Then in time a magazine or annual volume based on the same appropriation could be started to be restricted absolutely, it is to be hoped, to faithful copies or transcripts of original material. Several western States provide for a publication from the treasury, but unfortunately the issues are practically worthless, as they are often filled with the "fine writing" and ambitious essays of incompetent men whose only qualifications are leisure for scribbling and an itch for publicity.

EARLY GEORGIA RECORDS-In his Report to the Governor, Hon. Allen D. Candler tells of the progress he is making in compiling for publication the colonial, revolutionary and Confederate records of Georgia. He began this work Jan. I, 1903, and now has ready for the printer 1,250 pages of typewritten matter covering nearly all the available materials of the first twenty years, the government of the trustees. It is estimated that this material will make 1,000 printed pages of the size and type of the N. C. Colonial Records. Georgia, like other Southern States, has suffered a frequent change of capitals, but many of its most important records are still in London. In 1837 the Rev. Charles Wallace Howard was commissioned to make copies; these copies filled 22 large manuscript volumes and cost $7,000. In 1890 or 1891 all of this material except four volumes was destroyed by fire. B. F. Stevens & Brown have recently examined British public records for Georgia and report 76 manuscript volumes containing materials, more or less, relating to the State. It is estimated that copies of all papers of particular value can be secured for $2,000 since "many of these books and papers are of comparatively little importance, and can, without detracting greatly from the value of our compilation, be left out!" What a marvelous display of ignorance of the duties of his office is here presented! How humiliating to a great State such a report should be! It is not the

province of the editor of such a compilation to say what should be left out. It is his plain duty to put in everything. What may seem of least importance to an editor may be of the greatest value to the scholar.

ALAMO MONUMENT-Shortly after the massacre, the walls of the fort were dismantled, and the stones scattered about. Two men of some skill in stone work, Nangle and Joseph Cox, constructed from the ruins a monument some ten feet high, inscribing on it the names of the defenders, making Travis, Bowie, Bonham and Crockett most prominent. As a private speculation it was exhibited at different places, finally landing in a junk shop in New Orleans, where it remained for several years. But in 1858 it was purchased by the State of Texas and placed in the capitol, but when this structure was burned in 1881, only a fragment of this "priceless memento" of the Alamo was preserved. Fortunately this relic, now in State Library, contains the heroic inscriptions. (C. W. Raines, Texas His. Quarterly, April, 1903.)

THE INSATIATENESS OF HISTORY-The cruel demands of modern historiography on time, labor and purse are strikingly illustrated in an account contributed to the Charleston Sunday News of August 30, 1903, by Rev. Dr. B. A. Elzas, of his researches last summer into the "history of the Jews of South Carolina." For this comparatively limited topic, he felt it incumbent on him to visit Toronto, New York, Phladelphia, and Washington, delving into the printed, manuscript and material sources of all the libraries and museums that gave promise of even a grain of wheat. He looked into some dozen of repositories in all, generally finding the greatest courtesy and capability among the custodians. The net result of all this expenditure of effort and money was almost nothing as to data, but a vast deal as to

standard of work in knowing that he had exhausted the available sources, He concludes that the material for South Carolina history is in that locality, and whoever wants to write that history must do so on the spot-a view that might be generalized for all history. But Dr. Elzas gathered a great deal of valuable genealogical material which he will incorporate in his work on the Jews, to be published in a De Luxe edition of 300 copies by the Lippincotts.

HISTORICAL ACTIVITY IN NEW ENGLAND-Within the past few years two historical magazines have been started there: The Mayflower Descendant, quarterly, $3.00 yearly, now in fifth volume; and The Vermont Antiquarian, quarterly, $1.00 yearly, not yet twelve months old. A third is now projected, Olden Times in Middlesex, bi-monthly, $2.00 yearly. In that section has lately been published a valuable 7 volume biographical dictionary of the United States, while the "New England Colonial Aristocracy," in three volumes is announced to be in 18 bi-monthly parts, beginning with June past. The Research Publication Company, organized a short time ago, has charge of some of the above, and also handles much other historical material. Of course all here mentioned is in addition to the old, well-known historical soceties, of which there must be nearly fifty with printed organs.

A GREAT GENEALOGIST-Henry F. Waters, of Boston, has done, perhaps, the most scholarly work of all Americans in advancing the cause of genealogy. In 1883 he went to England as an agent of the New England Historic Genealogical Society to make research in the English archives. Among other important discoveries he found the ancestry of John Harvard, of Roger Williams and of Washington. He stuck to his task for 17 years. As a result are two large printed volumes, and more than 20,000 will abstracts and references

not yet published, but the Genealogical Quarterly (Boston) has commenced their issue. But there is one point to be emphasized, Mr. Waters had the financial backing of some men of means in New England, or he could never have carried on those splendid labors. Some three years since he returned home, definitely abandoning his genealogical studies.

HELEN KELLER, AN ALABAMA GIRL-Though not generally known, this remarkable woman was born in Alabama, Tuscumbia, June 27, 1880. Her father was Arthur H. Keller, a captain in the Confederate army who died in 1896. Her mother was the daughter of a Massachusetts man, Charles Adams, who removed to Arkansas and became a brigadier general in the Confederate service, dying in 1878.

FIRST TO FALL-An article in Washington Post of August 23, 1903, based on extract whose source is not given, claims that the first Confederate to lose his life in the Civil War was Captain John Quincy Marr, of Virginia, who was killed on June 1, 1861, at Fairfax Court House. But like Jackson he was shot, it is believed, by men on his own side. It is claimed that H. L. Wyatt was the first Confederate killed in battle by the enemy. He was killed at the battle of Big Bethel on June 10, 1861.