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Gender, Race, and American
Science Fiction

This book focuses on the interplay of gender, race, and their representa-
tion in American science fiction, from the nineteenth century through to the
twenty-first century and across a number of forms including literature and
film. Haslam explores the reasons why science fiction (SF) provides such
a rich medium for both the preservation of and challenges to dominant
mythologies of gender and race. Defining SF linguistically and culturally,
the study argues that this mode is not only able to illuminate the cultural
and social histories of gender and race, but so too can it intervene in those
histories, and highlight the ruptures present within them. The volume moves
between material history and the linguistic nature of SF fantasies, from the
specifics of race and gender at different points in American history to larger
analyses of the sociocultural functions of such identity categories. SF has
already become central to discussions of humanity in the global capital-
ist age and is increasingly the focus of feminist and critical race studies;
in combining these earlier approaches, this book goes further, to demon-
strate why SF must become central to our discussions of identity writ large,
of the possibilities and failings of the human—past, present, and future.
Focusing on the interplay of whiteness and its various ‘others’ in relation to
competing gender constructs, the text chapters analyse works by Nathaniel
Hawthorne, Mary E. Bradley Lane, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Philip Francis
Nowlan, George S. Schuyler and the Wachowskis, Frank Herbert, William
Gibson, and Octavia Butler. Academics and students interested in the study
of science fiction, American literature and culture, and whiteness studies,
as well as those engaged in critical gender and race studies, will find this
volume invaluable.

Jason Haslam is Associate Professor in the Department of English at

­Dalhousie University, Canada.
Routledge Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Literature

1 Postcolonial Readings of Music 8 Shipwreck in Art and

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Science Fiction
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Reflections on Fantastic Identities
Ina Bergmann
Jason Haslam
This page intentionally left blank
Gender, Race, and American
Science Fiction
Reflections on Fantastic Identities

Jason Haslam
First published 2015
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017

and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

© 2015 Taylor & Francis

The right of Jason Haslam to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in
accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any
form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks,

and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Haslam, Jason W. (Jason William), 1971-

Gender, race, and American science fiction / Jason Haslam.
pages cm. — (Routledge interdisciplinary perspectives on literature ; #43)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Science fiction, American—History and criticism. 2. Gender identity in literature.
3. Race in literature. 4. Science fiction films—History and criticism. I. Title.
PS374.S35H38 2015
813'.0876209—dc 3 2014047405

ISBN: 978-1-138-82793-6 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-315-73861-1 (ebk)

Typeset in Sabon
by codeMantra
For Julia—for everything and beyond
This page intentionally left blank
Contents

Acknowledgments xi

Introduction: “Kindred Mysteries”:

The Fantastic Identities of SF 1

Part I
Race/Gender/Science/Fiction

1 “The races of mankind”: The Race of Gender in

“The Birth-mark” and Mizora 43

2 The Whiteness of Manly Pulp from Tarzan’s Jungle

to Buck Rogers’ Phalectrocentrism 73

Part II
Virtual Whiteness

3 The Möbius Strip of Identity and Privilege in

Black No More 111

4 Coded Discourse: Romancing the (Electronic)

Shadow in The Matrix 134

Part III
Muting Utopia

5 Bridging Divides in The Santaroga Barrier

and All Tomorrow’s Parties 163
x Contents
6 Octavia Butler’s Exceptional Minds, Collective
Identities, and the Moynihan Report 194

