"It is time for us to awake and be do. ^,. It is not only for ourselves that we are to write history. You know the history of this country. * * * Ton are the South. You and your like have made the history of the South. All that we want is that when you pass away, your children and your childrens children shall not, when they go to the records of the time, find that you were traitors to your country; that you were determined to establish a republic based upon human slavery or to destroy the Union; but that you went out of the Union inspired by as pure a purpose as ever animated a people." From an Address by THOMAS NELSOX PAGE to the Confederate Veterans of Virinia. "History knows not, and never will know in all the course of time, any more superb figure than the private soldier of the Confederacy. He stands forever as one of the noblest types the world has ever known of the patriotic soldier." Baltimore Sitn. A LITERARY FRAUD UNMASKED. HOW IT FALSIFIES HISTORY TRADUCES THE SOUTH HOff IT IS IMPOSED UPON THE PUBLIC. " History, poetry, romance, art, public opinion, have been most unjust to the South. By perverse reiteration, its annals, its acts, its inner feelings, its purposes, have been grossly misrepresented. * * * History, as written, if accepted in future years, will consign the South to infamy.* J. L. M. CURRY, in '-'The Southern States of the American Uniin" (Gk P. Putnams Sons, Xew York.) EXTEKED ACCORDING TO ACT OF CONGRESS, ix THE YEAR 1895, BY T. K. OGLESBY, Ix THE OFFICE OF THE LIBRARIAN* OF COXGUESS. AT "\VASHIXGTOX. [Our readers remember the presence here a few months ago of a body of boomers from Chicago for a piratical edition of the encyclopedia Britannica. They also remember the part taken by the Houston Post ia the game the pirates played upon our people, and how Dick Dowling camp exposed and denounced the slanders of the South in the book which the Chi cago pirates and the Post were engaged in circulating, and how the pirates shortly thereafter speedily departed from Texas. They left here and never stopped till they got to Georgia, where, it seems, they thought they could safely and successfully resume the game they had played here so successfully, with the aid of the Post. They were badly mistaken. The Georgia Veterans have heard from Texas, and have appointed a committee to investigate the Britannica, and Mr. T. K. Oglesby, a Georgian now in Houston, who is known to be pretty fa miliar with the Britannica and the peculiar methods of its pirate boomers, has been written to for information on the subject. He has responded in a letter published in to-days Herald, which will be followed by other letters, all of which will be pub lished in the Herald, and will be of interest to all who like to see fraud exposed, and who want to know just what sort of a book the so-called Britannica is.] Houston (Texas) Daily Herald, Xov. 3, 1S94. LETTER NO. I. HOUSTON, TEX., Nov. 1., 94: DEAR SIR: I have your letter informing me that the Confederate Veterans of Atlanta have appointed a committee to consider the communication of Dick Dowling Camp touching the edition of the Encyclope dia Britannica (so-called) now being circulated in this country by a firm styled The Werner Company, of Chicago, and reqnesting me to give any information I can as to the book that will be of service to the committee in its investigation. The book is what is known as the R. S. Peale reprint of the Britannica, and was sold by Peale himself until he sold out to The Werner Company. It will afford me pleasure to render the committee any service I can in the interest of truth and in checking the dissemination of literature that falsifies his tory and sla.nders the people of the South, as does the book under consideration. And I take especial pleasure in complying with your request because I have many friends in Atlanta and Georgia, where the book is -now being offered for sale, whom I should regret to see inveigled in the meshes of the tricksters who are im posing it upon the public. Many people here, are floundering in those meshes now, who would sell the book for a great deal less than it cost them. I can give the committee much information that will be of service to them in the way of UNMASKING THE HUGE FRAUD called "the new up-to-date edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica." The in formation that I can give them is much more, indeed, than can be conveniently or appropriately embraced within the limits of one letter, and I shall, therefore, con vey it in a series of communications or articles through the Houston Daily Herald, with a view, first, to their serving, in this form, the immediate purpose of the committee; and secondly, to their publication and circulation in pamphlet form (with other matter that may not conveniently be embodied in these letters) for the benefit of the public generally, and especially for the benefit of the particular com munity in which that work may hereafter be offered for sale; though my opinion is that, after I shall have completed the purposed publication and it has been generally circulated, there will be no more efforts made to sell the "new up-to-date edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica* in the South and that no man, North or South, who may read the exposure of its untruthfulness an^who wants a trust worthy book of reference, will buy it. ^fSjTvEfl 4 A LITERARY FRAUD UNMASKED. SOLD UNDER FALSE REPRESENTATIONS. Another object that I have in view is the putting together, in convenient shape for the use of many who ordered the book, the published representations that induced them to order it. Here those representations were made through and by the Houslon Post, and it was unquestionably because of their having been so made that many of the readers of that paper bought or gave their orders for the work. I shall show how far these representations fell short of no, how far they went beyond the truth, and this being shown, it is clear that no one misled by them into ordering the book is morally bound to take it or keep it and pay for it. And I think it will be difficult to find a jury in this country that will hold a man legally bqund to pay for a piece of property sold under such flagrant misrepresentation as that under which this book was sold to the unsuspecting people of Texas who bought it, especially after its blackening slanders of themselves and their ances tors have been read to the jury. In fact, one of the foremost lawyers of this State has given it as his opinion that one who has already paid for the book has good ground for the recovery of the purchase money, on account of failure of consid eration. NOT A FACSIMILE OF THE GENUINE BRITANNICA. One thing that I shall especially show is the falseness of the representation that this Encyclopedia is a facsimile of the ninth Edinburgh edition of the Brit- annica. Many who bought this Chicago book did so because they were assured that it is a facsimile of the genuine Britannica, revised to date. I shall show that it is not a facsimile and is not revised as represented. Yours very truly, T. K. OGLESBY. LETTER NO. II. JUDGE LOWNDES CALHOUN, GEN. CLEMENT A. EVANS, REV. T. P. CLEVELAND and others, committee of Fukon County Camp, U. C. V., Atlanta, Georgia. GEN TLEMEN: The veterans of Dick Dowling Camp, from whom you have recently received a communication, are gratified to learn of the appointment of )Tour com mittee, as a preliminary to proper action by the Fulton County Camp in regard to the subject matter of that communication, to wit: The falsification of history in the work called the new up-to-date edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, re cently circulated in this State and now being circulated in other sections of the country by the Werner Company of Chicago. You have been correctly informed as to the exposure here of the slanderous misrepresentation of the South in that publication. The exposure was made through the columns of :he Houston Daily Herald, which editorially denounced the work as a falsifier of history, A VILIFIER OF THE SOUTH, and a fraud, a sham, and a swindle; and declared that no one who had been in duced to order it by the representations made of it by its agents and through the newspapers that were paid to publish, in their own names, false representations of it, could be held bound, either in law or morals, to take it or keep it and pay for it. The Herald quoted some of its grossest and most offensive and injurious slan ders of the South, and said: "It is enough to make the sacred dust of the Souths hero dead stir with in dignant life when those born and reared upon her own soil strike hands, for lucres sake, with her maligners in the work of circulating such statements as the truth of history!" A LITERARY FRAUD UNMASKED. & THE CONFEDERATE VETERANS DENOUNCE IT/ Then the United Confederate Veterans of Houston (Dick DowlingCamp) held a special meeting at which they unanimously adopted resolutions denouncing the work for its utterly false, slanderous and misleading statements about the South, which, the} said, "show unmistakable evidence of having been inspired by a com bination of malice and ignorance," and they addeu: * v\Ve would impress upon all who want the truth concerning American history the necessity of seeking it else where than in the pages of that encyclopedia. Especially do we urge Southern parents not to point their children to it for that truth/ GENERAL LEES REsvLUil.JX. I should state here, too, that in April last the Convention of United Confed erate Veterans at Birmingham adopted a resolution ;n these words: 4 We cannot impress too strongly upon :he prore <.-( the South the importance of guarding their children against the effecT s (-i literature in any foim that distorts the truth of history, either by misrepresentation or suppression, and in this con nection we would-especially direct attention to the gross violation both by asser tion and suppression of that truth, serious!} affecting the reputation of the South ern people, by tiie work called the Encyclopedia Britannica, now being cir culated in this country." This resolution was introduced by General Stephen D. Lee. WHY IT SHOULD BE REJECTED. While this book should, unquestionably, be rejected by the people of the South because of the false light the degraded position in which it places them before the world, the methods by which 11 is sold should be sternly condemned by all who believe in honest dealing with the public by publishers if books, by all who believe in honest dealing between man and man. They are not. the methods by which books are sold by publishers of such standing as Houghton, Mifiiin : Co., G. P. Putnams Sons, D. Appleton & Co., Charles Scribners Sons, Harper & Brothers, the J. B. Lippincott Co., and others of like standing with these. The methods to which the publishers or managers of this book resort in order to sell it are disreputable, un truthful and deceptive, and should "be frowned down by the American people. In resorting to them those publishers or managers practice fraud upon the public fraud upon every one induced by those methods to buy the book. * HOW THEY GET NEWSPAPER ENDORSEMENTS. Briefly and plainly, in each locality where they operate they pay a newspaper to publish false representations .of the book, and to publish them in the name of the paper itself, so that the public shall understand that the book is endorsed by the paper that the paper vouches for the truthfulness of their representations. In other words, they pay the paper to sign its name or permit its name to be signed to a false representation, by which the public is grossly deceived and many people are induced to buy what, without such representation, they would not have bought. For their ally in this plan they select, where practicable, the leading paper of the place where they are operating, and it is almost always practicable. They well know that the sale of the book depends urlon keeping trie public from being informed of its true character, hence, when circumstances seem to make it advisa ble, they do not hesitate to pay all the papers in the place such sums as may be necessary to close their columns against such information. For a money consid eration these papers agree to publish nothing that would interfere with the scheme of The Werner Company for imposing the book upon the public as a facsimile of 6 A LITERARY FRAUD UNMASKED. the genuine Britannica and as an "absolutely reliable, up-to-date authority on all subjects," and they at the same time agree not to accept advertisements of any other encyclopedia. Having thus muzzled the press, the piratical publishers find little or no difficulty in operating their fraudulent scheme. It is a shrewd scheme, worthy of its Chicago concocters; but it is deeply to be deplored that they have found ready allies among Southern newspapers. In my next I will give some specimens cjf the representations made to the people of Texas about this book, and in succeeding communications will contrast those representations with the facts as revealed by an examination of it. My pur pose is to inform you and through you the public at large thoroughly and indis putably, of the fraudulent and slanderous character, the unveracity and inade- quateness of this Chicago pubiicatfon. Yours very truly, Houston, Tex., Nov. 5, 1804:. T. K. OGLESBV. LETTER NO. III. One of the tricks of the piratical Chicago publishers of the so-called up-todate Britannica is the telegram trick, which is played in this way: After a com munity has been dosed and bombarded with their flamboyant advertising until it has become evident that some new device is needed for the whetting of jaded pub lic interest and catching a few more of the uninformed, innocent and credulous natives, a telegram appears in the paper which they have hired to help them work their game on the public a telegram, purporting to have come directly from the Werner Company at Chicago, instructing the paper to withdraw the offer of intro ductory rates to purchasers of the Encyclopedia after a certain date in the near future. That date arrives and is past and the paper announces its deep regret that it cannot furnish the book at the introductory rates to the many who delayed the sending of their orcjers till after the date named It even mentions one or two instances wheie "introductory rates" were refused to persons who were "just a few minutes too late" with their orders. Matters are allowed to stand in this shape for a short while, the paper in the meantime condoling with the unfortunate people who failed to avail themselves of the unparalleled offer that had been made them, when another telegram appears, permitting the renewal of that offer for a short time, or an announcement of per mission to renew it is made by the paper, which goes on to inform its readers what strenuous exertions it made to obtain the permission-exertions-that extended even to the sending to Chicago of a special representative of the paper to specially intercede with the publishers to give its readers one more chance to get the great, new, up-to-date Britannica at introductory rates, and those readers are then urged by all the power of Chicago English to avail themselves of the opportunity thus generous!