The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-02-05

this Nat1OQ ana ltS l1W-n1aKerS should
have even conceived much less fought
bitterly to carry into effect, the early
measures OF reconstruction as detail
ed in this story seems so incredible,
but il IS nevertheless a matter of his
tory TO which the novelist has only
added the impressiveness of individu-
al experience and emotions" That
will do for a Northern literary jour
nal OF real merit. This organ OF dis
cussion in literary matters is endowed
with a sufficiency Of historic informa-
ton, candor Of judgment and pene-
tration of vision to see the exact facts
involved in this political. sectional
novel It is plain spoken enough to
say this. and it is true and just: 1t
is little wonder that today the white
people OF those same States passion
ately resent the least hint OF a return
to the days when negro Legislatures
and negro officials cast their terrible
shadow over the land. Bad as such q
state Of things would be to theorize
over, the actual endurance of it must
have been so horrible that one mar
wells how the men who suffered it
ever made peace with those who i'm
posed it upon them.
The aims and accomplishments of
the Ku Klux Khan, SO far as Mr..
Dixon describes them. seem wholly
as long as it's original purpose was
pursued 1t was organized to disarn1
the negroes and to protect the whites,
with whom appeal to the law was
useless when negroes held all offices.
II is pleasure to record these
candid admissions. We all know down
this way. who know anything, that
the conditions were full of horror and
dismay. and that the ku-klux did Il
Nnrf, mt Xk-n In, ha
South in the crushing out of con-
spiracies against the whites attempt
ed intimidation, wholesale robberies.
and in the conservation of liberty and
life. If l could have seen my gifted
friend, the author, / would like to
have told him of the ku-Klux in
Tennessee in 1868. The Saturday
Review" does not discuss the literary
and artistic merits of the novel. 1t
does not demur TO the picture drown
OF Thaddeus Stevens. of Pennsyl-
vania, the malignant fiend" who
rioted in hatred and diabolism in
the time of the black reign. AS l
read no new fictions but await the
expiration of q full year before doing
so. | can not write of The Clans
man." I am glad to help Its sale by
citing opinions from Northern sources.
That it will have rapid distribution
1 feel assured. Both of his other
novels have had q wide reading, and
have brought him no little money,
am glad to know. May his Golfers be
still further replenished.
The American Bible Society has
done q grand and most useful worS
in the publication and distribution of
the Holy Bib e. In the feighty-fou:
years of its existence 1t has produced
67,369,30G copies. Its greatest issue
was In 1895, when it published 1,750.
483. In 1909 it printed Bibles III
ffty-eight languages. The sales in
the United States, for that ye"r,
amounted to 720,050 copies, of which
337,1D0 copies We're the New Tes.a-
ment alone.
The number of Bibles distributed in
foreign lands by the American Eible
Society was GS6,751, of which u ! 33
were complete Bibles. 661,32o New
Testaments and 603,692 portion ;-->is
in the United States, mos-'y the
Gospels and the Book of Psalms The
greater portion, total Of i5S,6f2.
We're issued in the Chinese language.
and ii is a remarkable. fact that ~
this number 447.S5S were SO i for
money. The remainder, about '.o0o
copies, We're givn away. The new edi-
tons were issued during the year, one
o. 5000 copies of the .NeH Testament
in the Ruk language ira 1000 in
the Bengal tongue.
A new life OF Sir Walter Raleigh
has been recently published i: Eng
land. 1t is by Sir Penaeil '.od. II is.
d i2mo volume. Dri4A > GEMS.
a life Of that distingli she'd aui AcI,
the late Prof Walter Pater. of Eng
land. has been issued in the Conten-
porary Men of Letters Series, and IL
reported as se.,.ng we'll. tie was Il
giter of precise and Unconinou SiftS.
Ex-Governor Bob Tayior. u Zen
Ecssee, vii publish u Southern ma.
ga;ne at Nashvi >. Tenn. He may
succeed as he has gifts =, is TO Ire
i.oped he will NOT advocate frequent
divorces in i.
would have written earlier of the
retirement from the Office of Govern
or Of North Carolina OF Hon. Charles
Brantley Aycock, but for the numer-
Gus and richly merited enconiums
upon him that filled the newspapers.
Some of these were admirable as TO
style and good taste. and not over
done as to statement. ! have known
him for more than twenty-five years,
perhaps. l have held him in high
esteem as young man of noble and
amiable and admirable qualities. Rot
he has grown far beyond my carer
estimate and expectations. Fl. has
shown himself to be not ouly !, man
of superior intellectual gifts as a
writer, orator and administrators, but
of exalted ideals, of cOnsummata skill,
of the most manly virtues, at once
virile, self-contained, sagacious, reso-
lutte of will, and brave for the right
He has proved before the whole
state that he is a man to be trusted,
to he relied upon III severe
critical periods and that, TOO Wheii
weaker and small er men cringe and
palter and dicker and play the syco-
phant or the scape-goat, that he
stands on a granite foundation, four
square. resolute. unseduced. unappall-
ed, faithful and unbending. He APP
pears to me to be wise, honest,
broad man. constant in spirit, not
swerving with the blood" having
both force and will, with an eye single
to the good and upright and true
the very opposite of the braSgart or
, the trucking demagogue or the time
serving political bushwhacker with
large mouth and loud lungs. cudgel-
ling the ears and speaking "p ain
cannon fire and smoke and bounce.
There is nothing of the demagogue IN
Ia