NOTES AND FRAGMENTS

Columbus Day.—Chapter 37 of the General Laws of the Thirty-second Legislature, approved March 10, 1911, recognizes Columbus Day, October 12, as a legal holiday in Texas.

Mrs. Joseph B. Dibrell, Vice-Chairman of the Texas Library and Historical Commission, has been appointed Texas regent of the Confederate Museum at Richmond Virginia, to succeed the late Mrs. A. V. Winkler, who was removed by death on May 4, 1911.

The sudden death, on December 31, 1910, of Ludolf F. Lafrentz, editor and publisher of the Deutsch-Texanische Monatshefte, has suspended the publication of that magazine. Mr. Lafrentz has resided in Texas since 1852. For many years he cherished the plan of writing a history of the Germans in Texas. Fragments and reminiscences appeared in the Monatshefte.

The monument, erected by the State at Huntsville, Texas, over the grave of Sam Houston, was unveiled on the afternoon of April 21st. The attendance was large. State Senator McDonald Meachum and Hon. William Jennings Bryan were the principal speakers.

“The women of the federated clubs here have erected a life-size statue of Gov. J. W. Throckmorton on a pedestal placed on the lawn east of the courthouse. . . . It was the work of a Waco artist and is pronounced by many to be an excellent likeness. Gov. Throckmorton is represented as standing with his right hand and arm extended as if addressing a crowd.”—Dispatch from McKinney to the Dallas News of April 30, 1911.

Officers Killed in the War with Mexico.—On May 25, 1910, the Colonial Dames of America in Texas unveiled a bronze tablet, erected to the memory of the officers of the United States army who fell in the war with Mexico (1846-7). The tablet is placed under the picture “Santa Anna before Houston,” which adorns the west wall of the vestibule of the State Capitol. At the regular session of the thirty-second legislature a resolution was adopted formally accepting this gift. The introduction to this resolution is misleading; it recites that “desiring to preserve the names of the officers of the United States army, who assisted Texas and who fell in the war with Mexico.” etc., etc. Wherein have these officers “assisted Texas” more than any other State of the Union?