Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 12.djvu/245

 Night darkens all the deep abyss,

And stars shoot forth with silver ray;

The moonlight pales and dew-drops kiss

The moss-grown graves of Blue and Gray.

Ye living, bring your garlands fair.

And clasp your hands anew to-day!

One flag yet floats upon the air;

We're brothers still, both Blue and Gray!



 Is the "Eclectic History of the United States a Proper Book to use in our Schools?"

We promised in our last issue to fully ventilate this question, and asked that teachers, Confederate soldiers and others in position to know would send us their opinions.

We have several responses, and among them the following from Colonel William Allan, superintendent of McDonogh Institute, Maryland.

To those who know Colonel Allan, no words from us are necessary to enhance the value of his opinions upon this question.

A distinguished Master of Arts of the University of Virginia, and for several years a teacher in one of the best academies in Virginia. For some years after the war one of the accomplished professors whom General Lee called around him to make Washington College an institution of such high grade, and for several years the able and efficient head of McDonogh Institute, Colonel Allan stands in the very forefront of practical teachers, and his opinions about text-books are of highest value.

Serving on the staff of General Stonewall Jackson, General Ewell, General Early, and General Gordon, Colonel Allan has added to his personal knowledge of the events of the war, a most careful study of official documents and reliable statements on both sides, and has won a wide reputation as a painstaking, accurate, and able military critic.

His paper is, therefore, of highest authority, and we give it in full (as a brief and general statement of the character of this book) before going into our own more detailed citation of its errrors.

THE ECLECTIC HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES, BY M. E. THALHEIMER.

[A Review, by Colonel William Allan.]

This book is one of those worthless school histories which we suppose will be written and printed as long as money can be made by doing so. The Eclectic History has been manufactured—like oleomargerine—to sell. Many devices have been resorted to in order to increase its salableness, some good, but more of them bad. It is printed on good paper and in clear type. It has a profusion of illustrations, many excellent, others poor, and one at least bewildering (p. 242). It contains a number of mediocre maps, badly colored, and indifferently well adapted to their purpose. It