The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-07-23

 cio and his novella.
 Modern history traces its methods, its spirit and its form to Villani. Guic- ciardini. and that wonderful type of Latin genius, MachiaveiIi.
 The whole world goes to school to the Latins!
 No painter hopes 10 excel Correggio, Paul Veronese, Antonio Allegro, Tin toretto. Velasquez. Murillo No sculp- tor expects to eclipse Niccola Pisano. Orvieto, Orcagna or Luca della Rob- ba.
 No worker in gold, silver and bronze believes he can surpass Ghiberti. Gel lini and Donatello.
 Architects the world over despair of rivaling Alberti, Bramahte, Giulo Ro- mapo. Palladio.
 These masters were masters to their own generation, four and five hundred years ago; they have been masters ever since; they are masters still.
 Wherever civilization extends its frontiers these deathless Latins are in the van-teaching what truth and beauty are. refining the thoughts, ele- vat'ng 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 its normal state of savagery, Europe lay torpid under the weight of ignorance and superstition. Where learning ex- isted at all its spirit was dull. its form heavy, its progress fettered by ancient canons and cumbrous vest ments.
 Suddenly the Angel of Light-her face a radiance. her presence an in spiration-puts silver trumpet to her lips and blows, tiil all the world of white men hears the thrilling notes. What was best in the learning of the past, becomes young again and minis ters to the minds of men.
 Literature springs to life, throws off antiquated dress and takes its graceful modern form. The fine arts nourish as never before; the canvas. the marble, the precious metal feel the subtle touch of the eager artist. and give birth to beauty which is i'm mortal. The heavy prison castle of the Frank, the Goth, the Norman. the Anglo Saxon, retires abashed before the elegant. airy. poetic palace of the Renaissance.
 Nor does the revival of learning lim- it itself to literature. architecture, painting, sculpture. It extends to law, to commerce. to agriculture. to relig- ion 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 de- spise. From these Italians whom you say are so inferior in development to the negro.
 Italy led the modern world in al- most everything which we call civili- zation-she Is today one of the worlds most inspiring teachers, nor will her power for good be gone till the Chris tian religion Is repudiated. the voice of music hushed, the wand of litera- ture broken. the force of law defied, the witchery of art lost to 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 imperishable and ever potent achievements of a thousand years, are exceeded by what the ne- groes 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 literature of 1ftetc anu car iNoitit Ndhit ihto thC modern world-an eternal debt which we owe mainly to Petrarch.
 The Bourbon kings imported from Italy the architects, painters. sculp- tors, landscape gardeners. who laid upon uncouth feudal France the rich mantle of Italian beauty.
 It was the Latin who taught modern Europe how to farm. how to irrigate, how to engrave. how to make paper tA h~{l how to pave the streets. how to make canals.
 Some of Shakespeare's plays are claborations and dramatizations of Italian novellas. Chaucer, the father of English poetry, frankly copied from the Italian model.
 Milton had Dante for pioneer. Spen- ser had Ariosto, and Byron's best work is in the Italian form.
 l presume, doctor. that at this season of the year you are copying the style of the white man, and that you are wearing a straw hat.
 Well, the Latins taught us how to make straw hats.
 I presume that you recognize the value of glass--one of whose hundreds of uses is to show you how you look.
 Well. the Latin taught us how to make glass. ...
 
 modern world. during the last thousand years. has been indebted to the modern ship.
 Well, the Latin taught the Anglo Saxon how to build modern ships
 l presume you appreciate good rice, doctor. s.:- ~- -
 Well. the seed of the heavy upland rice which we have in this country was brought out of Italy in the pockets Of Thomas Jefferson-gentlema smuggler in that instance.
 I presume you will wear pink silk undergarments this season (as usual. won't you, doctor? .:s-: Well. the Latin taught modern Flu rope how to make and use silk
 And remember that the Latin took the clumsy musical instruments of the ancient world and fashioned them into the perfect forms of the present time: and that the Italians, whom you de- spise, had created the violin while your race was "rattling the bones" and gradually climbing toward the cake walk
 What has the negro in these United States been doing for the last thirty years. doctor?
 Copying the white man. That's all
 He has simply been initiating, as best L T