Arts and Letters

One day in 1881 there came to the editorial office of Scribner's Monthly, afterward the Century Magazine, the manuscript of a story destined to be of large significance in American fiction. It was a tale of Virginia during the Civil War and was entitled "Marse Chan," and it was signed by a name not known to the editorial staff, that of Thomas Nelson Page. The editor-in-chief, Richard Watson Gilder, being then in Europe, as a matter of routine it was first submitted to the "reader," Mrs. Sophie Bledsoe Herrick, who (so to speak) "discovered" it and passed it on to the present writer with a warm recommendation that it be accepted. It proved to be a story of such obvious merits that it fell into the class of manuscript that, in the lingo of the editorial office, "accepts itself." It had but one fault of importance, that of redundancy, the action being retarded by a surplusage of interesting detail. This is a fault not only far from infrequent in young writers but fortunately one easy to remedy. With the consent of the author, excision was made of this digressive material—perhaps a third of the original manuscript—and I believe that none of the omitted portions was restored in the publication in book form of this and other stories by the same author. The narrative is wholly cast in negro dialect, which at that time was much in favor. The magazine had already on its accepted list a number of admirable examples of such stories by well-known writers and the obligation of precedence, and not a lack of appreciation of the tale itself, was the occasion of the delay of its publication for nearly three years.

When it did appear, in the Century for April, 1884, "Marse Chan" made a sensation. It was not only interesting in itself, as a well-told narrative, but it was typical of what may be called the "Southern literary invasion" which came in the twenty-five years that followed the Civil War. The Southern writer of that period did not study life analytically but was content to report it objectively. Cable was perhaps the only one whose method was conspicuously dramatic. "Marse Chan" and Page's later stories had the Southern literary trait of straight-forward, felicitous narrative style, the somewhat leisurely current sweeping into a swifter climax. He may be considered as standing at the head of this group in pathos, humor, and a convincing truthfulness. The local color of much American fiction has been challenged—often from a too matter-of-fact point of view—but no one has ever detected a forced or false note in the work of Thomas Nelson Page. This first story is among the foremost in the list of the best American short stories produced during the post-bellum renaissance, and among the most notable episodes in fiction is that of the duel between Marse Chan and the father of the girl he loved, Colonel Chamberlain. It closes thus:

"Den I heerd Mr. Gordon say, 'Gent'mens, is yo' ready?' and bofe of 'em sez 'Ready,' jes' so. An' he sez, 'Fire, one two'—an' ez he said 'one' old Cun'l Chahmb'lin raised he pistil an' shot right at Marse Chan. De ball went thoo his hat. I seen he hat sort o' settle on he head ez de bullit hit it; and he jes' tilted he pistil up in de a'r an' shot bang; an' ez de pistil went bang he sez to Cun'l Chahmb'lin, 'I mek yo' a present to yo' fam'ly, seh'!"

"Marse Chan" is typical of Page's works in two respects. First, in dealing with sectional prejudices, it has that fine quality, whether of a gentleman or an author, a generous candor, and, next, it has a tenderness that in the writer's attitude toward women amounts to chivalry. Page was not ashamed to portray love as a principle rather than a passion, and his sincerity enabled him to escape sentimentality. He made the most of the background of the Civil War and in a dignified way presented the devotion and sacrifice of the South without bitterness or vaunting. This was seen particularly in his second story of note, "Meh Lady," the motive of which, the reconciliation of prejudiced foes, the present writer had the good fortune to suggest to him. His treatment of sectional questions is unexceptionable, despite the fact that his local traditions were sunned and watered in a soil of two centuries. He is the adequate exponent of Virginia aristocracy turned democrat. The hero of his youth was Robert E. Lee, to whom he paid the tribute of an admirable biography, and his ancestors of the Revolutionary period always seemed to be speaking through him.

This is not the place for a critical estimate of Page's numerous books. They have homogeneity rather than diversity, but they never fail of ease or charm of atmosphere, and while they make no presumption to profundity, they show no "variableness or shadow of turning" from the truth either of history or of human nature. They are indispensable to the understanding of the character of Virginia, which, with certain quite attractive traits of provinciality, is perhaps the most American State in the Union.

In 1913 Page was designated Ambassador to Italy. His service covered the entire period of the Great War and terminated with his resignation in the spring of 1919. As his successor, it may be presumed that the present writer would be familiar with the character and scope of that service; but the usefulness of diplomats is not recorded in embassy records and, if it were, those that come after are too busy making the history of the day to occupy themselves with even the immediate past. They must be content to await the years to come, when it may be proper to make public the confidential records of the Department of State and their own private journals. But no one who knew Page's temperament and intelligence and his ardent love of Italy could doubt that his official function—most delicate and important in the trying times of war—was loyally and amply fulfilled. His volume Italy and the World War, published in 1920, is not concerned, even by inference, with his own influence upon events, but is an astonishing tour de force of narrative,—comprehensive, temperate, judicial, well-balanced, with flashes of special illumination, and, throughout, presenting the much-misunderstood attitudes and actions of Italy, first toward the Allies, and later as one of them. His spirit is that of a champion who comes to the rescue of one who is maligned and neglected. In every chapter he not only indicates the streams of influence contributing to Italy's always important and often decisive action in the War, but also lets us see the deep currents of patriotism and pride which carried her past and under inconceivable obstacles. One must be deficient either in intelligence or in heart who could rise from a perusal of this volume without a conviction of the heroism and nobility and the indispensable force of Italy's participation in the War.

Thomas Nelson Page was born in Hanover County, Virginia, April 23, 1853, and died at the old homestead November 1, 1922. His boyhood and youth were spent in Virginia and his mature life largely in Washington, with summer sojourns in York Harbor, Maine. He was one of the charter members of the National Institute of Arts and Letters and one of the group of twenty elected to the Academy immediately after the completion of the first quota of thirty. He was a man of warm affections warmly reciprocated, of rigid conscientiousness, of inclusive sympathies, of reasoned convictions, at once a man of the world and of the study. He had, in the best sense of the word, a sweet nature and was lovable, loyal, and courageous. Though by nature of a gentle lassitude, as shown by his conversation and his gait, he was capable of indignation and resentful protest against wrong. He spoke boldly for the rights of authors and lashed the pretentiousness and triviality of certain social classes, and he would have given his life for the land which he faithfully served in Rome, or for the land to which he was accredited and which he loved second only to his own. When the private records of his career shall see the light we may be sure that they will only accentuate what we now know of this charming author, good citizen, faithful ambassador, and admirable man.