The Anderson daily intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson, S.C.) 1914-1915, 1915-01-31
'uth Carolina during the 18Th CEN

South Carolina during the 18th CEN
tury.
Following the literature of the Rev
olution came what Is known as the
ante-bellum period. Still the South
had not come into her rich heritage.
Hampered by the great incubus OF
slavery she could not yet claim her
on :. A culture based on class dis
a1ction and into which could flow
no strength OF new blood could pro-
duce but feeble prototype of what
coming years would bring. The
sonorous sentences and rolling periods
In which the Sontherner delighted
show his isolation from the majestic
river Of modern and initiating Pope
and Johnson. while the rest OF the
world swept by on the tide of Words
worth and Macaulay. His feudal life
clogged his progress.
A resentfuiness of criticism, a dis
position to overpraise, also long de-
layed the Southerner's coming abreast
OF the times and catching step in the
grand march of progress. This state
of mind was the result of two forces
acting on his nature-first. the chival-
Ious politeness that could but praise
any achievement of friend and the
attitude of master and autocrat, which
| brooks no criticism.
The Southerner is intensely local,
his attitude toward the whole world
Is as to outer barbarians, and II has
bred deep seated partially Of nature
which expresses itself in everything
he does. But the ante-bellum writer,
though advancing very little original
thought is full of historical and local
quality, though an amateur always.
He would not serve an apprentice
| ship to letters. II he could not, Miner
va like, spring into being q god, fully
armed. then he would not come at
! all; he was god on HIS plantation,
| there he would remain. Moreover,
| there was small incentive to literary
| activity. Simms and Poe almost alone
| strove to make literature o profession
| and they failed. To others IL was an
amusement, O recreation. to be shared
with hunting, horse racing and dane
ing.
Sometimes a volume containing O
few poems was published by a lover Of
i the muse. rather than a poet and
distributed among his friends who
over praised, but received 1t In much
| the same spirit that they listened to
his daughter play pretty piano compo-
sttions In her fathers parlor. The
few read, the many did not, and liter
| ature to flourish must have q pub
lie and be untrammeled by class. Mind
must polish itself by contact with
| mind, condition to which plantation
life was not conductive. Yet there
were nature lovers who sometimes ex-
pressed themselves in verses pure and
limpid as mountain stream. What
| other conditions Of life would have
made OF them can only be conjectured.
MY life iB Like Summer Rose"
| has been translated into several for.
e!sn tongues atd holds an undispused
place in American literature. Yet
Richard Henry Wilde, busy lawyer,
seemed half ashamed to acknowl-
edge 1t.
Women Ante-bellum Writers.
The period Immediately preceding
| the War Between the Sections pro-
duced q number of Aovelists, especial-
IlyaFoEneps who became very popular
throughout the country. Mrs. SOUTH
worth, Constance Cary Harrison, Ma
fion Harland, Amelia g. Barr, Au-
gusta Evans Wilson, Caroline Lee
Hentg are very few OF these authors.
While their books are in no sense his-
toricais yet through them flows an un-
dertone OF Southern music. They
ceniet ths He cf their sisae and To-
cality, Just as certainly as Fanny Bur-
| ney and Jane Austen depict English
life and manners Of the 18th century.
And while they never attain the
heights reached by the English novel
istsi they have nevertheless made o
great and worthy contribution to
American letters.
The War Between the Sections
called out the finest poetry the South
has created, with the exception of
Po and Lanier. One can fancy wha..
ringing lines might have fallen from
Poe's burning pen had his fever
called living" not "ended at last" A
few more years and that fiery genius
would have immortalized such dra-
matte incidents at Pickett's wonderful
charge at Gettysburg, an episode
which deserves to be told in poetry
like 'The Charge of the Light Bsi-
gade." But Poe's fires had burned
out and Lanier's genius spoke in
other terms. No braver soldier fol-
lowed Lee and jackson than that gift
ede son of Georgia, but like Hayae his
war poems are not his best. Herstands
preeminent. however. among Ameri-
can sonneteers and narrative poets. It
was left for Timrod. Randall, Father
Ryan, Pike. Tichnor and others to sing
the war songs of the South and to
tell the story OF its tragedieS.
Are there In any language war songs
more inspiring than Pixies Dixie" !"
Maryland, My Maryland" "The Bon
ME Blue Flag" "Carolina?p Or
poems tEat stir the blood like aThe
Sword Of Robert Lee" "The CONQUER
ed Banner" "All's Quiet Along the
Potomac Tonight" Little Gifin OF