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The railroad officials determined to resist the laws which gave the commission the power to regulate railroad business. They appealed to the Federal district court to keep the attorney-general and the railroad commissioners from forcing them to obey the laws. Judge Thomas G. Jones, of the Federal court, decided that the laws should not be put into effect until the attorney-general should show that they were not unjust to the railroads.
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One of the bills passed by the legislature named one hundred and ten articles on which the commis- sion could regulate freight rates. This is known as "the one Inindred and ten commodity bill." It was repealed at the second term of the legislature, and seven new bills were passed to take its place. Judge Jones ruled that none of these should be enforced.
Governor Comer called an extra session of the legislature. Bills were passed relieving the attorney- general and railroad commissioners of all duties and powers in the enforcement of the rate laws, and giving to every shipper the power of suit against railroads that would not obey the laws.
Judge Jones then issued a sweeping order that no officer nor individual in Alabama should bring suit -against the railroads on account of the rate laws. The State appealed to the circuit court of the United States, and the matter now (1908) waits in this court.
During the extra session of the legislature, a law was passed prohibiting the sale of liquor in Alabama after January 1, 1909.
Governor Comer is prompt in the transaction of business, sincere in advising those who apply for favors, strong in helping what he approves and also in opposing what he disapproves. With easy grace he has made those who have come into his office understand that he is proud of Alabama and her people, and jealous of the rights and dignity of the State over which the people have chosen him to preside.
Although Governor Comer made his race for office on the issues of railroad regulation, he has so far
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done his greatest work in forwarding the interests of education. The people have responded grandly to the call for better things in the educational system of the State.
SUMMARY
Since the overthrow of Federal military rule, Alabama has recovered from the wreck and desolation of war and recon- struction, and has risen to the prosperity of the present time. It has saved its credit by refunding the enormous debt brought on by carpetbaggers, scalawags, and negroes, lived in peace and progress under the constitutions of 1875 and 1901, passed through money panics, increased its railroad mileage, developed its coal and iron mines, advanced its manufacturing and con- mercial interests, and improved its schools. Its population is approximately 2,000,000.
QUESTIONS
1. Sketch the life of George Smith Houston. 2. How and by whom was the State debt refunded? 3. Mention the principal events of the administration of Governor Cobb; of Governor O'Neal; of Governor Seay. 4. Describe the convention of 1890. 5. Sketch the rise of the Populist party. 6. What important events occurred during the governorship of Thomas G. Jones; of William C. Oates; of Joseph F. Johnston? 7. What was done by Richmond Pearson Hobson in the Spanish-American War? 8. Describe the election and inauguration of William J. Sam- ford. 9. Give an account of the constitutional convention of 1875; of 1901. 10. In what ways were railroad methods unsat- isfactory, and what remedy was proposed? 11. Give a brief sketch of the railroad commission and its work. 12. What were the important events of Governor Jelks' administration ? 13. Give an account of Mr. B. B. Comer's election as railroad commissioner, and of his work on the commission. 14. De- scribe the candidates and issues in the election of 1906. 15. What two senators died in 1907, and how were their places filled? 16. What important bills were passed by the legislature at the suggestion of Governor Comer? 17. Give an account of the contest between the State and the railroads.
ALABAMA
IN
LITERATURE
ALABAMA IN LITERATURE
While it is impossible to give other than a brief treatment of Alabama literature,* it will be pleasant to note a few of the authors whose pens have helped to enrich it. No claim will be laid to James McPherson who com- piled the poems of Ossian, and who for many years was gov- ernor-general of the Floridas; nor shall there be credited to Ala- bama anything that has not been inspired by the literary spirit of the nineteenth century. Thomas McAdory Owen Although the quantity of Alabama literature is small, its quality is excel- lent and its character varied.
To appreciate thoroughly what Alabama has to its literary credit one must see the Bibliography of Alabama, by Thomas McAdory Owen. This work appeared in the Annual Report of the American
*It is suggested that the use of "Alabama in Literature" as a text be deferred until the pupil begins the study of literature in the high school.
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Historical Association for the year 1897. Nothing else so helpful to the student of Alabama history and literature has been published. It is a monument to the broadening spirit of State culture, and will give Alabama a more honorable place in the world of letters.
