The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-10-19

IdCfNHlS III tndC DuOydll, HouIISIllHS
community OF spirit, have
cur pipers played internationally upon
q delicate reed.
A Trio OF Smiles.
And now it is come time to be done
with the gloomy side, and to ring up
the curtain on the smiles
There are three smiles, which we
will present in the reverse order of
their radiance. The first is the multi
plicity of book clubs, in the reports Of
which the papers abound. l am aware
that Mr.. Bailey made fun CT these last
year, saying that they soon drifted
into gossip circles or card parties. In
some cases, OF course, they are purely
social affairs, but a generalization that
they are all SO, does many of them
injustice. Many of them, l know
have kept alive for years in the seri-
GUS and loving study of literature.
Though these circles may not be Mars
Hills and stand as intellectual light
houses, their existence in such great
numbers is a most hopeful augury.
For literature, like the bay leaf, needs
chafing to smell sweet. Agitation is
all it needs. 1t grows under any treat
ment but neglect. From all the Babel
of these book clubs will yet come
many a sweet song. The women, Wh)
who are themselves its incarnation,
will do an unreasonable kindness to
their State if they will keep these clubs
from degenerating.
For the second smile let us take an
ether fall out of Mr. Coogler. He was
rot the spokesman of truth when he
sang, Her bardS are fewer and fewer
Our bards, on the contrary are more
and more. To prove this let me cite
hn Of of
newspapers which are friendly to indi-
genOuS poets. That their verses are
lame and, in some cases, ludicrOus is
not the point The significant fact is
that the people are trying to speak.
Some of the ancient English ballads,
now deemed priceless because of their
historical setting. are really as crude
and as far short of poetry as much
of our current newspaper verse.
Great literatures have always been
begun by the verse writer's. Job is
the oldest Hebrew composition extant;
the morning stars and also the midday
suns of Greek literature are the Had
ard the Odyssey, dating back to such
a cloudy past that the eager critics
are reduced to the mere assertion that
they were not written by Homer but
by some other man of the same name;
SO were the trOuveurS, the trOubadours
the minneSingers, and the Old ballad
writer's all the heraldS of great liter
atures. Expression comes first in
poetry, later in prose, because poetry
is the speech of emotion ana prose
the speech of thought; and the heart
feels before the mind thinks.
If our verses are hating and immel-
odious, we can and will teach the craft.
Given the desire for expression, the
education, under our laws, may be
had.
Now, let us present the third, the
broadcast, and the most radiant smile
The wisest thing that has ever been
done by North Carolina was done
when she carried her books to her
children. If it is true that it takes
three generations to make a gentle
man, it is certainly true that to make
q literary man you must catch him
young. The literature which is
fought in colleges does good, but it
falls far short Of the highest good.
The student who has it presented to
him for the first time as a task, will
ever have quite a different feeling for
it from one who has known it from
childhood; who associates it with those
golden days and loves it almost as
tenderly as he loves his mother; who
like the quaint country bachelor in
"Cranford,'' speaks of the common
things in the perfect language of the
masters, not through ostentation, but
unconSciOuSly.
There is unbounded hope in on
rural school libraries. The coming
years will declare the wisdom of their
establishment. All the talk in the
world will not avail to whip the peo-
pie into literary interest. But the
quiet influence of these books in the
mountain recesses and in the live-oak
woods, is the Ieaven which will leaVen
the loaf. These children will know
what art is as if by instinct Their
minds will be brave toward beauty as
toward an old, dear friend. We viii
not then have a, great diSCOrd of lame
and ludicrous singing, but with a heart
that feels, and head that knows.
these children will utter themselves
Worthily of the sturdy, honest, prCuC,
and unyielding people from which they
spring. In that day let us not forget
this Association, and the seers of whose
minds this idea was born.
And now a grand aggregation of
smiles: A North Carolina literature.
Why may we not have it, as we'll de-
fined as our English literature or ESeW
England literature? Travellers who
study and compare peoples say we
have a character of our own. We
have lived here for some centuries;
derived from many stocks, we have
intermarried and become hOmOgene-
Gus; our forefathers felled the woods
and builded homes, and there is hardly
a spot within our borders which has
not been a human haunt, which has
not about it the glamor of tradition
and ancestral association; we have a
history which is worthy of a brave
upright people. If North Caroinlans
knew their State, knew the significance
of what happened at Kings Mountain
as well as at Runnymede, why
should they not thrill with all the
and pride of country which
has inspired English song from
precious stone set in
the silver sea" to William Watson's
proud sonnet Fer England"
Let us fan the little fame that has
begun TO flicker on the altar Let us
read literature and talk about it, Let
us have, so to speak, coffee houses and
old Boston. Bookstores all over this
State. The years will be brief believe
me, when North Carolina, in spite of
her present poverty and ignorance and !
mania for politics, will demand the at
tention of the worlds thinkers. 4