The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-02-13
Eetters to tbs Gditsr
oettinw nt the mum.

!
 day or two since In your columns of
 savoyards estimate of John Randolph s
 speech opposing war with England.
 How true 1t Is that If New England CT had made the speech, 1t would be as
 famous ndnc ,s as WebsterE reply to Hayns; S1Ss
 strung old Virginian who scored them
 with hls whitening sarcasm and herce
 invective, lording It over Congress"
 A Southern man with spirit as daunt-
 less as ,Randolph's. feelings as warm,
 disdain as complete of conventionali-
 ties, Is receiving now beyond Mason
 and Dlxon's line, abuse somewhat stmi-
 lar today in the literary arena--Thom- =
 reconstruction policy of Thaddeus Ste vens and all the deviltries of the Union | League in its conhscation of our cot
 ton, it's projected confiscation of our
 citizens.
 Does 1t not fall within the limits of southern journalism to insist on fair l examination of any Americans Work, l ana 10 protest against such sneers ana
 unfair condemna ton as might make
 the work a book forbid and closed
 oy over anxious guardians of taste ana
 morals?, Is 1t not 8 Journalistic priri-
 book of any reputable author, be read
 and judged on Its merits? Once read,
 the book will live In impartial minds. It is perfectly patent why Balzac |
 pictured Breton atrocities and patrician | corruption; why Hugo shocked
 French sensibilities with the revolu-
 tionary tale Ninety Three;" why Erck-
 man-Chatrain offended Germans with
 the episodes of the riven provinces; and
 why Tolstoi and Gorky rouse the re- sentiment of Russian autocracy with transcriptions of peasant life in the Small powers of ratiOcination enable | one to see clearly why The outlook has
 not word of appreciation of The Clans | man and fndicts the author with "deltb- crate use of such talent as he possesses
 to arouse the worst passions in ms
 readers .. in an apotheosis of the
 Ku Klux Klan which seems a case of
 all devils against all angels" why 1t l passes the judgment that the best men
 North and South will turn from this | repellant portrayal of our country and
 our countrymen" which will retard the
 harmony harmony So eminently yo,as dssirabls Mh}ea 6e | this journal Is edited with signal abil- | ity, 1t has never understood the South, | though frequently, like other imperfect
 creatures; 1t means to to be kind to ooin: us:
 praise" in a few of the lines of criti- cism of several pages on the novel, but
 treats with fiippant ridicule the
 double love story 1;,t oracuiariy tG,r an all events, that the author has few of the qualifications for purely historical writing; his tone, his lack of boise and detachment, his disregard of prospec- tive inevitably Vitiates everything that he says" The best feature of this re- view Is the length of its quotations from the book itself. which, however. they may impress others, are words of whose trials are depicted.
 The February Bookman has a con- tributed criticism and editorial com
 ment also: curiously, these contradict Ia | tributor says: Tt is in the details,
 the accessories of his story that he so ingeniously and naively shakes off the | trammels of conventional probability. A little anachronism of a few centuries does not disturb him in the least, and | if, in the next story he sees fit to in- troduce Robin Hood. and the Man in
 the Iron Mask, and Joan of Arc as tation chorus, We promise to accept them without protest UT astonishment." The editor of The Bookman says: In The Clansman, as in The Leopards Spots. there Is hardly an incident of an historical nature which is not based upon actual fact. It is to the authors credit that the writing of each of his
 books has been preceded by the most careful search among the legal records and the newspaper files O fthe scenes which he describes" He proceeds, then, to furnish the Verifcation of the
 most tragic incident of the novel that one which was in a measure responsible for the organization of the Klan, and of another incident on which the plot hinges.
 Frequently. there is controversy as to which Is more helpful and interpreta-
 tive criticism. that of the magazines, or that or the newspapers In this in stance. some of the most liberal, intel ligent and fair-minded expressions
 have come from newspapers, which are, somehow in closer touch with the mind and heart of the people. The Saturday Evening Post of Philadelphia says that
 The Clansman contains many facts that are wholesome for Northern read CTS to know" and Public Opinion de- | clares: Having set about tho writing of a romance of the salvation of the south in reconstruction days by the ku Klux Klan, Thomas Dixon is capa- this work"
 In this section we have no great magazine which could-if it would organize a success" for an author; but we have patriotic newspapers strong enough. with circulation wide enough to bring about fair and impartial trial at the tribunal of public opinion of all aspirants to fame, of all sharers in the worlds work, and to put down partisan and frenzied attempts to sup whose labors are worthy, be they Northern or Southern.
 A man who has lived the experiences of Dixon could not write in conven- '4SiloA way. DdIHdC COuLShpOEdEy critics said he had no style-yet, style is said to be the way one has of mak- ing himself understood"-and Dixon has this as well as Balzac. As to the strenuous times in DiXon's career, many now know how bitterly he assailcd Tammany and denounced the officials it forced on New York, especially the eX- else commissioner, and of Dixon's consequent indictment for libel. Re- leased on bond. he mercilessly de nounced in his pulpit the next Sunday the jury who were Tammay heelers of bad repute; and the following Sunday he fiayed the District Attorney. New
 Workers knew that his life was threat ened by Socialists who were enraged at the novel which was in part founded on the life of Dr. Heron. At 20, Dixon Legislature, where his first speech was in advocacy Of bill he had introduced to pension Confederate Veterans-said to have been the first of such bills in the South. During his pulpit career there was a time when his sermons were syndicated. In his Triology Of Novels he has simply enlarged his pull try to his fellows. He is a sort Of living epistle" read and seen of men.
 Feeling that the story of the Klan was "one of the most dramatic chap ters in the history of the Aryan race" Dixon saw his opportunity of creating novel that would give the people of the entire country @uch an impression hasten the time of mutual understand ing and, ultimately, of amity. Lecky, as cool and critical an Englishman as ever traced the annals of men, charaU- teriZes the events of Reconstruction as "a grotesque parody of Government