The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1910-07-20


Then remind your children of The
heroes of the past. Would you have
poets to thrill your nation into fruit
full activity? Then do honor to the
poets of your past. The ancient
Grecian ace track was lined with the
! statues of the winners Of the races Of
other days, and as the runner hurled
himself along the course, he felt the
inspiration of those marble figures
| beside him and knew that if he, too,
won, his statue would stand among
those others in the immortal rows.
Small is the joy of. art if it see no
present results and can hope for no
remembrance in the distant future.
New England long ago recognized
these facts, and she has not failed to
reap the fruits in the high quality of
her citizenship. To-day you may trace
by a Of lasting memorials the
wild ride of Paul Revere over hill and
valley. You may even find neal Bos-
ton a tablet marking the spot where
"Schoolmaster" Emerson once kept
his school. You may find a bit of
granite or marble or bronze telling
where Hawthorne did this, Longfel-
low that, and Whittier the other.
Those descendants Of the Pilgrim Fa-
theirs. with a high sense for the ideal,
have left in almost eternal forms
their admonition to future genera
tions to be worthy sons of noble ia
theirs. We of the South seemingly
have forgotten the significance. the
vast Importance Of this Dull duty to
those who have striven for our well
fare. We have erected, it is true,
monuments to our famous soldiers;
but what have we done for the mem
DRY of those noble intellects who by
song and story and stern expostula-
lions reused those warriors to go
forth and battle for the right? Shall
he that incites to duty be considered
less worthy than he that performs the
duty?
No Shaft to CottoR.Gi Inventor.
Why, for instance, has the South
reared no shaft in honor Of Daniel
Emmett, the author of "Dixie?" Why
has no tablet been placed on the site
of the old New Orleans theatre where
that song first burst upon the South?
Kentucky has lately bestowed its
tribute upon Stephen Foster, the
author of my Old Kentucky Home"
but why has Florida shown no graft
tude to him for the fame Of "Su-
vance River?" Why has New Or
leans erected no memorial to the
South's greatest musician, Louis
Gottschalk? Why has Augusta, Ga,
not marked for the world the place
where Eli Whitney's epoch-making
invention, the cotton-gin, was first
tried? Why has Georgia erected nc
tribute to Francis R. Goulding. who
invented and had in use a 5ewing ma
chine nearly two years before Howe
secured a patent? 1t is said that one
of the Legares had :: steamboat pad
ding the Savannah River before Full
ton steamed up the Hudson; but what
Georgian has taken the trouble to
prove the statement and mark the
shore where the craft began it's voy-
age?
Indeed, Georgia has numerous sins
of omission to account for. Henry
Rootes Jackson, the author Of the
RED Old Hills of Georgia." was born
at Athens and died at Savannah; but
neither town seems particularly proud
of the fact. Surely the maker of so
stirring a State-song is as worthy of a
memorial as any one of that States
innumerable Governors. Augusta,
Ga, long ago carved a shaft in honor
of. her poet, Richard Henry Wilde;
but Augustus Baldwin Longstreet,
author of the famous Georgia
Scenes" to whom Richard Malcolm
Johnston, Joel Chandler Harris and
Thomas Nelson Page owe so much,
and whose story, The Militia Drill"
was directly initiated by Thomas
Hardy in his Trumpet Major" has
tSSoifSu III iSSo6Alt2Oa LloW LIS La
tive city. He was president of Emory
College and of the University of Mis-
sissippi; yet their walls tell nothing
Of him. At Madison, Ca, William
.Tappan Thompson wrote for the town
paper, The Miscellany, the laughable
major Jones Letters" Why has
not Madison marked with some mex
pensive bronze OF granite the spot
where this pioneer in American
humor did these things?
In 1901, Charleston, S. c.. honored
itself by honoring Timrod with a
pillar of stone. But see what Georgia
has done for his schoolmate and fell
low-poet. Paul Hamilton Hayne. His
famous home, "Copse HILL" near Au-
gusta, has been turned over to a negro
family! The house where the heroic
Lyric of Action" was written, the
house which almost daily received
letters from Longfeuow. Bayard Tay-
lor. Tennyson and Swinburne, the
house that should have become a lit
erary shrine Of the South, has be-
come, instead, the habitation Of a
motley collection of blacks! If
"Copse Hill" had been near Boston
but comparisons are odious.
Author of Battle-Song Untionored.
There lived and died near Column