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About The courier. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1894-1903 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 28, 1901)
3)a3t,rr; t THE COURIER 10 s Book fyviws (Continued from Page Three.) man in the collection. The whole ef fect is out of doors. The waters, the ruins, the woods, the rivers, the snows of Uier Canada surround the inhab itants and thepassions of the fishermen and guides whom Dr. Van Dyke has studied. a- H- The Mm-ow of Tradition White man or black man, it takes either one a long time to get rid of his prejudices. The actions of yesterday are shocking in the light of today. TVe draw In our breath when we read how the Puritans of New England burned old women alive for the crime of witch craft. Yet "our best people" of the south light the wood piled around a negro man who Is accused, not con victed, but accused of an assault upon a white woman. Subsequent investi gation has shown that several men In nocent of the crimes of which racial hatred accused them, have been burned. History moves in cycles. We are again in the midst of trouble with the negro. Finally disfranchised after thirty years of only nominal exercise of the suffrage, the southern negro is left to fight his unequal battle with out either national or state rights. It is announced by students of the unique conditions now existing In the south that, deprived of the franchise, the negro will not excite the jealousy of that most selfish and cruel of human beings, the corrupt politician. Time will tell. Mr. Charles W. Chesnutt's novel, "The Marrow of Tradition," Is a dra matic study of the racial embarrass ments which are troubling both the black and the white southerner. If the Africans had never been enslaved they might have come to the south and settled there without causing the disturbance which has been a constant phenomenon of their residence in America. It is not that the negroes are physically repulsive to the whites, though opponents of the race allege that this is so. Some blacks are re pulsive and obnoxious, but in a given community there are more impossible whites than there are blacks. Because, for one reason, the black man's poverty and servile condition have made it necessary for him to study the tastes and manners of white gentlemen. Po liteness is only the result of a study of what pleases and annoys other people. The poor whites of the south were despised by the slave and slave-holder alike. They have nO traditions of gen tility, no wholesome pride of family to maintain. Before the war members of this class furnished the overseers and slave-dealers. Much the greater part of the cruelty proceeded from these overseers and slave-dealers. They had no interest, except a mer cenary one in the slave. They were quite outside of the tender and loyal relationships which the institution de veloped. At the present time it is the descendants of this class who are burn ing and shooting the colored people. In the days of slavery the master pro tected his slave from the jealousy and hatred of this class. Between the black and this hereditary hatred there is now no barrier. Mr. Chesnutt's study of the degree of adjustment which the neighbored races have attained is very interesting. In dramatic power no book of the sea son rivals it. He writes with a fervor and conviction that inevitably recall Mrs. Stowe's great book, the book which more than any book ever writ ten by man or woman made men ready to fight in response to the guns that were trained on Sumter. Mr. Chesnutt thinks that we are laying by for our selves a terrible retribution. The re action of cruelty and injustice on the oppressor is inevitable; and conse quently, if only for race selfishness, we should stop burning and shooting. Spain has never recovered from the expulsion of the Moors; England was centuries recovering from the driving out of the Jews. But "The Marrow of Tradition" is not an argument except in retrospect. It is not a problem novel in form. There Is only casual discussion of "ne gro domination" which has attained the importance monopolized by the subject of slavery in the first half of the nineteenth century. The action is rapid, the characters develop under one's eyes, and interest in the story and the characters diverts the mind completely from the economic subject which probably first provoked Mr. Chesnutt's attention. It is solely when an author is carried away by the ab sorbing development of his characters that a problem novel is unobjection able. After the book is read and put away it occurs to the reader that the writer may have had some other pur pose in view. I maintain that if this purpose is not entirely obscured by the Interest in the story and In the un folding characters of the story, the writer, whoever he is, Tolstoy or an other, would better have written an essay and called it by its right name. The black man and brother has a future. "The ability to live and thrive under adverse circumstances is the surest guarantee of the future. The race which at the last shall inherit the earth the residuary legatee of civilization