Nappanee High School - Napanet Yearbook (Nappanee, IN)

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of American Literature of today are poets. Perhaps fame is not now won so rapidly in any other line as it is by a striking short story. For that reason the young author is less tempted to confine himself to verse than he was half a century ago. Fiction is the form of Literature in which many of the leading American authors of today find their natural medium of expression. Both the novel and the short story flourish as never before. Two of the more recent developments of fiction are especially noteworthy. The first of these is called the “international novel. This name is given to a study of American character seen against a foreign background. In these we are forced to see ourselves as others see us. and to recognize some of our own peculiarities to which we had chosen to be blind. The purpose of the greatest writers of fiction lias not been simply to delight and amuse by fanciful and fantastic tales, but to interpret the life they themselves best knew. This is what has been done with great success by authors who have taken part in the second of the two recent developments of American fiction. As interesting as the “international novel” is the “local short story. We mean by this a story in which we find set forth the people and the scenery and the dialect of a particular locality. Our first great short stories while they dealt with American life, turned aside from those commonplace and prosaic phases of it with which they were daily brought In contact: and selected those more romantic themes which borrowed some charm from remoteness and unfamiliarity. Let us take for example the works of the four great masters of the earlier period. Irving recreated the vanished life of Manhatten: Cooper found his romantic coloring in the Indian: Hawthorne contrived to envelope even his stories of American life, with a magical moonlight atmosphere which withdrew them from the light of day: while l’oe, the master of the terrible and the grotesque, was as IIK I'nlted States as a nation has seemingly from Its birth been regarded by Deity as a nation of His chosen people. Blessings have been ! -stowed upon tier as upon no other nation. At the late National Stock Exhibition at the Chicago yards, an animal was brought there and because of tlie fact that its weight so far exceeded other specimens on the grounds it was not taken into the exhibition for want of something w ith which to compare it. It is in such a position as this that one is obliged to view the achievements of our nation when opposed to those of The Yell( By CURTIS remote as Hawthorne from the bustling money seeking world that surrounds us. Hut when we recall the best known novels and short stories written in America today, we Immediately see that by far the greater number of them differ from the romantic stories of the four great writers just mentioned. Mal»y of the Southern and Western tales, even more than tlie New York and New England on which they are modeled, abound in humor. Franklin was the earliest humorist, after him came Irving and Lowell. Today they have many followers not unworthy of them. The earliest historians, Prescott. Motley, and l'arkman have also many not unworthy followers working now as earnestly asdld their predecessors. At no time since the I'nlted States became an inde( endent nation has there been greater interest in historical works. At no time have more able writers devoted themselves to tlie history of our own country. We have now no essayists of the stimulating force of Emerson and no critic with the insight of Lowell, yet there is no lack of delightful essayists and of great critics. American criticism has advanced since tlie day of Poe. Tire American critics of today are more independent and self-reliant than they were fifty years ago. An American poet or novelist or historian is not now unduly praised or unduly condemned because he Is an American. He is Judged on his own merits, and compared with the leading writers of Kngland. of France, of Germany and of Spain. In conclusion we may say that our present day Literature is nothing more than an earnest of a better yet to come and that Its shun- in our higher life must depend on our faithfulness as American people to our highest ideals. We believe that a great future lies l efore us as a nation, we should believe that the same is true of our Literature. We have great native ability, our possibilities are limitless. Let us see to it that our Literature becomes one of the greatest possessions of the race. )W Pkrij. MILLER other nations. The rapidity of her progress has exceeded that of every other nation. Her greatest blessing has been a constant line of men and women who have considered the welfare of the nation a thing for which years, and If need be, lives of study might be spent. Such people have given their all to their respective causes and have our nation as she now stands. It is to such magnanimous beings that we owe the continual discrimination of the impending evils of the day. They have considered immigration and have legislated ilia manner not lobe questioned. They have warned us against the Oriental

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evidence of a more matured taste, while some of his ballads and lyrics are unrivalled. In the poetry of the 19th century, noble representatives are found in the so-called Vaterlandsdichter. Among these we may instance Theodore Koerner and Arndt, whose spirited patriotic songs are intimately associated with the war of 181.’t against Napoleon in which Koerner fell gloriously righting. F. Rueckert and L. Uhland lielong to thisschool. The former is more especially noted for his translations from the oriental languages, and the latter for his exquisite romances and ballads. The greatest name of this school is that of Heinrich Heine, who almost ranks with Goethe and Schiller in poetic power. There are many other writers who are highly esteemed in their native country. Of late years the tendency of the German mind has been rather to science than fiction. In conclusion it may is said that among the German people, we find some of the greatest astronomers, physicians, mathematicians, musicians, historians and biographers, who by their labors have enriched the science of the world and at the same time enhanced the literary and scientific glory of their own country. Modern American Literature By EFF1E WEYBURN ITERATTRE has been defined jus the reflection and reproduction of the life of the people speaking the language in which it is written. English Literature is therefore the record of the thoughts, the feelings and the acts of the great English speaking race. This record extends a long way back into the past, is being made today and will be made for ages to come. Once this Literature was restricted to the British Isles. Since the Declaration of I tide-l endence the single stream of English Literature has been divided into tributaries and one of these divisions and the one. too, to which we shall restrict ourselves is the American branch. While we have an equal pride with the British in the splendid possession of the English Literature of the past, yet as the Americans of today differing as we do from Englishmen in many points of custom and of taste: we have a just pride in our own productions which are as strictly American as are many others of our national traits. For a century and a quarter Americans have grown up in a republic without caste or class distinction: with public schools open to rich and poor alike. All these things have had their effect on our people. We recognize that there is such a thing as Americanism defined as being, “that dignity of human nature which consists, perhaps, in not thinking yourself either lietter or worse than your neighbor by reason of any artificial distinction. This Americanism has stamped Itself upon our Literature and it is because of this that American Literature of recent date is of more interest to us than is that of the recent English writers. In the words of our definition of Literature, “it reproduces and reflects for us our own feelings, thoughts and deeds and it interests us. Although Ini- longing almost wholly to the nineteenth century American Literature has presented us a galaxy of great names. In the first half of the last century New York gave us Irving, Cooper and Bryant. Toward the middle of the century Boston and vicinity produced Emerson. Longfellow, Whittier. Lowell, Holmes and I’arkman. When these left us no successors remained of the same relative influence. Although there has never been so many authors as there are today, and although the average of literary skill is higher than ever before, there Is now no towering figure and no dominating personality. Those who are at the head of American Literature at the beginning of flic twentieth century are not men of the same general type as the greatly gifted New Englanders whom they succeeded. Their aims and their ideals are different. They have not the binding tie of birth in the same part of the country. for they come from the South and from the West as well as from the East. After the death of Whittier. Lowell and Holmes there was left no poet having at once a high standing and a wide popularity. Poets there are of lofty aspiration and of delicate skill. Here we find a great difference between the poetry of the nineteenth and that of the twentieth century. Longfellow’s “Evangeline” and Whittier’s “Snowbound charmed alike the farmhand and the college professor. No long poem published in the beginning of the present century has achieved this double distinction. Such a | oem may f e given us at any time, but with increasing vogue of fiction. Poetry seems less pre-eminent than it was in the past. Fifty years ago nearly all the w riters who stood at the head of the American Literature were poets. Less than half of the writers, at the head ”4

