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
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