will be the race which re mains longest upon it. The negro was here before the Anglo-Saxon was evolved, and his thick lips and heavy lidded eyes looked out from the in scrutable face of the Sphinx across the sands of Egypt while yet the an cestors of those who now oppress him were living in caves, practicing hu man sacrifice and painting themselves with woad and the negro is here yet." This book, which is destined to pro voke much discussion and to go through many editions, is issued by Houghton, Mifflin and Co. of the Riv erside Press, Cambridge. Thoughts for Every-Day Living Dr. Maltble D. Babcock, who died a few months ago, was pastor of the first Presbyterian church of Lockport, N. Y., from 1882 to 18S7; of the Brown Memorial church of Baltimore, -Md from that date till 1900, and of the Brick Presbyterian church of New York city till 1901. A small book. "Thoughts for Every-day Living," tak en from his sermons, has recently been published by his friends. The preface states that the sources from which se lections could be made are few. Dr. Babcock's sermons were preached from full but intricate notes which no one else could develop, and he had written no book. In every line of the frag ments that have been collected and published there is evidence of a warm, loving spirit and of intimacy with God. Dr. Babcock was gifted with a com prehending intellect and a knowledge of the meaning and mechanism of the English language, but more than knowledge and inspiration was his genius for loving everybody and his desire to help. This char acteristic was the secret of the power of Phillips Brooks. The human ity and modest good will of Bishop Brooks helped him to teach and to preach. In his sermons or his conver sation it was not his scholarship or his eloquence or his distinguished appear ance that touched the multitude, but his love, his purity and his unmeasured desire -to help while he could. Dr. Bab cock had the heart of a little child, and the tireless energy and will to help mankind that distinguished St. Francis of Asslsi. Although the book of frag ments contains only a hint of his stim ulating presence and influence, never theless it is a good likeness in printer's ink o fthe sermons and words of the man Dr. Babcock. All artificial light is but sunshine transformed: coal is pickled vegetation and air; if there were no sun there would be no gas and no electricity. A life like Dr. Babcock's and a person ality like his is one of the strongest proofs of a great central, penetrating, original Light. "Men had bodies before they ever thought of writing treatises on physi ology. Life comes before letters, and experience before explanation. Phi losophy is the description of experience. The Bible is not the cause of religion, but the record of It. The thing of su preme importance Is to possess the facts of religion, a personal relation to God, rather than a correct philoso phy about the facts. That will take care of itself." The doctor had a schol ar's fastidious discrimination in the selection and definition of words. Since the days of Wesley and Calvin certain words like salvation, election and a comparatively short list of words found in the Bible and appropriated by exhorters of all denominations, have been loosely used. Evangelists of twenty-five years ago used salvation to mean a hair-breadth deliverance from everlasting fire, a material fire tended by a red devil with a trip!, -pronged fork in his hand to poke li.i, k the sinners who should try to esc.i. from the hottest middle of the flames It is certain that there are not nian now who believe in the fire, the deui and the pitchfork. Dr. Babcock sai.j "Salvation is not putting a man h,, , heaven, but putting heaven into m,, It is not putting a sinful man int. law-abiding community but writn -the law of God In his heart and mii The real question is not. What will u. do under outward compulsion? Im What will we do by inner choice? sol vation is not the change of cirn.in stances, but that central change in ,i that clif e of the heart, of its alti tudes, i Intentions, of its choios which wn make it the conqueror un der all circumstances in life's batth If the object of living is neither h.u -piness, nor pleasure, nor pain, but e.. lution, the development of the spun and of a capacity to recognize that ui things work together for good, tli- o the publication of a book like this on. speeds the result. Charles Scribn. rs Sons of New York are the publisher- WE CLAIM For our work, that it is honest work It might cost you a trifle more, but results are greater. All the supplies, that ro into the different processes are the lest that money and good judgment can procure. HAVE THE EVANS WASHING Rudge & Guenzel Co. III8-II26 N STREET 20XDISCOUNT -IN- Rug Dept. Carpet Dept. Drapery Dept. One Week Only. Strictly Cash. Ml C5gK 3 a & q.22 Im"3 t. 1 - SO C3 0 -5 PS OB -IN- Furniture Dept. Queensw'reDept. Stove and n Tinware Uept. No Goods on Approval or Exchanged LINCOLN'S LARGEST STORK For information or an illustration of a Policy suited to vonr nj0 .. , Telephone 39S7. H. . LOUGHRIDGE, General Agent, Lincoln, Nebraska. 1 A jl"'b
