blood and her might for the principles that gave her birth and happiness and the peace which she has treasured, God helping her. So breathes forth to-day the reincarnated "Spirit of '76," as we proceed to justify our last red bar on the escutcheon of Democracy's Champion in this World's War for Peace. MEETING OF JULY, 1917. The Louisiana Historical Society held its midsummer meeting Tuesday evening, July 17th, in the Cabildo. President Cusachs and the two secretaries were present. The attendance was fair for the season. The minutes were read, and after correction were approved; and no business reports being brought forward Mr. Cusachs introduced Dr. Holt, who read the paper he had been requested to prepare at the last meeting, "A Review of the Paper of Major Allison Owen on the History of the Washington Artillery." The author presented it as a response to Major Owen's paper, which was a record of the details and dry facts in the life of the famous battery. Dr. Holt, yielding to the popular sentiment of admiration for the Washington Artillery, made a graceful and poetical eulogy which elicited constant bursts of applause that did not subside when the doctor, in scathing sentences, denounced the present war as conducted by the Germans and the supine attitude of the pacifists in regard to it. Dr. Y. R. Lemonnier arose and offered a few remarks suggested by Dr. Holt's paper, comparing the young men of the present war with those who enlisted, as he had done, in the cause of the Confederacy. Both humorous and pathetic, he held the audience's closest attention. Spontaneous applause that arose from the heart, interrupted him frequently. He Mr. Henry Gill was then introduced by the President. spoke of a recent conference he had attended at Chautauqua, at which many noted speakers of the country had gathered to decide upon the best plan for laying before the people of the United States the reasons why America is at war. His address made a serious impression on the audience, particularly when he contrasted the scientific thoroughness with which Germany con ducted war, with the easy-going chivalry of the nations which still followed the old principle of international warfare. When he closed there seemed to be no desire for any other consideration or discussion. Mr. Glenk, arising, offered the following names for member ship: Mrs. Peter F. Pescud, 1413 Third Street. Miss Eleanor Riggs, 4535 Prytania Street. Mrs. Victoria M. Jones, 1337 Esplanade Avenue. They were unanimously elected. Mr. Hart, having obtained for the Society from the sister of the late Mrs. Ruth McEnery Stuart, the notices published in the papers after the death of the distinguished writer, contributed them to the archives of the Society. A motion to adjourn was made, and the meeting, essentially a war-talk meeting, was brought to a close. A REVIEW OF THE PAPER OF MAJOR ALLISON OWEN ON THE HISTORY OF THE WASHINGTON ARTILLERY. By DR. JOSEPH HOLT. These remarks are offered in the spirit of a tribute so richly deserved that silence, repressing sentiments urging to utterance, in this time of national travail, and shadowing menace of the world's bereavement of its most precious jewel, government of, for and by the people, would be to charge my own soul with the disloyalty of indifference and purposeful neglect; for who is not warmly with us is openly or secretly with the enemy. At our regular meeting in June, a paper entitled "The Washington Artillery," was read by Major Allison Owen, the commanding officer, giving in outline, breifly condensed for the occasion, a chronological record of events in the history of that famous organization; not entering into an intimate disclosure of the accumulated and treasured incidents of its inner life, the spiritual nucleus of its vitalizing energy that has created, and continues to create, an esprit de corps of the highest attainable standard of chivalry; in numerous campaigns enduring the extreme test under concentrated fire. On the staff of its battle flag, engraved upon silver, is a list of sixty battles, in Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Georgia; beginning with Bull Run, and, among others, the battles around Richmond, Second Manassas, Sharpsburg, Gettysburg, Dalton, Chicamauga, Atlanta, the siege of Petersburg, and the grande finale at Appomattox. Affairs such as these were merely mentioned, as it seemed, to keep the record straight. There was no attempted garnishment so alluringly offered in brilliant events; no wandering into the multi-colored atmosphere of old soldier reminiscence; no spectacular display of heroic action and Spartan endurance. Yielding to none of these actualities of experience, justifying dramatic recital, the articulated elements of history, gaunt and unadorned, as a thing of life, moved forward in the serenity of duty, unconsciously commanding fear and admiration. The naivete of sincerity, the modesty of recital, would have been strangely depreciatory had it not been reactively its own corrective, affixing the stamp of verity. However demure here at home, I can affirm, as often a much interested observer, that in the field far away, the Washington Artillery played the game of "Tiger" with all the zeal and athletic abandon of a champion baseball team, loudly boisterous and rudely aggressive; which singularly explains the expression in the Iliad: "And they were mindful of the delight of battle!" "They knew the