ry; at all events this plea now
sometimes fails to win a jury. Defendants are occasionally convicted,
though the verdicts are usually rendered for manslaughter and not for
murder.

Public sentiment is not yet ready, however, to declare every intentional
homicide murder. Some point to the low rate of white illegitimacy as a
justification of the deterring force of the "unwritten law," not
realizing that such a defense it, really a reflection upon womanhood.
Others allow their detestation of physical cowardice to blind them to the
danger of allowing men to take the law into their own hands. The
individualism of the imperfectly socialized Southerner does not yet
permit him to think of the law as a majestic, impersonal force towering
high above the individual. It is true that the Southerner is law-abiding
on the whole, but he usually obeys the laws because they represent his
ethical concepts and not because of devotion to the abstract idea of law.

There is danger, however, in the attempt to state dogmatically what the
Southerner thinks or believes. There is much diversity of opinion among
the younger Southerners, for many questions are in a state of flux, and
there is as yet no point of crystallization. There is no leader either
in politics or in journalism who may be said to utter the voice of the
South. In the earlier part of this period Henry Watterson, of the
Louisville _Courier-Journal_, spoke almost with authority. The untimely
death of Henry W. Grady, editor of the Atlanta _Constitution_, deprived
the South of a spokesman and he has had no successor. There is no
newspaper which has any considerable influence outside the State in
which it is published, and few have a circulation throughout even their
entire State. There are several newspapers which are edited with
considerable ability, on the political side at least, but none has a
circulation sufficiently large to make it a real power. All are more or
less parochial. The country papers, which are frankly and necessarily
local, exercise more influence than the papers of the cities, though the
circulation of the latter is increasing.

The Southerner is reading more than he once did. Some of the national
weeklies have a considerable circulation in the South, and the national
magazines are read in increasing numbers. Good bookstores are not
common, for the people generally have not learned to buy many books
since they have been able to afford them. The women's clubs, h