In "The King in Yellow" Chambers' formula for utopia includes expelling all foreign-born Jews and shipping all blacks to a compound of their own in a black state that has no contact with the society of whites.

Toward the end of the year 1920 the government of the United States had practically completed the programme adopted during the last months of President Winthrop's administration. The country was apparently tranquil. Everybody knows how the Tariff and Labor questions were settled. The war with Germany, incident on that country's seizure of the Samoan Islands, had left no visible scars upon the republic, and the temporary occupation of Norfolk by the invading army had been forgotten in the joy over repeated naval victories and the subsequent ridiculous plight of General Von Gartenlaube's forces in the State of New Jersey. The Cuban and Hawaiian investments had paid one hundred per cent., and the territory of Samoa was well worth its cost as a coaling station. The country was in a superb state of defense. Every coast city had been well supplied with land fortifications; the army, under the parental eye of the general staff, organized according to the Prussian system, had been increased to three hundred thousand men, with a territorial reserve of a million; and six magnificent squadrons of cruisers and battle-ships patrolled the six stations of the navigable seas, leaving a steam reserve amply fitted to control home waters. The gentlemen from the West had at last been constrained to acknowledge that a college for the training of diplomats was a necessary as law schools are for the training of barristers; consequently we were no longer represented abroad by incompetent patriots. The nation was prosperous. Chicago, for a moment paralyzed after a second great fire, had risen from its ruins, white and imperial, and more beautiful than the white city which had been built for its plaything in 1893. Everywhere good architecture was replacing bad, and even in New York a sudden craving for decency had swept away a great portion of the existing horrors. Streets had been widened, properly paved, and lighted, trees had been planted, squares laid out, elevated structures demolished, and underground roads built to replace them. The new government buildings and barracks were fine bits of architecture, and the long system of stone quays which completely surrounded the island had been turned into parks, which proved a godsend to the population. The subsidizing of the state theatre and state opera brought its own reward. The United States National Academy of Design was much like European institutions of the same kind. Nobody envied the Secretary of Fine Arts either his cabinet position or his portfolio. The Secretary of Forestry and Game Preservation had a much easier time, thanks to the new system of National Mounted Police. We had profited well by the latest treaties with France and England; the exclusion of foreign-born Jews as a measure of national self-preservation, the settlement of the new independent negro state of Suanee, the checking of immigration, the new laws concerning naturalization, and the gradual centralization of power in the executive all contributed to national calm and prosperity. When the government solved the Indian problem and squadrons of Indian cavalry scouts in native costume were substituted for the pitiable organizations tacked on to the tail of skeletonized regiments by the former Secretary of War, the nation drew a long sigh of relief. When, after the colossal Congress of Religions, bigotry and intolerance were laid in their graves, and kindness and charity began to draw warring sects together, many thought the millennium had arrived, at least in the new world, which, after all, is a world by itself. ¹

In "The Happy Parrot" the hero is the captain of a slave ship. He thinks that the blacks are better off as slaves then they would be in Africa.

"As for Africa, from time immemorial n_____ kings have waged war with one another, and have either made slaves of their captives or knocked 'em in the head. Usually the latter, and by thousands.

"Now we white folk come along and buy from some victorious n_____ king all those captives otherwise destined for death. So we save useful lives. That's one point to our credit, Mr. Strake," said he, charging his long clay pipe.

"Here's another; wild n_____s live better on our plantations than ever they lived in their African jungle-swamps. We treat 'em kindly. They're valuable property, so their masters take good care of them. Let Quakers and abolitionists yell. The benefits of slavery excel all its alleged mischief's and inconveniences. Through it incredible advantages have accrued to the nation. Without slaves we'd have neither sugar, cotton, indigo, nor tobacco. Do you agree with me?" ²

This is a slaver talking and there is much of the convenient rationalizing about this speech that was on the tongue of the whole nation at the time. Knowing the research habits of Chambers it is more than likely that this speech is taken from a source from the time that the novel was written about.

"The Happy Parrot" gives an honest insight into the nation at this time. It goes a long ways to explain how people who are basically good, god fearing, people could live with the wickedness and evil that is slavery.

This is a very disturbing book because of the matter of fact portrayal of the acceptance of slavery by almost all of the early 1800's society. Knowing the work of Chambers, it is hard to say if it was his intent to disturb and awaken or if he was just reporting the facts of history.

Unlike "The Happy Parrot", "The Maker of Moons", and "Semi-Tropical Shooting" uses the "N" word without a historical reason. And in the "Outsiders" and "In the Quarter" he uses a number of Anti-Semitic statements.

So, is Chambers a racist? That depends on if you look at him in terms of his day or in terms of ours. If we look at his work in terms of 1990's the answer is yes! He would have to be judged as the foulest kind of bigot and racist. If he was writing today what he wrote in the 1890's the community would be up in arms. And well they should be.

But that is the thing, he is not writing in the 1990's. He wrote for and in the late 1800's early 1900's and what he wrote was in keeping with the times. Mark Twain uses the "N" word in "Huckleberry Finn" and in "Pud'n Head Wilson" two of the strongest anti-slavery books ever written. "The Happy Parrot" in its own right is a work that brings into question racist attitudes. Remember, this country and the world at large were less aware of intolerance before World War II.

We like to think that Adolph Hitler was an aberration and a monster. That the brutality of the Nazis death camps is the work of a deranged mind working outside the moral framework of civilization.

Hitler was deranged and a monster, but he was not that far outside of the framework of the civilization of his day. The beliefs he held where the beliefs held by the common man in the street. He personified and amplified the general bigotry and hatred of his world a thousand fold. He was a mirror that made us all turn away in disgust from our own evil hatreds and bigotry.

Therefore, we can not look at works written before World War II with the same eyes that have seen the civil rights, free speech, and anti-war movements of the 1960's. There are many today who are deeply racist but would never say in public or in print the things that were written and said on a daily basis by the most socially aware of the last century.

Time and again Chambers shows himself in his writing to be the kind of individual who judges a person by who they are, not what they are.

So is he a bigot? Is he a racist?

With an indescribable sneer Mr. Jaune said he didn't know him but supposed he was a Jew named Ivan Lacroix, who painted nothing of importance for Jews of less importance.

"Why," said Oliver, "I understood you also came of Jewish blood."

With a ghastly smile Sidney Jaune said that Oliver had been misinformed, and presently he went away, leaving Oliver uncomfortable. Sidney Jaune might or might not have been a Jew; probably he was not, although he had that frightful intolerance for the race that flames most fiercely in apostates.

As for Oliver, loyalty was the keystone of his unformed character, and had he been Jew or Turk or Congo negro he would have found his pride in the blood that flowed in his people's veins.

He saw both Trivol and Payser shake hands cordially with Ivan Laxroix and presently he also met him and was pleasantly impressed with his quiet reserve.³

Is he? Yes, in our day and times he is a bigot. And no, no more than any of the people of his own time. No more than Mark Twain.

1. The King in Yellow, F. Tennyson Neely - 1st edition 1895 - The Repairer of Reputations - pages 9, 10, & 11
2. The Happy Parrot, A. L. Burt - reprint 1929 - pages 78 & 79
3. Outsiders, an Outline, Frederick A. Stokes - 1st edition 1899 - page 128