Among the other valuable works of Dr. Owen may be mentioned A Bibliography of Mississippi, Annals of Alabama from 1819 to 1900, which brings up to the beginning of this century the History of Alabama by Albert James Pickett, Report of the Alabama History Commission, volumes of Transactions of the Alabama Historical Society, a volume of the Gulf States Historical Magazine, and successive volumes of the Alabama Official and Statistical Register. He has also written many interesting articles bearing on the histories of families and military commands, and on other matters affecting the State. He is the Director of the Department of Archives and His- tory for the State of Alabama, and he has gathered and arranged for the student of Alabama history a vast amount of historical records, such as old newspaper files, maps, letters, speeches, documents, curios, portraits, and pamphlets.
The pens of Alabama authors were at work during its early history. Judge Harry Toulmin discussed the principles of law in a Magistrates' Guide and in a Digest of the Laws of Alabama. In contributions to periodicals throughout the United States, he in- vited attention to the Southwest.
Some half a hundred prominent writers have engaged in the work of describing the early explora-
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tions and the winning of the Southwest from the savage tribes, weaving romantic incidents into the bloody years of battle that sent the red man a pen- sioner beyond the Father of Waters. Though the tribes have vanished, their language still lives in portions of the basic forms of Alabama literature. This fact is clearly noticeable in the beautifully blended song of Alexander B. Meek. Continuing the metrie thought of Mrs. Lydia Huntley Sigourney,* and catching the Indian words in the geography of the State, he says:
Yes! though they all have passed away, --- That noble race and brave, -- Though their light canoes have vanished From off the crested wave; Though 'mid the forests where they roamed There rings no hunter's shout,
Yet their names are on our waters, And we may not wash them out; Their memory liveth on our hills, Their baptism on our shore, Our everlasting rivers speak Their dialect of yore;
'Tis heard where Chattahoochee pours His yellow tide along; It sounds on Tallapoosa's shores, And Coosa swells the song; Where lordly Alabama sweeps, The symphony remains; And young Cahawba proudly keeps The echo of its strains;
Where Tuskaloosa's waters glide, From stream and town 'tis heard,
And dark Tombeckbe's winding tide Repeats the olden word:
*The first eight lines were written by Mrs. Sigourney.
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Afar where nature brightly wreathed Fit Edens for the free,
Along Tuscumbia's bank 'tis breathed By stately Tennessee; And south, where from Conecuh's springs Escambia's waters steal,
The ancient melody still rings,- From Tensaw and Mobile.
In Tuskaloosa many years ago, the gifted genius of Reverend Albert A. Muller delighted for a score or more of years and then burnt itself out in dissipa- tion. He was a poet of such high order that it was said of him: "He might have left an Iliad, singing of softer beauties than Helen's, greater daring than Diomed's, wider desolation than Troy's, repeating and celebrating loves as pure as those of Hector and Andromache, and thundering with woes deeper than those of Priam and Hecuba''; and that "to the Elysium, where great spirits do congregate after death, Horace and Vergil would welcome the timid approach of his shade."
Dr. Henry Tutwiler, Judge William R. Smith, and other eminent crities have given high praise to his Sunset at Rome; this is a poem which pictures the thoughts of the muse as the sun declines and-
"its mellow'd light Falls on the far-off Tuscan's rocky height, And sends its last blush o'er the yellow wave Where Tiber winds beneath Metella's grave."
The poem follows the history of "far-famed Italia," and shows the glories of the olden time, when men of genius and fame met in her myrtle
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groves; when eloquence and song warmed the soul of patriot and of poet; it recalls buried greatness, and, tracing the influence of letters, it glorifies Horace-
"The Attic wit whose genius fanned the flame
That lent its fires to gild the Augustan name."
In praise of Vergil it portrays the joys of boyhood in midnight vigils, listening to the clash of 'Trojan arms, and breathing with Æneas the filial vows to his aged sire; and then it addresses the Mantuan's shade :
"Illustrious Maro! Rome still reigns for thee; Thy fame decrees her immortality; Gone are her glories, sunk her mighty throne, Her kings have perished and her victories flown; Arts have decayed, and lettered wisdom sleeps Within that tomb where lie its treasur'd heaps; Yet thy pure spirit lives throughout her clime, To swell the measure of its deathless rhyme; And thy proud language still adorns her page, The charm of youth, the pride of every age."
