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[Entebbe at the Post Otjtice, in Atlanta, Geobgia, ton tbanspobtation thbodsh the United States Mails at second Glass Rates.] PUBLISHED 1 ttat TT TWICE A MONTH.; VOL. 11. ATLANTA, GA., DECEMBER 15, 1882. ■WV. A JONK DOLLAR JN O. 4. | A TEA It. Written specially for the Southern World, LEXINGTON, VA. BY W. P. WOOLLEY. There is no town of its size in the South in ■ which there is centered more culture than Lexington. The town of the Lees and Jack, sons, with two eminent and prosperous in- stitutions of learning, it certainly affords a point of interest to the tourist. It is a thriv- N ,t v Jng to'.v.i situated in the most beautiful por tion of this romantic State, belted by the Blue Ridge, and laved by a branch of the James. The Washington and Lee University un der the able management of Gen. Geo. W. Custis Lee, is now in a most flourishing condition. Through the kindness of Hr. Wm. C. Preston, a grandson of the distin guished poetess, I was shown through the University buildings, which contain numer ous relics and curiosities. An elegant two story brick library and art building erected to the memory of Mr. Warren Nowcorae, of New York, by his wife, has just been com pleted and it will soon be filled with 20,000 books and a valuable art collection. The museum is doubtless the most complete of any Southern college. It comprises four distinct cabinets: 1. The Zoological, con taining stuffed specimens and mounted skel- ^ „ etons. reprc ' ative of all the animal king dom. 2. TGo^Jlineralogical, presenting an extensive collections of minerals. 3. The Geological, with a large collection of fossil animals and plants. 4. Botanical, embrac ing an herbarium of 5,000 specimens mount ed in walnut cases. This valuable museum costing $25,000 is a gift of Mr. Lewis Brooks, of Rochester, N. Y. The University also possesses elegant apparatus in the depart ments of Natural Philosophy, Chemistry and Applied Mathematics. Gen. Custis Lee like his honored father is a gentleman of the highest culture, force, and executive ability, It is to him, assisted by one of the ablest faculties in any college, that the University owes its great success. I went into the private office of Gen. Robt. E. Lee, which remains in the same condition as it was the day of his death, not even paper being moved.' The room is in the basement of the Chapel building. The fur niture consists of a round centre table, an arm chair, several other chairs, a sofa, desk and book case. On the table are his papers just as he left them. The last thing he wrote is laying there. It is written upon a sheet of legal cap, and is as follows; “List of names to whom catalogues of 18G9-70 were sent," Among these names was that of Gen. Jno. B. Gordon. To the left of this sheet is a volume—“Religious Reading a Means of Grace ;—by Rev. Thos. Barron.” Gen. Lee svas a devout Christian, and this little inci dent shows the channel in which his thoughts were running. In a vault in the basement of the chapel are the remains of Gen. Lee. By his side lies the body of his wife. A mausoleum has just been added to this building, containing twenty-seven sepulchres, and the General’s remains and also those of his immediate fam ily will be there interred. In the upper portion of this addition to the chapel will be placed his statue, a work executed by the distinguished sculptor Edward Valentine, of Richmond, Va. The statue represents the General in military attire and in a reclining position one hand over the breast, and a sheet partly covering the body. Mr. Valen tine says the highest compliment that has been paid him was by an old countrywo man when he had this statue on exhibition in Richmond, for he knew it was genuine. A guard was stationed at each end of the fig ure, and the old lady after looking on in tently asked permission to remove the sheet froip the statue. Fifteen thousand dollars was paid for this piece of Southern art. The addition to the chapel will cost $17,000. Next June 28th, the statue will be unveiled. I visited also the grave of General Stone wall Jackson. It is a plain mound, covered with green sward, a scroll of marble at its head bearing the simple inscription: “Thos. J. Jackson.” As Mrs. Preston has beauti fully written: "A simple,sodded mound ot earth, Without a Hue above It; With only dally votive flowers To prove that any love It.” But this is sufficient, for bis deeds are in delibly engraved on the hearts of his people. A monument to his memory is shortly to be erected near his grave. At a distance any one would take it for a work in marble, the statue of Gen. Washing ton on the tower of the University. But it is merely painted wood, most creditably ex ecuted. This ingenious piece of work many years ago was hewn from a