Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1906-01-12
THE CLANSMAN" NR. DlxON'S PLAY IS so REAL. ISTlC THAT ITS PROPRIETY
 IS DOUBTFUL.
c Deals With a Period That Is Past. and Should 1t Be Stirred at
 This Time?


 Granting for the suke of argument that Thomas Dixon, Jr., is sincere in tnc work n which he is engaged that of arGusing the. American public to full comprehension of the south condition as to the negro problem and that his works are accomplishing the desired end, ii is yet 10 be doubt ed if ss'The CIansman" is producing @oGd results commensurate with the evil it is doing in the minds of young blood. The play iself as presented at he Elks Thursday matinee and night, is realistic--too much so. It is said 10 be true to conditions prevail ing at the close of the civil war. This Elay or may not be true. Granting that it lS-and we have no doubt of it-the question arises, are Mir Dix 0r's methods commendable? Arc they
  conducive to the best results for the settlement of the negro prob1em--for we have a negro problem--which he SO graphically depicts with his facile rcn?
 In presenting his "Leopard's Spots" and his "Clansman' to the world, Mr. Dixon not only opened new and dis tinctive field of literature, but pro. duced what critics of ability say are epech-making works, oT-setting the effects of Uncle Toms Cabin. There can be no question but that they are powerful novels and the work of a masters hand and mas tars brain. In staging his latest great work, he is presenting his work to the public in manner that can be accurately described with only one word-horlible. For "Tho Clansman" as presented at the Els yaatardav is nothing less than horrible.
 3tti Sptttil C'ltitl Di Vt ili) D&l'f'l friend and ,nore able exponent cf her post-bellum suffering from the Elack peril than 2Ir. DiXon-;n his way But the doubt arises if his way is the best orc. And the question arises if. in endeavorina to bcfriend the south, he is not engendering that which will work to her detriment IL is dificUlt indeed to witness a play like this without having aroused within one that old bitterness of spirit, that sectional hatred, that fratracidal sNirit Wh oh once threatened the total q 'ssclutiOn of the grandest union on earth. This is not treason to the south; it is loyalty to government-a government in whose interests are centered tho interests of every south erner. and whose loyalty was so re- markably demonstrated in the late Hisnano-A war. No section sc readily respord ded to the call of duty as our own southland. Today we stand reunited people: old sec ticnal bitternesses have almost van- ished: old hatred has given place to love of country. Is it not better to f.r"ivo and forget?
 Nr. Dixon claims he is not endeav- oring to ra-engendar this sectional strife: that he is presenting to the world the new problem which is the cffsnring of that strifo-the negro problem. Again we ask f MT. Dixon's methods are commendable? What a brain so raster rly. with a pen so fa- cile, with a sincerity so patent, could he not direct his efforts along safer lines? MT Dixon is not settling the negro nrchl crn: he has never even of fered soirt.on of it. His whole ef- forts so far have been confined to a depletion of the horrors that con- fronted LIS just after the war and which. it must be granted, are still confronting us. He says he is doing this to arouse the public to a full com prehension of their peril But what will be the end? If he should instill within us the spirit Of his works, the solution of the problem would be too horrible to cOntemplate. The blood shed of the evil war would pale into insignifcance. Mn. Dixon is an un safe leader. He has always been ar alarmist: his sensationalism forced him from the pulpit; the bar was toc monotonous, and now he has turned his powerful intellect into still more