The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1905-07-26
Pisano, Orvieto, Orcagna or Luca della

Cellini and DOnatello.
Architects the world over despair o
} rivaling Albert, Bramante, Giul'
Romano, Palladio.
These masters were masters to thel
own generation, four and five hun
dred years ago; they have been mas
ters ever since; they are masters still
Wherever civilization extends it:
frontiers these deathless Latins are IL
the van teaching what Truth anC
e Beauty are, refining the thoughts
Gle ating the ideals, improving the
methods, inspiring the efforts of man
The negroes have done more than
this and in thirty years?
You had forgotten the Renaissance
, hadn't you, doctor?
Asia was decaying, Africa was in il
its normal state of savagery, Europe
lay torpid under the weight of ignor-
ance and superstitution. Where
learning existed at all its spirit vas
dull, ils form heavy, its progress fet,
tered by ancient canons and cum
brous vestments.
Suddenly the Angel Of Light her
face radiance, her presep ce an inspir-
alton puts silver trumpet to her lips
and blows, till all the world of white
men hears the thrilling notes.
And 10! there is resurrection
What was best in the learning of the
minds Of men.
Literature springs to life, throws of
antiquated dress and takes its graceful
modern form. The fine arts nOurish
as never befor; the canvas, the marble
the precious metal feel the subtle
touch OF the eager artist, and give
birth to beauty which is immortal.
The heavy prison castle of the Frank,
the Goth, the Norman, the Anglo
Saxon, retires abashed before the ele-
CANT, airy, poetic palace Of the
Renaissance.
Nor does the revival of learning
limit itself TO literature, architecture,
painting, sculpture. 1t extends to
law, to commerce, TO agriculture, to
religion, to education.
Whence came the Renaissance, Dr..
Washington? Whence came that
mighty revival of intellectual splendor
which still influences the world?
From the Latin race, which you affect
to despise. From thes Italians whom
you say are so inferior in develop
ment to the negro.
Italy led the modern world in al
most everything which we call civil
ization she is today one of the worlds
most inspiring teachers, nor will her
power for good be gone till the Chris
tain religion is repudiated, the voice
of music hushed, the wand Of litera-
ture broken, The force of law defied.
thewitchery of art lost 10 the minds,
the hearts and the souls of men.
And yet, DR.. Washington asserts,
to one audience after another, that
those glorious achievements of the
Latins, the Italians, these imperish-
able and ever potent achievements OF
a thousand years, are exceeded by
what the negroes have done in thirty
years!
From the Latin England took her
religious organization, as Germany
and Austria and France had done
Through the Latin the classic litera-
ture of Greece and earlier Rome came
into the modern world an eternal
debt which we owe mainly to Pet
rarch.
The Bourbon Kings imported from
Italy the architects, painters, sculptors
4 landscape gardeners, who laid upon
uncouth feudal France the rich man.
tie of Italian beauty.
1t was the Latin who taught mod
ern Europe how to farm, how to irri-
gate, how to engrave, how to make
paper from rags, how to bridge the
rivers, how to pave the streets, how to
make canals.
Some af Sbakespeare's plays are
elaborations and dramatiZatiOns of
Italian novellas, Chaucer, the father
of English poetry, frankly copied
i from the Italian model.
Milton had Dante for pioneer, Spen-
ser had Ariosto, and Byron's best
work is in the Italian form.
/ presume, doctor, that at this sea-
son Of the year you are copying the
style of the white man, and that you
are wearing straw hat.
Well, the Latins taught US how to
make straw hats.
| presume that you recognize the
value of glass, one of whose hundreds
of uses is to show you how to look.
Well, the Latin taught us how to
make glass.
I presume you realize how much
the modern world, during the last
thousand years, has been indebted to
the moderu ship.
u Well, the Latin taught the Anglo
Saxon how TO build modern ships.
Iplesume you appreciate good rice,
doctor.
Well, the seed of the heavy upland
rice which we have in this country
was brought out of Italy il the poe
kets of Thomas Jefferson gentleman
smuggler in that instance.
/ presume you will wear pink silk
undeIgarments this season as usual
won't you doctor?
Well, the Latin taught modern Eur
: ope how to make and use silk.
) And remember that the Latin took
, the clumsy musical instruments O.
5 the ancient world and fashioned the n
into the perfect forms of the present
time; and that the Italians, whom
you despise, had created the violir
, while your lace was "rattling tht
bones" and gradually climbing to
, wsId the sidewalkn
}, What has the negro in these United
J States been doing for the last thirty
S years, doctor.
Copying the white man. That''
? all.
d He hes simply been initiating, a
: best he could, the dress, the talk, th'
manners, the methods, the the WORK
o Of the whites.
{ The Latin whites originated a civil