From the day
Perspective: The Future Historian · Sight
Beneath the electric flicker of New York’s burgeoning skyline, men in stiff celluloid collars gather, their silhouettes sharp against the golden autumn haze. I watch them grip the morning paper, eyes gleaming over the news that the GREAT PEABODY FUND TO BE DISTRIBUTED; Trustees at a Meeting Here Likely to Apportion $2,500,000 Among Southern Colleges. $1,000,000 FOR NASHVILLE State, City, and County Raising $1,000,000 More -- Maryland, Missouri, and Kentucky Also to Benefit. This massive influx of capital is the foundation for a new academic elite, a pivot point I recognize as the genesis of the modern Southern intellectual. As a whistled refrain of "Take me out to the ball game" drifts from a passing motorcar, I see the future in their starched hems and the ink-stained maps held by men who are, quite literally, buying the twentieth century.