Afterword: The Robot’s Howl: SF as Death Drive 212

Index 231
Acknowledgments

In many ways, this book has been in process since I sat down with my first
SF novel or in front of my first SF film or television show, and so to try to
thank everyone who has had an impact on it would be an impossible task.
I owe more debts than can be repaid here, but certainly some groups and
individuals need to be mentioned. First, I need to thank my family, especially
my mother, sister, and brother, who encouraged my habits from the time
I was a child until now. There are also many colleagues who have offered sup-
port and generous comments on various aspects and stages of this project: Ste-
ven Bruhm, Karin Cope, Dennis Denisoff, Joel Faflak, Brian Greenspan, John
Cullen Gruesser, Glenn Hendler, De Witt Douglas Kilgore, Victoria Lamont,
Karen Macfarlane, and Peter Schwenger. I want especially to thank Janice
Bogstad, who was kind enough not only to discuss Octavia Butler’s work with
me, but also to send me a copy of the issue of her fanzine, Janus, which I quote
in Chapter 6 (the entire run of this wonderful, Hugo-nominated fanzine is now
available online). I also thank my colleagues, graduate students, and friends
at Dalhousie, all of whom have been unwavering in their support: in terms
of specific conversations about this project and SF in general. At the risk of
inadvertently leaving someone off, I need to thank John Barnstead, Brad
Congdon, Leonard Diepeveen, Anthony Enns, Lynne Evans, Christine Handley,
Kala Hirtle, Catherine Hynes, Johanne Jell, El Jones, Travis Mason, Geordie
Miller, Casey Stepaniuk, Anthony Stewart, Erin Wunker, and Christine Yao.
Thanks as well belong to Lyn Bennett, Trevor Ross, Marjorie Stone, and Andy
Wainwright. I also need to thank my many colleagues at the Association for
Canadian College and University Teachers of English, the Canadian Associa-
tion for American Studies, the International Gothic Association, the Northeast
MLA, the Science Fiction Research Association, and the Society for Utopian
Studies: all of the chapters here went through the rigorous questioning at those
and other conferences, and came out better for it.
I also need to thank all of my students at Dalhousie, especially those who
have taken my various SF classes: your enthusiasm kept this project alive.
Another special thank-you needs to go to Darko Suvin: I was one of his last
marking assistants for a science fiction course at McGill, which introduced me
to the academic study of the field and gave me the foundation for this study.
Acknowledgements are also due to those publishers who have given per-
mission to print some of the material included here. An early version of
xii Acknowledgments
Chapter 3 appeared as “‘The open sesame of a pork-colored skin’: White-
ness and Privilege in Black No More,” in Modern Language Studies 32,
no.1 (2002): 15–31; and an early version of Chapter 4 appeared as “Coded
Discourse: Romancing the (Electronic) Shadow in The Matrix” in College
Literature 32, no.3 (2005): 92–115; both journals kindly granted permis-
sion to reprint here.
Permissions for quotations were also provided as follows. Quotations
from “Don’t Dream It, Be It (aka Fanfare/Don’t Dream),” by Richard O’Brien
(© 1974 Druidcrest Music [BMI] admin. By Wixen Music P ­ ublishing Inc. All
Rights Reserved. Used by Permission). Thanks to Syracuse University Press
for permission to quote from their edition of the nineteenth-­century work,
Mizora: A Prophecy (ed. Jean Pfaelzer, Syracuse, NY: 2000. © ­Syracuse
­University Press. Reproduced with permission from the publisher). For per-
mission to quote from Octavia E. Butler’s Mind of My Mind (© Octavia E.
Butler 1994), I thank her Estate (and WritersHouse.com for their work).
Quotations from SANTAROGA BARRIER © 2002 by Frank Herbert
­
(Reprinted by permission of Tor Books. All Rights Reserved). Extracts from
“Howl” and “America” by Allen Ginsberg (Copyright © Allen Ginsberg,
used by permission of The Wylie Agency [UK] Limited); additionally, the
excerpts from “America” [19 l.], “Howl” [8 l.] from COLLECTED POEMS
1947–1997 by ALLEN GINSBERG (Copyright © 2006 by the Allen
­Ginsberg Trust. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers).
Finally, to Julia M. Wright, to whom this book is dedicated: this and so
much more would have been lost in time and lost in space without you. One
day I expect you’ll even be able to explain to me the scientific nature of the
whammy.
Introduction
“Kindred Mysteries”: The Fantastic
Identities of SF

John Crichton: But I am not Kirk, Spock, Luke, Buck, Flash, or Arthur frel-
ling Dent. I am Dorothy Gale from Kansas.
Farscape, “Unrealized Reality” (Written by David Kemper)
Whatever happened to Fay Wray?
That delicate satin-draped frame;
as it clung to her thigh,
how I started to cry,
‘cause I wanted to be dressed just the same …
Don’t dream it, be it.
Frank-N-Furter, in The Rocky Horror Picture Show
(Written by Richard O’Brien)

The two epigraphs to this book address the ways in which fiction models
reality, or, more precisely, the ways in which fictional characters can figure
possibilities for personal identity in what is so easily referred to as “the
real world.” John Crichton and Frank-N-Furter both turn to science fiction
television, cinema, and literature not only to model their behaviour, but also
to identify themselves to themselves. Science fiction—and for the most part
American science fiction, even as these are, in some ways, works that look
toward America from elsewhere1—becomes a mirror for them, in which
they see themselves reflected, and through which they come to understand
the fantastic shapes of their own identities.
I write “fantastic” because this is a funhouse mirror more than it is
M. H. Abrams’ mimetic literary surface. If these quotations all suggest
the modeling power of popular SF, they also enact its playfulness. These
passages portray fictional characters who adopt and reject other fictional
characters as personal models for behaviour, even as they, on the one hand,
debate the appropriateness of having any model—especially a fictional
one—for one’s identity, and, on the other, perform and discuss a drag show
within a drag show that takes as its subject matter popular SF itself. In
another episode of Farscape, Crichton makes this playfulness explicit:

John Crichton: I don’t want to be like other people. I don’t want to be

like you. I don’t want to stoop that low. Kirk wouldn’t stoop that low.
2 Introduction
Scorpius: That was a television show, John, and he made Priceline
commercials. But, if you insist, then look to Kirk the way he really
was: savage, when he had to be!
John Crichton: He’s a fiction, Harv. I know the difference. I’m real;
I have to live with what I do.2

These works, then, mark an ontological instability, a division between fic-

tion and reality that is as tenuous as the identifications made possible by that
division are strong. Cultural representation, to echo Fredric Jameson but to
look more hopefully toward Jacques Rancière, functions here as a separate
sphere from that of material reality, but the very space of play provided by
that separation allows us to imagine and enact new material realities.3 This
is why Crichton realises that he’s not “Kirk, Spock, Luke, Buck, Flash, or
Arthur frelling Dent,” but is instead “Dorothy Gale from K ­ ansas.” Where the
others are fictional characters clearly demarcated as such, D ­ orothy bridges
the Technicolor world of fantasy and the drab sepia of mundane reality,
the fantasy of Hollywood plenitude and the (represented) reality of the
dustbowl: one can almost picture a scene in which Dorothy turns to “Kirk,
Spock, Luke, Buck, Flash, [and] Arthur frelling Dent,” along with Frank and
his entourage, mumbling “and you were there; and you were there, and you
were there… .” And so these epigraphs leave us in a whirlwind that spins
reality and fantasy together until the mixture twists us into a new world.
American SF provides an ideal—because unstable—ground for the analy-
sis of identity, and in particular for the analysis of racial and gendered iden-
tities. If the epigraphs point to the slippery ontologies of human identity
writ large, they also address specific notions of gender, explicitly, and race,
implicitly (especially through the reference to King Kong, a heavily racial-
ized film): both Crichton and Frank search for models through which to
negotiate their existence as white, male heroes. The fact that both Crichton
and Frank come from works with varying relations to American culture,
and that both characters ultimately choose American women as icons—
specifically women presented as “queer icons” (either in the text of Rocky
Horror for Fay Wray, or in general culture for Judy Garland)—serves only
to further the instability of identity play in American SF. SF’s ontological
and semiotic slipperiness, its ability to highlight the imbrication of fictional
narratives into our reality, opens up a space for self-reflexive analysis. This
book argues that SF can render questionable the realities of dominant ide-
ologies of race and gender, even though specific works offer widely vary-
ing answers to those questions. SF does so specifically by pointing to the
fantasies that paradoxically structure the mundane and vicious realities of
patriarchal white dominance.
In order to explore this analysis of gender and race, however, it is
­necessary—as it always is in a book on SF or other “genre” fictions—to
define the subject at hand; that is, to define what I mean by “SF.” D ­ epending
on the critic, that term can stand as an abbreviation for any number of
Other documents randomly have
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 CHAUNCEY OLCOTT.

Of New York City, the Famous Actor.

A Life Member of the Society.