solid block of wood with a broad-axe by an old German of this place. I took tea last evening with Mrs. Margaret J. Preston and some of her literary friends. Will have more to say of her in another let ter. I leave here for Luray to visit the wonder ful caves, thence to Millwood to see John Eaten Cooke. THE MUNICH ELECTRICAL EXHIBI TION. The progress of electric science is now so rapid that exhibitions of late improvements have ariton d' etre that no other industry can lay claim to. The Paris and London exhi bitions have been followed by that of Mu. nich,which,although anythingbut complete, still afforded an opportunity to judge of some of the more recent advances in electro technology. On the occasion of its opening, Prof. Von Beetz delivered an address, which was, essen tially, a rapid survey of the successive dis coveries in the science, until now “the mo tive power furnished by water, by steam engines and gas machines will be used by dynamo-electric machines, and electricity can be put in action at will, and at a given moment. A circuit, traversed by a current, is heated to a glow, and the hundreds of car bon filaments of incandescent lamps, and the powerful foci of arc lights furnish us with the very light of day itself.” The exhibition was held in the “Glass Palace” of Munich, and a magical sea of light surrounded the trees and statues of the garden. The reports in the German pa pers state that the incandescent lamps of Riedingerand Siemens are not very satis factory, neither are the differential lamps of the latter. In the former lamp the light is intermittent and insufficient. The most interesting part of the Exhibi tion, for electricians, was that containing the dynamo-electric machines for illumina ting and motive power—of which no fewer than 56 were exhibited—representing four teen different systems. One of the machines was located at Hirschau—a distance of five kilometres. It makes 800 revolutions, and using twelve horse-power delivers a current of 660 volts tension, and 8 ampere force. The loss in force is estimated at 60 per cent, but the machine is a very fine example of the transmission of power with the simulta neous use of the current for various pur poses. Deprez has also a transmission for long distances; he uses two Gramme machines, which are enveloped with very thin wires. One of the machines was at Miesbach—a dis tance of 75 kilometres. Two ordinary tele graph wires were used for the transmission. It made 2,200 revolutions, required 2'/i horse-power, and gave a current of 2,300 volts tension. The employment of such a high degree of tension has been character-* ized as dangerous, as no insulation could per manently withstand it. The Edison lamps, exhibited by the “Paris Edison Co.,” were found to work satisfactori ly, and the illumination of the Arcis Strasse, from the Glass Palace, to the Brienner Strass, by the Edison lamps, the German papers state, was satisfactory, but the effect was, on the whole, that of a good steady gas lighting. The illumination by the Brush system was defective, but the Brush Company has promptly disavowed the Vienna firm which undertook the installation. So far as inventions and improvements in the telegraph and telephone are concerned, it is seen that the State system has a most paralyzing effect, by the difficulty with which any innovation can be brought to the notice of Government officials. The Pater son instrument is the one most in favor, and is very satisfactory in dry weather, but oth erwise, when insulation is made imperfect through humidity. The Munich Clinical Institution has paid great attention to the use of electricity for therapeautic purposes,under the supervision of the celebrated Prof. Ziemssen. These ex periments are mostly designed for the better inspection of the internal organs, and will, no doubt, have a great influence on the bet ter diagnosis of disease, and knowledge of the animal functions. —Electrician. Facts About Old Violins. To begin with the wood. At Brescia, makers used to use pear, lemon and ash; at Cremona, maple, sycamore, and of course, pine. The wood came into the markets of Mantua, Brescia, Cremona, Venice, Milan, from the Swiss Southern Tyrol, unlimited in supply, often, mighty timbers of great age- plentiful then, scarcer now. The makers had their pick; they tested it for intensity and quality. Cut strips of wood and strike them, you will see how they vary in musical sound. When a good acoustic beam was found the maker kept it for his best work. In Joseph Guarneriu8 and Stradiuarius the same pine tree crops up at intervals of years. A good maker will patch and join and inlay to re tain every particle of tried timber. Old wood is oddly vocal. As I sat in my room, surrounded by these instruments, I could not cough or move without