The New York herald., 1922-04-09

understanding.
We are forced to take Uncle |
Toms Cabin as a starting point, as
it is hardly worth while to go back |
to Phyllis Wheatley and the other
little remembered negro singers of
slavery's day. And it is obviously a |
false start. responsible to no small |
degree for subsequent misconcep- |
tions and absurdities. 1t has been |
truly called the most astonishing |
phenomenon in literature, and also
the worst book ever written" 1t
has been denounced as utterly false,
unreal, grotesque, an impossible
thing; yet no book ever printed has
had so tremendous an effect, and
probably few books have ever been
so widely read. That no one can read
it to-day, except as a literary Curl
osity or a historical document. is
aside from the point. 1t had a last
ing effect for nearly half century
in shaping popular opinion and IN
influencing its literary expression.
The central idea of 1.-THE tremen-
dous. dynamic rightness of its de-
nunciation of human slayery-had
really fully performed its function
with the signing of the Emancipation
Proclamation. But the book con-
tinued to be read, not only in Eng
lish but in most other languages, for
more than a generation, spreading
its misconceptions and its distorted
pictures.
Second only TO Mrs. Stoves books
in temporary Importance were the
highly popular novels of ]. L. Trow
bridge. especially 'Cudjo's Cave" and
''Neighbor lakewood Trowbridge
was an artist; these books are read
able to-day and have many fine
qualities, but they keep up the phan-
tasm of the impossibly noble black
brother-a sentimentalized, idealized,
utterly unreal negro, as much of an
absurdity in his way as Cooper's
Indians.
The next phase appeared as
natural result of the "Reconstruc-
ton" period. as it is pictured. for ex-
ample, in Judge Albion w. Tourgee's
books. "a Fools Errand' and THE
| Invisible Empire" Here, too, the
negro still is little more than a help
less and very noble victim. although
Tourgee does succeed in seeing him
| as a real human being. But even
| in these books there is an uneasy
subconscious feeling that their con-
ception of the negro is incomplete.
| that-bad and vicious as il was
| there was something of "case" to
be made out even for the I<u KluX
picion that the Southern white folks
| were not altogether wrong IN their
attitude, though Tourgee could say.
sneeringly, that when the Sorithern
man says that he has the kindest
feelings to the negro, in his place,
he means in the place for which, ac-
cording TO the Southerners' nttion.
| nature designed him." The 1es re-
suit of all this was taeit afEdSnce
of the whole subject; des.re both
North and South, to say and think
as little as possible about the negro,
and this has practically kept the
whole theme out of literature. ex-
cept as comic relief. until the pres
ent moment Partly. too. it was a
manifestations of the American form
of Victorian reticence as to primary
facts of life.
III
There are. of course. exceptions 10
that, though there is but one that re-
mains of first Importance. In Mark
Twain's hands the negro became a
fully pictured reality-in SO far as
he appeared at ALL But even at his
most important appearance he is,
after all, not holding the center of
the stage, even in "Pudd'nhead Will
SON" The niger Jim of "Huck
Finn" is an immortal creation,
whether he is listening to the hair
BALI or forgiving "Hucll" for his
cruel deception on the night of the