 Old Times on the Upper Mississippi: The
Recollections of a Steamboat Pilot from 1854 to
1863. By George Byron Merrick.
The author’s family were whalers from Nantucket.
Mr. Merrick is a good story-teller, and his book
abounds with tales of traffic on the Mississippi River
from 1854 to 1863.
The author originally came from Nantucket, and
began as a pantry boy on the Mississippi, occupying
every position in the steamboat and flat-boat business
for a great many years, and his tales of war-times are
intensely interesting. The book is not well named,
however, because steamboating was a large business
for over thirty years before the narrative begins. He
tells interestingly of bringing to the front in April,
1861, Sherman’s Flying Artillery, the most famous
organization in the old army, stationed at the time at
Fort Ridgely, high up the Minnesota River. The Fanny
Harris, the largest boat which had ever gone up the
stream, received the battery on board, its commander
then being no other than John C. Pemberton of
Pennsylvania, at first a loyal Union officer, although
afterwards the Confederate lieutenant-general at
Vicksburg. His lieutenant was Romeyn B. Ayres, than
whom no Federal officer of the Civil War was braver.
The river was at flood, the perils of navigation great,
but the emergency was pressing. The Fanny Harris
dashed on at full speed, sometimes in the tortuous
channel, sometimes crashing through narrow barriers
of land into inundated bottoms and even woods, the
battery-men meantime exclaiming that the risk to life
in battle was far less than among those pouring
waters. Three hundred miles down the current was
accomplished in two days. The boat was almost
stripped of smokestacks, light upper work, and nearly
all of her guards, but the battery was delivered, guns
and men, at Prairie du Chien. Its style is simple, but
very interesting, and the book is beautifully illustrated
and printed.
Texts of the Peace Conferences at The Hague,
1899 and 1907, with English translation and appendix
of related documents. Edited by James Brown Scott,
technical delegate of the United States to the Second
Peace Conference at The Hague.
The volume is published by Ginn & Company of
Boston and New York, of which our Librarian and
Archivist, Mr. Thomas B. Lawler, is a partner. There is
a twenty-five page introduction, giving an analysis and
discussion of the work of the conferences. Most of the
documents have been published elsewhere, and some
of them many times, but it is well worth while to have
them brought together in this convenient form. Ex-
Secretary Root thinks the work of the Second
Conference presents the greatest advance ever made at
any single time towards the reasonable and peaceful
regulation of international conduct, unless it be the
advance made at The Hague Conference of 1899. The
volume is complete and treats of the important factors
in both conferences, and publishes the very valuable
documents.
The Bibliographer’s Manual of American
History, containing an account of all state, territory,
town and county histories, etc., compiled by Thomas
Lindsley Bradford, M. D.
Three volumes have thus far been issued, and each
volume shows improvement over its predecessor. It is
a valuable work and a most excellent compilation of
documents of great advantage to students of American
history, and furnishes a good means of observation to
the members of the American Irish Historical Society
to take in at a glance the history of so many places in
this country.
The American Executive and Executive
Methods. By John H. Finley, President of the College
of the City of New York, and John F. Sanderson,
member of the Pennsylvania Bar.
The joint authors of this book have maintained the
high standard of scholarship that has characterized the
series of which the volume under review is the final
number. There are fourteen chapters upon the
executive department of the American state, and the
other eight deal with the federal executive, to which is
added an appendix upon the presidential electoral
system. Throughout the work reference is made to the
excellent achievements of many Pennsylvania
Irishmen, but Mr. Marshall S. Brown, who prints a
review of the work, finds, among other things, that the
book reflects somewhat the defects inherent in a work
of dual authorship.
Winthrop’s Journal, 1630–1649. Edited by James
Kendall Hosmer. Two volumes.
This is one of the series of “Original Narratives of
Early American History.” The old title, “History of
New England,” is given in this edition only as a sub-
title, and the volumes appear to be what they are—a
journal. Nevertheless, the work is interesting
throughout, and would be a valuable addition to the
Society’s library.
The Province of New Jersey, 1664–1738. By
Edwin P. Tanner, Ph. D., instructor in history in
Syracuse University.
This is a detailed history of the political affairs and
institutions of New Jersey during two generations of
its provincial life. The peculiar land system of the
proprietors in each of the two Jerseys, elements of the
population, the personnel, legal position and activities
of executive, council and assembly respectively, and
their conflicts, the judicial system, financial affairs,
militia system, etc., are carefully treated.
The Writings of James Madison. Edited by
Gaillard Hunt.
This is much on the plan and fully as extensive as
“The Works of James Buchanan” heretofore referred
to, and eight volumes at present have been issued. The
notes are excellent in respect to information and
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the author merely contenting himself by copying the
writings of President Madison without making any
specious comment on the same.
A Calendar of Confederate Papers, with a
Bibliography of Some Confederate Publications.
This is a preliminary report of the Southern
Historical Manuscripts Commission, and is one of the
really monumental historical enterprises in the South.
The commission is actively collecting, arranging and
publishing various kinds of material relating to the
Civil War, and to thoroughly appreciate the truly
marvelous changes one should have known the
conditions in the southern capitals a quarter of a
century ago. Those directing this enterprise are so
energetic, intelligent and ambitious that we believe the
best fruits are yet to be gathered, although there is no
room to doubt the value of several large collections
already made. Mr. Douglas Southall Freeman is the
director, and this calendar, orderly throughout and
supplemented by careful notes, is very complimentary
to him. Much historical data can be gathered for the
Society from the southern states, where the
recognition of Irishmen and their achievements was
more free than in the New England states.
The Adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment. By
Horace Edgar Flack, Ph. D.
Is a part of the Johns Hopkins University studies in
historical and political science. So much has been
heretofore said about these studies in the current
magazines that we assume the members of the Society
are familiar with them.
Collections and Researches Made by the
Michigan Pioneer and Historical Society.
The Society has been at work many years, and now
publishes its thirty-sixth volume. The usefulness of
this work to members of our Society in Michigan who
desire to record the history and achievements of
Americans of Irish birth or descent cannot be
overestimated.
Collections of the State Historical Society of
Wisconsin.
This is the eighteenth volume of the publications,
and is edited by Doctor Thwaites, Secretary and
Superintendent of the Society. The Wisconsin History
Commission, consisting of the governor of the state,
the professor of American history in the state
university, the secretary of the State Historical Society
of Wisconsin, the secretary of the Library Commission,
and a representative of the Grand Army of the
Republic, work with the State Historical Society of
Wisconsin, and have already gathered and arranged
the material for a history of Wisconsin’s part in the
Civil War. A series of “Original Papers” has been
inaugurated, on the line of the papers presented at our
last meeting in Washington by Mr. Justice Dowling
and Ex-Attorney-General Moloney, and are very
interesting.
 Lives of the Governors of Minnesota.
Is Volume XIII of the publications of the Minnesota
Historical Society Collections, and is by James H.
Baker, A. M., who has occupied several political
positions in his state and has been closely associated
with the men whose lives he has sketched. Mr. Baker is
almost eighty years of age, and he has personal
acquaintance with the governors from Ramsey, the
first territorial governor in 1849, up to the present
incumbent. Mr. Baker’s sketches of Gorman, territorial
governor from 1853 to 1857; Sibley, first state
governor from 1858 to 1860; Swift, third state
governor from 1863 to 1864; McGill, 1887 to 1889;
and Clough, 1895 to 1899; men of Irish extraction, are
thorough and entertaining.
 HON. T. ST. JOHN GAFFNEY,

