The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-06-09

witnessed himself. Tn 1Iivy, the most
renowned of Latin historians. we have
narratives that are faultless in style
and finish. OF the 142 books written
by him on the history sof Rome, only
so have come down to modern times.
His aim was not to construct what we
should call critical history, but SIM
ply to produce a pleasing and popular
narrative. Tacitus hasa far different
reputation. In conscientious love or
truth and accuracy of judgment ne
has never been surpassed by any his
torian. Another great ancient histor-
ian is Josephus. He was learned Jew,
who lived in the latter half of the first
century of our era. He endeaVOred to
dissuade his countrymen from their IN
tended revolt against Roman authority,
but failing in this he Joined the war
party. At the close of the war he went
to Rome and was presented with the
freedom of the city. an annual pen
sion and house that had formerly
been the residence of an imperial fam
lily. The remainder of his life he gave
up to literary pursuits. An important
historical work. although not his
tory. is Plutarch's Lives. He also lived
in the first century of our era. The
work that has immortalized his name
is his biographical sketches of 46 ia
NOUS Greeks and Romans. These lives
he wrote in pairs, portraying a Greek
and Roman, and then drawing COM
parison between them.
Coming down to modern times we
shall see that historians differ quite as
much as they did in days of old, and
that the quality which is a pronounced
merit in one historian is more or less
lacking in another. Among French his
torians the name of F. Guizot is
brought to our minds. One of the lat
est of his works is "A Popular History
of France From the Earliest Times"
The important facts and the great per-
sonages of French history are made the
subjects of especially careful study. 1t
is the best popular history of France
extant.
Few historians are wholly impartial.
Hallam was one of these. His Con
stitutional History of England" and his
Europe During the Middle Ages are
perhaps the most important works ever
written. Not many read Hallam for
delight, because he lacked the power
of impressive statement. Macaulay,
another great English historian, was
very different, being pronounced be-
lever in the merits and glories Of whig-
ism. 1t has been said that his sympa
thies made him invariably more than
just to the wings and less than just to
the Tories.
The most famous and most interest
Ing great WOTk ON t1lSllSn history dlleI
Macaulay's is Froude's. 1t is more
recent work and deals from the fall
of Wolsley to the defeat of the Spanish
armada. His style is the clearest and
easiest of all recent English writers,
but his tendency to pervert fact and
his partisan view of affairs are a con-
slant offense.
In Carlyle's History of the French
Revolution" and in his History of
two
rarely united characteristics of the his
Observation-Disclosures and skill in getting
at facts.
Hume's History of England" in
cludes the period from the invasion of
Julius Caesar to the revolutionary war
in 1888. He was not historical inves-
tigator in any true sense of the term.
His history abounded in many, errors
which have of late been discovered.
This fact has greatly decreased the
value of the work. ~
Going outside of the domain of Eng
| lish history, the most important his
! torica work ever written by an Eng
lishman is Gibbons History of the
| Decline and FAIR or the Roman EN-
pre- OF this great work the first
volume was given to- the world after
| % years of prodfgfousS labor. The last
| volumes We're published Il years later
In power and skill in the combining
| of the minute and complex details sc
as to present them in easily compre-
hensible and striking wholes, in state.
illness of style, Gibbon has never
had an equal. But there are objec.
tons to this great work. One is its
strong bias against Christianity anC
another is its failure to comprehend
| the play and interplay of the current:
| of human life.
Leaving English history and taking
| up that of the United States, the name
of George Bancroft stands pre-emi
| nent. His History of the United
| States treats of events from the dis
covery of America to the close of the
revolutionary war. It is by far thu
most carefully prepared history of thu
colonial and revolutionary periods We
published. But America has produced
very few historians compared will
some of the other nations. We are {
new nation and have not made mucf
history, in fact very little when com
pared to Italy. whose history can BE-
traced over a period of 2,700 years, o.
| England, which has been making his
tory for nearly 1000.
However. We are actually engaged
| in manufacturing it every day; bu
| even with our remarkable constructive
ability the work is necessarily slow
| May there be no blot on its fair pages
I or suggestion, and may it continue
to be occasionally relieved by chap
ter which will chronicle the deeds 0
| a Washington. a Jackson or a Lincoln
or of the hero who has demonstra tee
to the world that he will brook no in
suit to the starry f1ag-our own i'm
| mortal Dewey.
1.-THE Samoan Question"-Laura L. Smitl
Samoa, group of thirteen islands il
| the South Pacific, is from four to flv
| hundred miles northeast of the Fiji isl
ands Sawaii, upolu and Tutuila ar
the only ones that are large enough t.
be of any Importance, and these tire
comprise less than fifteen hundred
square miles. Upolu, the next to tn
largest of these, has. on its northern
coast, the bay and harbor of Apia, tn
| largest and most important town in tn
| islands. Tutuila has also a good harbor
| Pango Pargo, which almost cuts tn
| island in two, and is of great import
| anCe because it is the safest in eithe
the North or South Pacific ocean. II
these islands in the spring are disas
l, : H.. 4I -