The aftermath of the war between the States was an idealization of
the old social order in the South. Mr. Page and Mr. Allen found
in the tradition and habit of the Old South elements of a romance
founded on reality. Society in the South before the war received
its tone from men and women bred in habits of deference and
courtesy, sensitive to any slight put upon honor, and prodigal of
hospitality. It had rested on an unstable basis; but it had those
delightful qualities which came with leisure, easy conditions, and
the absence of commercial spirit. This vanishing order found in Mr.
Page’s earliest stories a record true to life and yet enveloped
in the air of romance. “Marse Chan,” “Unc’ Edinburg,” and “Meh
Lady” gave the country a thrill of pleasure, so sure was their
appeal to sentiment, so refreshingly human and unforced, a rich
and picturesque life of its own, a fresh field for the romance of
spiritual adventure and social habit.
[Illustration: BIRTHPLACE OF THOMAS NELSON PAGE
_Oakland Plantation, Hanover County, Virginia._]
In these moving tales, told with unobstrusive artistic skill, the
long-suspended literary tradition of Virginia received an impulse
which has since given the country a group of stories of original
quality.