The age-herald., 1900-07-10
OUR BELOVED ALABAMA
 ANDITS PROUD STORY
LuCIEN JULIEN wALKER.

and others interested in the history of the State Its practical usefulness is. however, limited because the narrative is only brought down through the year 1S19. To meet this defect, in a small measure, the the Webb Book Company, having in press a new edition of the reprint of 1896, urged the preparation of the following annals. These are not designed to be in any sense a history of the period covered, and are only intended to embrace in the briefest possible form, consistent with clearness and accuracy, the outline facts of history from the admission of the State into the Union in 1919 to the present time. There is no attempt at literary style. The facts are presented as nearly as practicable in chro- nological order.
 'The chapters on Literary History and value altogether apart from the annals. All students will doubtless appreciate the value of the Index, as neither the original edition nor the first edition of the reprint has this great essential to a well-made book"
 These words form the predatory note to Thomas McAdory Owens annals of Ala
 
 a part of the new edition of Pickett's His tory of Alabama, which has just been is sued in one volume by the Webb Book Company of Birmingham. Picketts great work thus enriched by the noble labor of MT. Owen forms the worthiest volume dealing with Alabama history yet given to the world. Pickett began his researches with the first discovery of Alabama by De Soto, more than three hundred and fifty years ago, and he dealt with his subject most exhaustively; suc- ceeding as he did in covering with remarkable thoroughness the various periods down to the time of Alabama's ad- mission to the Union as the twenty-second State, December IA, 1S19 His work for the centuries is not likely to be surpassed, ex- cept perhaps in some minor details. When he had finished. he wrote as only the faith full might write, and left the legacy of yet wider work:
 But here we lay down our pen, The early history of Alabama, as far as 1t rests in our hands, is ended, and our task is &C., complished To some other person, fonder than we are of the dry details of State leg islation and fierce party spirit we leave the task of bringing the history down to a later period
 So wrote Pickett nearly fifty years ago; and since he rested of his dear labor many men have attempted to compile the history which many other men have made, therein seeking to do work for which he had no taste The most painstaking and most masterful of all the historians who have so far given us the results of their studies
 
 Witherspoon DuBose, whose Life of Yancey is the strongest book yet produced by an Alabamian.
 MT. Owen comes now as our guide and philosopher, and he brings a freshness and vigor and wealth of bare facts that dis tingush him as the man best equipped to instruct us in the history of ourselves. If genius be infinite capacity for labor, as has been said Mir. Owen is possessed of genius of the first order In this instance he claims that he has intended to give but the outlines of Alabama history for the period of S1 years of statehood; and it is just to him to say that he displays the rarest power of condensation and brevity But his short and simple annals" are voluni- nous in facts and wonderfully eloquent in their presentation. In some nine chapters he has related every fact of moment relat- ing to fourscore years in the life of a great state a busy people. The seeker after whatever recorded incident shall find that which he seeks set forth succinctly, clear ly, sanely, luminously. And one almost wonders how the historian did 1t all; by what magic he put within few score pages the essence of material sufficient for a dozen tonnes
 MT. Owen would In this work call him self mere compiler of annals; but he in fact demonstrates that he is consum- mate historian. Terseness is here found in rarer form than one finds in the course of years of ordinary general reading, and none but master of the full history dealt with could have drawn such luminous out lines. The annals are the result of the closest and most intelligent application to the most abundant material.
 The purport of this brief essay in criti- cism will not be misunderstood, nor will MT. OTen be misunderstood His attempt was as he frankly states, to give us the simple outlines of our State history-the annals of Alabama in the fewest possible pages. That he has succeeded in most gratifying measure is proof of his capacity
 
 bama, which he shall give us as soon as he may, and for which all intelligent Ala bamians will look eagerly. He shall deal fully and freely with the history of the State of Alabama.
 The lives of individuals constitute the history of communities and periods. Know the life of a nation-chef and you know the history of his nation for his time. By these tokens, find in the index to the volume of history under consideration the name Houston. In page 713 it is recorded that George s. Houston was elected by the General Assembly of Alabama 10 the United States Senate in 1865; a fact, by the way, of which very few persdns are aware. Nine years later he was elected Governor. That short period was the most troubled Alabama ever passed through and the salient facts of it were salient facts in HOuSton'S life. In telling the SfOry of