The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-05-21

sang IL III scores OI nyHltS, lldt SItdl
theologian, Rev. Richard Watson, in
his Institutes taught it, But older
than all these writer's were Peter and
Paul and John and the author of He
brews: BE We holy: for l am holy"
/. Peter, 1;16. He shall be a vessel
unto honor, sanctihed, and meet for
the masters use Paul in H. Tim.
2:2I. And. the very God of peace
sanctify you holy |. Thess., 52S,
Cod" II. Co, I'll. THAT they also
might be sanctified through the truth, :"
John, 17.19. One more; Paul in /.
Cor, 1880, writes, and you will OBJ
serve that wisdom and redemption
stand with sanctification and righte-
cusness: But of him are given Christ
Jesus, who of God is made unto us
wisdom, and righteousness, and sancti-
fication, and redemption"
l am a very imperfect and badly
equipped critic of poetry. l have sub
jected to the test of five or six careful
readings the memorable poem of Prof.
Henry Jerome Stockard entitled THE
Last Charge at Appomattox. The re-
suit is that / like the poem, and the
admiration has increased with each
successive reading. True poetry will
always stand the severe test of many
readings. The more frequently you
read the minor poems of Milton, the
volume of Tennyson published in 1912.
or the songs in THE Princess" or
much of Keats and the fine minor
poems of Shelley, the Sweeter and
more enraYishing they seem. Let me
turn to the poem of Prof. Stockard,
which celebrates the last charge"
ever made in the great war, and made
by North Carolina troops that equalled
any troops in any European, English
or American war. The poem impress
es me and satisfies me There are
greater poems in English than this one
by the foremost of living North Caro-
lima poets. 1t appears to me to be n
stirring, animating, ferVid production
with the martial ring and the poetic
glow, and the rapturous dash neces-
sary. There are some strong lines
surely not without lyrical passion and
technical mastery 1t is a poem to
awaken the genuine Southern spirit,
to evoke the enthusiasm and satisfac-
ton of the brave men who perllled all
and to send a wave of patriotic glow
through the descendants the men and
women of today. The author has
SHOWN in other poems artistic skill
and genuine poetic inspiration, and his
right hand has not lost it's cunning. /
am glad of that poem that it was given
to him to produce so clever a compo-
slt1on in metrical language, so attrac-
tive and for such a celebration 1t
should awaken all through our borders
a pride of State, and make the story
profounder and more idealistic
Wordsworth, a great poet of England,
said in a profound way:
I'VE must be free or die who speak the
tongue
That Shakespeare spake, the faith and
morals hold
Which Milton held"
There are inspiration, felicity OF
phrasing, clear metaphor. a strong i'm
pact of truth in lines like these. and
the others are as good:
Scared on hundred fields before,
Naked and starved and travel-sore,
Each man tiger, hunted,
They stood at hay as brave as Huns.
Last of the Old South's splendid sons
Thanked by ten thousand shotted guns
And by ten thousand fronted.
Some time the calm, impartial years
Will tell what made them dead to tears
OF loved ones left to anguish -
What nerved them for the lonely
guard
For ,cleaving blade and mangling
shard.-
What gave them strength in tent and
ward,
To drain the dregs of anguish
l have been all along one of those
Southerners who regard Miss Murfree,
of Tennessee, as the first of Southern
1ovelists in rank. Mr.. James Lane
Allen, a Kentuckian, and an able ana
very gifted writer, is probably in the
cad now, but he is SO by reason of
'eyeral novels produced within a few
Years But before he appeared as a
5tyllst of marked excellence and a
4oyelist of much originality, Miss Muir
free had thought was foremost, SUI
1erior to Simms, Kennedy. Wiley and
others prior to the great war. and to
he dozen or more who have written
iince that time. But l do not speak
'x-cathedra, for 1 have not read
inc of Miss Johnson, Miss Glasgow,
md others. But whether Miss Muir
Tree is first or second or third. she
has written two or three novels at
least of much interest and ability
She has interested me no little, and /
am glad she is Southern born. IL
think any fairly cultivated reader will
enjoy THE Prophet of the Great
Smoky Mountains" and "In the
Clouds, which latter is perhaps her
by I'm the Tennessee Mountains, y"
also. Her name is Mary Noailles Muir
free. Her pen name is Charles Egg
bert Craddock." She was born at
Murfreesboroug Tennessee. in 1850.
She has lived at Nashville and St
Louis, but since 1890 has resided at
the town of her birth She is de-
scended from North Carolina ancestry.
| think. A short sketch of her in
Northern weekly gave this:
From her earliest years she passed
her summers in the mountains of
Eastern Tennessee, and there she made
the studies and observations which re-
suited in her published stories Her
first story. The Dancin' Party at Har-
rlson's Cove appeared in The Atlantic
Monthly in 1878. over the signature,
Charles Egbert Craddock,' and was
followed from time to time by others
over the same name Her identity
was not revealed until 1886"
The South has not so MANY fictive
writer's of merit that Miss Murfree NAV.
be showed aside or forgotten Her
best books are certainly meritorfous, i
and all are clean, which is much.
You will find none of the putridity of
Mrs. Ward in her last novel. 1.-THE
Marriage of William Ashe" You will
not find the power and splendor of
thP eminent M oil Sh