Mr. Stone died February 13, 1833, but a short time after this letter was written.

"The following beautiful lines are from the pen of a special friend of our deceased brother, Mrs. Sarah H. Bartlett, wife of Rev. G. Bartlett, missionary to Illinois: 'O harp, unused in melody to sing,

In funeral numbers one sad string awake,
And chant the requiem of virtue dead.

'Scarce had young WOODSON sunk beneath the hand
Of Death; ere STONE, not less than he beloved,
Followed his spirit to the world unknown.
Both left the dear delights of native land
With all its nameless sweets, in hopes to find
In this fair land, beneath the setting sun,
Another home; but Death relentless came,
Marked them his prey, and sent them to the tomb.
They died, alas! without one kindred dear

To hang in suffering fondness o'er their beds,
Watch their faint pulse, beguile the tedious hours,
Wipe from their pale cold brows the damps of death,
Or point their agonizing souls to heaven.

'Desire to spread afar the Saviour's name,
Led STONE away from all that blessed his youth,
To the "Great Valley" of the "distant West,"
Replete with nature's richest, fairest gifts;
Which proved, too soon, alas! his early grave.

Edwardsville, March 6, 1833.

MELVINA.'

BOOK REVIEWS

CARTER'S ILLINOIS COUNTRY.

BY EDWARD C. PAGE.

It is to be doubted if any state west of the Appalachian Mountains has as significant a history as that of Illinois. It is situated at the centering of the great waterways of the North American continent. It stands athwart the pathway of the transcontinental railway systems. Its resources are marked both for their abundance and for their variety. Its basal population has come from Puritan New England and from Cavalier South. Its history goes back beyond that of Georgia, beyond that of Pennsylvania, almost to the time of beginnings in the Carolinas. Even its aboriginal history possessed a significance out of the common.

From the first the white man looked upon it as of more than ordinary strategic importance, industrially as well as politically. Consequently, from the beginning, men have had much to say about Illinois. Explorers and settlers and actors in events have told their stories and have thus afforded a rich body of source material for the use of the future historian. Many of them have been tempted to go further and have told of things of which they themselves had no personal knowledge. As a consequence many traditions and myths have grown up to annoy the searcher for truth.

Notwithstanding its richness, few writers have attempted to really interpret the history of Illinois. In recent years, however, a number of teachers and students of history of large attainments and of scholarly