Newspaper Page Text
6
THE SUNNY SOUTH, ATLANTA, GEORGIA, OCTOBER 21,1893
T WILIQH T11) URS.
For The Sunny South.
at sea, OCT. 1,1893.
The twilight boors
Are like flowers
In dreamy sleep—
Bo wondrous sweet I
O floor divine,
Love y sublime.
Like birds ye fly
Along the sky.
Ten thousand stars
In heaven arel
Ten thousand be
Upon the seal
For every wave
Wtose bosom laves.—
who dimpl’d lace—
Upon the air;
Has caught a star
in its embrace,
And holus it trembling there!
—Charles Kingley Shetterly.
rr*HE top o’ the morning to you!
(»l J From the Sunny sanctum I once
X more greet you and 1 hope that
each one has enjoyed her summer
vacation as much as 1 did mine. There
is a very perceptible difference in the
autumn of Florida and Atlanta. Last
Sunday morning I greeted girls in
white mulls and dainty confections of
lace and flowers. Here tne livery of
Autumn has been donned by the maid
ens as well as by the trees. A golden
haze envelopes all things. From an
eighth story window one can see the
mountains, each distinct and set
apart as monuments to raise
one’s thoughts to heaves. There
are golden rod and maple leaves just
beyond the city, and nearer to us the
roses are blossoming, beautiful dis
pensers of perfume and reminders
that the past summer can be repeated,
and that its memorios like the rose
leaves will cheer us all winter if we
cherish them carefully.
W
that it must be published immediately
Don t say that you are the ntice of
-ome famous personage. it is your
brains, not your pedigree, that the^ed-
itor wants.
Don’t, please don’t say that you need
the money to buy food for your little
ones. Editors are very tender
hearted, and they have been
known to shed tears over such
letters, and then have to return the
MSS on account of a lack of literary
meric or for other exacting causes.
La->t but not least, don’t think we are
a cross lot of people. Some may be,
but you know this entire force is Sun
ny, and we hope that these “dont’s”
will help you as much as similar ones
once did
Yours Faithfully,
Mother Hubbard.
Atlanta, Ga.
IN HKNLUK1AM.
ITH the falling rose leaves
has gone Mrs. Della French
Swisher. She has scores of
friends among the Sunny South
readers, and eaoh one will recollect
some pretty idea or poetical strain
that she has left as a rose
leaf for Mnemosyne’s jar. Mrs.
Swisher’s contributions to this
paper showed her to be a lady of rare
talents, and her admirers may depend
upon her posthumus works keeping
up her former high standard. But
doesn’t it sadden you to read these
posthumus work*, when the hands and
the brain that wove the pretty thread
of fancy are forever stilled. It seems
like catching the perfume from a
broken vase, to read the books. Our
praise or blame will cause no heart-
throb to the author. She is in the
land where there is no sickness nor
sorrow and the cares of life are laid
down to be taken up never more.
« » •
S HE,” are you ready to flee to the
mountains after your “say has
been said ?”
There are so many gifted members
of this family chat hail from the old
North state methinks they will com
mence with Raleigh—that courtier of
ancient fame, advance upon yuu worse
than they did on Mary Wilson when
she drew contrasts between the coun
try and the city girl.
tr « * *
& IKE the flower, Cundurango
climbs on and on, heedless of tne
comments pro or con. Some of
its letters have been ably answered,
and others have been allowed to float
0D, down the river of Time into the
valley of Silenoe. But each one has
set some one thinking, and for that
reason Cundurango is happy.
* * * *
AGNOLIA, this is an open
Congress and if you don’t like
all of Milton you are at liber
ty to say so. An Echo says that one
section of the country cannot lay
down a set of rules for another. An
Echo has been to Georgia since that
letter was written and sees a vast dif
ference in the negro of the two sec
tions.
Your remarks concerning the rules
of the office remind me that I prom
ised to give a lot of “dont’s” to those
inolined to write for the papers.
Don’t let your desire for flourishes
make you write an illegible hand.
Don’t use extra wide nor extra long
paper, and for gracious sake don’t
paste the sheets together like a roll of
wall paper.
Don’t write on both sides of your
paper.