. Mrs. Caroline Lee Hentz, who was Miss Whiting, of Massachusetts, came to Alabama with Professor N. M. Hentz, her husband, in 1834. She had already tasted the sweets of literary success. Among other victories she had won five hundred dollars for the prize poem, De Lara, or The Moorish Bride, offered in competition by invitation of Mr. Pelby, of the Boston Theatre. Her residence in Alabama, Georgia, and Florida put her in sympathy with the Southern people, and her works are delightful portraits of the habits and better life of the people of her adopted home. Among her best works may be mentioned
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Linda; or The Young Pilot of the Belle Creole, and Robert Graham, its sequel; Marcus Warland; Rena; The Planter's Northern Bride; and Ernest Linwood, or The Inner Life of the Author. Mrs. Hentz is among the few writers of fiction who have laid the scenes of their stories in Alabama. William Gilmore Simms selected the rugged woods about Tuskaloosa for his Richard Hurdis, and told the story of De Soto and his expedition in Vasconselos, a Romance of the New World.
Mrs. Octavia Walton Le Vert, in Souvenirs of Travel, has expressed with charming grace her travels and experiences in the better circles of European society. As Mrs. Le Vert was the first American woman to enter the social circles of the Old World nobility, her descriptions gave much pleasure to the reading public, and placed her among the delightful entertainers in the world of letters.
Joseph G. Baldwin, for years a resident of Sumter county, won abiding reputation by his Party Leaders and Flush Times of Alabama and Mississippi, which appeared in 1853. These are characteristic, works, dealing with the great masters in polities, and throw- ing flashlights of the most sparkling wit upon con- ditions and people. In Party Leaders there is the serious discussion of great men and their great work in history. In Flush Times the true history of men and incidents is told in terms known only to those who were fortunate to live with the author, or in the scenes he portrays. No one who has read this bril- liant author's works can ever forget Ovid Bolus, Esquire, for whom facts were too stale and who had
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to live upon creations of the imagination, or die on the rack of genius unemployed; nor old Sarcasm, finding fault with the younger members of the bar; nor the droll minister giving testimony in the assault case; nor Squire A and the Fritters; nor anything that Baldwin ever wrote. Willis Brewer quotes from Colonel Thomas B. Wetmore: "Oh! for an hour's talk with some man like him, wearing his humanity as he used to wear it, with his hat about to turn a back somersault from his head, with his forehead growing broader, and his eyes sparkling brighter, as he advanced in anecdote, till he was shut out from vision by the tears his mirth created, and we were compelled to feel that there was at least one great man that could be funny."
Johnson Jones Hooper had a mind very much like that of Baldwin. He ranked high as a serious journalist and advocate. His recognized abilities made him secretary of the Confederate Congress, and yet his fame rests upon the rollicking humor of his Adventures of Captain Simon Suggs, a work of which he was heartily ashamed as he rose in public esteem.
Dr. F. A. P. Barnard, for some time a member of the faculty of the University of Alabama, and for years afterward president of Columbia College, New York, was a constant contributor to current litera- ture. While in Alabama he made valuable scientific discoveries, contributed strong political articles to newspapers and magazines, and in lighter moods wrote love ditties and numerous stories for press and friends.
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The History of Alabama, by Albert James Pickett, stands without a peer in the period it covers. Upon it Mr. Pickett spent years of research, contributing freely of a large fortune to discover the materials in private and public libraries and to hear from living witnesses the facts connected with historical events. With Owen's Annals added, it has become doubly valuable as a book of reference.
Joseph Hodgson wrote The Cradle of the Confed- eracy; or the Times of Troup, Quitman, and Yancey. In this book he argues the justice of the South in resenting the encroachments of the North and resist- ing in war the destruction of the constitution of the United States.
John Witherspoon DuBose, as newspaper editor and contributor to the Philadelphia Times, the Bir- mingham Age-Herald, the Montgomery Adver- tiser, and other papers, has continuously added to the historical litera- ture of the age. Mr. Du- Bose is especially inter- esting as a writer on the subject of politics, slav- ery, ante-bellum society, constitutional law, and Southern chivalry. His John Witherspoon DuBose Sketch of Alabama drew commendations from the chief of the bureau of statistics in Washington, both on account of its statistical accuracy and its literary
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charm of style and substance. His best works are The Life of General Joseph Wheeler and The Life and Times of William Lowndes Yancey: A Ilis- tory of Political Parties in the United States from 1834 to 1864; especially as to the Origin of the Con- federate States. The latter work has been pro- nounced by the Boston Globe "the best contribution of the South to Southern history"; and by Senator John Tyler Morgan, "A prose epic of rare and charming power. No chapter in our history will ever excel it."
