The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-10-10
MEN WHO HAVE MADE ALABAMA
by b. f. RILEY, ID. ID.

itself a thread of more or less brilliancy
in the history of a period. by SO much
is the history of that period read in the
lines of that career The highest lives
are nearest the universal flow, and to
translate them into language is to be able
largely to deineate the times In which
they flourished. The small life is incon-
spicuous and causitive of little; the great
life Is conspicuous and caustive of much.
The life of a great man. therefore, is not
biography. but a history. His pur-
pose and actions tend constantly to the
impersonal. He creates conditions, con-
ditions create society and society makes
the state.
The powerful personages of a great
state like ours, the products of three
generations, and that which they said
and did, make up the chief wool of the
fabric of our history. Within nine more
years Alabama will reach the hundredth
milestone of her history That history
has been not only eventful. 1t has been
respondent The state has given to the
country some of the nations brightest
| representatives. From varied spheres
men of greatness have risen from among
us and challenged the admiration of the
| people throughout this broad land oil
states. In the halls of legislation and or
the floor of the national Congress; at the
bar and on the bench; in the fields OF
commerce and of manufactures in the
orbit of scholarship and in the class room
of instruction; Oh the platform and in the
editorial office: In the domain of litera-
ture, both of prose and poetry, and on
the field of battle, Alabamians have been
conspicuous. The pages of her history
are radiant with names that form a con-
stellation of genuine greatness. To re-
cord the names and the deeds of these
meritorious ones is worthy the pen of
any one. To know them is a patriotic
obligation; to cherish their memory a
privilege.
The fathers wrought we'll and faithful
ly. Through a number of transitional
crises the state successfully borne
and the results have been transmitted to
later generation many of whom know
but Slightly of those who have gone be-
fore. The records OF the lives and deeds
of most of them exist, but in an iso-
lated and fragmentary way inaccessi-
BILE to the public. The purpose is to col
lect them and set them In order.
In a period of careful historical re-
search, when through the mass of error
accurate probing is being pursued, it is
gratifying that Alabama has In substan-
tial and successful form a really great
historical department under the superin-
tendency of DIR. Thomas M. Owens. For
tunately, he has a passion for work like
this, and his department at the capitol
is a comprehensive museum of valuable
relics and records SURPRISING any In any
state that have come under my observa-
ton. Quietly and undemonstratively he
has been actively and studiously engaged
for years In the collection of these, and
the ARA ngement of them in his depart
ment Is itself the work of a genius In
no other state of the south has the same
kind of work been so well done. A
rominent educator met the present
writer in Montgomery some months ago
and asked after the objects of interest
he might be able to visit in the city.
After naming several, the stranger was
especially enjoined to visit the historical
department, where he would be inter
ested and entertained for several hours.
Later he was met In Mobile and was pro-
fuse in the expression of his gratitude
for having been directed to the historical
department at Montgomery. But for this