but he was not a popular speaker; he was better in the Senate than on the hustings. He was too analytical, too intellectual, to arouse enthusiasm in the average audience. His speeches are fine examples of clear, logical exposition.

Henry Clay (1777-1852).—Henry Clay was born in Hanover county, Virginia, studied law at an early age, went west to Kentucky in 1797 and settled at Lexington, which was his home for the rest of his life. He soon came into prominence in politics, was appointed to fill out an unexpired term in the United States Senate, was elected to the lower house of Congress, of which he was made speaker, and was then sent to the Senate, where except for a term as Secretary of State under Adams and a brief period or two, he remained until his death. Notable speeches of Clay are the following: "On the Greek Revolution" (1824), "Defense of the American System" (1832), "Compromise of 1850," and the "Farewell to the Senate." The famous compromise speech of 1850 closes with an impassioned plea for the Union; his two great colleagues, Webster and Calhoun, also ardently wished for its preservation; fortunately, no one of the mighty "triumvirate" lived to see it broken.

In the "golden age of American oratory" Henry Clay was the idol of the people. His personal magnetism and his brilliant oratorical powers won for him an immense following; his winsome, courtly manners disarmed enemies and often converted them into admirers. He must have been an irresistible speaker, though his speeches are now seldom read; verily the orator has his reward in the praises of his own generation. He was a patriot, and posterity will not forget his services, futile though his efforts were to prevent the apparently inevitable strife; his compromise measures, urged upon Congress with splendid persistence, gave him the title of "the great pacificator." No other saying of his is so familiar as his assertion-"I would rather be right than be President." Clay's style is simple, clear, and forcible; he was gifted in the use of apt illustrations,

but his speeches lack literary finish and the close reasoning of Webster's and the severely intellectual quality of Calhoun's. In popular appeal he was masterful, but as literature Webster's orations have proved more enduring.

Henry Woodfin Grady (1850-1889).-Henry W. Grady was born in Athens, Georgia; he was educated at the University of Georgia and the University of Virginia; at the time of his

HENRY W. GRADY

death he was editor and part owner of the Atlanta Constitution. Through his editorials and his public addresses he did much to bring about a better understanding between the North and the South; belonging to a newer generation, loyal to the old and eager for a completer national reunion, he was a fitting spokesman for the New South. The speech that first brought him wide

fame was "The New South," delivered before the New England Society of New York in 1886. This established his reputation; he had become the prophet of a new era and a power for unification in the nation; he had won the title of "national pacificator." Back at home he had already shown himself the public-spirited citizen, promoting by word and deed measures for the advancement of his city, state, and the South. He was accordingly in demand in various parts of the country. At the Dallas, Texas, fair in 1888 he made a notable address on "The South and her Problems"; in Boston his last great speech was heard in December, 1889.

The untimely death of this rarely gifted man came as a shock to the South and the rest of the nation. So fine a spirit for public service, so eloquent an exponent of modern progress, so just an interpreter of the old order to the new, had not before appeared. On him seemed to have fallen the mantle of the "men of the mighty days." "He was, indeed," says Watterson, "the hope and expectancy of the young South, the one publicist of the New South, who, inheriting the spirit of the old, yet had realized the present and looked into the future with the eyes of a statesman and the heart of a prophet." His orations have attained a deserved popularity; his "New South" speech in particular has appealed to young people in school and college and is a favorite for declaiming. Because of its literary quality, its eminent truthfulness, its warmth of feeling, and its cordial fraternalism, this oration has become a classic.

PROSE FICTION

In the realm of story-telling, Southern writers have made and are making a significant contribution to American literature. This body of prose fiction is large, varied, and of excellent quality; the later group of story-tellers in particular have shown remarkable industry and decided originality. For the sake of convenience, Southern prose fiction may be divided into the following classes according to the subject matter of the stories: (1) The older romances of war, adventure, and colonial life, by Simms, Kennedy, and Cooke; (2) the Creoles of Louisiana, by Cable; (3) Negro folk-lore, by Harris and others; (4) the Tennessee mountaineer, by Miss Murfree ("Charles Egbert Craddock"); (5) the Blue Grass Region of Kentucky, by Allen; (6) Old Virginia, by Page and others. This classification is of course neither exhaustive nor clear-cut, but it will serve in a general way to indicate the main themes. The older writers, as elsewhere in America, were essentially romantic in the treatment of their material, while the later novelists are

naturally more realistic. The difference between the old and the new fashion in fiction-the change from the romance of sentiment and adventure to the novel of realism-is expressed in the resigned remark of John Esten Cooke, shortly before his death, about the new school of realists: "They see, as I do, that fiction should faithfully reflect life, and they obey the law, while I was born too soon, and am now too old to learn my trade anew."

Representatives of the several classes of Southern fiction may now be taken up in the order outlined above. Of the earlier group William Gilmore Simms is the most important; then come John Pendleton Kennedy and John Esten Cooke.

WILLIAM GILMORE SIMMS (1806-1870)

His Life.-William Gilmore Simms was born in Charleston, South Carolina, April 17, 1806. His mother died when he was scarcely two years old, and his father, a merchant, through despondency at the death of his wife and two of his children and at business failures, left Charleston for a wandering life of adventure westward. The little boy was taken care of by his grandmother, who knew a great many stories of war and Indian fighting, with which she kindled the imagination of her precocious grandson. After five or six years at the indifferent public schools of the city, he was at the age of twelve apprenticed to a druggist; but clerking in a drug store did not appeal to the imaginative youth, and at eighteen he began the study of law. Shortly after this he made a visit to his father in the wilds of Mississippi, and on this journey had several perilous adventures and visited two tribes of Indians. Returning to Charleston, he married (1826), and the next year was admitted to the bar. After a year's practice, however, he definitely gave up law for literature, having meanwhile written some poetry and read widely in Scott and Byron and other English authors.

Simms's first editorial venture was not successful; his wife died in 1832; aristocratic Charleston gave the young poet scanty recognition. Somewhat discouraged, he went to Hingham, Massachusetts, and there published his first long poetic effort, Atalantis, a Story of the Sea; he also met William Cullen Bryant, who remained his friend the rest of his life. After a few months in the North, he returned to South Carolina, and in 1833 published his first prose romance, Martin Faber, which was followed

the next year by another. In 1835 The Yemassee appeared, and Simms's fame was established; his romances were exceedingly popular. That same year he married again; and thenceforth he made his home for most of the year at his father-in-law's country place, Woodlands, in Barnwell county, South Carolina. At Woodlands he did the best literary work of his life, and there he entertained his literary friends from the North and South in hospitable style. In Charleston he spent a few months each year, for he owned a house in the city. About him there a small coterie of congenial spirits gathered, most of them younger men who looked up to him as a sort of literary dictator; and indeed he had some of the characteristics of old Samuel Johnson presiding at "the club."

Simms was editor of one shortlived periodical after another, the most influential of which was the Southern Quarterly Review, and he contributed to others. He was indeed the first Southern author to make literature his main vocation; he made his living from his novels and not from magazine articles, for which the povertystricken proprietors promised more than they paid. Besides these literary labors, Simms dabbled in politics, but went no higher than the state legislature. The war came on, and the novelist suffered; his home, Woodlands, was partly burned in 1862, and entirely destroyed in 1865, including his fine library. He lost his wife in 1863, and a number of his children had died through the years; so that when the war was over, he was a saddened and broken old man. He felt, too, that his native city had never smiled on his labors; her aristocratic indifference was galling to him. Still, he took up bravely the burden of life and heroically worked at more romances; but the