Two most compact volumes of valuable personal sketches are William Garrett's Reminiscences of Public Men in Alabama, and Willis Brewer's Ala- bama: Her History, Resources, War Record, and Public Men. These books touch so many men and matters of Alabama that they should be found in every home in the State. Only by the influence of great examples can a people be inspired to great achievements, and the history of those who have built the State should be within the reach of the youth of the land.
The Memorial Record of Alabama, compiled by Brant and Fuller, is a two-volume work of personal history, later and larger than the works of Garrett and Brewer. It gives but scant mention of the great founders of the State except as they are incidentally connected with the political, military, judicial, and religious history, or as they necessarily appear in the discussion of education, industries, railroads and navigation, banking, medicine, and journalism. The chapters on these subjects were written by
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Hannis Taylor, General Joseph Wheeler, Willis G. Clark, Thomas II. Clark, Hilary A. Herbert, Dr. Jerome Cochran, and W. W. Screws. The personal sketches are interesting, being written by the persons themselves or by their friends. They are, however, too full of praise to have the full force and dignity of history.
Alabama claims an interest in Sidney Lanier, whose life and verses have invited study from the great scholars and lecturers of the age. His Science of English Verse is a work of- remarkable merit, being an attempt to explain the reasons and prin- ciples underlying the charms of poetry. Mr. Lanier was probably the greatest flute-player of his day, and his poems embody the subtle strains and melody- suggesting features of the author's own sensitive soul. His Symphony, Marshes of Glynn, Corn, Sun- rise, and My Springs are among the finest poems of the English language. My Springs evidences the author's wonderful trust in God, and speaks the gratitude of a great soul looking through the mists of misfortune into the eyes of his beloved wife; it closes with the tribute-
"Dear eyes, dear eyes, and rare, complete, Being heavenly sweet and earthly sweet, I marvel that God made you mine; For when He frowns, 'tis then ye shine."
Clifford A. Lanier, a brother of the poet, is a resi- dent of Montgomery. His lectures and his writings are in keeping with the cultured taste and native abilities of his family. He has written on many subjects for magazines and newspapers. Ilis prin-
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cipal works are Apollo and Keats, The Doctor's Legend, and Thorn Fruit.
Father Abram Joseph Ryan, of Mobile, singing sublime dirges over the sufferings of his country-
men, and writing beau- tiful stories of love and faith, was a distin- guished man of letters. Ilis eloquence and pa- triotism had much to do with the way in which the people of the South thought about morals and politics. Many a boy and many a girl has felt the glow of sublime Abram Joseph Ryan devotion to home and friends, to the good and the true, by reading his poems. The Sword of Lee and The Conquered Banner are two of his best poems.
THE SWORD OF LEE
Forth from its scabbard, pure and bright, Flashed the sword of Lee! Far in the front of the deadly fight, Iligh o'er the brave in cause of Right, Its stainless sheen, like a beacon light, Led us to victory.
Out of its scabbard, where, full long, It slumbered peacefully, Roused from its rest by the battle's song, Shielding the feeble, smiting the strong, Guarding the right, avenging the wrong, Gleamed the sword of Lee.
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Forth from its scabbard, high in the air, Beneath Virginia's sky ---- And they who. saw it gleaming there, And knew who bore it, knelt to swear That where that sword led, they would dare To follow and to die.
Out of its scabbard! Never hand Waved sword from stain so free, Nor purer sword led braver band, Nor braver bled for a brighter land, Nor brighter land had a cause so grand, Nor cause a chief like Lee.
Forth from its scabbard! how we prayed That sword might victor be; And when our triumph was delayed, And many a heart grew sore afraid, We still hoped on, while gleamed the blade Of noble Robert Lee.
Forth from its scabbard, all in vain Bright flashed the sword of Lee; "Tis shrouded now in its sheath again, It sleeps the sleep of our noble slain, Defeated, yet without a stain, Proudly and peacefully.
THE CONQUERED BANNER
Furl that Banner, for 'tis weary; Round its staff 'tis drooping dreary; Furl it, fold it, it is best; For there's not a man to wave it, And there's not a sword to save it, And there's not one left to lave it In the blood which heroes gave it: And its foes now scorn and brave it: Furl it, hide it-let it rest.