} re-offered to them, for it is liable to be withdrawn at any moment, and then they will never, never, never have such a chance again. Such, at any rate, was the way and such the terms, in substance, in which the game was worked here by the Chicago sharpers and their newspaper ally, the Houston Post. Now, the telegrams (so-called) were simply fakes simply a part of the elab orately and cunningly concocted scheme for duping the people. They appeared in papers published in different places and far apart, and yet they were in the same handwriting in all the papers. And it has been ascertained that the "unpar alleled introductory rates" which the Post was so proud of having obtained for its readers ranged from $12,00 to 20.00 higher than the rates for which the work was sold in the north. Do publishers who practice such trickery as this deserve the patronage or respect of the public? Can you imagine either of the firms named in my preceding letter resorting to fake telegrams and the other devices prac ticed by this Chicago company in order to sell books? A LITERARY FRAUD UNMASKED. 7 Unless this exposure prevents it. or some other scheme, to be substituted for it, has been evolved from the fertile brains of the Chicago tricksters, you will prob ably soon have an opportunity of reading a "facsimile" of the fake telegram that did duty for them in Houston. And when you do see it, if you have any friends who are in danger of being moved by the powerful "last chance" exhortations that accompany it, or follow hard after it, say to them that there are several car-loads of the great new up-to-date Britannica that, before the exposure by the Herald and the action of Dick Bowling Camp, were unloaded on the people of Texas, -which they will gladly ship to their brethren in Georgia at rates far lower than the "unpar alleled introductory rates" now offered them and the Texans they will pay the freight. The detailing of the telegram trick in this letter compels me to postpone till the next one the representations by which the people here were duped into buying the book. Yours very truly, T. K. OGLESEY. Houston, Texas. Nov. 6, 1894. LETTER NO. IV. A hundred, or seventy-five, or fifty dollars is a considerable sum to pay for.a book, and when either of these amounts is invested in a book the person so in vesting it ought to get just what he was told he would get for it. A book, like any other article or piece of property offered for sale, ought to come up to the rep resentation made of it by the seller the representation that induced the purchaser to buy. If the owner of the book or other piece of property, or the agent of that owner, sells it by representing it to be what it is not, fraud has been perpetrated against the person induced by the false representation to buy the property, and he has the moral and legal right to refuse to pay for it or to recover his money if he has paid for it. SUBSCRIBERS NOT BOUND TO PAY FOR IT. I shall give in this letter the representations made by The Werner Company and by the Houston Post in regard to the encyclopedia published by that Compa ny, and shall then show that they were and are false representations. This being shown, it follows as a matter of course that no person induced by these representa tions to order the book is legally or morally bound to pay for it, and if he has paid for it he is legally and morally entitled to a recovery of his money. Many who ordered the work have discovered the fraud that was practiced on them, and have refused to take it or to pay for it, and many more will do so when they have read the exposure of the fraud in these letters. Some who have already made several payments on the book prefer to lose the amounts paid rather than to con tinue payments and keep the book in their houses, now that they have discovered its true character and the deception practiced on themselves to get their orders. If I were one of these I would bring suit against the publishers or sellers of the book for the mone\r they had fraudulent!}* obtained from ine. I should most as suredly do so, and I would read to and place in the hands of the jury the following REPRESENTATIONS OF THE BOOK. "This is the only Complete and Unabridged Edition of this Great Work" (the Encyclopedia Britannica) "in existence." Houston Daily Potf, March 8,1894. "We will guarantee this work to be precisely as represented in every way." Post, March 9. "Too much emphasis cannot be given to the fact that the edition of the En cyclopedia Britannica which we are offering to our readers upon such liberal terms, is a reproduction of the great Edinburgh work, with all its wealth of information, 8 A LITERARY FRAUD UNMASKED. beauty of illustration, and completeness of finish." Post, March 12. (There are blind men who would know that this is not so, by merely feeling of a volume of each edition the Edinburgh and the Chicago edition. Any one who compares the two editions together will see at a, glance how egregiously and preposterously un true this statement is, and yet, on March 22, the Post went even further than this and represented the Chicago book as being superior to the Edinburgh work, "both from a literary* and mechanical standpointi ") "The student, teacher, or busy man who turns to the pages of this work may rest content that what he finds therein is the latest and best, no matter what topic is dealt with. It is accurate. It is reliable." Post, March 14. "Thirty thousand dollars has been expended in adding to the Ninth English Edition . Nothing eliminated" Post, March 15. "Do not forget that the great New Up To Date Edition is complete in 28 large quarto volumes, revised to date, the revision consisting wholly in adding to the original and not a line is taken away." Post, March 18, 19. "Then, too, the information may be relied upon. It is absolute authority on all subject^." "It is the supreme authority to which appeal can be made * * * for a limited time offered to Post subscribers upon the easy payments of 10 cents a day." (I have not at hand the exact dates of these two statements, but think they were between the last date above named and the 22d of April.) "The complete set, as offered by the Post, contains not only all that is in the Edinburgh latest edition, but much more; three volumes of American additions and revisions, bringing all the subjects embraced in the entire work up to the pres ent time." Post, April 21. "You can get it for 10 cents a day, the famous Encyclopedia Britannica. The ninth (the latest) edition, brought down to date. Everything complete, not a word left out. Twenty-eight elegant volumes, on fine quality paper, and beau- tifullv bound, and everything as elegant as can be desired for the finest library.* Post, April 28, 30. "Upon whatever subject, what is said may be depended upon as being the latest and most accurate knowledge available." Post, June 5. "An exact fac-simile copy of the ninth edition of the Encyclopedia Britan nica. " Publisher's Preface. Such is the book as it was. and is represented. In succeeding letters I shall show you the book as it is. I will give you the facts versus the repre sentations, just as I would give them to the jury before whom I had brought suit to recover the money out of which I had been defrauded by those representations. Yours Very Truly, T. K. OGLESBY. Houston, Texas, Nov., 7, 1894.- LETTER XO. V. In accordance with my promise in the Herald of yesterday, I proceed with the statement of the results of my examination of the work called the Encyclopedia Brit annica, published by The Werner Company, of Chicago, and sold here through the agency of the Houston Post, and now being offered for sale to the people of Georgia. It is a pleasure to me to UNMASK AND EXPOSE THE IMPOSTURE, the fraud which has been palmed off upon this community and the people of Texas by that company of piratical publishers, and which they are now seeking to impose upon the people of Georgia. I derive much satisfaction from the knowledge that their fraudulent designs against the pockets of the people of Georgia will be thwarted A LITERARY FRAUD UNMASKED. by the circulation in that State of the letters I am now addressing to you. There should be no place left in the South whereon they could rest the soles of their feet as long as they are engaged in the prosecution of those designs. I mean that pub lishers who resort to the methods practiced by that company in the publication and sale of this so-called facsimile of the Encyclopedia Britannica publishers who, in order to sell their goods, deliberately and unscrupulously misrepresent them to the public, as that company has misrepresented this Encyclopedia are not entitled to, and should not receive the patronage nor the respectful treatment of the people of the South, but should be made to feel the lack of both in such a manner as to com pel them to abandon her soil. THE HOUSTON POST*S ANNOUNCEMENT EXTRAORDINARY. The Houston Post, on July ist, announced that the "great Werner Company" was going to establish "a great publishing house in the South/ and the prospect made The Post feel so good that it devoted over five columns to the laudation of the. "New Up-To-Date Britannica" and the "great Werner Company." "The acquisition of such a large publishing concern as thev are taking steps to establish here, means much to the South", said the Post. "It gives us assurance that we are at last to have a great publishing house in full sympathy with us, and determined to provide books in which even a rabid ob jector could find no flaw, and which should be especially suited for the oft needed reference of all classes," said the Pc-st. "The value to the South of the location here of so great a publishing house, pledged to secure for the South complete vindication from aspersion, with ample cap ital to secure for the section just what she wants in.books, and with the skill to pro vide what is wanted,j is too ^sjrreat to be licgi*htly turned aside. " said the Post. How this "great publishing house" has "vindicated the South from aspersion* was shown by the resolutions of the veterans of Dick Dowling Camp, and will be more fully shown in these letters, and many people in this community, who believed what the Post told them, have on their shelves now to their great regret and cha grin ocular and tangible demonstration of the "skill" with which this 4great publish ing house provides books especially suited to the oft-needed reference of all classes, and just what the South wants." NOT WANTED IN THE SOUTH. If the "Up-To-Date Britannica" is a fair sample of the work turned out by this "great publishing house," we want no such house in the South. If it illustrates that houses notion of what constitutes a "vindication of the South from aspersion," the South the Houston Post to the contrary notwithstanding neither wants nor needs any such house. If it illustrates that houses idea of the kind of books the South wants, it shows what a low estimate the house places upon the intelligence, spirit and patriotism of the people of the South. If it illustrates that houses idea of the kind of book "especially suited for the oft-needed reference of all classes," it shows that the house has no conception of the sort of book suited for the oft-needed reference of all classes. And the South neither wants nor needs any house of any kind that sets the corrupting example of misrepresenting its goods in order to sell them. Ex amples of that sort are pernicious and injurious to any community, and those who set them should, as I have said, have neither ihe respect nor the patronage of the public. IT NEVER MATERIALIZED. Visions of full page advertisements by the score must have floated before the Post when it published its five-column gusher about "the great Werner Company." But those visions were not destined to be realized, for the summer has come and 10 A LITERARY FRAUD UNMASKED. gone, and all of the "great publishing house" that the ides of November find here is a man on a bicycle, collecting or trying to collect money from the people who were duped by the Post into investing "only 10 cents a day in "the great new up-to-date Britannica/ The interesting extracts from the Post which I have given in this letter compel me ,from lack of space, to defer till my next one the entering upon the exhibit of facts showing the falseness of the representations quoted in my last letter. Yours Very Truly, T. K. OGLESBY. Houston, Texas, Nov. 8, 1894. LETTER NO. VI. Of course the Werner Company was merely "stuffing" the Post when it talked about establishing a publishing house down here merely talking through its hat, as it were. It was simply a part of the game which that company, with the aid and connivance of the Post^ was playing on the people of Texas to induce them to invest "only 10 cents a day" in the huge fraud called the new up to-date Britannica. It must have been highly amusing to the piratical Chicago concern when it read The Posfs article telling the Texans how that concern loved the South so dearly that it was going to move down here on purpose to publish books vindicating her people from aspersion. THE PEOPLE WERE MISLED BY THE POST. In my letter of the 7th instant I gave you, verbatim, the representations upon which the so called up-to-date Britannica of The Werner Company was sold here, which representations were repeated by the Post^ in varying form, from day to day, for many weeks. By them the readers of the Post were given to understand, as plainly and unequivocally as words could convey the impression, that the Post was offering to them, upon remarkably liberal terms, a work which it guaranteed to be a facsimile of the ninth and latest Edinburgh editon of the Encyclopedia Britannica, together with three additional volumes, the whole constituting a work that contains the very latest information upon every subject known to the human mind, and \vhose every statement upon any and every subject is absolutely true. In conse quence of those representations by their home paper many of the readers of the Post bought the \vork. THE FACTS VERSUS THE REPRESENTS TIOXS. Nov.