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Pacts and Fancies for the Fireside
AN ANTE-BELLUM PICTURE OF
THE SOUTH—WITH REFLEC
TIONS.
“Bethany, A Story of the Old South.”
By Thomas E. Watson. Cloth, 383
pp. Price, $1.50. D. Appleton & Co.
•
This is a historical novel possess
ing the unique characteristic of hav
ing all the history in one part and all
the novel in another —an arrangement
that will be much appreciated by those
readers of the book who prefer to take
these two brands of literature
“straight.”
The author’s aims seems to have
been to present a picture of the South
before the war, together with some
discussion of the causes and conse
quences of the great struggle; and by
the use of very simple literary meth
ods —there is scarcely a trace of a plot
in the book —he has been remarkably
successful in accomplishing his pur
pose. The indictment he draws
against the fire-eating, blood-drinking
secessionists and abolitionists of the
South and North, and the politicians
of the two sections, who so eagerly
touched off a national conflagration
that consumed a million lives, should
do much to place the blame for that
great holocaust where it belongs. In
deed, it is not too much to say that
our historical literature has been per
manently enriched by his lucid ac
count of the real attitudes and activi
ties of that famous Georgia group of
Southern leaders in those crucial se
cession days. It was the fiery, half
mad “Bob” Toombs, going about the
South emitting lurid oratory and de
claring that he would drink all the
blood that should be spilled, who prob
ably did more than any other man to
spread the gospel of secession; and
it was the wise and brave “Alec”
Stephens who sought to counteract
the evil influence of Toombs by coun
seling moderation and delay. Then
there was the magnetic William L.
Yancey, adroit apologist for slavery
and impassioned champion of South
ern rights; and on the other side
were Ben Hill and Herschel V. John
son, who fought so heroically to hold
Georgia in the Union when the action
of “The Empire State of the South”
might turn the tide of secession and
avert the war.
The book is frankly Southern, how
ever, and strongly Democratic. New
England’s various threats to leave the
JOHN A. STEWART COKE S. DAVIS
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WATSON’S WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN.
Union are recalled to show that se
cession was not always regarded by
Northerners as synonymous with po
litical turpitude; and the gloomy view
is taken that the military victory of
the Federal government ended forever
the reign of Jeffersonian principles in
the republic. Despondently, he asks:
“Did Yancey see this? Did Lincoln
see it? Did the Sewards and the
Beechers, the Garrisons and the Ger
rit Smiths, the Whittiers and the Sum
ners, realize that in their blind meth
ods of striking the shackles off the
slave they would rivet the chains upon
unborn millions of the white race,
change the very nature of the repub
lic, put the scepter into the hands of
the militant, law-defying Hamiltonian
ism, and hurl our government by re
sistless evolution toward that old, old
gulf which has swallowed up every re
public known to history—centralism,
with its class-law, its despotism of
the few, its subordination of the vivil
ian to the soldier?”
The love story in the book has the
merit of simplicity; and it is proper
ly conceivable that it is all "just as
it happened” in real life, as the au
thor affirms in the preface. “Uncle
Ralph” leaves the sowing of his wild
oats to go to the defense of Southern
rights; and Nellie Roberts withholds
the confession of her love for him un
til he shall prove himself worthy of
her. Ruel Wade, a brilliant but indo
lent young preacher—a character, by
the way, that is remarkably well
drawn —comes into the lovely girl’s
life; and Misunderstanding, aided and
abetted by Gossip and Slander, causes
an estrangement between het and her
absent lover. Then the youth, sick in
body and soul, comes home to die, and
to the surprise of the reader he is
allowed by the author to do so; the
maiden dies also —not of a broken
heart, but from typhoid fever; and the
romance ends.
NOTES ON LIVING.
No matter what troubles befall,
The luck will improve before long,
If you’ll only be ready and hopeful and
steady.
And go to your work with a song.
Some millions are living like you
And millions have lived in the past,
But the same rule applies and the
man who is w’ise
Will hold up his head to the last!
—Paul Cook.
QUALITIES OF THE OYSTER.
A San Franciscan has discovered a
new method of cutting short recitals
that promise to become too long
winded, says The New York Times.
An acquaintance of his, who has a
local reputation as a bore, was one
day holding forth at some length when
the Californian interrupted him with:
“By the way, did 1 ever tell you the
story of the oyster?”
On receiving a negative reply, he
continued:
“It seems that when oysters are
taken from the sea they often open
their shells so that the juice or liquid
runs out. As this is undesirable, the
experienced oyster gatherer has a tub
of water close at hand into which the
oyster is plunged a ssoon as it begins
to open its shell.”
“Well, and what then?” asked the
other as the narrator paused.
The San Franciscan paused.
“Oh, after a while the oyster learns
to keep its mouth shut,” he remarked
quietly.
A DISTINCTION WITHOUT A DIF
FERENCE.
In Mississippi there was a colored
preacher noted in those parts for the
extreme frankness and candor of his
exhortations to his wicked brethren
to reform, says Harper's Weekly. On
one occasion, relates Representative
John Sharp Williams, the divine "was
holding forth on the sin of theft.
Among other things, he said:
"I see befo’ me ten chicken thieves,
includin’ Dan Samson.”
This bald statement of fact rather
aroused the resentment of the afore
said Samson, and he threatened the
minister with personal violence. The
latter’s friends persuaded the divine
to withdraw the accusation if Samson
would promise not to offer the minis
ter any hurt. The question seemed
about to be adjusted, it being settled
that the clergyman should, on the fol
lowing Sunday, publicly retract his
statement as to the honesty of Mr.
Samson.
Therefore, rising in the pulpit, on
the day appointed, the minister said:
“It ’pears data remark of mine, in
de sermon of last Sunday, has been
de cause of offense, an’ I derefore
amends it. What I should have said
was dis: T see befo’ me ten chicken
thieves, not includin’ Dan Samson.’ ”
THE EDITOR AND THE ADVER
TISER.
Once on a time I knew a man
Who said it didn’t pay
To advertise the goods he had
To sell or trade away.
To prove that he was off his base
And make him clearly see,
I gave him half a page of space
And let him have it free.
It almost scared him into fits
To see himself displayed
As I displayed him, but he felt
Its influence on his trade
I kept it up, his business boomed,
The customers swooped down
Upon his store until he had
The biggest rush in town.
One day I went around to call
And found him on the run.
With people waiting for their turn
When those ahead were done.
"Well, well,” I cried in great delight
To see things boom that way,
“Don’t advertising pay, old man?
What have you got to say?”
I thought he’d like my work so much,
And think my plan so nice.
That he’d not only paise my wares.
But pay me double price.
And did he do it? Listen, please,
I thought that I’d drop dead
When angrily he turned on me
And vigorously said:
“Take out that advertisement, quick:
Goldern yer pesky skin!
I’ll never git a chance to rest
Ez long ez it stays in.”
—New York Sun
VALUE OF IMMIGRATION LAWS
(The Indianapolis News.)
The breaking of the immigration
record every month nowadays rather
makes one -wonder what -would have
been doing if congress had passed
no restrictive laws.
COX REDIVIVUS.
(The Columbus Press-Post.)
When George B. Cox “perished” in
a political contest, the Democrats and
other good citizens of Ohio neglected
to use embalming fluid on the re
mains.
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