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A collection of 16 enjoyable short stories.'THE ROSE OF DIXIE' (excerpt)WhenThe Rose of Dixiemagazinewas started by a stock company in Toombs City, Georgia, there wasnever but one candidate for its chief editorial position in the mindsof its owners. Col. Aquila Telfair was the man for the place. By allthe rights of learning, family, reputation, and Southern traditions,he was its foreordained, fit, and logical editor. So, a committee ofthe patriotic Georgia citizens who had subscribed the founding fundof $100,000 called upon Colonel Telfair at his residence, CedarHeights, fearful lest the enterprise and the South should suffer byhis possible refusal.The colonel received them in his great library,where he spent most of his days. The library had descended to himfrom his father. It contained ten thousand volumes, some of which hadbeen published as late as the year 1861. When the deputation arrived,Colonel Telfair was seated at his massive white-pine centre-table,reading Burton's 'Anatomy of Melancholy.' He arose andshook hands punctiliously with each member of the committee. If youwere familiar withThe Rose of Dixieyou willremember the colonel's portrait, which appeared in it from time totime. You could not forget the long, carefully brushed white hair;the hooked, high-bridged nose, slightly twisted to the left; the keeneyes under the still black eyebrows; the classic mouth beneath thedrooping white mustache, slightly frazzled at the ends.The committee solicitously offered him theposition of managing editor, humbly presenting an outline of thefield that the publication was designed to cover and mentioning acomfortable salary. The colonel's lands were growing poorer each yearand were much cut up by red gullies. Besides, the honor was not oneto be refused.In a forty-minute speech of acceptance, ColonelTelfair gave an outline of English literature from Chaucer toMacaulay, re-fought the battle of Chancellorsville, and said that,God helping him, he would so conductThe Rose of Dixiethatits fragrance and beauty would permeate the entire world, hurlingback into the teeth of the Northern minions their belief that nogenius or good could exist in the brains and hearts of the peoplewhose property they had destroyed and whose rights they hadcurtailed.William Sydney Porter (September 11, 1862 - June 5, 1910), known by his pen name O. Henry, was an American short story writer. O. Henry's short stories are known for their surprise endings.He was born in Greensboro, North Carolina. He changed the spelling of his middle name to Sydney in 1898.