* the facts are that The Werner Companys publication the work offered by the Pest--" is not a facsimile of the ninth and latest Edinburgh edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica. nor of any other edition of the Britannica. * Facsimile," says the Century Dictionary, means "an exact copy or counterpart, an imitation of an original in all its proportions, qualities, and peculiarities." The work offered by the Posf is not, as stated by the Post, <4a reproduction of the great Edinburgh work, with all its wealth of information, beauty of illustraation, and completeness of finish." It dees not, as stated by the Post, contain all that is in the Edinburgh latest edition." It has not, as stated by the Post, eliminated nothing" taken away no line" "left out no word in the Edinburgh edition. On the contrary it has LEFT OUT WHOLE ARTICLED that are in that edition and substituted other and inferior articles in their places. Irs piratical publishers did this because the eliminated articles were copyrighted, or "patented," in this country by the publishers of the Edinburgh edition, and they The Werner Company, the Chicago pirates knew they would be subjected to prosecution and damages if they put those articles in their pirated reprint. A LITERARY FRAUD UNMASKED. 11 Therefore, of Saintsburys fine article on French Literature, comprising nearly fifty pages of the genuine Britannica, only the last fourteen lines are reproduced in the so-called facsimile (although its publishers unblushingly state, in the "Table of Principal Contents" of volume IX, of that work, that the entire article is from Saintsburys pen); and therefore that part of the article on Germany which treats of German History and makes more than fifty pages of the genuine Britannica, does not appear in the Chicago "facsimile." For the same reason the genuine Britannicas article on THE UNITED STATES, comprising more than a hundred pages, does not appear in the "facsimile," but is substituted by one written by a Chicago preacher, whose ignorance of his subject arid whose prejudice and venom against the South are conspicuously displayed by glaring inaccuracies and gross misrepresentations. He is described as a bishop of the "Reformed Episcopal Church," but if his attempt at reforming the Encyclopedia Britannicas historical department is a fair sample of his capacity for and method of reforming things, I should say that the Episcopal church has not been improved by any reforming it has experienced at his hands. It is as though one had bought a book represented as containing Shakespeares Plays, and found in it, instead of Shakespeares Hamlet, a Hamlet written by a Boston dilettante, or as if one had bought a book labelled Macaulays Essays and found in it, in place of Macaulays essay on Milton, an article on that sublime poet by a Chicago porkpacker. ANOTHER OMITTED ARTICLE, AND A DISGUSTED PURCHASER. The article on "Heat" in the original ninth edition of the genuine Britannica was written by Sir William Thomson. Desiring to read a part of it the other day, and not having that edition at hand, but being in the office of a gentleman who had bought the Chicago book under the impression (produced by the Houston Post's positive and unqualified representations) that it was a facsimile of the Brit annica, I turned to it and found that it contained no part of Sir William Thom sons article. This caused the gentleman who had bought it to institute an investi gation of his "facsimile," and the further he proceeded with the investigation the more disgusted he became and the more indignant over the fraud that had been practiced on him in the name of the Britannica and of the Houston Post, and he finally notified the agents of the Chicago concern that he would make no further payments on the book that they could keep what he had already paid them, and take the book back, as he had found that it fell so far short of the representations made of i% and is so deficient and so inaccurate as to release him from all obligations to pay anything more on it and from aH desire to keep it. He is a man who takes .an intelligent interest in religious subjects, too, and he was much surprised to fine! that a work represented to be so ail-embracing as the Encyclopedia Britacrnca has no article on so important a subject as the "Atonement." Further facts in contrast with the representations will be published to-morrow. Yours very truly, T. K. OGLESEY. Houston, TV.v., N7ov. 9, 1804. V LETTER NO. VII. I will not consume time and space in naming other important articles in the genuine Britannica that are not in the so-called facsimile. I have already shown the absolute falseness of the claim that "not a word of the original has been left out" of the pirated Chicago edition, and I have said nothing of omitted and de fective maps and plates, of which there are many. I "will allude here only to 12 A LITERARY FRAUD UNMASKED. THE MAPS OF TEXAS AND GEORGIA (as they appear in the copies of the work sold in this State), in the first of which ever forty counties that ought to be at the north-west corner of the map are put off by themselves in the south-west corner, while the map of Georgia (in all copies of the book I have seen here), instead of accompanying the article on that State, as it does in all properly constructed Encyclopedias, is attached to the article on the Georgia in Asiatic Russia. DISTRESSING NEWS FROM GEORGIA. Speaking of Georgia, by the way, I notice that, according to this Encyclopedia, that State has undergone a very remarkable physical change since I was in it. When I was last there the Stare contained more than 3^,000,000 acres of land nearly twice as many as South Carolina has, but the up-to-date Britannica (as it reads here in Tex.is), informs me that Georgia has now only 7.120,000 acres, or but little more than one-third of the number of acres South Carolina has. This is an astounding shrinkage of acreage to have taken place wilhin two years, and it warns me that if I want to get one more glimpse (as I certainly do) of the sacred soil of the dear old State before it has vanished from mortal sight forever, I have no time to lose in getting 5c. In view of the Houston Post's positive assurance that whatever this book says on any subject is absolutely accurate, you will under stand, gentlemen, the distressing state of mind into which I am plunged by what it says about Georgias acreage, and will sympathize with the emotions that make it impossible for me to write more .on this occasion. It .is true that a ray of hope, a morsel of comfort comes to me in the Atlanta Constitution of the 2d instant, which editorially (fourth page, second column) declares that "there are just as many acres of land tc-day in the State of Georgia as there has ever been," but then there are still the up-to-date Britannica and the Houston Post against the Consti tution, and I know it is but natural that the Constitution would be loth to admit would be slow to perceive so distressing a fact as the up-to-date Britannica announces, and I am so troubled about the matter that I must lay down my pen or, rather, let it drop from 1113* nerveless grasp with the hope that the balm of the intervening Sabbath will enable me to take it up again next week in a more cheerful frame of mind. Yours verv truly, T. K. OGLESEV. Houston, Tex., Nov. 10. 1804. LETTER NO. VIII. The Houston Post, in urging its readers to send in their orders to the Post for the "up-to date Britannica," assured them, as I have shown by extracts from thePost in my letter of the ?th instant (letter IV of this series), that the information in it "may be relied upon," that "it is absolute authority upon all subjects the supreme .authority to which appeal can be made," and it printed a picture of two men represented as having made a bet on some historical question and decided it by appealing to the said authority. The picture shows the .winning man, with a broad smile on his face and the Britannica in his hand, seated in a wheelbarrow which the other man was pushing. The picture is headed "You Bet!" I will give you some statements by the "up-to-date Britannica" in regard to some subjects about which it has lately been consulted here. NEWS FOR GENERAL GORDON. Just before General Gordons visit to Houston on his recent lecturing tour a party of gentlemen were talking of the public men and affairs of the country, when allusion was made to the generals expected visit, and one of the party wanted to know where General Gordon was educated and what public positions he had held A LITERARY FRAUD UNMASKED. 13 in civil life besides those of senator and governor. The gentleman in whose office the party was assembled was one of those who had been induced by the Houston Post to invest about a hundred dollars in the "up-to-date Britannica," and he promptly turned to it for the desired information and read from its pages that Gen. Gordon was educated at the university of Virginia, and that among the public positions he has held was that of State railroad commissioner. Now I dont suppose that any of the members of your committee bet at all, but if you were to bet on this question Id bet that there is not one of you who wouldnt bet that Gen. Gordon was not educated at the university of Virginia, and that he never held the office of State railroad commissioner; that is, you would have bet that way before you got the information 1 have just given you from the "up-to-date Britannica the supreme authority to which appeal can be made." And Ill bet a wheelbarrow ride that Gen. Gordon himself has no recollec tion of the time when he was a student at the university of Virginia, nor of the time when he was a State railroad commissioner. But if you will call his attention to what the absolutely reliable up-to-date Britannica says on this subject perhaps his memory will be refreshed. NEWS FOR IXGALLS TOO. And ex-Senator Ingalls will doubtless be as much surprised to learn from this Encyclopedia that he was once secretary of State in Kansas as Gen. Gordonwill be when he is reminded by it of his having been railroad commissioner in Georgia. Ill go another wheelbarrow ride that neither Mr, Ingalls nor the people of Kansas have any recollection of his ever having been secretary of State in Kansas. "MARSHALL" j. CRAWFORD. In the same volume with the article on Gen. Gordon (American Revisions and Additions), is an article on John Forsyth, Jr., in which it is stated that he, "in 1861, with Marshall J. Crawford, represented the Confederate States as com missioner to the national government." Now I have always understood that the name of the Georgia commissioner who went with Mr. Forsyth to Washington in 18(51, was Martin J. Crawford, and I am sure that there is r>ot a member of your committee not under the same impression, but if one of you were to bet that way and leave the decision to the up-to-date Britannica, you see you would lose the bet. Vou will notice that the article on Mr. Forsyth doesnt say where he was born, neither does the article on his distinguished father say where he was born. Omis sion to give the birthplaces of the subjects of its biographical sketches is one of the remarkable features of this remarkable encyclopedia. LINCOLN, DAVIS AND BUTLER. You will doubtless be somewhat surprised to learn from this encyclopedia that Abraham Lincoln was the seventeenth president of the United States and that Jefferson Davis issued his proclamation of outlawry against B. F. Butler in retaliation for Lincolns emancipation proclamation but that is what the up-to-date Britannica furnished by the Houston Post\.Q its readers says in its article on Lincoln (Vol. 14, page 058), and its article on Davis (American Revisions, page 547, paragraph 2.) Prior to the reading of the articles just named I was under the im pression that Lincoln was the sixteenth president, and that the proc lamation of outlawry against Butler >vas issued long before the emancipation proclamation, and in retaliation for his brutal order in regard to the ladies of Xew Orleans. I had been so informed by all other histories and biographies I had read on these subjects, and I wouldnt have hesitated to bet a wheelbarrow ride or even 14 A LITERARY FRAUD UNMASKED. seventy-five cents that such were the facts. But "the supreme authority," you see, would have been against me, and I would have lost the bet by an appeal to that authority. MORE ABOUT MR. DA VIS. The same authority also informs me that Mr. Davis "was appointed commanderin-chief of the Southern army," and was afterwards, to wit, "on February 18, 18. on the lioor -of the Senate after the adjournment of the members. He repeatedly struck Sumner on the head with a cane, till the latter fell insensible to the floor. Sumners speech on Kansas had provoked the wrath of Southern mem bers, and Brooks took this method of showing his disapproval. * * * * * He was afterwards implicated in a quarrel with Anson Burlingame. and a duel was arranged to be fought in Canada, but Brooks failed to appear; he dared not risk going^ through the enemys country. " Cai up the saw artist and the plug editor right away, and lets have another edition of the sjreat up-to daie Britannica got out, quick, before we begin to sell jt in South Carolina, and especially before our agents get into Edgefield county! 