Don’t abbreviate. The editor is too
busy to write them out, and many
readable stories and sketches are laid
aside because tiieir authors depended
too much on our patienoe and long
suffering.
Don’t think that one week, after
your article has reached the office you
ust hear from it, and if accepted,
For The Sunny South :
Mrs. Bella Feench Swisher, wid
ow of the late Col. John M. Swisher,
of Austin, Texas, died of heart disease
(mitral insufficiency) at her residence
in Sausalito, Sept. 2S, 1893.
Mrs. Swisher was widely known as
a j >urnalist and author of marked
ability. She was born in the state of
Georgia in 1S37. Her literary efforts
began at an early age.
In 1867-8 she was literary editor of
Brick Pomeroy’s LaCrosse Democrat.
In 18G9 she started Western Progress
in Brownsville, Minn.
Two years later she accepted a posi
tion on the St. Paul Pioneer, later con
solidated into the St. Paul Pioneer
Pf689»
While in St. Paul she edited The
Busy West, the first literary mag
azine published in the state. In 1874
she began The American Sketch Book,
an illustrated historical magazine of
eighty pages, at La Coosse.
Moving to Austin Trxas in 1877 she
continued to publish the magazine
there until 1883. In 1878 she was
married to Col. John M. Swi.-her, a
well known Texan They resided in
Austin until Col Swisher’s death in
1891 when Mrs. Swisher went to Sau-
salito, Maivin county, California.
Four volumes of Mrs. Swisher's
works have been published, Rocks and
Shoals, Struggling Upward to the
Light, A History of Brown County
Wisconsin, and Florioita, a poem-
novel. The latter is generally con
sidered her masterpiece. Two post
humous works will be published; one
a treatise on the symbology of the
Bible, the other a volume of poems.
E. D. G.
9
CnnduruBKu’i While Elephant.
‘ God blees the women, my boy, God
bless the women. They may not be
prepared for higher education, but
they are the sweetest, purest and best
things on earth, and if it were not for
them men would go to the dogs in
double-quick time.”
‘Yes, pa, I know the other day I was
on the verge of cuasing and discuss
ing, (in a mild and boyish way) a
knotty mathematical problem in
school, when Saliie, by that divine in
tuition given only to women, realized
the situation and came to my rescue.”
“And so it is in all things, my son.
When a man is about to be ruined by
some evil influence, a woman, yes, a
woman comes to the rescue. And I
repeat: “if they are not prepared for
higher education they are, at least,
the best creatures living, and the man
who would deny them higher educa
tion, if they desire it, is a cowardly
wretch and afraid to give to her an
opportunity to develop her brain and
bring it up to the avoirdupois of his
own.
Our women are the standard bear
ers of our country; our men the crea
tures of a mechanical intelligence
that makes them skeptical to all that
is good, true and pure. Is it not so?
Yes, you know it is.
But now to the point. If I am to
look for the girls of our country who
are striving for this so-colled “white
elephant,” I must also turn to the
other hand and look for the boys who
expect to mount his back and traverse
the jungles of science, and art and
literature.
And what do I see? I see girls of
affluence giving their lives to the dis
sipation of society ; boys of toe same
family debauching themselves in the
dram-shops and gambling dens of our
country. Neither of them caring an
iota for the fundamental principles
that go to make up true'and exalted
citizenship, and both on a common
ground of immorality that is under
the direction of the devil. Bless the
old Demon he knows how to use
money!
I see girls of the middle class to
whom life is a sad experience, and I
find that they have been made to
think, and as a result of their think
ing they look upward and onward to
that higher eduoation that will place
woman upon an equality with man,
and give to her that freedom that is
hers by right of American citizen
ship.
I see boys of the same family strag
gling to qualify themselves for the
duties of office and civil government,
but oiten-tlmes denying themselves
that their sisters may reach upward
for that higher education that will
equip her for self-sustenance.
In the lower classes I see only an
occasional girl or boy who rises above
the slum and mire of their environ
ments, and these are always consid
ered a prodigy.
Bo I adduce the fact that it is most
ly in the middle classes that we fiod
the girls, and boys, too, who are real
ly reaching for a higher education.
The examples outside of this class are
mere exceptions.