ghostly voices answering me from the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries; and even the old seasoned backs and bellies of unstrung violins are full of echoes. The violin is made of 68 or 70 pieces. It is a miracle of construction. It is as light as a feather and as strong as a horse. Wood about as thick as a half-crown, by exquisite adjustment, resists for centuries a pressure of several hundred weight. The belly of soft deal, and back of hard sycamore, sup ported by twelve blocks with linings. The sound-bar running obliquely under the left foot of the bridge is the nervous system of the violin; the sound-post supporting the bridge is the soul, through it pass all the heart-throbs or vibrations generated between the back and the belly; on its position de pends mellowness, tightness, or intensity of sound. The prodigious strain of the strings is resisted first by the arch of the belly, then by the ribs, strengthened with the uptight blocks, the pressure among which is evenly distributed by the linings which unite them, and lastly by tho supporting sound-bar and sound-post and back.” The Cremona varnish, a heterogeneous varnish, first of oil with gum in solution then of coloi evaporated in spirit. and yellow gum appear to have been used and combined. Although it was said that the secret was now lost, Dod, as late as 1830, who employed the Fendts and Lott, and al ways varnished himself, had the receipt for' something very like the Cremona varnish; and, lately, Mr. Perkins has not only anal yzed the varnish of Joseph Guarnerius, and found amber in it, but has himself produced varnish of an extraordinary quality. The supreme interest of the violin is not far to seek. It lies not only in its simplicity, beauty, strength, subtlety and indestructi bility, which fit it for the cabinet of the col lector, but it is the king of instruments in the hands of the player. It combines accent with modification of sustained tone. The organ has sustained tone without accent; the pianno, accent without sustained tone; the violin, accent and sustained tone modi fied at will. Within its limits it is scientif ically perfect; it has all the sensibility and more than the compass, execution and va riety of the human voice. Tbe violin is not an invention, it is a growth; it has come to gether; it is the survival of the fittest On the screens you see its rough elements, which had to be collected from the rebek, crowth and the rotta or guitar tribe. About the eleventh centuyy an instrument of the viol tribe emergtfj with frevj. but 150 yeg£ were required to get rid of tn before even a step towards the true viol could be made. Before the end of the four teenth centiiry viols were made in great pro fusion, of every size and shape—the knee viol, the bass viol de Gamba, of which cer tain South Kensington specimens are before you. But the rise of the true violin tribe begins with the rise of modern music. About the time when Carrissima and Monte- verde—1585-1672—discovered the true oc tave and perfect cadence, part-singing re ceived a new impulse; the human voice was discovered to fall naturally into soprano, contralto, tenor and bass, and viol instru ments—deing adapted to these four divis ions, the violin, tenor, bass, and lateY con- trobasso before me—gradually separated themselves from the confused nebula of viola behind me, and shone out clearly as the true planetary system of the musical firmament.” —II. It. llaweie. How many sins are committed in the name of Christianity. In vain do wise men talk of the dignity of labor, if fashionable Chris tianity frowns upon it As an illustration of this (and it is no exception to the rule) the congregation of a church in New York is energetically discussing the question of "ought we to visit her?” a large majority of the members, it is reported, inclining to the negative. The her in this case is the pas tor’s mother, of irreproachable moral char acter and unobtrusive manners. Although no fault can bo found with her manners or her morals she has in the past been guilty of that which determines society or Christians to withhold from her the ordinary courte sies of social life. Her offence is that, in former days, in order to support herself and a family of children, she pursued the call ing of a washerwoman, and a people which worships a son of a carpenter refuses to ex tend social recognition to a worthy woman, who, by the faithful performance of lowly duties, has aided her son to attain his pres ent honorable position. Leading Journals are advocating the right of women to whistle, and urging them to practice it as an inspiratorand chest-expan der. The planting of persimmon trees will have a boom. , An English firm makes strawberry jam “A red | from mashed turnips and extract of coal tar.