0 A LITTLE CONFLICTING. The sketch from which I have just quoted says: The vote was taken after wards to expel him" (Brooks) "from the House, but his friends were in the major ity, and the motion did not pass." The article in vol. 23 from which 1 have quoted A LITERARY FRAUD UNMASKED. 29 (p. 771, par. 237) says: *Brooks was expelled by northern votes but was immedi ately returned by his southern constituents." The plug editor will doubtless thank me for calling his attention to this slight conflict of statements in the great and glorious and absolutely eternally reliable up-to-date Britannica. (Vide The Hous ton Daily Post.) THE SOUTHERNERS "STAGGERED." On page 643 of volume 22 of this encyclopedia we are told that "Sumners fine personal presence and learning, his high culture and social standing, seem to have staggered his southern colleagues." The poor, uncultured, inferior South erners ! They were quite overcome when confronted by a gentleman of fine per sonal presence and learning, and high culture and social standing, and that, I sup pose, must be accepted as another reason why one of their number assaulted him! "THE SOUTH GETTING MORE AND MORE AGGRESSIVE." Paragraph 240 of page 771 of volume 23 says that the South, after the presi dential election in 1856, "became more aggressive than ever," in proof of which it alleges the reopening of the "African slave trade, which it says the Con stitution had forbidden to be carried on, after 1808. This paragraph has also been "treated" by the Chicago revising process, which, as has been seen, is a revis ion that doesnt revise. It is not true that the South has ever been the aggressor against any other section of this country, and the historian who so represents her greatly wrongs her. On the contrary she has ever been on the defensive. Neither is it true that the importation of slaves after 1808 was forbidden by the Constitution, as stated in the paragraph just quoted, and as stated also on page 760 of the same volume, paragraph 186. The Constitution of the Confederate States prohibited the importation of slaves; the Constitution of the United States never did. THE UNCIVILIZED SOUTH. On page 775 of volume 23 you can see more of the work of the saw slinger and the plug professor in the first thirteen lines of paragraph 256, but, as usual, it doesnt help the case. You can no more take the prejudice against the South out of this book by the sort of "revising" that has been done to it than you can change the color of the Ethiopian by cutting out a few bits of his cuticle and inserting bits of white skin in their stead. The paragraph just named, and the last sen tence of the one immediately preceding, is devoted to showing how superior was the civilization of the North to that of the South, and how mnch more of the "spirit of enterprise" there was in the Northern than in the Southern man. And this in the face of the historic fact that the establishment of the American Union and its subsequent enlargement to an ocean-bound republic, spanning a continent and stretching from the lakes to the Rio Grande, is chiefly due to the spirit of enterprise, the patriotism, the statesmanship, the courage aad daring of Southern men ! AGAINST EVERYTHING SOUTHERN PEOPLE DID. But such is the prejudice of this encyclopedias historical writer against South ern people that he actually casts opprobrium upon them for much of what they did towards thus increasing the extent and grandeur of the Union, as witness the fol lowing words: "Seeing no legitimate method to acquire territory, their former plan was re peated, if not by the Southern States themselves, certain!}- under the instigation of-many of their citizens, and by members of the State Rights party of the South, and for their advantage; for it was precisely at this period that WiHiam Walker, 30 A LITERARY FRAUD UNMASKED. of Tennessee, the notorious filibuster, undertook to snatch Sonora from Mexico, exactly as his predecessors had done wiih Texas." (Vol. 23, p. 769, par. 229.) Here we have the Southern people censured and discredited for acquiring Texas for the Union! Finally, according to this encyclopedia, the Souths long course of disloyalty to the Union and aggression against the rights of the patient, long enduring North, culminated in a war between the two sections a war brought on solely by the South,to perpetuate slavery! And according to the Houston Post this encyclopedia "treats all subjects in a cool, dispassionate manner, not permitting any political bias to influence the forma tion of such articles as have historic interest or value," and is "entirely to be de pended upon as telling the cold, plain truth. (See the Postoi Tune 24 and July 1, 1894) And this is the book that is advertised to the world as having been endorsed by a Camp of Confederate Veterans ! The Veterans ot Dick Bowling camp protested that the statements made by this encyclopedia misrepresent the South, but the Houston Post said (after the protest of the Veterans): "Britannica is for all time, and is therefore like all true things, eternal. No passion sweeping assault can prevail against such a rock of truth. It is the ne plus ultra of all reference works. "(See Post, July 1,1894, page 9.} The Hon. Henry \V. Blair, a Republican member of Congress from the State of New Hampshire, in a speech in Congress, September 29, 1893, said: The war did not grow out of the fact of the existence of human slavery;" and the Hon. Alexander H. Stephens, a Democratic member of Congress from Georgia (and Vice-President of the Confederate States) said: "The soldiers on the Confederate side were animated by the highest sense of patriotism. The struggle with them was not for powet, dominion, or dynasty nor for fame, but to resist palpable and dangerous assumptions of power, and to repel wanton aggression upon long etablished rights. They fought for those principles and institutions of self-gov ernment which were the priceless heritage of their ancestors." (Stephenss History of the United States, page 625.) And the Baltimore Sun (May 29, 1894) said: "The people of the South may claim with an honesty which future history will not question that their appeal was to a broader and higher patriotism than that of sections, to the unwritten but eter nal law of liberty, whose proper observance meant true freedom for all alike." And so, with The Houston Post and its "rock of truth" on one side and ex- United States Senator Blair, of New Hampshire, and the vice-president of the Confederate States, and the Baltimore Sun on the other side, we will pass on to some further review of the Post's "rock of truth" and "ne plus ultra of reference books." INFORMATION GALORE POLITICAL AND MILITARY. It is not in regard to the South alone that this encyclopedia is at variance with all previously accepted information, for in its article on Massachusetts (vol. 15, p. 616, paragraph 5) I read that "the Liberty Party, led by Garrison and Phillips, was the germ of the Federal party," and that "the old Whig Party finally became merged into the Democratic Party," and that a constitution was not adopted in Massachusetts until 1870. I had for some years entertained the belief that tbe Federal Party, instead of having sprung from the Liberty Party, was born, had died and been buried long before the Liberty Party was ever heard of; and that the old Whig Party, espe cially in Massachusetts and throughout the Nonh, was merged into the present- A LITERARY FRAUD UNMASKED. 31 Republican Party instead of the Democratic Party; and that Garrison and Phillips opposed the organization of the Liberty Party instead of having led it. I had also been of the opinion that Massachusetts had a constitution long before 1870, but here conies along this Chicago encyclopedia and tells me just the reverse offc what I had heretofore been taught as to all these matters, and The Houston Post most emphatically asserts and impressively reiterates that the Chicago book is absolutely infallible, and it would be the height of ridiculous presumption to doubt the accuracy, in anything, of this stupendous and faultless achievement of human learning. I should not omit to state that the article on Massachusetts in this work is not the article on that State which is in the genuine Britannica. It is quite a dif ferent article from the one in the genuine work. This somewhat increases the dis figurement of The Posts facsimile assurances. ludeed, they are so badly disfig ured by this time that I think they may, without violation of truth, be pronounced out of the ring. Another thing as to which this article confused me relates to the governor ship of that State. Page 615, paragraph 3, says that John A. Andrew was gov ernor from 1861 to 1865, while page 616, paragraph (5, says that John A. Andrews was governor from 1861 to 1866. It appears from this that Massachusetts had two governors filling her executive chair at the same time during the whole period from 1861 to 1865, namely, John A. Andrew and John A. Andrews, but that from 65 to 66 John A. Andrews alone filled the chair. This is calculated to be a little confusing until one has fully absorbed and become thoroughly converted to the doctrine of the infallibity of the Chicago book. MORE CONFUSION. * The same may be said as to the following statements: In the article on the United States, vol. 23, p. 761, 5th line, 2d column, I read that "John B. Calhoun was generally supported for the vice-presidency in 1824," and in the 12th line that "John C. Calhoun received 18:2 votes for the vice-presi dency." On page 758 of the same article (par. 177) I read that "a British army under Gen. "Parkenham" landed below New Orleans," and a little further on it is Gen. "Pakenham." DOESNT MIND ITS ps AND ITS QS. This encyclopedia has no respect for the time-honored injunction about mind ing your Ps and your Qs. It adds a letter (\ superfluous "t") to the name of the eminent biblical scholar, Ezra Abbot, and in its history of the United States (vol. 23, p. 773, par 247) it takes two letters away from a celebrated statesmans name It says there that "Alexander H. Stevens was elected vice-president of the Confederate States." I have seen the Confederate vice-presidents name writ ten by himself many times, but never saw him spell it with a "y." HOW CLEVELAND AND HENDRICKS GOT NEW YORK IN 84. On page 788 of the same article I read the puzzling statement (par. 323) that, in the presidential election of 1884, "a small majority of the democratic candi dates in the State of New York gave them its electoral votes, and decided the election in their favor." It has been my understanding that a small. plurality of the votes of the people in the State of New York for the democratic presidential and vice-presidential candidates in 1884 gave them its electoral votes and decided the election in their favor, but it appears from this encyclopedia that it was a small majority of those candidates themselves that did it. Now, there were, as 32 A LITERARY FRAUD* UNMASKED. you remember, only two of those candidates, to-wit: Grover Cleveland and Thomas A. Hendricks. And, according to this encyclopedia, it was a majority of these two in the State of New York that gave them its votes. You perceive the knotty problem presented by the encyclopedia, the comprehension of whicl is in no degree facilitated by the fact that one of those candidates lived in tht State of Indiana and could not vote in New York. The fallible mind only becomes.more and more perplexed in attempting to fathom the infallible and unfath omable, and there is nothing left for it but to accept the assurance of The Pos^ that "the student who turns to the pages of this great work may rest content thai what he finds therein is the latest and best, no matter what, topic is dealt with It is accurate. It is reliable. It is absolute authority upon all subjects. It i; the supreme authority to which appeal can be made the ne plus ultra of all ref erence works." Thus said the Post. IT EXPOUNDS THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. The Post's Ne Plus Ultra says: "The first sentence of the Constitution is no a preamble in any sense, but is the enacting clause * * stating that it was the peopli of the whole United States who established it. It was ordained by the people o the United States as a nation." (Vol. 23, p. 746, par. 102 ) This of course clearly shows that the framers of the Constitution and sucl expounders of it as Calhoun, and Webster, and Clay, didnt know what they wen talking about when they called the first sentence a preamble; and that James Mad ison, "the father of the Constitution," was utterly wrong when he said that th Constitution could not be established by the vote "of a majority of the people nor yet by the vote of a majority of the States; but that it could be establishe< only by the unanimous assent of the several States that are parties to it." (See "TV/ Federalist, xxxix.) I presume that Mr. Madison said this because it was providei by the Constitution itself that it could not be established except by the unanimou assent of nine of the thirteen States, acting as States in conventions assembled, ani the statesmen of that day agreed with him, but this encyclopedia will not permi us longer to regard men like .Madison and Jefferson as competent and reliabl authorities on this subject. And what egregious ignorance Alexander H. Stephens showed when he wrot the following words: "Even the very Preamble, which has been- so erroneousl misconstrued and misinterpreted, shows upon its very face and front, that it is Constitution of States and for States, not a Constitution for the mass of the pec pie in one consolidated Republic, to be the same municipal authority throughout. (Stephenss History of the United States, page 312. See also article, "Goverr ment," by Alexander H. Stephens, in Johnsons Universal Cyclopedia.) IT TELLS THE NAME OF THE MAN WHO WROTE THE CONSTITUTION. The last paragraph on page 413 of volume XI of this book says: "Hamiltc now reached the point in his remarkable career where he performed his most in portant service to his country, and erected a monument to his own fame more hoi orable and more permanent than fell to the lot of any other American patriot, sa^ Washington alone the formation and adoption of the Federal Constitution whic now unites, governs and protects the Union. While discussions on the plan < Edmund Randolph, of Virginia, were going on, Hamilton drew up an elabora plan of ten articles. This Federal Constitution, drawn up by Alexander Hamilto as finally adopted and recommended by the convention, secured the approbatic of all the States, and went into operation on the first Wednesday in March, 1789 In view of this statement it is to be regretted that Mr. Bancroft did not enj< the privilege of living till he had read the "up-to-date Britannica" before he wro A LITERARY FRAUD UNMASKED. 