Bob Taylor's Magazine, Vol. I, No. 1, April 1905

by Various

Address all such communications to Leisure Hours Department of Bob Taylor’s Magazine.

What a mine of hidden wealth there is in the unrecorded legends of the South and the Southwest! What tales of the cavaliers of the Old Dominion, of the mountaineers, of those modern argonauts who braved in the wilderness more and greater dangers than did the fabled followers of Jason, and whose descendants are now enjoying the golden fleece which eluded their grasp! What of Oglethorpe, and Boone and Crockett, Whitefield and Doak, Jackson and Sam Houston, Lafitte and Bowie and Burr; of Lost Island, Barrancas and the Everglades; of the Creoles and Acadians, and the thousand and one thrilling tales of the treacherous red man! All these, and more, offer to the present and the future story teller an inexhaustible supply of the purest ore for transmuting, fusing genius.

And what gems of prose and poetry lie unnoticed in the literature of the South! While other sections have given wide and constant publicity to their writers and their writers’ productions (and it was their duty to do so), the poets and the masters of prose of the South of former days lie in forgotten graves and the dust of the library gathers thick upon their unopened volumes.

What does the present generation know of Timrod, the “sweetest singer of America?” What of Sims, pronounced by Poe to be the greatest writer of romantic fiction since the time of Cooper? These are but two out of the galaxy of unnumbered stars in the Southern firmament, and they are mentioned merely to give point to the fact that suitable homage is not being rendered to the lights of other days.

For many years has Governor Taylor desired to establish a magazine that should be not only a medium by which to reach an audience as widespread as the country itself, but which should also be a vehicle of Southern expression, for the exploitation and advancement of Southern literature, for the preservation of old time Southern ideals, and for the dissemination of knowledge concerning the material resources and advantages of this section of our country—this primarily. And, secondarily, to breathe abroad a catholic spirit of patriotism, uncramped by a scintilla of sectionalism (opprobriously so termed), of envy, or of ill will to any one; but to carry to every home and to each individual therein personally a message of peace, of harmony and of happiness.

Bob Taylor’s Magazine, like its editor, stands for the South and for the sunshine that smiles on its beauty and ripens the fruit of its rich and fertile soil. Every fair and precious possession of this section will find representation and appreciation in these pages, and every uplift of purpose, every outspreading of energy now working toward the development of the South will receive the encouragement of this publication.

What the past holds in precious memory, great achievement and pure ideals shall be cherished and held. But in a special sense Bob Taylor’s Magazine is working in the present and for the future. The record of the last decade in the South has become the wonder of the industrial and commercial world, but if the spiritual and intellectual development does not keep pace with this material growth, the figures which record our wealth and prosperity will be but the handwriting on the wall, warning us of downfall and ruin.

It is, therefore, the purpose of Bob Taylor’s Magazine to offer each month, stories, poems and articles mined from the rich vein of Southern sentiment and of Southern life; and these riches will be offered to an audience as numerous and appreciative as any to which a Southern writer can appeal.

A momentous change impends in the citizenship of the South, perhaps in character, certainly in number. For the South is vibrant with energy, its commercial interests have never before throbbed with such activity; and never before has the need of intelligent labor been quite so urgent. The negro, indeed, is here, and for certain kinds of work is the best toiler in the world, if he be properly handled. For field labor, for forest work, for outdoor rough work of every description, for numerous kinds of inside work and for porterage and drayage, he is unequalled, provided he be not given authority over others, or an official position of any kind. In such event he becomes spoiled, foolish and useless.

To skilled labor in factories and mills the negro is not adapted, as a rule, and is inefficient; and the manufacturing industries of the South are growing apace. Extraordinary efforts are, therefore, being made to divert to the states south of Mason and Dixon’s line a part of the enormous flood of immigrants which for many years has been directed toward the West and the Northwest.