Women are prepared for higher ed
ucation, but have it not.
Men have higher education at their
command, but are not prepared to re
ceive it.
When I say that women are pre
pared for higher education I simply
mean that they are morally qualified
for receiving it, and when I say
they have it not I simply mean that
tbeir mental powers have not yet been
developed sufficiently, and the prac
tical means for retaining the same af
ter the development, have not been
afforded her.
When I say that men have higher
education I mean that he not only has
been developed mentally for ages, but
that he also possesses from three to
seven ounces more compact brain tdan
woman, according to the statements of
metaphysicians. [?[
When I say that he is not prepared
to receive it I simply mean that he
be has so much debauched himself by
the public sentiment evils of the pe
riod, lhat he is utterly unqualified lor
receiving thtin in the spine of ethics
and economy. He ha3 drank, and he
has smoked, and he has been irregular
in bis life until higher education to
him is a “white elephant” of much
magnitude.
Give unto woman higher education
to that extent that man will recognize
her as his equal, and know her to be
so, in all things, and then she will im
part unto him higher education of the
heart and soul.
Oh, I tell you the salvation of our
country depends upon the higher edu
cation of our women!
Give them education and you give
them freedom, and without freedom
our Constitution is a farce and our
country damned; for unless some
strong influence is brought to bear
upon the men of this country, their
intemperance and licentiousness will
overthrow our government. Other
nations have suffered from these evils,
why not we? Are we not suffering
now?
But now to the metaphysical faits
brought out by Condurango.
Fiicy years ago woman was nothing,
so to speak, but today higher educa
tion is ‘“in the mind and on the heart
of every earnest woman” in oar land.
What may she not gain in the next
fifty years? A very learned man said
to me today that woman is as well
qualified to receive higher education
as is man. And it is a fact that our
people are entrusting her with the ed
ucation of our children as they have
never done before. In fact, our schools
are being usurped by her. Aud is she
not daily gaining ground in the sphere
of higher education? Miss Marv Can-
field, a young lady of Water Valley,
Miss., one who labored against divers
influences in her ohiidhood days, has
worked herself through the higher
brauebes of education, independent of
material assistance, and was elected to
preside over the Normal Institute at
Oxford this summer, and has now gone
to Paris, Tex , to accept a position of
remuneration. Miss Clara Webb, of
Forest City, Ark., whose graduating
efsay appeared in this week’s Sunny
South, has done a similar thing, and
if space were at my command I could
enumerate at length numbers of
earnest girls who are striving to make
themselves independent of the drudg
ery attending the commands of men.
I admit that girls are receiving most
attention just at this period, and
while it may not be best to educate
our girls in advance of our boys, yet,
I say, give the girls an opportunity
to prove themselves capable of higher
education.
The reason boys are neglected is be
cause of their early inclination to get
into the world and make men of them
selves, and instead of parents subdu
ing this passion and giving them the
essential qualifications for true and
exalted manhood, they encourage
tbem to go into the world of com
merce and activity, and instead of
them becoming men, they become
fools. Yes, parents, ic is so. There’s no
use denying it.
And that is one reason your boy is
giving you trouble today.
Condurango has a clever way of ask
ing questions without answering
them, and leaving the reader to draw
the inference. Fur instance:
“Much is said about the higher edu
cation of women, have you heard aay-
thing about the higher education of
men?”
Bless your heart, yea. Man has had
the opportunity of higher education
so long it has become a play thing
with him; now give it to woman and
see if she doesn’t develops it into use
fulness.
Give them an opportunity and may
be they’ll obange the standard of met
aphysics, by discovering that woman
has more brain avoirdupois than
man. I have my doubts anyway about
man being better capacitated for re
ceiving knowledge than woman. It is
only an affirmation of man, and if
he’ll give her an opportunity to inves
tigate the premises, perhaps she’ll find
that he has been eying about it.
I am opposed to a double standard.
Wbat is good for man should be good
for woman. Man has created the sen
timent that upholds a double stan
dard, but the day is coming, and not
fardistant, when it will be universal
ly agreed that wbat is good for man
is also good for woman, and in that
day we’ll see them going hand in hand
trusting and Icving, with a purer love
and a better trust than ever before,
eaoh recognizing the other as equal
in all things, and both walking before
God, pure and free irom the social
prejudices of this Nineteenth Cen
tury.
