The Colorado statesman., 1912-03-23
PLACE AMONG WHITES
OF COLORED GENIUS
HOW MEN OF AFRICAN FoRBEARs
HAVE SUCCEEDED IN ART AND
LETTERs-NoTAB MOD
ERN EXAMPLES.

JOnn Milton or william Shake6pedr0
can scarcely be said to be lacking In
that essential qualification Of artistic
eminence-genius
Similarly a race capable OF produc-
ing a Poushkin, Dumas and Dun
bar in letters, and Coleridge-Taylor
and a Marion Cook in music, can nei-
ther be lacking in high intellect and
artistic temperament, nor devoid OF
that dash Of creative genius without
which literature is debased to the level
OF nonsensical drivel and music de-
graded to a fiaccid medley of conven-
tional sounds.
1t Is a rather remarkable fact that
three men Of Ethiopian blood-Poush-
kin in Russia. Dumas In France, and
Coleridge-Taylor in England-should
have added lustre, through their
names, to the art of the countries
that gave them birth. And what is
true Of Europe Is still more remark
able in the land Of the dollars. Dvo-
rak once said that the Americans had
no national music except that ema-
mating from negro melodies, and that
1t was to the negro that the Ameri-
cans would have to look for creative
work in that direction.
Quite recently Puccini, on his return
to Europe after producing THE Girl
of the Golden West" in New York, al
though not going so far as Dvorak,
also averred that the only music the
Americans possessed was the negro
melodies The latter part of Dvorak's
statement was something of a proph-
ecy when we remember Will Marion
Cook, the composer of "In Dahomey,"
"Abyssinia," "Bandanna Land" and
"The Casino Girl" Thus we have
four mulattoes who have done credit
to the dual race to which they belong.
Alexander Sergeievich Poushkin,
born in 1893 Of noble Russian fam
lily, on the paternal side had an Ethi-
opian grandmother. Alexander Du-
mas, pere, born 1902, descended from
an African grandmother from Haiti
and French nobleman. The novel
lists father took the name Dumas
from his Ethiopian mother. Samuel
Coleridge-T Taylor, born in London in
1875, the son Of West African doctor
and an English mother, and Will Mar
ion Cook, with both maternal and pa
ternal African forbears. Cooks
mother was the first colored teacher
in the state of Kentucky, and his ia
ther one of the first colored lawyers
in America to practice in the city Of
Washington, D. c., where the COM
poser was born forty-four years ago.
| In France the color question Is a
negligible quantity, and Dumas was
trained for the church, although he
was eventually apprenticed to a no.
tary. Later he sailed forth like DAT
tagnan to make fame and fortune in
Paris with a patrimony consisting of
hope and buoyancy inherited from
his grandmother, bravery from his SOL
der father. the grand manner of a
noble grandfather, a genius belonging
to none but himself, and his pockets
line with-twenty francs!
Dumas did for French fiction what
Sir Walter Scott accomplished in Eng
lish literature; but while Scott's
style is ponderous, and for the most
part tedious. like the tread of lum-
bering elephant, Dumas style is light
and airy, like the gambol of a gazelle
Poushkin not only gave dignity to
which include such novels as "The
Captains Daughter" and "Dubnovski,"
and his History of the Pugatcheff In
surrection"-for which he received
10000 roubles in 18s3-gave Russian
prose literary perfection. His in
tellect was original, his intuition
quick, his wit keen, and his humor
gentle. He possessed an extraordi-
nary mastery of technique, both in
prose and poetry and his epigrams
are said to be the best produced by
any language.
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's genius
may be said to have asserted itself
when, as boy of six, Mr.. Joseph
Beckwith discovered him in Waddon
New Road. Croydon, holding a very
small-sized violin in one hand, and
playing at marbles with the other"
The real discovery was, however
made by his guardian, friend and
benefactor, Col. Herbert A. Walters,
v. D., late commanding the Fourth
battalion, the Queens regiment"
There have been boy prodigies in
abundance, but never before in the
history of music has boy, showing
early promise, such as that identified
with Coleridge-Taylor's early youth
except Handel and Brindis de Sails
fulfilled that promise on arriving at
mans estate. Handel wrote his first
opera. "Almira," at twenty "Hiawa-
tina" was produced when Coleridge-
Taylor was twenty-three.
Mr.. Coleridge-Taylor has been re-
Gently elected principal professor of
musical composition at the GuildhalI
School Of Music, London. For five
years he has been and still is, conduc-
tor Of the Handel Society of London.
Paul Lawrence Dunbar, the pure
blooded Ethiopian noet may he