33 his History of the Constitution of the United States. If he had enjoyed that priv ilege surely he would not have said in that History that Hamilton took "little part in the formation of the Constitution." and that "he accepted it merely as a choice between anarchy and convulsion without it, and the chance of good to be expected from it." (See Bancrofts History of the Constitution, vol.2, pp. 75 and 221.) Or, surely, if he were living now he would hasten to "revise" his History and get out a new edition in conformity with the "facts" of the up-to-date Britannica. Mr. Henry Cabot Lodge will of course proceed at once to "revise" his "Life of Alexander Hamilton" and "eliminate" therefrom the statement that "the leading principles of Hamiltons plan stood no chance of adoption, either by the people or the Convention." (See "Alexander Hamilton, "American Statesmen series, p. 62.) But even if Mr. Bancroft were alive and had "revised" his History, and even after Mr. Lodge has "revised" his biography of Hamilton, there would still re main an apparently irreconcilable conflict between the up-to-date Britannica "and Mr. Hamilton himself, who, on the day when the Constitution was adopted by the Convention, said of it: "No mans ideas are more remote from the plan than my own are known to be." (See Elliots Debates in the Federal Convention, vol. 5 p. 556. J. B. Lippincott & Co., publishers, 1876.) From which it would appear either that Mr. Hamilton didnt kno^w "where he was at" when he spoke those words, or that the up-to-date Britannicas historian didnt know where he was at when he wrote the words quoted from him. WHO WAS HANSING AND WHAT BECAME OF HIM? "As delegates to the convention," says this encyclopedia, "Chief Justice Yates, Hamilton and Hansing were sent from New York State." If Mr. Hansing was sent as a delegate he must have got lost on the way, for he never got to the Convention. Its records show the name of no such delegate. The "plain, cold truth" is that nobody named Hansing was sent as a delegate to that Convention from New York. NOT THE GENUINE BRITANNICAS ARTICLE. Its article on Hamilton, by the way, is another instance of the falseness of the representation that this Chicago book is a facsimile of the genuine Britannica. The genuine Britannicas article on Alexander Hamilton is not in The Werner Companys bogus Britannica. TOUCHING THE MUGWUMP. Another really fresh bit of political information that I came across in this great work relates to the term "mugwump." This comes in that part of the work which The Post described as its "crowning glory" the "American Revisions and Additions." This great work, in its crowning glory department, says that the term "mugwump" was especially applied in 1888 to such of the Republicans as openly refused to stpport the Republican ticket in the national campaign of that year. That was the year, you remember, when Harrison and Morton ran on the Republican ticket, and were elected, and I declare it had entirely escaped my memory that any Republicans openly refused to support the ticket that year, and I would have bet fifty cents, or another wheelbarrow ride, that it was in 1884 the year when Blaine and Logan ran and were defeated that the term was espe cially applied to recalcitrant Republicans. How fortunate it is that I read the supreme authority on the subject before betting on it. IT TELLS WHAT "LED TO THE WAR." If there be ignorance or doubt on the part of anybody as to just what partic- 34 A LITERARY FRAUD UNMASKED. ular thing it was that led to the war, let such ignorance or doubt be at once and forever dispelled by this statement: <%It was the attempt to organize States from this territory" (the North-west Territory) "in defiance of this restriction" (as to slavery) "that led to the war oi 1861." (Vol. XIII, p. 615, 3d. par.) The North-west Territory was the Territory between the Ohio and Missis sippi rivers, from which the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wis consin were formed. It was ceded to the United States by Virginia on condition that there should be no slavery, after the year 1800, in any state organized fron that territory, and the Britannica explains that it was the attempt to* organiz< States "in defiance of this restriction that led to the -war of 1861." The great his torical value of this information will be fully appreciated by the student of history when he learns that it is not to be found in any of the hundreds upon hundreds o: other books that treat of that war. HOODS "FATAL MISTAKE." This great work is no less au fait when it comes to the military operations o the war than it is in regard to the cause of ifie war. For instance, it says of Gen eral Hoods campaign into Tennessee: "Hood, by the direct command of Davis now made a fatal mistake, which materially hastened the downfall of the Confed eracy." (Vol. 23, p. 782, par. 291.) In his book (Advance and-Retreat, p. 199) General Hood says: "Th< President did not, at any time, order what I should or should not do * * * ' and * * he gave his expressed disapproval of the contemplated campaign inti Tennessee." There is some conflict between the two statements, but all difficulty as t which ^one to accept as the true one will be removed when one bears in mind th unqualified assurance of The Houston Post that the Britannica "is absolute authoi ity on all subjects." IT EQUALS JULES VERNE. The Encyclopedia Britannica" said The Atlanta Constitution some tim since "says that during the late war the Northern cavalry traversed the Soutt ern high roads on bicycles and tricycle*. There is something attractive aboi these bold and dashing statements. They pip^ie the readers curiosity. Whe the stern troopers of Custer and Kilpatrick trundled along on their bicych through Virginia and Georgia it is plain that they must have found a better sy tern of country roads than we know anything about. This fact alone is sufficient] puzzling, but when we reflect that bicycles were not in use till several years afti the close of the war, the matter assumes a very interesting aspect. How did tl federal cavalry get hold of bicycles ten years in- advance of their fellow-citizen But we cannot pursue this subject. * * * The description of American mi tary methods is as good as anything that Jules Vrerne has ever written." HERE IS A PUZZLER. When The Post's ne plus ultra conflicts only with all other authorities the can be no difficult}7 in deciding which is correct. All other authorities must course yield to "the supreme authority." But when that authority conflicts wi itself, then indeed must the reader be "perplexed in the extreme." For instanc when it tells him, on one page, that the Confederate loss at Gettysburg w "about 26,000 men," and on another page that it was "nearly 40,000," how is to know where he is at in a historical sense? (See page 752, American Rev ions, and page 780, vol. 23.) There are many such instances in the pages of tl A LITERARY FRAUD UNMASKED. absolutely reliable work, and they are calculated to get the seeker for facts con siderably tangled. It would be nothing more than fair for The Post to straighten all tangles of this sort for the many confiding patrons induced by it to buy this book. "UP-TO-DATE" BIOGRAPHY. Let us look a little into this "up-to-date" encyclopedias boast of the fullness, lateness and accuracy of its biographical department. William L. Yancey was a man whose fame as an orator will never permit his name to fade from the memory of the American people. The desire to know where such a man was born will always exist in the minds of men. But it is a desire not gratified by this encyclopedia. It contains no mention of William L Yanceys birthplace. George Mason was one of the greatest of American statesmen. The first recorded utterance, in the worlds history, of those inalienable rights of man upon which the world-famous Declaration of Independence was based, came from his pen in the "Bill of Rights" years before the Declaration saw the light. You can not learn from this encyclopedia where George Mason was born. Robert Toombs was long one of the most prominent and potent men in Amer ican political life. All that you find about him in this book is one line in a mass of padding at the back of the last volume, saying that he was an "American poli tician and Confederate general," and naming the date of his birth and death. Only that, and nothing more, and that was copied from the biographical list in the back part of Websters International Dictionary. George M. Troup, Herschel V. Johnson and Charles J. Jenkins, three of Georgias most illustrious sons, are treated in the same way. The name of Jenkins does not appear even in the list of: governors of the state. You may read the whole work through from beginning to. end without learning from it that Georgia ever had a governor named Charles J^ Jenkins, but it spells Gov. Tatnalls name with only one "1" and tells us that there was a Governor "Lumpkins," of Georgia. We are also informed that Texas had a governor named David G. Burnet in* 1836, and one named David J. Burnet in 1840. Sidney Sherman was one of the heroes of the Texan struggle for independence. It was his voice that, at San Jaointo where that independence was won raised the battle-cry, "Remember the Alamo," and to his memory women of Texas have reared a monument in Galveston, and for him is named a beautiful park in that city. Search this encyclopedia through and you will not find the name of Sidney Sherman. Anson Jones was a president of the Republic of Texas, but this book does not tell you where he was born, nor that he died by his own hand. From its biography of J. Marion Sims you would never know that that great man ever lived in the State of Alabama, nor that he was ever president of the American Medical Association, nor that decorations were showered upon him by the crowned heads of Europe. It says that Dr. Sims visited Europe in 1857, but Dr. Sims himself says that he never went to Europe till 1861. (See "The Story of My Life," by J. Marion Sims, M. D., LL. D., p. 305.) For many years Willie P. Mangum was the most conspicuous citizen of North Carolina, was often mentioned in connection with the presidency of the United States, and once a candidate for that office, but you could never know that such a man ever existed in North Carolina from all that can be found about him in this book. Neither could you learn from it that Geo. E. Badger, another very distinguished statesman, ever lived in North Carolina, or that Tennessee ever had a citizen S6 A LITERARY FRAUD UNMASKED. named Hugh L. White who defeated Andrew Jackson in that State and, in 1836, got nearly twice as many votes for the preiidency as did Daniel Webster, who was a candidate at the same time. There are no biographical sketches in this book of Stephen D. Lee, Fitzhugh Lee, Richard Taylor and Earl Van Dorn, distinguished Confederate, soldiers. One line is given to Taylor and one to Van Dorn in what is called the condensed Bio graphical Dictionary at the end of the work, in which they are simply described as an "American soldier" and an "American general." And, by the way, I learn from that Biographical Dictionary that W. C. P. Breckenridge is dead. Most people who have been keeping the run of events in the United States during the last few months are doubtless under the impression that Mr. Breckenridge is full of lusty life, but a glance at the great up-to-date Encyclopedia Britannica will show them their mistake. Mr. Breckenridge departed this life in 1855. The grasses on his grave have forty years been growing. He himself may not know it, but that he is dead there can be no doubt, for the supreme the infallible authority hath said it. On the other hand, another celebrated personage, whom I supposed to be dead these many years, is represented by this encyclopedia as being still alive. Other encyclopedias say that General Tom Thumb is dead, and the newspapers chronicled his death ten years or more ago, but there was evidently some mistake about the matter, for the Chicago edition of the Britannica says that he lives, and as it is a thoroughly revised and squarely up-to-date edition, and absolutely relia ble in all its statements, it is clear that the newspapers and the other encyclope dias are wrong and that General Thumb is, as the up-to-date Britannica says, still living. (See vol. 7, p. 568.) There is no article in this encyclopedia on the Mikado, and none on Mutsuhito, the reigning emperor of Japan; and isnt it surprising that a work such as the Chicago boomers and pirates would have us believe this to be tells us nothing of Stepniak, the famous Russian author, and gives us no biography of Max Muller, one of the worlds most distinguished scholars, to say nothing of its ignoring that brilliant American authoress, Mary N. Murfree (Charles Egbert Craddock), and Ann Hasseltine, the noble wife of Adoniram Judson? The great missionary him self is dismissed with fourteen lines, which is just thirteen more than are given to the great lawyer, James L. Petigru, and the distinguished statesman, Dixon H. Lewis, both of whom are packed away in the hundred-and-fifty-page list of names with which the last volume is stuffed, the native State of neither of them being given. You will look in vain in this book for any evidence of the existence of Henry R. Jackson, soldier, orator, poet, statesman, diplomat; and )ou cannot learn from it where Hilary A. Herbert, the present Secretary of the Navy, was born, or J. J. Ingalls, or R. J. Ingersoll, or but the list is too long. I cannot begin to call over the names of prominent persons whose birthplaces are not mentioned in the sketches of them in this book. Nor can I tell of the meagreness of the great majority of the sketches. Take the sketch of L. Q. C. Lamar. You would never know, from it, that he went to Europe as Commissioner for the Confederate States. Mr. Lamar was born in the good old county of Putnam, in Georgia, and always said he would rather live on Little river, in that county, than anywhere else, but you cannot find out from this book what State he was born in. Take the sketch of the old patriot and hero, Duncan N. Ingraham, Not only are you not told where he was born, but there is no mention of the incident that brought him more prominently before the public than any other of his long and and honorable career his rescuing of Koszta from the Austrian government. James Iredell was one of the very ablest jurists who ever sat on the bench of A-LITERARY FRAUD UNMASKED. 