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races as the Yellow Peril. Admitting that immigration is proving a menace to our government they now invite our intelligence to a subject of greater importance. When we consider that nations have fallen and that nations may fall, we breathe out with a recent poet: “Lord (lod of hosts, be with us yet. Lest we forget, lest we forget. It has been admitted by men for twenty years that freedom’s cause is suffering and demands attention. Other nations have had similar conditions and they fell. Persia perished when one per cent of the people owned all the land. Kgypt went down when two per cent owned ninety-seven hundredth of their wealth. Babylon died when two per cent owned the wealth and Rome fell when one thousand eight hundred men possessed the then known world. England underwent a complete reformation because of like circumstances. History proves that issues which now confront us are perilous. Hence some facts. One eighth of the families of America receive more than one-half the aggregate income, and the richest one percent receives more than the poorest fifty percent. Seventy American estates average thirty-five millions, and yet more than one-third of our population live on 3.88 per week for food. $2.91 per month for clothing. $7.’ 0 per year for furniture and $7 per month rent in some wretched hovel, basement or dark room of a tenement. Without entertaining any socialistic ideas, who can evade the stilling in-iluence of an atmosphere where love of money displaces all human sympathy and love of a government for the people. Some may say: The poor ye have always with you.” There are many poor financiers who lack every quality of a good citizen. Others have been under oppressors’ rods. Had the money kings of our country acquired their wealth while giving their fellowmen equal chances the four per cent of our population who are paupers would not be so. Our wealth is increasing at the rate of eight millions per day and two-thirds of It goes to increase already large fortunes. John 1). Rockefeller has a fortune estimated atone billion, an amount difficult to conceive. A dollar for every minute of time since the birth of Christ would not make tlie amount, or if Mr. Rockefeller would have solid walls of his dollars made on either side of him as high as his head it would oblige him to walk two and one-half miles to get to the other end of his money prison. The startling idea is not the fortune but the enormous yearly increase of $1.70,000,000. Experts have considered every possible obstruction and state that if he lives to a comparatively old age he will lie worth eight billions. These moneyed men are not wrongly called kings. The railroads of our country valued at twelve billions are practically owned by nine men. The various trusts valued at twenty billions are governed by twenty men, of which nine are the above mentioned railroadmen. Is monopolizing ended? What influence do such men have on our government? Of what consequence are legislative bodies against such men. it is with this score of men that congress has been dealing for several years. They have for years been dictating to congress decisions on questions concerning their affairs. Many senators and representatives are men of inferior fortunes Invested in Interests dependent on the attitude of the moneyed men. hence many chosen and sent there by the people, vote for their own Interests. For this reason packers make a wider margin titan ever before. The poor railroad accomodations for delivery of coal have been traced to their proper source. Rate bills have continually been evaded. The prices of agricultural products are also fixed, as they, too, must passthrough hands controlled by wealth. Why has the fight by the women against polygamy been requiring such immense expenditures of time, energy and money? Is it other than a possible draining of some ample fortune? Numerous illustrations might U mentioned whereeapital detained intelligent, humane legislation. Why then not money kings? The spirit which Kurke recognized in Parliament as being the very life of our nation and which Franklin represented when he said: “We must now hang together or hang separate,” sucli spirit has been made a variable approaching zero as a limit. Sucli degeneracy of spirit has become a contagious germ and lias caused men foolishly to prize wealth far above principle. Hence the child slavery laws enacted and in some states repealed. Men must urge food bills for their stomachs’ sakes. Life insurance officials are becoming rich. The medical profession in which remarkable progress has been made Is not free from stains of the life blood of our nations. A lady was recently found dead in a New York home, whom the coroner declared had starved to deatii. when she might have written a check for 100,-ooo and it would have lieen cashed. Is it wealtli that Is so ponderously and firmly crouching down upon us or is It the love of wealth? Wealtli has always played an important part in the making of a nation, but when men forget all else and boil up with emotion at the sight of a coin, then massive pillars are being spalled from under our temple of fame. The American commonwealth must stand against this real “Yellow Peril’ or in painful silence endure tiie inevitable.