The Dixie Book of Days [Illustration: FOUNDING THE FIRST PERMANENT ENGLISH COLONY IN AMERICA AT JAMES TOWNE, VIRGINIA, 1607] The Dixie Book of Days MATTHEW PAGE ANDREWS PHILADELPHIA AND LONDON J. B. LIPPINCOTT CO. 1912 COPYRIGHT, 1912, BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY PRINTED BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY AT THE WASHINGTON SQUARE PRESS PHILADELPHIA, U. S. A. Preface In the preparation of this volume of quotations illustrative of the history and literature of the South, the editor wishes to acknowledge the kindness of publishers in granting permission to make selections. He desires especially to express his appreciation of the courtesy of the following firms: D. Appleton & Co.; Bobbs-Merrill Co.; The Century Co.; Doubleday, Page & Co.; Harper & Brothers; Houghton, Mifflin & Co.; B. F. Johnson Publishing Co.; P. J. Kenedy & Sons; J. B. Lippincott Co.; Longmans, Green & Co.; Lothrop, Lee, and Shepard Co.; The Macmillan Co.; Martin & Hoyt Co.; The Neale Publishing Co.; G. P. Putnam's Sons; Charles Scribner's Sons; Southern Historical Publication Society; Alfred M. Slocomb Co.; Small, Maynard & Co.; Stewart & Kidd Co.; F. A. Stokes Co.; State Company; Stone & Barringer Co.; and the Whitehall Publishing Co. M. P. A. Baltimore, Md., April 30, 1912. Introduction This volume of brief selections from a wide range of Southern expression in prose and verse leads into fields of American history and literature which, perhaps, are not well known to the general public. The reader is not offered stacks of straw to thresh over; on the contrary, it has been the aim of the compiler, in a most congenial and delightful task, to afford others easy access to grain that he has already garnered. Generally speaking, the genius of literary production in the Old South did not aspire to an outlet in the field of professional endeavor. There were, however, many gifted writers who regarded production in prose and verse as a pleasant recreation rather than an end, or as an accomplishment common to cultured minds, to be called forth as occasion offered, or when some emotion prompted expression. By way of illustration, William Henry Timrod may be regarded as potentially a greater poet than his better-known son. Yet he was one of the occasional poets of the old régime. John Laurens composed a sonnet as he lay dying of wounds and fever incurred in defence of his country; and Stuart, in a later struggle, wrote verses while engaged in riding around McClellan's army. These and many others like them never seriously considered revising or publishing their work. They sang from time to time because to them "singing itself is so sweet." This peculiar diffidence is a relic of the past; and at the present time, one need but review the list of leading American novelists to find that a remarkably large proportion have come from the South and write on Southern themes.