3T the United States Supreme Court. In one of the greatest, most momentous cases ever before that Court he stood alone in his construction of the law, and delivered the only dissenting opinion. The Constitution of the United States itself was afterwards amended so as to make it specifically accord with that opinion. There is no mention of that case in the sketch of Iredell, nor does it tell where he was born. Look at the sketch of William Moultrie, one of the foremost of the Revolu tionary heroes. It comprises just three lines, without any mention of his Memoirs of the Revolution or of his having been Governor of South Carolina. Lyman Trumbull once lived and taught school in Georgia, so did William H. Seward, but the Britannica doesnt tell it. There was an eminent musician, whose concerts in London made an era in the history of music, and led to the production of Haydns grandest symphonies. But you cannot find the name of Salomon in the Britannica. . It was a Dutch physician of the 18th century who made the first medical use of carbonic acid, and made the discovery that plants when exposed to light exhale oxygen, but we can find no notice in this book of Jan Ingenhousz. There are so many other notable characters especially Southern men of whom there are no notices in this encyclopedia that I cannot think of undertaking to enumerate them all here, or of dwelling at any length on any single one of them, so I will just group a few of them in a condensed list. The person who has been induced to invest "10 cents a day" in the "up-to-date Britannica" will turn to it in vain for a biographical sketch of any of the following named characters: Ashby, Turner; distinguished Confeder ate soldier. Ashe, John; Revolutionary patriot. Dudley, Benjamin W.; distinguished surgeon. Dunster, Henry; first president of Har vard College, who was compelled to resign, tried by a jury and put under bonds because he said he didnt be lieve in infant baptism. Eaton, John H.; Governor of Florida, United States Senator, Secretary of War, minister to Spain. Aiken, Wm.; Governor of South Caro lina and congressman. Alexander, James Waddell; preacher, educator, author. Tennent, Gilbert; South Carolina, Preacher. Alexander, Joseph Addison; preacher, educator, author. Tennent, William; South Carolina; Preacher. Allston, Robert F. W.; soldier and states man. Baldwin, Joseph G.; jurist and author. Bankhead, John P.; distinguished naval officer. German, Arthur P.; Maryland. U. S. Senator. Few, William; Revolutionary soldier, jurist, U. S. Senator from Georgia, a framer of the State and U. S. Consti tutions, member N. Y. legislature and mayor of New York city. Fitzgerald, O. P.; North Carolina. Bishop M. E. Ch., South. Gaillard, Edwin S.; South Carolina. Physician. Galloway, Charles B.; Mississippi. Bishop M. E. Ch., South. Gambrell, James B.; Preacher and edu cator. Born in South Carolina. Garnett, A. Y. P.; Virginia. Physician. Garnett, James M.; Virginia. Educa tor and author. Garnett, Robert S.; Virginia. Confed erate general. George, J. Z.; Georgian. Jurist and statesman. Gibson, William; Maryland. Surgeon. First to perform the Csesarean opera tion twice on the same patient, suc cessful to both mother and children. Gilmer, Geo. R.; Georgia. Congress man and Governor. Girardeau, John L.; South Carolina. Preacher, educator, author. Granbery, J. C.; bishop M. E. Church South. 38 A LITERARY FRAUD U&MASKED. Barbour, James; Governor of Virginia, Green, William M.; bishop Protestant U. S. Senator, Secretary of War, Episcopal church of Mississippi and Minister to England. one of the founders of the University Barbour, John S.; U. S. Senator. of the South at Sewanee. Tenn. Barbour, Philip Pendleton; Speaker of Gregg, Maxcy; Confederate general. the House of Representatives and (This encyclopedia couldnt find room judge of U. S. Supreme Court. for General Maxey Gregg, of the Con- Barebones, Praisegod. federate army, but it has sketches of Barnwell, R. W.; U. S. Senator from two brigadiers of the same name in South Carolina. the Federal army.) Barringer, D. M.; North Carolinian. Harris, Samuel; "the apostle of Vir- Statesman and diplomat. ginia." Barron, James; Virginian. Commodore Hawkins, Benjamin; U. S. Senator from in U. S. Navy. North Carolina, Hawkinsville, Ga., Barry, Wm. T.; Virginian. U. S. Sen- named for him. ator, chief justice of Kentucky, Post- Haygood, Atticus G.; Georgia. Bishop master-General, Minister to Spain. M. E. Church, South. Bartow, Francis S.; Georgian. Confed- Hentz, Caroline Lee; authoress. erate general. Hoge, Moses D.; Virginia. Preacher. Bassett, Richard; a framer of the Con- Holcombe, James P.; Virginia. Orator, stitution, U. S. Senator, Governor. author, statesman. Bathori, Elizabeth; who bathed in the Holland, Robert A., Tennessee. Preach- blood of murdered maidens to renew er and author. her youth. Holmes, Mary J.; authoress. Battey, Robert; Georgian. Distinguish- Ingraham, Joseph H.; novelist and ed surgeon. preacher. Beard, Richard; Tennesseean. Lead- Irwin, Jared; Revolutionary patriot and ing Theologian of Cumberland Pres- twice governor of Georgia. byterian church. Ito, the Bismarck of Japan. Becker, Thos. A.; Bishop Roman Cath- Jasper, William; Revolutionary hero. olic church, Savannah. Johnson, William B.; South Carolina, Beckwith, John W.; North Carolinian. Judge U. S. Supreme court. Bishop of Georgia, P. E. church. Kershaw, J. B.; Confederate general. Bee, Barnard E.; South Carolinian. Lamar, Mirabeau B. ; Georgia. Lawyer, Hero of two wars. soldier, statesman, diplomat. Bell, Claiborne H.; Mississippian. Edu- Lamb, Martha J.; authoress. cator. Lane, Joseph; North Carolina. Soldier Haywood, Henry; North Carolinian. and Senator, candidate for Vice-Pres- Rear-admiral U. S. N. " . ident U. S. (This encyclopedia has Bernardo del Carpio. \ " no room for the North Carolinian who Berrien, Jno. McPhersonf U. S. Sena- was brevetted major-general for gal- tor from Georgia, and Attorney-Gen- lantry in the Mexican war, but it finds eral of United States. ample space for a notice of James H. Bibb, Geo. M.; Chief Justice of Ken- Lane, of Indiana, who led in the war- tucky, U. S. Senator, Secretary of. fare against the Southern settlers in Treasury. Kansas.) Bibb, Wm. Wyatt; U. S. Senator from Laveran, Alphonse; physician, discov- Georgia, governor of Alabama. erer of organism causing malaria. Blair, John; Virginian. Judge Supreme Lay, Henry C.; Virginia. Bishop Pro- Court U. S. testant Episcopal Church. Boone, Wm. J.; South Carolina. First Lewis, Andrew; Virginia. General in missionary bishop of the Protestant in the Revolution. Episcopal church to China. Lumpkin, Joseph Henry; Georgia. Ora- Harris, David B.; Confederate general. tor and jurist. A LITERARY FRAUD UNMASKED. 39 Bowie, James; Georgian. Hero of the Mell, P. H.; preacher and educator. Alamo. Georgian. Boyce, James P.; South Carolina. The Mercer, Jesse; preacher, founder of Mer ologian and educator. cer University in Georgia. Bradford, Joseph M.; Tennessee. Naval Mills, Robert; South Carolina. Archi officer. tect, designer national Washington Bradstreet, Anne; first American versi monument and other noted structures. fier. Nelson, David; Tennessee. Preacher, Branch, John; North Carolina. Gov author. ernor, U. S. Senator, Secretary of the Thornwell, J. H.; South Carolina. Navy. Preacher, educator, author. Branch, Lawrence OBrien; North Car Palmer, Benjm. M.; South Carolina. olina. Confederate general. Preacher and author. Breckenridge, James; Virginia. Revo Pendleton, Wm. N.; Virginia. Confed lutionary soldier, eminent lawyer, con erate general. gressman, co-operated with Jefferson Pickens, F. W.; South Carolina. States in establishing the University of Vir man and diplomat. ginia, one of the originators of the Pinckney, Thomas; South Carolina. Sol Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. dier, statesman, diplomat. Breckenridge, John; U. S. Senator, and Pinkney, E. C.; Maryland. Poet. Attorney-General under Jefferson. Ticknor, F. O.; Georgia. Poet. Brownson, Nathan; member Provisional Posey, Thomas; Virginia. Soldier and and Continental Congresses from statesman. Georgia, and governor of Georgia. Preston, Margaret J.; Virginia. Poetess. Burleson, R. C.; of Texas. Preacher Cranch, Christopher P.; Virginia. Ar and educator. tist and poet. Butler, Wiiliam; Virginia. Revolution Crawford, Geo. W.; Georgia. Con ary soldier. gressman, governor, Secretary of War. Cabell, William; Virginia. First pre Crawford, Martin J.: Georgia. Jurist. siding magistrate for the U. S. after Grimke, Angelina; South Carolina. the Declaration of Independence. Dale, Richard; Virginia. Commodore Canrobert, French marshal. in U. S. Navy. Had heroic and Carrington, Edward; Virginia. Revo romantic career. lutionary soldier and statesman. Daniel, John W.; Virginia. Lawyer, Carrington, Paul; Virginia. Legislator orator, author, senator. and jurist. Taylor, John; Virginia. Statesman and Carrington, Paul; Virginia. Revolu author. tionary soldier. Capers, William; South Carolina. Bishop Cheves, Langdon; South Carolina. M. E. Church, South. Statesman. Donaldson, Edward; Maryland. Rear- Claggett, Thomas J.; Maryland. First admiral. - - bishop consecrated in the U. S. McKendree. William; Virginia. First Clark, Francis E.; founder Christian bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Endeavor Society. Church in North America. Clay, Clement C.; Alabama. Jurist and Mackenzie, Alexander Slidell, command statesman. er of the ship from thw yardarm of Cobb, T. R. R.; Georgia. Lawyer, which was hung a son of the U. S. author, soldier. Secretary of War. Curry, J. L. M; Georgia. Statesman, Walker, W. H. T.; Confederate general. educator, diplomat. Gist, S. R.; Confederate general. Conner, James; South Carolina. Con Clingman, T. L.; North - Carolina. U. federate general. S. Senator, Confederate general. Evans, Augusta J.; Georgia. Authoress. Ewell, Benjm. S.; Confederate general. 40 A LITERARY FRAUD UNMASKED. Elliott, Stephen, Jr.; South Carolina. Wyeth, John A.; Alabamian. Eminent Confederate general. surgeon. Founder of the New York Ewing, Finis; Virginia. One of the polyclinic and hospital, the first post- fathers of the Cumberland Presbyte- graduate medical school in this coun- rian church. - try. The foregoing list comprises but a comparatively small number of the names of prominent characters of whom there are no sketches in this encyclopedia, and is the result of only a partial examination of it, and yet the Houston Post asserted that this "up-to-date Britannica" has "more biograpical sketches of the Souths great men than all other encyclopedias combined!" (See Houston Post, June 19, 1894.) , SOME MORE SAMPLES OF ITS BIOGRAPHIES. I have already shown how deficient are many of the "biographies" this book does contain, but here are a few more illustrations of the same sort: Its biography of General Beauregard says nothing of his having been Superin tendent of the Military Academy at West Point, but it says that "from the time of the capture of Sumter onward he was virtually the commander of the Confederate troops." This will be news to the Confederate veterans, and would be news to Gen. Beaure gard himself if he were living. All that it says of William W. Belknap is "that he rose during the civil war from the rank of major to that of brigadier general." Not a word of his being Secre tary of War, nor of his impeachment nor of his suicide. If Belknap had been a South ern man the charity of silence would not have been thus extended to him. It says that Horace Binneys "last notable public services were in regard to the case between Bidal and Girards executors." There was never any such case. See Howards Reports, Vol. 2, p. 127. Robert J. Breckenridge presided over the convention that nominated Lincoln for the presidency in i864. This encyclopedias sketch of Breckenridge doesnt mention the fact. S. B. Buckner was governor of Kentucky, but this books biography of him doesnt say so. John At Campbell, the distinguished jurist, has been dead six years, but the sketch of him in this book makes no mention of his death. The sketch of Ralph Waldo Emerson says nothing of his family history, nor of his educational course, nor of his school teaching. It says he was "pastor of the 2nd church, Boston," but leaves us in the dark as to the denomination of the church, and tells us that he resigned his pastorate without enlightening us as to why he re-? signed. And one would never know from this sketch that Emerson was ever mar ried. Of Isaac Errett, the distinguished theologian, we are not told where he was born, nor where he died, nor is a single one of his works named. The birth-place of James P. Espy, the "Storm King," is not given, nor can we learn from the sketch of him the interesting fact that it was at the suggestion of Alexander H. Stephens that Espy instituted the service of daily weather-bulletins, that has developed into an important branch of the war department. (See Johnsons Universal Cyclopedia, i895 ed. vol. 3, p. 197.) The sketch of Gen. R. S. Ewell (Confederate) is very \neager, while (as already noted) there is no sketch of Benjamin S. Ewell. The biography of Jules Ferry gives only half his name, and says nothing of his candidacy for the presidency of France in 1887, nor of his being shot by Aubertin, nor of his journalistic connection, though he was one of the most brilliant of French journalists. Its sketch of the great lawyer, David Dudley Field, says nothing of his having; been a member of the peace conference in Washington in 1861, nor of his having; A LITERARY FRAUD UNMASKED. 