The magazine of American history with notes and queries . Santa Anna was what Talleyrand wouldcall worse than a crime—a blunder. But no people, even with the aidof such circumstances as I have just referred to, ever worked out successthrough ten years of such difficulties as Texas had to encounter by dintof luck alone. With all the illusion and sham enterprise, the conceit,swagger and recklessness by which Anglo-American communities are toooften characterized, there is always under this froth a strong element ofSaxon hard sense of the kind which does not soften ; and this element,though a mino
The magazine of American history with notes and queries . Santa Anna was what Talleyrand wouldcall worse than a crime—a blunder. But no people, even with the aidof such circumstances as I have just referred to, ever worked out successthrough ten years of such difficulties as Texas had to encounter by dintof luck alone. With all the illusion and sham enterprise, the conceit,swagger and recklessness by which Anglo-American communities are toooften characterized, there is always under this froth a strong element ofSaxon hard sense of the kind which does not soften ; and this element,though a minority, exerts its legitimate sway and neutralizes opposingqualities in the times that try mens souls. The last two presidents ofTexas deserve great credit for the manner in which they retrieved formererrors of people and rulers; but they could never have done it had theynot been sustained by the good element I have just denned. The proverbwhich the story really illustrates is this: A few persevering wise menoften bring salvation to an unwise AN OLD SCHOOL BOOK The mutability of the current school book has long been a topic oflament ; and so much so, that, if Solomon had said, Of making school booksthere is no end, he would almost have added vividness for modern ears tohis hyperbole. The art of teaching, however, has been distinguished bygreat improvements, and the form of addressing scholars, from those inthe kindergarten through all the upward grades, has put on at differentperiods a new style and significance. To meet the new conditions it wasnecessary to prepare new text books, which were less erudite in someinstances, and which were simpler and less ponderous. As these obtainedcurrency, their predecessors faded out, not always as failures, but asinstruments not so well adapted to modern uses. Among the multitudedisplaced I can think of none that has left so distinct a flavor in retro-spect as The English Reader. Who, that went to the district schoola generation
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