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Take that Banner down! 'tis tattered; Broken is its staff and shattered; And the valiant hosts are scattered Over whom it floated high. O 'tis hard for us to fold it; Hard to think there's none to hold it; Hard that those who once unrolled it Now must furl it with a sigh.
Furl that Banner, furl it sadly! Once ten thousands hailed it gladly, And ten thousands wildly, madly, Swore it should forever wave; Swore that foeman's sword should never Hearts like theirs entwined dissever, "Till that flag should float forever O'er their freedom or their grave!
Furl it! for the hands that grasped it, And the hearts that fondly clasped it, Cold and dead are lying low; And that Banner-it is trailing! While around it sounds the wailing Of its people in their woe.
For though conquered, they adore it! Love the cold dead hands that bore it! Weep for those who fell before it! Pardon those who trailed and tore it, But, Oh! wildly they deplore it Now who furl and fold it so.
Furl that Banner! True, 'tis gory, Yet 'tis wreathed around with glory, And 'twill live in song and story Though its folds are in the dust: For its fame on brightest pages Penned by poets and by sages, Shall go sounding down the ages Furl its folds though now wo must
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Furl that Banner, softly, slowly! Treat it gently, it is holy,
For it droops above the dead. Touch it not-unfold it never --- Let it droop there, furled forever, For its people's hopes are dead.
Henry Linden Flash published in 1860 an excellent little book of poems. During war times some of his poems were published in newspapers, and they were well received. Soon after the war he moved to the West and engaged in general merchandise. He lives now in Los Angeles, California. A new book of his has lately been published.
A lady who had read with pleasure some of Mr. Flash's beautiful verses wrote advising him "not to neglect the muses, but to go on until his name was carved on the loftiest pinnacle of fame's tower." Ile answered her in verse, humorously confessing that his name was painted on a six-foot sign and nailed to a wooden shanty, telling to all the world that he would sell for cash all kinds of western produce. He concluded :
The truth is, love, this age of ours Indignantly refuses To take, in payment of our debts, The produce of the muses; 'Twould seize upon the tuneful nine, And set the jades to grinning; The fates it tolerates because The hags are always spinning.
"And so, lest I be deemed a drone And be by men forsaken, I hide my harp from prying eyes, And deal in corn and bacon.
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I talk with eager, business men Of trade and current prices ; Of Egypt too-the cotton theme- But not a word of Isis."
Mrs. I. M. P. Ockenden, of Montgomery, a daugh- ter of Judge Benjamin F. Porter, is a graceful writer. Albert Pike offered the literary form of Dixie during the war, but Mrs. Ockenden has contributed the peace-poem --
AWAY DOWN SOUTH IN DIXIE
In Dixie cotton loves to grow, With leaf of green and ball of snow; Here wave the golden wheat and corn, In Dixie land where I was born- Come away down South in Dixie.
In Dixie gayest roses bloom, The jasmine yields its rare perfume; And here the sea-breeze haunts the South, With orange-blossoms in his mouth- Come away down South in Dixie.
In Dixie land we love to give With generous hand-we love to live With cheerful light and open docr: What matter if the wind doth blow? The heart is warm in Dixie.
The Dixie skies are bonnie blue. And Southern hearts are warm and true, Let there be love throughout the world, The pure white flag of peace unfurled Floats away down South in Dixie.
In Dixie it is sweet to rove Through piney woods and sweet-gum grove; And hark! the rebel mocking-bird, With sweetest song you ever heard, Sings away down South in Dixie.
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In other lands 'tis sweet to roam, But Dixie land is home, sweet home, And Southern maid, with simple song, Loves dear old Dixie, right or wrong. God bless the land of Dixie!
Miss Kate Cumming, in Gleanings from Southland and Hospital Life in the Confederate Army, has told the patriotic stories of devotion to the Confederate cause. Her works deal with incidents that she wit- nessed during the War between the States, and with facts and conditions following in the wake of war.
Mrs. Augusta Evans Wilson cannot be quoted suffi- ciently to give a correct impression of her writings. It may be said, however, that she ranks among the greatest novelists of the American continent. Her novels have stood the test of severest criticisms and have grown in popular favor. She is pure in thought, noble in senti- ment, learned and tender, and yet bold to measure thought with the most dar- Mrs. Augusta Evans Wilson ing writers of fiction. Her novels are Inez, Beulah, Macaria, St. Elmo, Vashti, At the Mercy Of Tiberius, Infelice, A Speckled Bird, and Devota. They must be read to be appreciated.
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