The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-07-15

ldnQs dHCy all EsukiisHu7du Wne hds never heard word of French. nor studied even the theory of that lan- ] guage's pronunciation of vowels, ele- ' sions and accents, reading to group of French literatufes a chapter of | Balzac and we have somewhat the effect of Dr. Rowland's book read by an intelligent Southerner. The book deals wholly with the race problem. 1 The love of the South Carolina girl and the English Squire, Giles Maltby. is the merest episode Sir Henry Maltby and Lady Maltby are whiffs of white mist. The whole of the vol ume concerns the Haytian negro. Des- salines, and the opinions expressed upon his life and character. Dr. Leyden, the German scholar, appears in the scene at opportune times to show what Des- salines is from a scientific point of view.
 Manning Moultrie is an amusing ex- aggeration of the Southern gentle man. It is very plain that Dr. Row I Seutherner, the Southern woman, and the negro only with. books and dreams across his own library table.
 As the solving of the race problem seems the main purport of the so- called novel. we will consider only that.
 Moultrie describes the abandoned plantation homes of the South. their only tenants snakes and spiders and the ghosts of dead ambitions" Is this due asks Giles. the Englishman interested in all problems sociological ard economic, "to the change from slave to labor?" Moultries reply is the change from slave-labor to none at all"
 There Dr. Rowland strikes a note with a true ring. The negro en masse will not work unless made to do so. Satisfied with TO comforts, not com prehending even the meaning of either comfort or luxury; unable to under stand. undesirous to grasp any of the pleasures or profits coveted by the civ ilized races, he has no incentive to work ard so earn works rewards. Des- salines, describing his race. as from within his standard brain he sees 1t, touches on one truth put little com mented or perhaps obscured. we are quite extraordinary in one capacity for sustained physical effort especially on very little nourishment." he states. It is true that negro can do vast amount of the hardest sort of manual labor upon less food than Is needed to sustain the dainty body, or the work ing strength of the brain-worker of the Anglo Saxon race.
 Another true note Dr. Rowland strikes when he shows Moultrie's un- willingness to discuss that problem which is ceaseless food for argument to those who never reach any practical knowledge of 1t. Although his views are clear and positive, he disliked to advance them He argued with outsid- CTS on the negro question in a good deal the same spirit with which a great surgeon might be drawn into an argument with layman regarding his craft--half-heartedly with sense partly of disgust at the ignorance of h Akk nA a n rA M. viction of the indisputabiiity of his ewn views. Manning was satisfied that he knew as much as was to be known on the subject from theory and practice, education aand lifelong asso- cia ton. He acknowledged the virtues to the ounce. their limitations; for him to allow himself to be led into an argument regarding a subject on which he was so thoroughly informed, was futile and a waste of time"
 Dr. Leydsn Is brought into the story early to give views. on the dark race. Here his analysis of Dessalines, the ne- graduate: "A savage of the imperfect civilization of a century, cover the na- keiness of his body with pair of we'll cut brooches and the nakedness of his brain with a vocabulary and behold--a brotheri Observe this negro, Dessa- lines, as he rode in here yesterday upon his man-eating stallion. One does not need to lock deep there to find the pa- gan. It Is like a black to erdanger the lives of his friends for the sake of indulging his vanity"
 The Epglishman. and commend me to the Englishuran for assurance of knowing all of that of which he knows nothing, assertc: "Dessa1ines has shown that he possesses good mind"
 IL ' cate. In claims, In languages, in rhe- toric, in debate-never by any chance in mathematics or anything requiring complex cerebration." This from Dr. Leyden. a great deal of scientific research tc learn what little obser- vation readily teaches. Furthermore from the Germaj': T do not Believe that this Haytien possesses the brain of a very ignorant white person, al though he has no doubt developed such brain as he has almost to its physiolog- ical hints. which places him, of course" the observing Southerner would dis place this of coursep with perhaps" flor all practical purposes, the mental superior of the most ignorant white" Can we even admit 'perhaps?" Ignor- ance is a fearful thing to be fought wherever found. But IS it possible for the few shallow cells of the Africans brain to make him In any way the su- perior of a being endowed with inin- itely greater brain capacity? Wheat cannot spring from whence wheat Is not sown. Later commenting on the failure of Dessaline's plan to make himself Emperor of Hayt. pr. Leyden asserts Simply like that of most ne groes who are honest and Of good prin- ciples his nature has something be- tw cen that of a little child and a pet dog" When, a hunted exile from his island, Dessalines is hiding in the swamps of Carolina. Dr. Leyden. spokes man of the authors probably newly made theories, declares: 'Dessslines has no doub. gone straight back to savagery-they have not so far to go; less far in fact than a dog. who for centuries has been the companion of civilized r1au. whereas negroes hav3 been such for but very few generations, How amazing! How appalling. How Infinitely incxcusably stupid that they should be considered for an instant