it has suffered in the South. I am in a position to see the benumbing effect of this situation on the minds of young men. Our statesmen tell us that the solidity of the South is a necessity. They are the experts, and we, the people, have learned to accept expert opinion. Be it so: we need not be blind to the fact that the advantages of solidity are purchased at fearful cost."

But, leaving this point out of the question, was Senator Bailey's resignation from the alumni committee of the University of Virginia the way to deal with Dr. Alderman's statement? Mr. Hill continued: "The question whether Dr. Alderman was right or wrong becomes insignificant beside the larger question whether Senator Bailey was right or wrong in his method of dealing with a difference of opinion and this leads to the question, Have we freedom of opinion in the South? Must every man who thinks above a whisper do so at the peril of his reputation or his influence, or at the deadlier risk of having an injury inflicted upon the institution or the cause he represents?"

This question led him to discuss not only the incident in hand, but other events in recent Southern history and to utter "a word of warning against the worst evil in our intellectual, social, political, and religious life, the illiberality that is ready to inflict the injury of rebuke and ostracism as a penalty for difference in opinion." This illiberality he attributes to slavery, from which we have inherited "a morbid self-consciousness, an awareness of itself as an object of criticism and attack, and a touch-me-not-sensitiveness." Because of its opposition to this tendency he speaks of the statement of the trustees of Trinity College in the Bassett matter as "a ringing declaration of academic liberty which will be an immortal chapter in the history of civilization in this country."

In conclusion, he urged the Southern press, as well as the pulpit, forum, and platform to "speak out loud" on this subject. "We have gotten away from the stake, the dungeon, the rack, and the thumb-screw; but every vindictive action by which we seek to punish a fellow citizen for a divergence of opinion by inflicting injury on him or the cause or the institution he represents is an abridgment of that reasonable lib

erty of thought and speech which is the richest and ripest inheritance of freedom and the indispensable requisite for the ascertainment of truth."

These are golden words that ought to be treasured in the minds of all men who are working earnestly towards the end outlined by Mr. Hill-words made doubly impressive by his untimely death. The passing of such a man who was in a position to do such noteworthy work, makes all the more imperative consistent, aggressive, and patient work on the part of those who believe with him.

From week to week during a period of several years there appeared in the Charlotte Observer, usually in the Monday edition, a column entitled "A Variety of Idle Comment.” The writer was Isaac Erwin Avery. His column attracted attention almost from the start. It was at once evident that a new genius had appeared above the horizon. Wherever the Charlotte Observer went people began to look eagerly for Avery's bright paragraphs. "Have you read Avery this week?" was a common question, asked not only on the streets of Charlotte, but on trains and in most North Carolina towns. The fame of his writings spread into other states. It was no uncommon thing for newspapers in far distant cities to copy paragraphs and articles from his pen, even though such articles were local in their reference and intended only for the notice of people living in the community. This is but another proof of the truth that the man with literary instinct can lift the local into the universal. Avery did for Charlotte and North Carolina what many a more famous man has done for other places.

So great was the interest manifested in his work that soon after his death steps were taken to preserve the best of it in permanent form. Four of the most prominent business men in Charlotte, with commendable spirit, agreed to act together as financial sponsors of the enterprise. Through their efforts the matter quickly took shape. A committee of editors was appointed consisting of Dr. Edwin Mims, Mr. J. P. Caldwell, Dr. C. Alphonso Smith, Rev. Plato Durham, and Mr. J. W. Bailey. These men were to make selections from Avery's writings and arrange the same for publication in book form. The proceeds arising from the sale of the work were to go toward establishing an Avery Scholarship in Trin

*Idle Comments. By Isaac Erwin Avery. The Avery Publishing Company, Charlotte, 1905.

ity College, the alma mater of the author. The neat and attractive volume which came from the press in December testifies to the faithfulness and ability with which they performed their task, and the success that the volume has already had is a guarantee that the proposed object will be attained. The salient facts of Mr. Avery's life are soon told. He was born near Morganton, N. C., December, 1871. He came of a prominent family, his father being Hon. Alphonso C. Avery. His boyhood days were spent in Morganton, whither the family had moved, and where he was prepared for college. He entered Trinity College as a sophomore in the year 1890. During his senior year he read law under his father who was then the dean of the Trinity law department. While in college he distinguished himself for his literary work by virtue of which he was chosen editor of The Trinity Archive. Mr. Avery fully intended to practice law, and he received his license. But his literary tastes drove him into journalism, and he became associate editor of the Morganton Herald. Later he went to Shanghai, China, as secretary to ConsulGeneral Thomas P. Jernigan, who had been chosen by Cleveland for that post. Within a year he was appointed vice consul-general at Shanghai and filled the office until President McKinley appointed a successor in the spring of 1898. On his return to his native state he resumed his work in journalism, first in Raleigh as a reporter of legislative proceedings, and then in Greensboro where he had charge of a news bureau. His growing fame as a writer attracted the attention of Editor Caldwell, of the Charlotte Observer, who has shown rare judgment in selecting as his co-laborers young men with distinctly literary powers. Mr. Avery was offered the position of city editor on that paper and he accepted. He entered on his new duties January 1, 1900, where he served until his death, April 2, 1904.

As to his personal appearance I can do nothing better than quote from the admirable sketch prepared by Mr. Caldwell, for the volume: "Personally he was the most engaging of men. Handsome as Apollo, with a countenance clear-cut and proclaiming in every line his gentle birth; tall, massive of frame, he combined with these physical attributes a manner

as genial as the sunshine.

His cultivation was that of the schools, that acquired by the reading of the best literature and of close association with, and acute observation of, the great world of men. His gifts of conversation were equal to those with which he had been endowed for his profession, and thus he was with these, and his commanding presence, the centre of every group in which he found himself."

It is not often that the work of a reporter on a daily paper is thought worthy of preservation in book form. Written under the spur of sharp emergency much of his material has only a passing interest and is composed too hastily to have anything like enduring literary quality. But as one turns the pages of this volume he is forced to the conclusion that whether written hastily or deliberately here is the work of no ordinary mind. It is the work of a man who “saw life steadily and saw it whole." Mr. Avery had in a tender passage of finest sentiment expressed the wish that he might one day write a book that would live; a book that would go straight to the inner realities of some life, any life. In this book, though it is at first glance a mosaic, a collection of fragments, the author's wish has been realized. He had indeed wrought better than he knew. For every bit of characterization that he attempted possesses true insight into human nature, throws the flashlight into some human soul, besides being written in most instances with consummate art and rare sympathy. With all of its variety the book yet has unity. It is the unity of a discerning mind and of a sympathetic heart that saw in the passing show about him, in glimpses here and there, some phase of the drama of life. With the true artist's instinct he could seize at once upon the vital things in a character, and with aptly chosen words fix that character in living reality on the canvas of his printed page.

There is something in his quaint blending of humor and pathos that suggests Dickens; as there is also in his love for child life and for oddities of character. There is something, too, that recalls the personal essay of Charles Lamb, something of the graceful, clear-cut style of Stevenson, something of the vigor and dash of and picturesqueness of Kipling,