this scent-laden flower decay,
Its bright leaves will wither, its bloom die away;
But in memory 'twill linger; the joy that it bore
Will live with me still, tho' the flower's no more."

Mr. James D. Corrothers writes:

"A THANKSGIVIN' TURKEY.

"Cindy, reach dah 'hine yo' back.
'N han' me dat ah Almanac;
W'y, land! t'morrer's Thanksgivin'!
Got to git out an' make hay--
Don't keer whut de preachah say--
We mus' eat Thanksgivin' day,
Uz sho' uz you's a-libbin.

"You know whah Mahs Hudson libs?
Dey's a turkey dah dat gibs
Me a heap o' trouble.
Some day Hudson g'ine to miss
Dat owdashus fowl o' his;
I's g'ine ober dah an' twis'
'At gobbler's nake plumb double.

"Goin' pas' dah t' othah day,
Turkey strutted up an' say,
'A-gobble, gobble, gobble,'
Much uz ef he mout remahk,
'Don' you wish 'at it wuz dahk?
Ain't I temptin'?' S' I, 'you hah'k,
Er else dey'll be a squabble.

"'Take an' wring yo' nake righ' quick,
Light on yo' lak a thousan' brick,
'N you won't know whut befell you.'
'N I went on. Yet evah day
When I goes by that a-way,
'At fowl has too much to say;
'N I'm tiahd uv it, I tell you.

"G'ine to go dis bressed night
An' put out dat turkey's light,
'N I'll nail him lak a cobblah.
Take keer, 'Cindy, lemme pass,
Ain't a-g'ine to take no sass
Off no man's turkey gobblah."

And now for the last and the greatest Roman of them all in literary
art--Mr. Charles W. Chestnut, of Cleveland, Ohio. I have never seen
him, and at present the only personal acquaintance I have with him, is
a brief letter of a dozen or more lines; but Mr. Chestnut, revealed by
his novels, I know well. The chief distinction one finds in reading
Mr. Chestnut from all other Negro story-writers, so far as there are
such, is that he is truly an artist and that his art is fine art.
Secondly, and this is of the greatest concern to Negroes in any
thought of the Negro as a writer, he is the best delineator of Negro
life and character, thought and feeling, of any who has attracted
notice by writing. It is not possible to give in this connection any
quotations from Mr. Chestnut's work that may speak for him, but it is
fitting in this article to speak of the character of some of Mr.
Chestnut's stories, and, as far as possible, suggest the ground and
purpo