41 been a Congressman, nor of his presiding at the great peace convention, in Londonr in 1890. It doesnt even say where he was born. Neither does its sketch of Ste phen J. Field say where he was born, nor that he was one of the presidential electoral commission in 1877, or a candidate for the presidency in 1880. Its notice of Catling, inventor of the Catling gun, doesnt say where he was born, or that he was a physician. The sketch of Cardinal Gibbons doesnt say where he was born nor where edu cated, and that of Randall L. Gibson, doesnt even mention that he was a lawyer, nor that he reached a higher rank than Colonel in the Confederate army; and Glad stone and Gortschakoff are both very inadequately treated. Its article on James Hamilton says nothing of his having been governor of South Carolina nor of his appointment as minister from Texas to the European powers, and the one on Wade Hampton records his military career in the statement that he "was a member of the Confederate army during the war." That is all. It does not say whether he was a private, or a corporal, or a sergeant major, or a quar termaster. He was simply a "member of the Confederate army." The latest book by Thomas Hardy named in the sketch of that author was pub lished in 1887.. "Tess of the dUrbervilles" is not mentioned, though it was pub lished in 1890, and this encyclopedia claims to be "up-to-date" in everything. To Benjamin H. Hill it gives nine lines, from which one could never learn that Mr. Hill was ever a member of the State legislature, nor of his attitude as to secession, nor of his imprisonment in Fort Lafayette, nor of the "Notes on the Situation." Neither does its sketch of D. H. Hill, mention his presidency of the University of Arkansas nor of the college at Millegeville, Ga.; but it says that his works, "Ele ments of Algebra," "The Crucifixion of Christ," and "Consideration of the Sermon on the Mount," were published after the war, when the fact is they were all pub lished before the war; and though General Hill died in 1889 his death is not noted in this sketch. None of the works of Dr. J. G. Holland are named in the notice of that distin guished author, and the article on the eminent educator, Geo. F. Holmes, doesnt say where he was born and educated. We cannot leain from the sketch of John Eager Howard in this book that he was appointed brigadier-general by Washington, nor that he was a candidate for the vice-presidency, nor that he received a medal from congress for his valor at the Cowpens. The sketch of Gen. Geo. B. McClellan says he "died in 1888," though the fact is that he died in 1885. It says nothing of his book. The article on Lord Lytton (Owen Meredith) says nothing of his residence at Washington and nothing of his best known work, "Lucile," and its statement that he became "cfiarges d*affairs" at Lisbon, Madrid, etc., shows that the up-to-date Brit- annicas French needs a little revising. The sketch of James Anthony Froude says nothing of his fascinating biogra phy of Caesar, nor of his lectures in the United States, nor of his succeeding Free man as Professor of History at Oxford, and what it says of his "The Nemesis of Faith" is plagiarized from Chamberss encyclopedia, and the sketch of Baglivi says nothing of his being the discover of the system of "solidism in medical science, nor does its notice of Thomas Dunn English mention that he was the author of the song, "Sweet Alice, Ben Bolt." The sketch of William McKinley has nothing later than his election as Govern or of Ohio in 1891, though he was elected in 93 by more than 80,000 majority; while pf Robert M. McLane we have the curious statement that "he was elected to the national congress in 1888 and received a re-election in i880," that is, Mr. Mc Lane was re-elected eight years before he was first elected. 42 A LITERARY FRAUD UNMASKED. The article on Marshal MacMahon is very meager, with no allusion to his his toric utterance in the Malakoff, "J'y mis; fy restc' (its stock of French was prob ably exhausted on Owen Meredith): and we are not told when bishop McTyeire was born nor that he is dead. The sketch of Peter Minuit omits to state the fact that he was the founder of New York, while it does say that he was deacon in the "Walroon" church in his na tive town. There was a Walloon church in Minuits native town, but the up-to-date Britannica gives me my first information of a "Walroon" church. The relatives and descendants of Waightstill Avery will be surprised to learn from this encyclopedia that he was the first attorney-general of Connecticut. They are aware that he was the first attorney-general of North Carolina, but I am quite sure that the information that he held the same office in Connecticut will be news to them. Waightstill Avery was a very prominent man in North Carolina, and was one of the signers of the Mecklenburg Declaration, but it doesnt appear from the up-todate Britannica that he was ever in North Carolina at all. It gives two lines to H. M. Muhlenberg, the founder of the Lutheran Church in America; two lines to F. A. Muhlenberg, without noting the fact that he was the first speaker of the U. S. House of Representatives; and two and a half lines to Wm. A. Muhlenberg, without mentioning that he was the author of the famous hymn, "I Would not Live Alway." It gives four lines to Andrew Pickens, from which it could never be learned that he ever lived in South Carolina, or was ever in Congress: and the people of Georgia will be surprised to learn from the three lines it gives to bishop George F. Pierce that he died in 1844. Albert Pike has five lines, with no mention of his service in the Mexican war nor of his high Masonic rank. Maria J. Mclntosh is referred to simply as an American authoress, without any intimation as to where she was born, and but one of her books is named. Neither is the nativity of Gen. Lachlan Mclntosh given, nor is there in the sketch of him any reference to the duel in which he killed Button Gwinnett, who had been President of Georgia: and there are but three lines on William Moultrie, with no mention of the fact that he was governor of South Carolina, and no allusion to his "Memoirs of the Revolution." THE DISCOVERER OF ANAESTHESIA. In a five line notice of Dr. Crawford W. Long, of Georgia, it says: "It is claimed on his behalf that he was the first to use ether in surgical operations." "If the "up-to-date Britannica" biographer will turn to vol. 5, p. 346, of Johnsons Uni versal Cyclopedia, 1895 edition, he will find there the facts to prove that claim, and he will see that Dr. Long is there put down as "the discoverer* of anaesthesia." ABOUT THE HON. JOHN T. MORGAN The "up-to-date Britannica" says that Mr. Morgan, U. S. Senator from Alabama, "practiced law in his native state." As his native state is Tennessee, and as he moved away from there when he was nine years old, and has never lived there since, this shows Mr. Morgan to have been an extraordinarily precocious youth. MR MASON AND VENUS. This Chicago masterpiece says that Charles Mason, surveyor of Mason and Dixons line, observed the transit of Venus at Cavan, Ireland, in 1869. Now I am not going to deny that Mr. Mason saw the transit of Venus in 1860 (since this abso lutely reliable book says he did), although I was not before aware that Venus did any transiting in i860 and have never seen it mentioned anywhere else. I would simply remark that if Mr. Mason did observe any caper cut by Venus in A LITERARY FRAUD UNMASKED. 43 that year of our ]L,ord, he must have observed it from the translunar regions, for he made his exit from this sublunary sphere more than four-score years before 1869. In other words he died in 1787. And as Mr. Mason was born and bred in England, the statement of the Chicago book that he was an "American astronomer" makes another one of those tangles which I really think the Houston Post ought to straight en for those who were induced by it to buy the book, especially as this, tangle comes in one of those volumes which the Post (A pi. 19,) announced as "the crowning work of this edition " (See "American Revisions and Additions, p. 1058) But I must call a halt in the review of this "up-to-date" encyclopedia. What I have written falls far short of giving an adequate idea of the unreliability and de ficiency of this work as a reference book, but time and space permit me to cite but s A FEW MORE INSTANCES showing how unreliable and deficient it is. Turn to its pages tor an account of the battle of Waterloo, and see how long and in how many places you will have to look for the little information you get at last. See if you can find out from it who com posed the first Triumvirate in Roman history and who the second. See how long it will take to find out from it who were the Thirty Tyrants of the Roman Empire, or what was the feast of the Three Kings, or the history of the Gordian Knot, or what was the Dilettanti Society, and when it was founded, or who Jack Straw was, and Mother Shipton, and Wat Tyler. See if you can get ftom it a concise, satisfac tory account of the Thirty Years. War, and what you can learn from it about The Iron Crown, or Pandoras Box, or the famous Peutingerian Table, and if you can find out from it who the Irredentists are, and who the Intransigentists. When the pa pers a few weeks ago published dispatches from Lowestoft about the loss. of the Elbe with her cargo of human freight, I looked in vain in the Encyclopedia Britan- nica for Lowestoft. Turn to the titles Gettysburg," "Fredericksburg," "Chancellorsville," "Antie- tam. and see the accounts given of the battles of those names. Here is one of them in full: "At Fredericksburg the Federal troops sustained a repulse by the Confederate forces, Dec. 13, 1862." (Vol. 9. p. 742.) That is all. Note how it ignores the whipping that Beauregard administered to Butler, at Bermuda Hundred, and I searched it in vain for "Inkerman," where was fought one of the most desperate battles of modern times, and for "Ipsus," where was fought one of the greatest battles of ancient times, and for "Kings Mountain," the battle that was the Valmy of the American Revolution. The Confederate States filled a large enough page in the worlds history to have a separate title and article in a general encyclopedia, but no article on the Confed erate States is to be found in this book. The Emancipation Proclamation is cer tainly a paper of sufficient importance to be included in such a book, but it isnt in this book. Neither has it any article on the Declaration of Independence, nor on the Constitution of the United States, nor on* the important subject of Home Rule. When I wanted to read something about Nihilism I could find in this book no really enlightening article on the subject, nothing informing me as to the origin of the name and of the modern political movement called by by that name, and of the real meaning and object of the movement. Instead of finding in one satisfactory article what I wanted to learn about the doctrine of the 4 Infallibility of the Pope" J had to search articles under different titles in several volumes for it and then didnt get it; and I had the same experience in regard to "Nullification," the "Gulf Stream," and many other important subjects. I wanted to learn something about dew, but found no article on it in this book. I finally found a paragraph on it in a seventy-page article* on meteorology. I turned to another cyclopedia and found just what I wanted in one article under 44 A LITERARY FRAUD UNMASKED. the title "Dew;" and I found that this otier cyclopedia has articles on all of the subjects named, giving in the place where one would naturally look for it the in formation most likely to be desired. I had the same experience with regard to many other subjects, that is, I found either nothing at all about them in the Encyclopedia Britannica, or, if I found anything, it was but little, and that little usually had to be searched for under many different titles, in many different volumes. Such, for instance, was my ex perience in looking for information about Isis, the Cissoid Curve, Witch Hazel, Mountain Meadows Massacre, The Tichborne Trial, Holy Ghost, Holy Coat of Treves, Sisters of the Holy Communion, Hydrocyanic acid, Thirty Tyrants at Athens, Thirty Years War, Tiers Etat, Omar (Abu-Hafra), second caliph of the Moslems and founder of