The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-05-25
DOES THE NORTH WANT THE
TRUTH


The history Of Southern heroism and
Southern civilization. entitled Half
Hours in Southern History written
by Prof. j. Leslie Hall, OF william
and Mary College, and published in
beautiful form by the B. F. johnson
Co. of Richmond, has been scornfully
received by some of the leading pa
pers OF the North The Cleveland, (O.)
Plain Dealer, after speaking favorably
of the chapters on the so-called 'Old
South" says:
His people were thrashed, thrashed
with terrible severity, by a bigger
brother who was stalwart enough to
be able to administer the merited chas-
tisement. And the insult of having
been whipped still rankles, even though
the most partisan writer cannot but
admit that there was no other course
possible. Undoubtedly the book will be
read with hearty approval by the APP
parently increasing class of Southern
ers who seek to revivify the almost
forgotten animosities.
In a similar spirit The New York Sun
says:
It was to be hoped that the foolish
and mischievous spirit shown in Half
Hours in Southern History" was
completely extinct. The author has a
State rights and in the justice of the
Southern cause. He prefers abuse to
argument, however. With his sketches
OF eminent southerners except for the
to find; the great men of our history
before the war belong to the whole
country, and even to the Confederate
heroes like Lee and Jackson the North
does w
show the authors method: John Mar
shall, also, unconsciously forged chains
to bind his State and his people. Sc
lected as Chief Justice by John Ad-
ans, the retiring Federal President,
this great virginian interpreted the
Constitution in such way as to make
himself one of the few Southern men
that have never been abused by bill
lingsgate orators of the North and
claptrap performers of history
In far happier vein. however. the
New England journal of Education
says:
No book could be more welcome or
of greater service. Professor Hall was
a mere boy when the Civil War closed,
so that he has none of the relationship
20 that war, for good or Ill, which
would have been probable had he been
born ten years earlier. His university
work was at Johns Hopkins, which
gave g0OO DlenulnS OF northern ana
Southern associations. He is an his
torian with national reputation to
maintain, and as an historian he writes.
OF course he is a Southern man and
he must hold his Southern audience,
which he has certainly done, but he
has not done 1T by appealing to pref
udices but by magnifying. primarily,
the early glory of the Southland, and
by making personal heroes of the in
dividuals who manifested bravery in
various fields. The method of treat
ment is fascinating. 1t is the modern
paragrapher's ideal, in that each spe-
cial subject--about 220--is put with all
that will be read by all Southern stu
dents and scholars, and 1t should be
read as universally in the North. It
would do us all good.
The book is being received most en-
Enthusiastically by great Southern papers
and prominent men of the South An
eminent authority on the South, writ
ing to Professor Hall. says:
IT regard your work as one of the
most valuable to the South, and espe-
cially to the young people of the
South. that has come under my obser-
walton since the war Thank
pie for the work." ..
The Norfolk Landmark. in an edito-
rial. says:
He is aggressive, polemical, often
vehement in the assertion of the South's
services and sacrifices, but there is
work.