The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-07-14

J .L L. M. CURRY: A BIOGRAPHY
 Edwin Anderson Alderman and Armi- ,ead Churchill Gordon. The Macmillan Company, New York.
 REVIEWED FOR THE BOOK SHELF" BY PROF CHARLES A. BROWN, PRINCIPAL OF THE BIR- MINGHAM HIGH sCHooL.)
 It Is refreshing, yes. stimulating, to i'd any book which pr Alderman. the
 tinguished president of the University
 Virginia or which pr. Gordon, the
 ed lawyer-author of Staunton Va, written: but when these gifted men
 'ously turn their attention to joint au-
 ship of the biography of man who
 aasiy the most conspicuous figure in
 .reat public school movement" of
 ines. one naturally expects to be l at along by the vigorous charm and grace which characterizes their
 !. This reader can say with all sin .eri that the book IS a masterly pre- sentation of the story of the life of a mar who did things, and great things, too, which have revolutionized southern ifo since the civil war, by men who arc
 ping in our time to bring to fruition ideals which pr. Curry, the ''crusa- Ser." preached pleaded for exhorted on, years ago. While he was by turn law yer. Baptist preacher college professor politician and diplomat. he used the op- portunity afforded by these fields to pop ularize the cause of universal education. With this wide range of successful achievement Dr. Curry found time to make a record of them; for he had the fore sight to see and to record with becoming modesty, rightly adorned by a just self esteem, the accommodating material of ., we'll spent life. He kept seven notebooks and scrapbooks, apart from the diary ho kept through many years, and in addi- tion preserved four volumes of letters and newspaper clippings together with many loose sheets and vagrant scraps of mem oraHda." With all of the material the problem for the author was one of discriminating selection and they have simply made the man tell his own story through liberal use of extracts from these sources.
 pr. Curry, native of Georgia, was ed ucated in the "old field schooP' with mad equate equipment. and was prepared for college in the Wilmington academy, where he had the good fortune to come in con tact with the Waddells, who were famous teachers In their day. Four years fin the Georgia academy. and two in the Harvard raw school, prepared him to enter the at the age of 21. The next year he IS a member of the legislature of Ala
 na (his parents having moved to Tal-
 lga in the 1nedntlmel. From that udte
 Il the date of his death he was in pub
 life as one of the souths ablest rep
 ,ntatives.
 Curry was an ardent secessionist and
 sd his belief in the right of the state
 gthdraw from the unfon on the stump
 In Congress. When the war was over
 recognized that question as being set
 :, and with great ability he entered
 the new problems with power, earn tness, and with the nope of being able
 assist in the development of an effi- mt citizenship In the runited republic
 After the war he went to Virginia, be- me a Baptist clergyman and a college ofessor. In 1885 he went as minister tn spain, where he was conspicuous figure 'n diplomatic and social circles In 1902 70 went as special ambassador to the . ronation of Alphonzo XIII.
 s lis chief work, however, was to be de- fted to the cause or Universal Educa- on and it was to this great field that he evoted the best of his life. AS agent for the Peabody Fund for Southern Educa- tion. he performed service. not only in the administrati ton of the money, but in travelling from state to state, visiting the Legislatures of most of the southern states and preaching the gospel of education as no other man has done in the history of the republic.
 As his biographers say. "He was a pleader and a teacher and an ambassador to a proud, capable, stricken, but indomi-