BOOK NOTICES. 575 
The sources of information from which:the matter of the Report is derived 
are Reports from States, Territories, and cities, from schools of all classes, and 
from all other institutions of an educational character, as libraries and museums. 
This material has increased more than eight-fold since 1870. To this must be 
added the foreign material, reports and periodicals which are examined and the 
most important information they contain summarized by the translator. 
The Report is full and comprehensive, including information on almost every 
point connected with the education, not only of the children of each State, but 
of its teachers, its deaf and dumb, and blind, its medical, theological and law 
students; also its libraries, educational benefactions, its colleges and universities, 
schools of science, and the educational publications and patents. Following this 
is an account of education in foreign countries, and finally of the representation 
of education in the United States in the Paris Exposition of 1878, where 121 
premiums were taken as awards in various classes, besides a gold palm to Gen. 
Eaton, the cross of the Legion of Honor to Dr. John D. Philbrick, the superin- 
tendent, and three silver palms to Messrs. Harris, Kiddle and Wilson, being nearly 
one-sixth of the whole number of awards made in this department of the Expo- 
sition. This shows how highly the world regards the school system of the United 
States. , 
THE RHYME OF THE BORDER WAR: By Thomas Brower Peacock. New York: 
G. W. Carleton & Co, 1880, pp. 162, 12 mo, $1.00. 
This is a handsomely printed volume, by a gentleman of Topeka who has 
already acquired a fair reputation as a writer of poetry. This reputation will be 
in no wise lessened by his latest effort, which contains many genuinely poetic 
fancies and lofty passages. The introductory lines are especially good, and many 
of the descriptions of scenery and character are finely conceived and delicately 
portrayed. Among these we can only take time to mention the Poet and Song 
which abounds in such gems. 
The poem will doubtless meet with a better reception in localities more 
remote from the scenes of the events described than in their vicinity, since it will 
be almost impossible to arouse any enthusiasm in the minds of those who partici- 
pated in them or of those who knew the outlaws that are made prominent in this 
book, on either side, regarding their characters or deeds. Civil war is not the 
most exalted theme for the poet, at best, and the warfare of this Border lacked 
nearly all the elements of true poetry. Still, we must give Mr. Peacock credit 
for having made the most of his material and for having much of the imagination 
and descriptive power that belong to the poet. Experience and cultivation of his 
naturally fine qualifications will correct the defects in versification common to all 
young writers, and we may expect to see him, in riper years, attain an enviable 
position among western authors. 