joy of battle!"' The paper was received with cordial recognition; but to President Cusachs' invitation there was no responsive discussion, for the reason that it was quite impossible, on the instant, to exercise the mind in analytical criticism giving words to thought, except in haphazard fashion, contrary to our custom. Such documents furnish the skeletal framework of authentic history, scarcely noticed when recent, but of great value in years to come. A trouble, keenly felt in our civilization, is in the fact that history, except in these later times, has seldom been recorded in its creative freshness, but has suffered through lapse of time and the inevitable forgetting, the silent evaporation and escape of truth, leaving to the ready imagination the filling of gaps for a continuous story. This clearly accounts for a "Romance History of Louisiana." In "In Camp and Battle with the Washington Artillery," by Colonel Miller Owen, 1885, is laid the broad historic foundation upon which his son, Major Allison Owen, with inherited acumen. and loyalty to the colors, continues the record; inscribing upon the rising shaft dedicated to valorous achievement the crowning history of the Washington Artillery in this the most direful tragedy in the human drama-the irrepressible conflict between autocratic dynasty and universal democracy. The future of the Washington Artillery is inseparable from the fate of our people; for all that we hold dear, for our women and children, for ourselves and fellow-citizens, whom we love, it were better, a thousand times more merciful to feel the liberating pangs of death and the pains of hell forever, than to suffer the ignominy and unspeakable shame and paralyzing outrage under the robber instinct and the huge bestial animality of the German, as he has revealed himself shamelessly to an amazed world; the domination of the Chickasaws and Comanches, in their primal savagery, would be clean and noble in comparison. Facing this monstrosity of German philosophy, called Kultur, we can well ask: "Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of such chains and slavery?" When we peer into the chaotic blackness of the future and then look upon our valiant young manhood, these boys, inexpressibly loved and cherished, then it is we realize the price of liberty, transcending all values; how much more above the peace at any price of scheming poltroons, willing to see in our own land a repetition of the wholesale butcheries and debaucheries of Belgium and Northern France, more frightful than primitive savagery has ever devised seemingly inherent in the race. Here let me register a protest against the sanctimonious sloppiness of well-paid charlatans in official high places, who cunningly ingratiate themselves under pretense of much righteousness, and political tricksters, who belittle and always oppose the noblest efforts of patriots, in order to advance themselves through treachery and evil speaking; these are the lineal "Tories" of the Revolution. As for war! It is normal to mankind as an organic element in the conditions of existence, the biological imperative; itself dependent upon the sacrifice of life for the survival of the living, best understood when we recognize the infinite wisdom and power, creating according to the sovereignty of His own willwithout calling pacifists into consultation. These, in their fatuity, fail to see the compensating necessities in the human problem; for, left to his own inherent inclinations in high prosperity, which means high living, man quickly lapses into the degeneracy of self-gratification in the lusts of the flesh, the lusts of the eye and presumptuous arrogancy of life, eventually not worth the killing, unless a heaven-sent compulsory reaction, supremely greater than ourselves, compels us suddenly to "About face!" subordinating body and soul to the larger imperative obligations of duty to our better selves in allegience to our country and the higher needs of the human race. War in an instant has transformed this happy-go-lucky, dollar-grabbing, pleasure-seeking people into a consolidated unit of free-handed, self-sacrificing patriotism, hungry for training in discipline and obedience; already leading the nations to a universal knowledge and acceptance of American-born government of, for and by the people. "Man in his highest estate can do no more!" As long as we, the American people, are not utterly debased in cowardice and greed, wars and rumors of wars will keep the Washington Artillery in furbished and glittering preparedness. MINUTES OF OCTOBER, 1917. The Louisiana Historical Society held its regular monthly meeting on Tuesday evening, October 16th, at the Cabildo. President and Secretary were present, and a small gathering of members and visitors. Minutes of the July meeting were read and approved. Mr. W. O. Hart reported that, authorized by the Executive Committee of the Society, he had presented to the War Library two hundred copies of Mr. Stanley Arthur's "Battle of New Orleans," freshly bound for the occasion. He read a note of thanks for this, from Mr. Henry M. Gill, chairman of the War Library Committee for Louisiana and Mississippi. Mr. Joe Mitchell Pilcher then read his carefully prepared essay, "The Story of Marksville." It was listened to with great interest, the notes on Indian tribes containing much new and original information. The fight at Fort DeRussy was told with |