For Conference Between the Magazine and its Readers.
Let us be mutually helpful. In this, the initial number of BOB TAYLOR’S
MAGAZINE, one of the dominant thoughts in our minds is that of friendly
reciprocity. You would not have subscribed to this periodical, we take
it, were you not friendly to it and to its editor.
We wish not merely to amuse you, but to help you; and we wish you to
help us, that, through us, you may help your own people, your own state
and section and the whole country. To this end we invite, for the use of
this department, communications on all subjects of unusual interest and
importance, such as:
Prose and poetry of sentiment, fact and fancy.
Forgotten or unpublished bits of history and tradition.
Anecdotes of famous men and women, and of quaint and curious
occurrences.
The best short stories and tales you have heard or read, if unusual or
unfamiliar.
Suggestions for the special benefit of BOB TAYLOR’S MAGAZINE, how it may
be improved, what it should contain, what it should omit.
Write us these things that all may profit by something of transcendent
interest to each.
Also ask questions of interest and importance on any subject. If we can
answer them, we will do so; and if we can’t answer them, we will invite
our readers to do so.
Address all such communications to Leisure Hours Department of BOB
TAYLOR’S MAGAZINE.
What a mine of hidden wealth there is in the unrecorded legends of the
South and the Southwest! What tales of the cavaliers of the Old
Dominion, of the mountaineers, of those modern argonauts who braved in
the wilderness more and greater dangers than did the fabled followers of
Jason, and whose descendants are now enjoying the golden fleece which
eluded their grasp! What of Oglethorpe, and Boone and Crockett,
Whitefield and Doak, Jackson and Sam Houston, Lafitte and Bowie and
Burr; of Lost Island, Barrancas and the Everglades; of the Creoles and
Acadians, and the thousand and one thrilling tales of the treacherous
red man! All these, and more, offer to the present and the future story
teller an inexhaustible supply of the purest ore for transmuting, fusing
genius.
And what gems of prose and poetry lie unnoticed in the literature of the
South! While other sections have given wide and constant publicity to
their writers and their writers’ productions (and it was their duty to
do so), the poets and the masters of prose of the South of former days
lie in forgotten graves and the dust of the library gathers thick upon
their unopened volumes.
What does the present generation know of Timrod, the “sweetest singer of
America?” What of Sims, pronounced by Poe to be the greatest writer of
romantic fiction since the time of Cooper? These are but two out of the
galaxy of unnumbered stars in the Southern firmament, and they are
mentioned merely to give point to the fact that suitable homage is not
being rendered to the lights of other days.
For many years has Governor Taylor desired to establish a magazine that
should be not only a medium by which to reach an audience as widespread
as the country itself, but which should also be a vehicle of Southern
expression, for the exploitation and advancement of Southern literature,
for the preservation of old time Southern ideals, and for the
dissemination of knowledge concerning the material resources and
advantages of this section of our country—this primarily. And,
secondarily, to breathe abroad a catholic spirit of patriotism,
uncramped by a scintilla of sectionalism (opprobriously so termed), of
envy, or of ill will to any one; but to carry to every home and to each
individual therein personally a message of peace, of harmony and of
happiness.
BOB TAYLOR’S MAGAZINE, like its editor, stands for the South and for the
sunshine that smiles on its beauty and ripens the fruit of its rich and
fertile soil. Every fair and precious possession of this section will
find representation and appreciation in these pages, and every uplift of
purpose, every outspreading of energy now working toward the development
of the South will receive the encouragement of this publication.
What the past holds in precious memory, great achievement and pure
ideals shall be cherished and held. But in a special sense BOB TAYLOR’S
MAGAZINE is working in the present and for the future. The record of the
last decade in the South has become the wonder of the industrial and
commercial world, but if the spiritual and intellectual development does
not keep pace with this material growth, the figures which record our
wealth and prosperity will be but the handwriting on the wall, warning
us of downfall and ruin.
It is, therefore, the purpose of BOB TAYLOR’S MAGAZINE to offer each
month, stories, poems and articles mined from the rich vein of Southern
sentiment and of Southern life; and these riches will be offered to an
audience as numerous and appreciative as any to which a Southern writer
can appeal.
A momentous change impends in the citizenship of the South, perhaps in
character, certainly in number. For the South is vibrant with energy,
its commercial interests have never before throbbed with such activity;
and never before has the need of intelligent labor been quite so urgent.
The negro, indeed, is here, and for certain kinds of work is the best
toiler in the world, if he be properly handled. For field labor, for
forest work, for outdoor rough work of every description, for numerous
kinds of inside work and for porterage and drayage, he is unequalled,
provided he be not given authority over others, or an official position
of any kind. In such event he becomes spoiled, foolish and useless.
To skilled labor in factories and mills the negro is not adapted, as a
rule, and is inefficient; and the manufacturing industries of the South
are growing apace. Extraordinary efforts are, therefore, being made to
divert to the states south of Mason and Dixon’s line a part of the
enormous flood of immigrants which for many years has been directed
toward the West and the Northwest.
And these aliens are coming South in ever increasing streams. Railroads
transport them; land agents urge them; commercial organizations invite
them, and farms and factories employ them—and what will be the result?
Let us see!
Until this horde of foreigners began to debouch upon the fertile soil of
Dixie, this section possessed the purest Anglo-Saxon blood, not only in
America, but in the world. In the area south of the Ohio and east of the
Mississippi, there were, and still are, fewer foreign-born inhabitants
than are found in the single state of Connecticut.
How will the South be affected by the new trend? Can it preserve its old
ideals and the purity of its blood, while utilizing the new elements in
the building up of its material welfare?
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