Of New York.

Consul-General to Dresden, Germany.

 Vice-President of the Society for Germany.

Transactions of the Kansas State Historical

Society, 1907–1908:
This is Volume X of the publications of the Society,
and is edited by the Secretary, George W. Martin.
Fifty-six essays by nearly as many writers are
presented. Several of the productions are composed of
separate papers, such as the collections of biographical
sketches of members of early legislatures, etc. A wealth
of original material, well worth the notice of historians
outside of the state of Kansas, is revealed, and forty-
eight maps, plans, portraits and landscapes illustrate
the text.
History of the City of Vincennes, 1702–1901:
An important contribution to the local history of
Indiana, and a well written and authentic account of
the oldest town in that state. By Henry S. Cauthorn.
History of Worcester:
A well written, authentic history of the
Massachusetts town in the War of the Rebellion. By A.
P. Marvin.
Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry History:
An account of the regiment from 1861 to 1865. By
Edwin E. Bryant.
Professor Edward Channing of Harvard University
has two volumes of a History of the United States
already issued of a series of eight volumes. The title of
Volume I is “The Planting of a Nation in the New
World, 1000 to 1660”; Volume II, “A Century of
Colonial History, 1660 to 1760.” The titles to Volumes
III and IV, not yet issued, are “The American
Revolution, 1760–1789,” and “Federalists and
Republicans, 1789–1812,” while the titles to Volumes
V to VIII have not as yet been selected.
“Dr. John McLoughlin, the Victor of Oregon,” an
authoritative biographical sketch, with abundant
documents, by Frederick V. Holman.
“A Documentary Source-Book of American History,”
by Professor William MacDonald of Brown University,
author of “Select Charters,” “Select Documents,” and
“Select Statutes,” etc. The work is in one volume, and
includes all the most important documents contained
in Professor MacDonald’s large works, but in some
cases shortened by immaterial omissions.

GENERAL HISTORICAL ITEMS.

A very interesting document is the Report of the

Committee on the Documentary Historical
Publications of the United States Government,
appointed by President Roosevelt in February, 1908,
as an assistant committee to the Committee on
Department Methods. Hon. Lawrence O. Murray, now
Comptroller of the Currency at Washington, D. C., and
at that time in the Department of Commerce and
Labor, is a member of this committee, and the Society
acknowledges with its thanks the receipt from him of a
copy.
On February 11th, the President sent it to Congress
with a message, and message and report have since
been printed as Senate Document No. 714 of the
session concluded March 4th.
The report contains a review of the course hitherto
pursued by the government in the matter of historical
publications; a general survey of the publications
hitherto made, and of the gaps still existing between or
among them; a body of recommendations for filling
such gaps, especially by the inception of a series of
National State Papers; and finally a series of
suggestions for the organization of a permanent
Commission on National Historical Publications, with
a bill which, it is hoped, will be introduced in the sixty-
first Congress.

The Fifth Annual Meeting of the Pacific Coast

Branch of the American Historical Association was
held at the University of California November 21st last.
Papers were read by Professor E. D. Adams of
Stanford University concerning the annexation of
California, Mr. Don E. Smith and Professor J. N.
Bowman of the University of California, and by Mr. F.
J. Taggart. The proceedings lasted the entire day,
sessions being held in the morning and afternoon,
followed by a banquet in the evening.

The publications of the American Association for

International Conciliation are being sent forward to
the members of our Society, and are readable and
interesting documents by learned authorities upon the
subjects they present. At the suggestion of the
Secretary of the Association, the addresses of our
members were sent him, and he has written each that
the publications of the Association will go forward to
them if they so request it. All that it is necessary to do
to receive them is to write the Secretary. His address
is: “F. P. Keppel, Secretary, Sub-Station 84, New York
City.”

Hon. Thomas W. Bicknell, Providence, R. I.,

President of the Rhode Island Citizens’ Historical
Association and an applicant for membership in our
Society, has recently published in the Journal of
American History an interesting article entitled “First
White Owners of Land in America.” Mr. Bicknell is
also the author of “Sowans,” a work treating of the
early history of Barrington and Warren in Rhode
Island.

