister of Henry Ward Beecher.
 The one thing about it was that slav- ery's time mad come. The most potent thought in the world had condemned 1t to death. Judge Lynch was after it, and