the Mohammedan power; Seven Wonders of the World, Dark Ages, Dred Scott Case, Dorr Rebellion, Peters Pence, Essex Junto, Feigned Diseases, Fort Moultrie, Fort Monroe, Fon Pulaski, Fourth Estate, The General Convention (Protestant Episcopal), General Assembly (Presbyterian), General Rules of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Berlin Congress (which resulted in the longest treaty ever written and was signed by a larger number of plenipotentiaries than had ever before fixed their names to a treaty), Catholic Emancipation, Cau cus, Electroscope, Eminent Domain, Equity of Rec^emption, Courts of the United States, Alabama Claims, Black-Mail, Hobsons Choice, Tinkers Dam, the Hippocratic Oath, and many other subjects that space will not permit me to name here, but all of which I did find satisfactorily treated in other encyclopedias. SISTERS OF CHARITY AND THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY. V Of all religious orders the order known as the Sisters of Charity alone was able to weather the storm of the French Revolution, notwithstanding an edict in 1790 for the suppression of all religious orders. It was officially recognized by Napoleon, and became the center into which was gathered the whole practical re ligious energy of the time. A single sentence of two lines is ail this encyclopedia devotes to this noble, consecrated and historic order, and not even that much is given to the Catholic University of America, of which Cardinal Gibbons is chan cellor. MORE FACTS FROM AND ABOUT THE GREAT AND ONLY AND ABSOLUTELY RELIABLE UP-TO-DATE BRITANNICA. The "up-to-date Britannica" says that "the name of Triple Alliance was first given in 1879 to a stipulation of mutual support between Germany, Austria and Italy." This information is given in an article entitled "Triple Alliance" on page 1508 of the so-called American Revisions and Additions. Now the fact is that the first time that name was given in history was to the alliance between Eng land, Holland and Sweden, in 1668; and the next alliance to which it was given was that between England, France and Holland in 1717; and the alliance be tween Germany, Austria and Italy is the third one to wfcich the name of "Triple Alliance" has been given, and it was formed in 1882, and not in 1879, as the uptc-date Britannica has it. But one could never know, from the article referred to,. that there was ever more than one "Triple Alliance" in history. t AS TO THE BURNING OF THE ALEXANDRIAN LIBRARY. In its article on Alexandria it repeats the story about the burning of the library by Omar, whereas it has been shown that, whatever may have been Omars attitude towards learning, he did not burn the Alexandrian library, for the simple reason that there was no library to burn. It had been destroyed before. A LITERARY FRAUD UNMASKED. 45 HOW THE GREAT FIRE IN CHICAGO WAS STARTED. In the article on Chicago it repeats the story that the great fire in that city in 1871 was started by the overturning of a lamp, whereas it was not started in that way. The facts about it are these: The OLeary house, 137 DeKoven street, was occupied by two families at the time of the fire, and the family in the rear gave an entertainment that night for the purpose of raising funds to start a new arrival -in business One of the young men attending the party had occasion to stand beside the barn, and wken the necessity of his so standing no longer existed he filled his pipe, lighted a match, used it "to light his pipe," and dropped the lighted match upon the ground, setting fire to the shavings beneath the stable and thus starting the fire which des troyed Chicago. The true origin of the fire was established by sworn testimony. ABOUT THE GOVERNORS OF NORTH CAROLINA. The list of governors of Xorth Carolina in one of the volumes of "American Revisions and Additions" of this work contains some information not to be found anywhere else, which of course makes the work especially valuable for the people of that state and all others interested in its history. I .learn from that list that George Drummond was the first proprietary gover nor of North Carolina, whereas I have heretofore been under the impression (formed from the reading of other works represented as historical) that it was William Drummond. I learn from it that the name of the second proprietary governor was Stevens, instead of Stephens, and that he was succeeded by a Mr. Cartwright, whose first name is not given. I remember reading of a Governor Carteret, of North Carolina, but I never heard nor read of Governor Cartwright before. The omission of his name from all histories of North Carolina is a grave defect in them. I find in this list the name of Alexander Livingstone, which, of course, is the name that Dr. Hawks and other North Carolina historians skouM have written in their histories instead of Lillington; and it is equally clear that Hawks and all the other North Carolina historians who mention a Governor Glover of that State are wrong, for it should be "Grover" according to the upto-date Britannica. And according to the same authority it was Governor "Everhard" instead of Everard, and Governor "Nast" instead of Governor Nash. I learn from this list, too, that Edward Hyde was governor of North Carolina twelve years, or from 1710 till 1722. That is, he was governor for ten years after he died. And I learn from it that William W. Holden was governor for thirteen years consecutively, or from 1868 to 1881, and that Daniel G. Fowle was governor from 1889 to 1891. There are several other things in this list that are totally at vari ance with everything else I have read as to North Carolina, but I will not particu larize further than to say that the* books that name Charles Eden and Thomas M. Holt as having been governors of North Carolina must be mis taken, for neitker of those names appear in the up-to-date Britannicas list. GOVERNOR GUT, OF SOUTH CAROLINA. We are told on page 1450 of the "American Revisions and Additions" of this absolutely accurate encyclopedia that the chief executive of the State of South Carolina from 1858 to 1860 was a gentlemaM by the name of Gut, William H. Gut. ("Phoebus! what a name to fill the speaking trump of future fame!") The able editors of the up-to-date Britannica deserve great credit for unearthing this interesting fact from the records of South Carolina, for it is evident that all other chroniclers of the history of that State have either been ignorant as to Gut or have for some reason or other purposely and studiously ignored and suppressed him. What may have prompted them to desire to "eliminate" Gut from the an- 46 A LITERARY FRAUD UNMASKED. nals of the State, and to have his very name perish from the memory of men, is of course matter for conjecture only. If such has been the desire of the people and the historians of South Carolina, it has been thwarted by the "corps of trained writers" who, *under the direct supervision of the widely known encyclo pedic editor, \V\ H. DePuy, D. D., LL. D.," have prepared the American Re visions and Additions that are the crowning work of this edition of the Britannica." (See the Houston Post si April 19, 1894.) That "widely known encyclopedic edi tor" and that "corps of trained writers" have discovered Gut, and it is confidentlyexpected that the next "revised edition" of the Chicago Britannica, will, as the result of their further research, disclose the fact that he was the governor of South Carolina to whom the historic, world-famous remark was made by the gov ernor of North Carolina. SOME MORE GOVERNORS. According to this encyclopedias gubernatorial list it was "Charles Pinkney" who was governor of South Carolina, not *Charles Pinckney; "and Robert "F." Hayne, not Robert Y. Hayne; and according to the same absolutely infallible authority the governor of that State from 1882 to 1886 was "Hush" S. Thomson. (Oh hush!) And it appears to be an erronoeous impression that Thomas Pinckney was once governor of South Carolina, for his name is not in the up-to-date Britannicas list. But I cannot further follow the gubernatorial lists of this book, though I dont know why it should omit from its up-to-date Alabama list the name of Thomas G. Jones, one of the very best governors that State or any other ever had. SOMETHING NEW ABOUT ABRAHAM LINCOLN comes to light erery now and then, and the latest is brought out by our indefati gable and everlastingly reliable and well known editor (with the invaluable aid of his trained corps of writers) in the statement (American Revisions and Additions, p. 613) that Lincoln defeated the celebrated Peter Cartwright in a contest for the United States Senate. As the annals of the United States Senate contain no ev idence that Mr. Lincoln was ever a member of that body, it is to be hoped that the next thoroughly revised, absolutely accurate, up-to-date edition of the Chicago literary chef-cTcevrc will make known the reason why, after being elected United States Senator, he failed to enter upon the discharge of the duties of the office. THE XVITH AMENDMENT. . Page 1317, paragraph 4, of the "Revisions and Additions" informs me that a XYIth amendment to the Constitution has been adopted. I have not been able to come across it, but as the Houston Post says that the student, teacher or busy man who turns to the pages of this great work, may rest content that what he finds there in, no matter what topic is dealt with, is accurate and reliable," why, of course there is a XVIth amendment. ABOUT JOHN WESLEY The Encyclopedia Britaaica, (vol. 24, p. 504) makes another remarkable display of ignorance and narrow prejudice in the statement that "John Wesley was not the author of any original hymns, and has no claims to rank asa thinker, or even as a theologian." And here is what Thomas Babington Macaulay wrote of Wesley: "He was a man whose eloquence and acuteness might have rendered him eminent in literature whose genius for government was not inferior to that of Richelieu." There is a decided difference between these estimates of Wesleys intellectual rank. ITS ATTITUDE TOWARDS THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. For the benefit of those who are interested in upholding the Christian religior I quote the expressions of some leading papers of that creed: A LITERARY FRAUD UNMASKED. 47 . The New York Christian Advocate says: "The Encyclopedia Britannica is per vaded by a spirit of prejudice against evangelical Christianity." The Christian Intelligencer says: "We have betn asking ourselves, *Is this en cyclopedia edited in the1 interest of modern skepticism? We are beginning to ask our selves also, whether it would not be wise to request to be released from our subscrip tion to the work, and whether we might not as well subscribe to a new edition of Paines Age of Reason," revised and enlarged by the most eminent skeptics of the day." And The New Orleans Presbyterian says: "It is clearly evident that this Ency clopedia is controlled by those who belong not to the army of the Defenders of the Faith, but to the host which are studiously seeking to undermine its battlements and to sap the foundations of the Christian religion." A LITTLE GEOGRAPHY. The article on Texas says of that State; "the extreme length is 740 miles and the extreme breadth 825," whereas the fact is just the reverse. The extreme length is 825 and the extreme breadth 740. Elsewhere (p. 670 Revisions and Additions) we are told that "Farquier White Sulphur Springs are in Farquier County. Vir ginia, " whereas no map of Virginia shows any such springs nor any such county. There is much geographical information of this sort scattered through the book. THE AMERICAN FLAG in Volume IX can hardly be called an up-to-date flag, in view of the fact that it has only thirty-six stars to represent the States of the Union. A NEW METHOD. According to the usual method of arranging subjects in a cyclopedia "Flori culture" should come before "Florida," but your up-to-date Chicago publishers do not hesitate to depart from the beaten track when the occasion in their judg ment requires it or makes it appropriate, hence they begin "Florida" on page 692 of the American Revisions and Additions, drop it at the end of that page and take up "Floriculture" on page 693, and resume "Florida" on page 694. It is sup posed by some that this arrangement was merely an experiment of the Chicago publishers, and that they will hereafter adhere to the customary alphabetical order if the public should manifest disapproval of the innovation. HOW THE COTTON CROP IS TREATED. The able editors of this great work are no less at home when it comes to telJing about cotton than they are when telfing about the Constitution, as will be seen from the statement that "after the crop has been secured it is spread out and dried." (American Revisions and Additions p. 64.) The spectacle of a gathered cotton crop spread out to dry is one that I have never seen, and I shall endeavor to find a chance to visit Col. Jim Smiths big cotton plantation in Oglethorpe county, next fall, after his crop has been gathered, and see it spread out to dry, as described in this book. IT TELLS WHAT A LOUISIANA QUADROON IS. "In Louisiana," says the up-to-date Britannica, "the ternTquadroon denotes the offspring of a white man and a griffin." (American Revisions and Additions, p. 95, 1st column.) Websters International Dictionary says that a "griffin" is "a species of large vulture." The encyclopedias statement about the Louisiana quadroon will doubtless cause more surprise than its statement that the cotton crop of the Southern plantation is spread out to dry after it has been gathered. 48 A LITERARY FRAUD UNMASKED. "A RIDICULOUS SOUTHERNISM." The "widely known encyclopedic editor" and his "corps of trained writers" say that " You all, or as it should be abbreviated, yall, is one of the most ridic ulous Southernisms" they "can call to mind," and that it "is sometimes used when only one person is meant." (American Revisions and Additions,