Among the contents of the last issue of the

American Historical Magazine is “Heroes of the
Battle of Point Pleasant,” by Delia A. McCulloch.

In the January issue of the Essex Institute Historical

Collections is an article on “Captain John Manley of
Marblehead, a Man of Irish Descent,” by Robert E.
Peabody.

RECOMMENDATIONS.

It has been the custom of the Society since its

organization to have one annual meeting and two or
more field days each year. The annual meeting in each
instance has been called for the early evening, and the
business affairs finished in a few minutes; then a short
reception would take place, followed by a dinner, on
the completion of which some historical papers would
be read and addresses of interest made.
This proceeding is not calculated to sufficiently
advance the interests of the Society, or enable it to
truly do the work for which it is organized. Some
historical associations have annual meetings at which
there is a morning and afternoon session, followed by
a dinner in the evening, while others have sessions
lasting two or three days. It is impossible to crowd into
a single evening, part of which has been taken up in
partaking of a good dinner, any significant number of
historical papers, much less to have a discussion on
them.
 Valuable addresses have been made that have not
been printed in the Journal, and all that is left of them
in the minds of the members is hardly more than
pleasant recollections of the speakers. All the leading
historical associations procure valuable papers from
members, and, after they are read, discussion upon the
subject-matter is thrown open, the good points
gathered, and all reported in print later for the use of
the members.
This Society could profitably take a day and an
evening for its annual meeting. A morning session
should be had, called to order at ten o’clock. Two or
three papers could be read and discussion had upon
each, followed by a recess from one to three p. m.
Further papers and discussion might then be
entertained and the meeting adjourned, with all the
business completely transacted, in time for the dinner
in the evening, at which short and interesting
speeches, good music and general recreation after the
day’s work would be in order.
These annual conventions should take place in
different parts of the country, and those interested in
our work will be sure to be on hand. In looking over
some of our old records, it appears that requests have
been made by members for meetings to take place in
Richmond, Va., Charleston, S. C., and Detroit, Mich.
In neither of these places has an annual meeting or a
field day of the Society taken place.
 Members of the Society are earnestly requested to
furnish the Secretary-General with correct addresses.
When a member removes or changes his address, the
Secretary-General should be notified immediately,
otherwise the publications and communications of the
Society may be lost or fall into unauthorized hands.

The necessity for prompt payment of dues ought to

be manifest to every member. The Society has no
income except from the $5 a year contributed by the
annual members. No officer or member receives any
salary, and the finances are carefully and economically
managed by the Executive Council. We have no
expense for rental for the Society’s headquarters, and
have no recent record of any officer of the Society
accepting even his traveling expenses in matters
connected with the Society. Nevertheless, the income
is small, and our expenditures for printing the annual
volume, gathering historical matter, postage,
stationery and typewriting are large and do not leave
the Society at the end of the year with any substantial
balance in the Treasurer-General’s hands.
 COL. C. C. SANDERS (Deceased).

Gainesville, Ga.

Late Member of the Executive Council.

 Donations of money or bequests by will or otherwise
are earnestly and respectfully solicited, and any
member who will take the trouble to read the
constitution and note the purposes for which the
Society is incorporated can readily see the great and
lasting service to our people and American history in
general that could be made, in addition to what the
Society is now doing, to make better known the Irish
Chapter in American History.

Some members well able to pay are in arrears from

two to four years in their dues, notwithstanding the
fact that several tactful circulars and repeated
statements have been forwarded them by committees
and officers of the Society. The attention of members
is called to section 8 of the by-laws, which reads as
follows:
“8. A member neglecting for two years to pay his
annual fee shall be notified of such omission by the
Secretary-General. Still neglecting for three months to
pay the dues, such delinquent member shall be
dropped as no longer belonging to the Society.”

Many of our members belong to other historical

associations, and, by keeping in touch with their
works, become of greater service to us. The American
Historical Association, the headquarters of which are
at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D. C., and
the leading state historical associations are cordially
recommended to our members.

Members are earnestly requested to furnish the

Secretary-General with biographical sketches. It is
necessary to have these for our archives, and we hope
that no member will allow his feeling of modesty to
interfere with keeping the records of the Society
complete. These sketches will not be published in the
Journal if a member shall so direct. Read over your
biographical sketches in the membership roll, and if
they are not correct or should have additions, notify
the Secretary-General.

Current items of interest relating to the doings of

Americans of Irish extraction are solicited from every
member by the Secretary-General. If a good article is
met with in a newspaper or magazine, it will be
thankfully received and filed in the archives if you will
send it forward. It is by keeping abreast with the
current history that we fulfil one of our greatest duties.

