erest
and striking personal characteristics,--is the freedom from rancor, the
generosity toward old foes which seems even unconscious of any necessity
to forgive. And in these personal sketches there are disclosed certain
broad yet distinct types of manhood and womanhood, the special Southern
contributions to the composite American. In general literature, too,
the South is doing its full share. In its histories, the note of
provincialism still lingers,--inevitably, and not blamably. The Southern
essayist or historian naturally gravitates to the past of his own
section,--and naturally he seeks to vindicate his comrades or his
ancestors, and to interpret the past from their standpoint. But,
compared with the provincialism of the South of 1860, he is a
cosmopolitan.

The new South is doing perhaps its best work in education. Its leaders
are both raising and widening their standards,--they are reaching out
toward modern and progressive ways, while they are trying to amplify
their systems so as to include the whole youthful population. Their
intelligence and enthusiasm are seen alike in the ancient universities
like that of Virginia, in the younger colleges such as Roanoke and
Berea, and in the leaders of the public schools. Intelligence,
enthusiasm, devotion,--all are needed, and all will be tasked to the
utmost. For the education of the people's children, everywhere the most
pressing of common concerns, and the most perplexing in the transition
from old to new ideas and methods--bears with especial weight and
importunity upon the South. Its thinly-spread population, its still
limited resources of finance, the presence of the two races with their
separate and common needs,--all set a gigantic task to the South, and
one that calls for sympathy and aid from the nation at large.

CHAPTER XXXIX

EBB AND FLOW

Thus, in broadest outline, have the two races at the South been faring
on their way. And now in recent years, under their separate development
and with their close intermingling, have come new complications and
difficulties. The tendency has been in some ways to a wider separation.
The old relations between the household servants and their employers,
often most kindly, and long continuing to link the two races at
numberless points, have passed away with the old generation. Once the
inmates of mansion and cabin knew well each other's ways. Now they are
almost unacquainted. The aristocracy and its dependents had