“Give woman higher educition and
her natural tact, combined with the
common sense that has been devel
oped by due application to books, will
make ber a happy and useful woman,
an ornament alike to the humblest or
highest walks of life, and withal, a
woman not compelled to tie herself to
a man for the sake of support, as
thousands of precious women are
doing today.
When women have received higher
education in the fullest acceptance of
the word, then we’ll see men and
women joining hands and hearts in
true earuestues-s aad with a love that
is unknown to the present generation.
“My son,” remarked ma, “thy father
speaketh with a full heart.”
“Yes’m,• and with an empty stom
ach.”
Eugene Edwards.
From Bapphlro SolltadM.
Dear Household: The Remans,
you know, had a custom of carving
the gracious *otd, Welcome, at the
threshold of their homes. Mother
Hubbard follows this pretty fashion,
and I find the same hospitable word
written upon the door of her domain.
Notwithstanding as I am almost a
stranger some of the Household’s elite
may feel inclined to level their glasses
and look interrogation points. Know
then that I am She—and for the pres
ent have exchanged the cares of roy
alty for a bit of dream-life way up in
a corner of western North Carolina.
Half the day 1 lie in my hammock and
look up into “Sappnire Solitudes”
through a fringe of pine needles—
around me the insects make music in
crotchets, quavers, and hemi-demi-
semi-quavets.
Just as I reached a very serious
frame of mind, resolving to be a genu
ine “goody, goody,” and purpose “to
lead hereafter a godly, sober and
righteous life,” up strolls He—com-
panion to Sbe—(that’s my bad broth
er) and throws himself upon the grass.
‘Do you know what that old jay is
saying?” he asks, tossing a pine cone
at a bird in the branches.
“Too-nlick,” I answered, soberly.
‘ PoohI No such thing! The old
rascal is saying ‘cuss words.’ ”
And he proceeds to repeat a few
phrases fitting in so nicely that I for
get my piety and laugh.
By-tbe-way—did you ever think
about it, womeu of the Household,
that the serpent that stole into the
garden ot Eden was of “masculine per
suasion.*’
Ail the evil of this world is generally
shouldered off on the women, but
dou’t forget that it was a Him that
started it!
While 1 lie swinging lazily there
comes an interruption : a -locust falls
from the limbs overhead and strikes
the ground, going on like a small saw
mill. A pullet runs fluttering through
the grass—down goes Sir Locust with
a buzz and a squirm—and off walks
the hen with a plaintive “coot! coot!”
while He remarks:
“I reckon the little girl feels unhap
py* Yesterday I “sampled” a possum.
If any of the housekeepers want the
recipe for cooking, let them address
“Sbe,” of the Old North State. The
flavor of this animal is wild, gamy,
and decidedly eccentric—qualities
combined to make the epicure pro
nounce it in the language of Widow
Bedot, “a most delicious beverage.”
All the districts in this part of the
state are called “Creeks”—for exam
ple, Sugar Creek, Paw Creek, Steel
Creek, etc. And although North Car
olina is a grand old state, and has pro
duced big people (She, the Mighty,
was born here) yet it mast be ac
knowledged that her “Hoosiers” are
the worst on earth. One cannot de
scribe the aborigines. Their name is
“Mud.”
Ask one of the “Creekers” today
who is President of the United States
and he will say—
‘Old Zeb Yanoe, he alias gits thar.”
They swear by Vance.
The woman of this locality has a
natural hump—throw a shawl over her
and 8 he becomes a camel. The girl-
baby is born with a snuff brash in her
mouth. The matrons look like sqaaws
the maids squawinas.
Who shall describe the men!— raw-
boned, barefooted, shock-headed and
otherwise shocking.