Donations of historical works, ancient or modern,

or, in fact, books of any description, are solicited for
the Society’s library. Copies or originals of old deeds,
wills, bills of sale of slaves, curiosities in American or
Confederate money, plate, postage stamps, old prints,
pictures and the like are also solicited. When received,
they will be carefully indexed and filed, with the name
of the donor attached. Every member can readily find
something of interest to send, and the aggregation will
form a nucleus for a good library and possibly a
museum.

Volumes I, II, IV, V and VI of the Journal of the

Society are out of print. We have fifty copies of Volume
III and ten copies of Volume VII left. The Executive
Council have ordered fifteen hundred copies of
Volume VIII, so that we may be sure every member
will have a copy and the Society have some to spare.
These volumes out of print have become very rare,
and some of them are held at high prices. If a
sufficient demand appears from members who desire
to have a complete set of the Society’s publications, the
subject will be brought before the Executive Council
for action, with the possibility that some of the
volumes may be ordered reprinted.
 REILLY OF F

(Captain H. J. Reilly, Battery F, Fifth Artillery, “The

Fighting Fifth,” U. S. A., killed on the walls of Pekin, in
the relief of the legations, during the Boxer uprising.)
By John Jerome Rooney.
I.

Know you the story, friends, know you the story?

No hero is mine of the plume and the lance—
Yet worthy to claim the green bay of glory
In the lay of the singer of oldest romance.
Then, when the song of the minstrel is gone,
Forget not how Reilly—brave Reilly went on!

II.

Out from the East, like a bolt from the sky,

Thrilled the wild rumor of danger and dread—
Out from the East flamed a prayer and a cry—
A cry of the living, a cry of the dead—
Straight to the heart of the nations it came,
And the nations were shaken, as wind shakes a flame!

III.

There, ‘mid the millions of Mongols, they stood—

One grain in the desert, a drop in the sea—
Mothers and children—brave men of our blood—
What is their fate? Say, what shall it be?
How can we name the thing that we fear?
The heart, at the thought, is palsied and seer!

IV.

Onward! the cry of the East and the West—

Onward! spoke Chaffee, Columbia’s son:
The nations were calling their bravest and best
For the work of a giant before them undone.
No time now to palter with quavering breath—
’Twas action and rescue—’twas rescue or death!

V.

And the word came to Reilly—it spoke not again—

Brave Reilly with all his bold lads of the guns—
(Ah, if any came out from El Caney’s red rain,
’Twas by the grace of the Lord—not Hispania’s sons!)
Oh, a stancher band never turned face to the foe
As onward with Reilly, straight onward they go!

VI.

They battered the walls of the forts of Taku,

They lifted the door-knock and pounded it well—
And the door?—the door was a breach looking thro’
An entrance well dusted by shrapnel and shell.
The fort, like a mist of the morning, was gone,
And Reilly went on—bold Reilly went on!

VII.

On by the railroad—still onward they press’d—

Thro’ rampart—thro’ swamp, like a sword of the Lord—
True sons of the East, true sons of the West,
A knight of King Arthur confronting a horde!
And Battery F, unafraid of the brunt,
Kept its pace, and its guns, right up to the front!

VIII.
See! See! the walls of the Capital rise
Away to the right, a vision of power—
They are flashing a signal—our loved one’s replies—
They are lost had the guns been delayed but an hour.
Like a cyclone they open and thunder their doom
And the flame from their mouths is the light in our gloom!

IX.

Battery F opened up like a hell,

With a roar like a lion—a serpent’s fierce hiss—
Solid shot under! above with the shell!
Gates were not made to be pounded like this.
Trembles the portal—with a shot it is gone—
And Reilly went on—bold Reilly went on!

X.

From the compound a cheer, like a voice from the grave,

Rolls upward and out and upward again;
The Lord—He is gracious and mighty to save,
And he works by the hands of His valiant of men!
Still, was work to be done—stern work to be done—
Ere the wall’d town within was level’d and won.

XI.

Then “Forward,” called Reilly—and forward they swept

To the walls where the foe had rallied his horde.
Like a boy, to a ladder the Captain has leapt,
You can see, far in front, the gleam of his sword.
Then up thro’ the smoke, like a wraith, he has gone—
And Reilly went on—bold Reilly went on!

XII.

O sweet harp of Erin, sound gently thy lay!

O star of Colombia, be swift with thy light!
He fell—and the summit of Glory that day
Was the rampart he scaled alone in the fight.
In a beam of the splendor a moment he shone—
And Reilly went on—brave Reilly went on!
 EDWARD CARROLL.

Leavenworth, Kansas.

A Member of the Society.

 The above is a true story, every word of it. The United States
Government brought Captain Reilly’s body home and buried it in the
Arlington Cemetery, near Washington, and erected a splendid shaft to
mark this brave soldier’s memory. Captain Reilly, as his name
indicates, was of Irish stock.—J. J. R.
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS SANDERS, ONE OF
THE FOUNDERS OF THE AMERICAN IRISH
HISTORICAL SOCIETY, AND MEMBER OF THE
EXECUTIVE COUNCIL. A WORTHY AND
DISTINGUISHED ASSOCIATE.

