The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1912-02-06

classes, and Thackeray the hlener
classes; but these were IN a way ID,
niIiar. The Red Man was Original
beyond any of them. lie came 100
at a time when the cry, BACK y
Nature" ~resounded from every part
Of rr-one Here was q figure that
seemed to embody in an u~nlHlag!neo
way the new idea. lie had always
lived close to nature. He had Re"
laws. but what he had he oDeye1p
He was u~ntroubled and unfettered
by institutions social, civil. or re-
ligious. His antiquity was as vast as
that of the Asiatic and the num-
Der Of his dialects far greater. In
endurance he was the superior OF the
white man and in intellectual ability
jefferson considered him no whit N
ferior. It is no wonder that TINS
new character O captive the lHldgl-
nation of the world.
Cooper was not the first to treat
Indian character, but he was the llrSt
to treat it successfully. Nhen ne
wrote, there were two schools or
! opinion about the indian. The one
believed him q demon inCarnate. in
human in all but bodily shape. me
only good Indian was a dead indian.
The other considered him an ideal
figure, natures noblenlan, the tybe
Of what all men once were ana
might be again. This was the view
of Mrs. Behn. Of Mrs. Morton, OF
! Eoltaire, Of Chateaubrland.
Cooper took a middle ground. the
Indian was to him first Of all a hui
man being Of like passions with our
selves. Contrary to the commonly
accepted view Cooper did not idealize
the Indian. In the works Of Park
man and Palfrey it is true that the
Indian Of Cooper seems to vanish;
but in the more recent Investigations
Of Alice Fletcher and HoratiO Hale
the lost figure reappears and come
more picturesque and more romantic
than Cooper ever dared to portray
him. The instinct of the novelist
as Colonel Higginson has we'll said,
turned out more authoritative than
the premature conclusions Of q gen
Grafton Of historians" There is no
Indian in COoper's cages who can
compare for a moment in intellectual
az moral traits with su,n historical
characters as Pocahontas, Miantoni-
mob, Massasoit. Hendrick. Occum. or
Brant. Occum and Hendrick, it may
be added. We're, both Mohicans and
were contemporary with Chingach-
COOK and Uncas.
But whether idealized or not. the
Indian Of Cooper has, in every par
> Of Europe, made our early history
SS IOIS NOUS WIFI IOltiIIlCt. T1c I1di
+, supplied q means Of contrast for Oul
highly institutionalized life. He ha:
9 furnished the potential material fol
+ Il national drama and a nationa
opera. He has proved not only tn
+ anvil on which we wrought out on
national genesis but the backgruun;
r against which Europe contemplate
4 with undiminished interest the earl,
centuries Of our national existence
But if Cooper had never been horn
o American literature would still hav
interest for foreigners. Let me re
4 mind 0 that until recently the onl
recognized types of literature wer
g epic poetry, lyric poetry. dramati
8 poetry. the essay, the history, tn
e novel. the biography, the Grafton. T
q these must now be added the shor
story. and In the short story Amer
lean writer's have scored their mos
distinctive triumph. The short stor
y is not the child Of the novel. it
n not a story that is merely short. 1t
a story that could not be made long
- er Or shorter-cOuld not be othe
4 than 1t is-Without sacrificing its in
% d~ividuality. Professor Brander Mat
theWs suggests that. the America
short story should be written with
hyphen tshOrt-StOry) to indicate il
diStinctiveneSs as a literary typ,
o. SchOenbach says that the short stor
!, differs from the novel about as muc
n as an example in multiplication dit
fers from the slower process of &C
dition.
:, The older masters Of the America
:, short story were Irving, Poe, Hau
- thorne, and Bret Harte. Ties are a
tv widely known in foreign lands, thong
- Poe takes easy precedence anon
them. Indeed he is justly considere
- the father of the American sho,
story as a distinctive art z@creatiol
=, His contribution to the short stol
=, did not lie in subject matter but
- form. His criterion was 'totality
~ effect" The word that best characte
-, ICES POe's constructive art is the VOL
- conveyance There are no parall
lines in his best work. With the ope1
10 ing sentence of his stories the lin,
- begin to converge toward a pred
3D. termined effect. IF the authors We
initial sentence says Poe. tend n
!e to the outbringing of this effect, tn
~ he has failed in his first step. In IL
10 whole COmDOSitiOn there should be