The dance of this section is a
ot'U
«^ e po" e u n m ar ;. is ?4 , *tl r n I r bitii »«
its ranch. farm
Life here is simple. On.
through the sweet-scented T*'\
woods with the freedom ofaJfiS
The native goes down to ht k a * e -
at sunrise, washes his face tin m* 0 ?
the persimmon tree for breakH
There are no ledious compiiSL,
—no tiresome conventionalities 3
. After all-I mean in spite of .n •
is delightful. The hush-hush 0 « T?
river, the murmur of the ninp, .Jr
thousand sweet and subtle P
.ink de.p into the heart *f
loves-t he-beautiful. wbo *
Last night about midnight we h.,»
a sensation. I was aroused by a
on my shoulder and the voice of W
am inquiring: 4Q '
“Dj you hear that? Listen!”
I waited a moment and heard
scraping against the porcu followed
by a loud bellow. m
“It is a bear,” ejaculated my dear
friend impressively.
I was feeling rather hazy just thin’
“No,” said I, “tis Cundurango, the
woman-hater. He bowls dreadfully'
Get your gun!” and off into the Land
of Nod went __ She.
Art Poet. Apprt ciui.41
Down on the beach, and the lone river 8ho*e
Memories come that will never be o’er: * ’
Pnantoms that Binile and the white wiaiifc,
that sigh
Ever come on but to never go by.
Noiseless are loft the light prints on the sands
Locks light the air, and the beauty of nanus ’
Pa siouace aspirates follow, and poor, ’
Down on the beach, and tne lone liver shore.
Kind Mother Hubbard, and House
hold: I have been thinking of my
old home and the dear old borne river.
The visitation of The Sunny Sooth
once more, and the kind remembrance
and words of praise from her who
sent that journal Carried me back,
perhaps, to the steep, sharp-gabled
cottage, on the green bill-top in 111.
inois, and the beautiful, peaceful San-
gamon that flows dreamily below. It
was there, Mother Hubbard, and
Household band, you will remember,
that I wrote the greater portion of my
poems, and sketches and talks at ran-
dom for The Sunny South.
I have no pictures of home wherein I
do not see the shining Sangamon.
Like a living gliding spirit it haunts
forever the strange spaces and reach*
es of mortal entity ; it has been indeed
a part of my life, and it is a portion of
my existence to this day.
Happy Mother, I have read your an
swer for Mary in the first August
number of The Sunny South of the
present year. It was an interesting
letter, for much of my life has been
passed in the country. You have
championed the country people’s ap
preciation of nature better than I
could; and I am glad to infer that you
have found more friendship among
tbem than has fallen to my lot. Doubt
less there is quite a difference in the
people of different localities.
Kentucky is my nativity, and gave
me my earlier education; Ohio and Il
linois, by turns, have been my homes.
It has never been my delight to
know, nor to meet with the produc
tions of a poet—(yes, there is one ex
ception, but a Marylander by birth),
in those states who could begin to
come up to the standard which Edgar
Allan Poe required—and where will
you find a standard so true as Poe’s?
I bave not found country people
congenial. Few of tbem sought na
ture beyond the bounds of the crops
in which they anticipated money; or
beyoud the stys which held the natur
al hog; and people of the towns, I
have found, are just like them—it is
disgusting, but true that mankind in
most cases can never see over tbeir
ugly stomachs and find their souls.
Such being true is it not plain that
poet is a being unappreciated
and unloved—unless, indeed, he
will sacrifice his manly independence
and self-respect 10 some schema to
get influence and popularity from a
class who bave little to recommend
them save money, and a fine cover
ing.
i know of a number of poets, so-
called, who fell from their high estate
to become buffoons and clowns of dia
lect doggerel; because the world re-
; oices to see elegant poverty trail its
skirts in shame—it will then pay yoa
for your maudlin songs—whereas, you
cannot escape, in the persuit of the
fine art, the world’s malicious perse
cution :
“Bat down upon them I” bitterly
The Idolators gave mattered cry:
These poor 1 who feiga to kaow aud see
dements that we cannot bay.”
I am pleased to see that the dear
Sunny South is publishing stories
from the gifted authoress, Mrs. Mary
E. Bryan. (», do you forget how I
found you in your distant Southern
clime?) And there is a more promis
ing grade of poetry in the new Sunny
South.
I desire to hear personally, by let
ter, as, also through “The Household,”
from each member who will be my
friend.
I am sincerely and respectfully
Yours,
James Reed Dills.
(“Roxy Croft”)