which a portion of mankind happens at the time to be placed." He illustrates this by the religious struggles of the Middle Ages and by the career of Philip II of Spain, and concludes: "To depict a man like Philip as a monster of iniquity, delighting in human misery, may gratify prejudice and may lend superficial life and vigor to narrative, but it teaches in reality no lesson. To represent him truthfully as the inevitable product of a distorted ethical conception is to trace effects to causes and to point out the way to improvement. This is not only the scientific method applied to history, but it ennobles the historian's labors."

Other articles are the Podesta of Siena, by Ferdinand Schwill; the Merchant Adventurers at Hamburg, by William E. Lingelbach; Naturalization in England and the American Colonies, by A. H. Carpenter; French Influence on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution, by C. A. Duniway; original documents of William Paterson on the Federal Convention of 1787; many book reviews.

THE AMERICAN MONTHLY MAGAZINE, January, February, March, 1904, Vol. XXIV, No. 1, 2, 3, pp. 98, 99-198, 203-298, $1.00 yearly, 10 cts. singly, Washington, D. C. (organ D. A. R.)

These three numbers contain the usual work of the chapters and other organization matter and Revolutionary records, with the usual historical essays by the following authors:

Shirley Douglas Chism, Annette Fitch Brewer, George D. Alden, Marianna F. Eddy, Margaret B. Harvey, Mary Belle King Sherman, Metta Thompson, Minnie R. Laubach, Clara L. H. Rawdon, Virginia Frazer Boyle, Caroline M. Custer, Marian Hunter Wright, Ella W. Harlow, Mrs. S. G. Smith.

THE NORTH CAROLINA BOOKLET for January, 1904, is by Hon. Walter Clark and deals with the Colony of Transyl

vania (Vol. 3, No. 9, pp. 39). Henderson's Journal, dealing with Transylvania from March 20 to July 25, 1775, of which the original is in the Draper Collection in the Wisconsin State Historical Society, is printed.

The February issue prints Social Conditions in Colonial North Carolina, by Alexander Q. Holladay. It is headed with a subtitle, "In Answer to Colonel William Byrd, of Westover, Virginia," and is an answer which does not reply to Colonel Byrd's criticisms written in 1728. After raging through thirty pages and covering the whole of the eighteenth century Mr. Holladay sits down out of breath, leaving his reader out of patience and with the profound impression that as an historian Mr. Holladay has missed his calling.

NOTES AND NEWS.

MEETING OF THE VIRGINIA HISTORICAL SOCIETY.-It will be a matter of pleasure to all historical students that this society is still so well supported financially. The last meeting, on Dec. 18, 1903, showed a slight falling off in membership, but a more favorable balance on the treasurer's report. A number of donations of books and works of art were noted. The outlook for greater activity in publication was very bright and a number of most interesting lines were pointed out as likely to be followed during the current year.

Especially to be commended is the firm tone of the president, when he insists on business methods on the part of members in paying their dues promptly. Officially another forward step was taken by the Executive Committee in resolving to drop all delinquents, as it was not right to allow them to receive the magazine free at the expense of their punctual fellow members.

The permanent fund is now over $4,000. The membership is 750. The receipts are about $4,000 and expenditures are some $500 less.

COLONIAL LOVE LETTERS.—If we are to judge from the high flown expressions the Rev. Elias Keach used in his letter of Aug. 24, 1696, to a widow, Mrs. Mary Helm, lovers in those times must have been literally consumed with affection. In the January Pennsylvania Historical Magazine we have his long letter all dealing with this tender passion in the style of the following as he winds up with his heart sick appeal: "Not be destitute of hope that the silver streams of my dearest affection and faithful love will be willingly received into the mill pond of your tender virgin heart, by your hauling up the flood gate of your virtuous love and affections, which will consequently turn the wheels

of your gracious will and understanding to receive the golden grain of effects of my steadfast love and unerring affection."

COLONIAL DISCIPLINE.-School masters in those days were not apt to be very tender in handling violations of conduct. One of them in Philadelphia in 1698, as related by the boy of thirteen years, "beat me very much with a thick stick upon my head until the blood came out, and also on my arms until the blood started through the skin, and both were so swelled that the swelling was to be seen so that it caused my clothes to stand out and the flesh was bruised that it turned black and yellow and green!" Thus we learn from the original on page 109 of the January Pennsylvania Historical Magazine.

MONUMENT TO BILL ARP.-A movement has been started to erect a memorial to Major Chas. H. Smith, better known as Bill Arp, the popular humorist. His contributions to literature appeared weekly in the Atlanta Constitution for a number of years and were widely read and extensively copied. There runs through all his writings a vein of kindness and charity, almost untouched with any feeling of bit

terness.

William Calhoun was one of four Calhoun brothers who came to South Carolina from Augusta County, Virginia, in 1756, and settled on Long Cane Creek in what is now Abbeville County. He was for some years a justice of the peace, and this little journal, which has his name written in lead pencil across the outside cover and bears conclusive internal evidence of having been his, contains a mixture of accounts, personal notes, official records and family records. It covers no particular period, the accounts and personal notes coming between 1760 and 1770, some family records earlier and some later. It contains references to many of the early settlers of the Up-Country of South Carolina and a few records that will be of great value to many families of that section, for it is to such contemporary records in private hands that we must turn for genealogical data about Up-Country families, as in none of the old districts of South Carolina, save Charleston District, were probate court and mesne conveyance records kept prior to 1785, and most of the districts were not established until 1798. And, moreover, the Presbyterians of the Up-Country kept no such excellent vital records as did the church people of the Low-Country, so that very little is to be gathered about the families of that section from public sources. The little book is now in the hands of Miss Eliza Calhoun, who lives at the Louise Home on Massachusetts Avenue, Washington, D. C. It is six inches long by three and a half wide, containing sixty-two pages, of which thirty are entirely blank. The cover of the book is apparently of heavy tough brown paper, double sheets, stitched together around the edges. The ink has slightly faded but is perfectly clear except in a very few places. The handwriting is very cramped and the exact spelling of some of the proper names cannot be guaranteed. The accounts were presumably all settled as all were marked off-with crosses mostly, and with a line drawn up and down in other places.