By A. W. Van Hoose, president brenau college-

conservatory, gainesville, ga.

On August 3d, 1908, there died at his home in

Gainesville, Ga., one of the most remarkable men that
it has been my good fortune to meet.
Descended on his father’s side from Rev. Moses
Sanders, a Baptist preacher who emigrated from
England to this country in the year 1765, and on his
mother’s side from Thomas Smythe, a man
distinguished for his great learning and for the many
sweet poems that came from his pen, an Irishman,
who with a party of friends, left Dublin, Ireland, in
1798 and made his home in Charleston, S. C., Colonel
Sanders combined in his nature, disposition and
temperament, the very best characteristics of the
English and Irish, whose descendant he was.
For twenty years I knew him intimately, and I have
no hesitation in making the statement that he was one
of the most remarkable men of the generation in
which he lived.
If I were asked in what respects he was remarkable,
I would answer, First in his broad patriotism and deep
love of country. Although he was little more than a boy
when Georgia, in which state his parents had settled,
seceded and issued her call for her sons to take up
arms in defense of principles which they knew to be
right, young Sanders, who had received a splendid
military training at the Georgia Military Academy, was
one of the first to respond to his country’s call, and
during all those years of carnage and bloodshed, he
gave his best strength, mental and physical, to the
cause of the Confederacy. For distinguished bravery
and great ability in military matters, he was soon
made Colonel of the 24th Regiment of Georgia
Volunteers and in the battles of Williamsburg, Seven
Pines, Cold Harbor, Malvern Hill, Fredericksburg,
Chancellorsville, Harper’s Ferry, The Wilderness,
Spottsylvania Court House and other great struggles,
the Confederacy had no braver soldier or more
efficient officer than he. At Spottsylvania, he was
severely wounded and his command suffered greatly;
he was captured at Sailor’s Creek, May 6, ’65, and until
July 25th, suffered the awful horrors of the Federal
Prison at Johnston’s Island. During the war, he was
offered the rank of Brigadier-General, but with that
modesty which characterized his whole life, he
declined the honor.
 While he loved the cause of the Confederacy with all
the ardor of his great soul, when Lee surrendered at
Appomatox, Colonel Sanders ceased fighting and
applied himself diligently to building up the waste
places of his beloved country and to making a
competency for himself and family, and the great
success which attended his efforts in both instances is
the second reason that I would assign for calling him a
remarkable man. In 1871, he married Miss Fannie
Amelia Scarborough, who until the day of his death,
was a blessing and an inspiration to him. Together
they came to Gainesville, a little mountain village, in
1871, immediately after their marriage, to build their
home and fortune. By industry, economy and great
business ability, Colonel Sanders succeeded in
amassing a splendid estate, and at the same time was
always first in his contributions to any public
enterprise or private charity. No one will ever know
how many cases of distress he relieved; for he obeyed
the Scriptural injunction and never allowed his left
hand to know what his right hand was doing. The
writer of this sketch, was often at the State Bank, of
which Colonel Sanders was President for many years,
and has seen numbers of the old veterans, unfortunate
men of all classes and even the negroes of the city, ask
for aid and never once were they refused. On the day
that he died, I heard numbers of men, with tears in
their eyes, say, “I have lost the best friend that I ever
knew”; his funeral services were attended by every
class of people in our city and country, and after his
more intimate friends came and with streaming eyes
looked into the face of him who had befriended them
for so long. Such a funeral has been accorded but few
men in our country. Colonel Sanders was also
remarkable for his literary and scientific attainments.
Although he professed to be only a business man, he
was a great student of men and affairs; he was a great
reader of history and the record of all nations, from
the earliest period to the present day, was an open
book to him; he had traveled extensively and the
literature and civilization of Europe and Egypt and the
Holy Land, were so fully and accurately impressed
upon him, that he could entertain his friends by hours
in recounting his experience as a traveler. But best of
all, Colonel Sanders was remarkable in his childlike
devotion to and faith in Jesus Christ, the Man of
Galilee, in whose footsteps he had followed for many
years. He was one of the very few men of my
acquaintance who, though devoted to his business,
always kept a Bible in the President’s office of the State
Bank, and oftentimes have I called to see him only to
find him immersed in the beauties of the great
prophecies of Isaiah, or reading the Songs of David,
the sweet singer of Israel, or studying the life and
character of Him who came into the world to save men
from their sins. For years, he was a pillar in the Baptist
Church of this city; he always taught a class in Sunday
School and his presence there was always an
inspiration to the Superintendent. During an intimate
acquaintance for more than twenty years, I do not