Would the old ladies really have spoken to Augustus about the love
difficulties of John Mayrant?
I must plead guilty. The old ladies of Kings Port, like American
gentlefolk everywhere, keep family matters sacredly inside the family
circle. But you see, had they not told Augustus, how in the world could
I have told--however, I plead guilty.
Certain passages have been interpreted most surprisingly to signify a
feeling against the colored race, that is by no means mine. My only wish
regarding these people, to whom we owe an immeasurable responsibility,
is to see the best that is in them prevail. Discord over this seems on
the wane, and sane views gaining. The issue sits on all our shoulders,
but local variations call for a sliding scale of policy. So admirably
dispassionate a novel as The Elder Brother, by Mr. Jervey, forwards the
understanding of Northerners unfamiliar with the South, and also that
friendliness between the two places, which is retarded chiefly by
tactless newspapers.
Ah, tact should have been one of the cardinal virtues; and if I didn’t
possess a spice of it myself, I should here thank by name certain two
members of the St. Michael family of Kings Port for their patience with
this comedy, before ever it saw the light. Tact bids us away from many
pleasures; but it can never efface the memory of kindness.