wealth, almost independent industrially, yet but one link in the great chain of social units. The pictures given here are much nearer truth than most of those shown by either the older or the younger generation of Southern writers; for they that lost wealth and social position in the great struggle have spoken with too much bitterness and with too evident a desire to find in the Old South an earthly paradise; while the younger writers, sprung up since the war, have, in many cases, so imbibed the later spirit of clash, bustle, and uproar that they cannot sympathetically portray the quieter but scarcely less industrious methods of yore. Happily, Thomas Nelson Page has reached neither extreme; and his work is therefore of intrinsic value.

Whatever may be the value of a thoughtful essay, a well-told story is always a much more enviable creation from an artistic standpoint. Posterity doubtless will judge Page not by his serious papers, but by his fiction. And, as we now see his work, he can stand the test. A great amount of romance is growing up around the rugged ruins of the Old South, to soften the rougher features and to adorn with greater beauty the nobler phases of its architecture. Our author has done no small part in this sympathetic labor. Using what seem to be most commonplace incidents and the uncouth but very expressive dialect of the negro, he creates among the old-time scenes tales of surprising dramatic quality. Marse Chan, for instance, holds the attention captive; yet, an analysis of the piece shows only rather quiet incidents and very few of them at that. Meh Lady and various others reveal the same artistic ability to create absorbing interest by combinations of seemingly insignificant events. The pathos of these stories is produced in the same unconventional manner; and the very unexpectedness of the catastrophes makes it all the more effective.

Page has confined himself, for the most part, to very short stories. The short story is not the best field for character-portrayal; yet the author has created a few figures of undoubted strength. But surpassing the action or the characters of these tales is the depth of sentiment, so unaffected, so pure, so unobtrusively obtained, and so effective. The stories composing In Ole Virginia, free, as they are from all taint of sentimentality, are well worth perusal as examples of emotional power gained through the simplest and often the most common-place agencies. It is doubtful whether Page has ever excelled that first volume of tales; perhaps he never will; for they approach a rarely attained degree of perfection.

VII

With this name we close the list of those to receive even a brief study. How many persons have been left unnoticed any well-informed reader of today may easily see. A bare mention of a few of them suggests a multitude of others-ALBION TOURGÉE (1838-1905), author of Figs and Thistles, the famous A Fool's Errand, by One of the Fools, and several other volumes; FRANCES HODGSON BURNETT (1849- ), famous through her Little Lord Fauntleroy and other exceedingly popular novels; JOHN ALFRED MACON (1851- ), known through his Uncle Gabe Tucker; HARRY STILLWELL EDWARDS (1854- ), whose Two Runaways, and Other Stories has received a wide reading; GRACE KING (1859- ), author of Balcony Stories; MARY JOHNSTON (1870- ), author of To Have and To Hold. The list seems almost endless. A glance at the magazines of today would seem to show that at this moment America is depending for its literary entertainment far more upon the South than upon any other one section of the Union.

As we close this survey of Southern Literature we find much to arouse confidence in its future development. The section has largely recovered from the apathy bred by a pernicious system of human bondage; inestimable resources are coming to light; educational institutions of a high standard are now existing; wealth and energy are doing marvels. Rich as are the ore, timber, cotton, and sugar fields of these States their literary fields are of equal wealth. The history and traditions of four wars, not including the romances of the Spanish-American conflict and of innumerable Indian campaigns; the story of the subjugation of a vast wilderness; the strange customs of secluded peoples, Tennessee and Kentucky mountaineers, Georgia Crackers, and Louisiana Creoles; the wild and lonely life of early Texas and Southwestern settlers, the folk-lore of negro and Indian, the no less marvelous tales of modern commercial developments, strifes, victories, and failures, -these are but a few of the subjects as yet merely touched by the pens of Southern writers. Poetry, too, will in time return to its own; and where is sentiment, Nature, or general environment more sympathetic than in these States so beautiful in the gifts of forest and meadow, and yet, so filled with pathetic memories?

In the course of time publishing centers will arise, and these, while not absolutely necessary, will be great aids. Writers, remaining in the section that first inspired them, will not so soon lose the inspiration; and they will speak in plainer terms to a public that they know to be in sympathy with them. Many persons would deprecate the fact that our literature is thus divided into Eastern, Western, and Southern. But our country is too vast and too varied, to allow, just now, at least, a decided national uniformity. In this age of inventions, distance may be eradicated;

but home-life and natural environment do not change hastily. So many critics forget that a nation may have its many local flavors and yet possess its great central purposes and characteristics. Far rather is this to be sought for than a body of literature so unvaried in character as to preclude any possibility of its having come from one certain portion of the country. There is a charm in the individuality of sections as well as of human beings.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

The following list is by no means exhaustive. It includes only a few of most important sources of information.

American Anthology:

Mifflin and Company.

Stedman. Houghton,

American Authors: Rutherford. Franklin Printing and Publishing Company.

American Literature: Hart. Eldredge Brothers. American Sonnets: Stedman. Houghton, Mifflin and Company.

American Encyclopaedia: D. Appleton and Com

pany.

Appleton's Cyclopaedia of American Biography: D. Appleton and Company.

Ballad History of the American Revolution: Moore.

Bivouac of the Dead and Its Author: Ranck.
Colonial Literature: Trent and Wells.

Colonial and Revolutionary Periods: Tyler.
Contemporaries: Higginson.

Cyclopaedia of American Literature: Duyckinck.
De Bow's Commercial Review.
Dictionary of Authors: Allibone.

Essays and Notes: Bayard Taylor.
Female Poets of America: Griswold.

Golden Leaves from American Poets: (Boston, 1865).

History of Virginia: Cooke (American Commonwealth Series).

Library of American Literature: Stedman and Hutchinson. Charles L. Webster and Company.