Newspaper Page Text
BY JAS. P. HARRISON & CO*
A Y AMIABLE ART.
The art of manufacturing sunshine,
for the benefit of those whose minds
have been oppressed with' gloom by re*
it erated disappointments In' life, by af
fliction, by the pains, penalties and pri
vations of poverty, etc., is certainly
such an art.
The people of Quitman, in thecotrh*
ty of Brooks, are experts in the exercise
of this art. On a recent occasion they
diffused lots of sunshine through the
domicil of our beloved pastor, by a sur
prise party, of which a report was made
through our columns. On Christmas
Eve, (December 24th), they caused rays
of sunshine to radiate from a huge
Christmas tree, which they planted in
our Courthouse, by means of which the
countenances of many of our juveniles,
anxious housewives, disconsolate maid
ens and their elder brothers, were ren
dered luminous with joyful anticipa
tions of better times to come.
On the 28th of December an enter
tainment was given, consisting of tab
leaux, charades, music, etc., under the
auspices of some of the angelic sisters
of the Methodist church, for pmrposes
purely benevolent, which evinced that
neither charity, nor the sunshine she
sheds around her, are confined within
the pales of any ecclesiastical sect.
Another entertainment of a similar
character, attesting the same fact, and
further illustrating it, was given on the
evening of the 31st December, for the
benefit of an old, infirm preacher and
his affiicted companion, which shed
such a bright light around them that
the parties principally benefited there,
by saw, or fancied they saw, the hand
of a merciful God manipulating the
heartstrings of the practitioners of the
happy art of which we are speaking.
May our readers, old and young, ac
quire a knowledge of this happy art,
and daily exercise themselves in the
practice of it.
To the Churches Connetted with the Georgia
Baptist State Convention.
Dear Brethren —The report of the
Sabbath-school Superintendent and
Evangelist, is here before you; it speaks
for itself. It is a witness to your fidel
ity, to the Sabbath-school cause, and
an evidence of your noble co-operation
with our worthy laborer. Stringent as
is the financial conditiou of the State,
the pecuniary necessities of the com
mittee have not been forgotten, and the
receipts have been almost equal to the
expenditures. Your continued help is
earnestly solicited. Respectfully yonrs,
A. T. Spalding,
Chairman of Committee.
January 10th, 1876.
REPORT OP REV. T. C. BOYKIN.
Rev. A. T. Spalding, Chairman, and Others,
Members of the Sabbath-School Committee :
Dear Brethren. —As you know,
more than a month was spent around
the bedside of my dear daughter dur
ing the summer. Since that time I have
been away from my family almost un
interruptedly, till the Christmas holi
days. During September and October
my time was occupied in attending As
sociational meetings, almost entirely.
I am glad to report that nearly all are
now working in harmony with us, and
most of them are well organized. In
November and December I was engag
ed in holding a number of mass-meet
ings and institutes, and have made only
two extended tours during these
months.
The following is a summary of work
performed for four months : Associa
tions visited, 15 ; churches visited, 41;
letters written, 348; miles traveled, 2,-
679 ; schools organized, 6; sermons de
livered, 42; addresses delivered, 122.
I am happy to be able to say that the
contributions are nearly eqi al to expen
ses. Several Associations sent up fuuds
for our work. The outlook is very en
couraging. Respectfully submitted,
T. C. Boykin,
8. 8. Superintendent and Evangelist.
—• ■
For the Index and Baptist.J
AN ACKNOWLEDGMENT.
Received, through J. P. Harrison &
Cos., the sum of $lO, from a sympa
thizing brother, whose name I am
not authorized to report, but it is well
known to our Heavenly Father, who
has graciously promised to reward lib
erally those who bestow gifts on a dis
ciple in the name of a disciple, and I
have ever found Him, during the more
than half a century I have been en
gaged in His service, a faithful and
covenant-keeping God.
Jos. S. Baker.
—A Baptist church was constituted Sunday
before last in Emanuel county, near Pendleton
creek, with sixteen members. The name is
“ Hopeful.”
The Christian Index.
INDEX AND BAPTIST.
Publication Rooms—27 and 29 So’uth-Broad Street
JSECULAR JIDITORIALS.
THE GOVERNOR’S MESSAGE.
Governor Smith’s message to the
Legislature of this State, at the open
ing of the present session, is a lengthy
document, worthy the perusal of every
citizeit. The major ; ortion of the
message is devoted to an exposition of
the present status of the State Treas
ury, and a survey of our finances dur
ing the present administration of the
State. The whole matter is an intri
cate one, that will require the utmost
skill and the calmest consideration, on
the part of our Legislature, to unravel
and adjust satisfactorily to all con
cerned, and to compass, parattiountly,
the safety of the public credit, and the
common weal. The message states
that ex-Treasurer Jo.’.es is liable, on
all accounts, in the sum of $291,969.95.
The Governor renews his recom
mendation of last year, to prevent in
jury to the public interest by any un
authorized negotiation of State secu
rities, suggesting that all the bonds re
cognized as legal and binding on the
State, issued during the late adminis
tration, be withdrawn from circulation,
and that other bonds, of similar
amount and of proper tenor and effect,
be issued in lieu thereof.
The income of the University of
Georgia, during the collegiate year,
amounted to $38,858.70 —the expend
itures to $38,150.35.
The Governor is satisfied that the
State Agricultural College is well
managed, and recommends additional
appropriations.
The growing efficiency of the Public
Schools is enlarged upon. The views
of the Commissioner are concurred in
relative to the propriety of establish
ing Normal Schools. He recommends
an appropriation of a portion of the
School Fund for the establishment of
at least four schools in the State for
the education of teachers.
The public benevolent institutions
of the State are alluded to as prosper
ous, and their administration economi
cal during the past year.
391 convicts were received into the
penitentiary ; the number in the same
December 31st, lilt., was 926. Par
doned, 16 ; deaths, 49 ; escaped, 53.
The message recommends a complete
reorganization of the penitentiary; a
reform should be made at once.
In regard to the Macon and Bruns
wick railroad, now the property of the
State, the Governor says that the Com
monwealth has been already reimburs
ed for the cost of construction, that it
is a valuable road, and that if pur
chased or leased from the State, it
should never be allowed to loose its
present character as an independent
route.
The Department of Agriculture and
Geological Survey, is complimented
for its efficiency and usefulness, and
additional appropriations are asked for.
The State Board of Health, whose
first annual report is submitted, is
characterized as highly important to
the general welfare, and the passage
of a law is recommended which shall
secure the desired statistical informa
tion for health reports.
A measure is also recommended,
directing the manner in which all
amendments to the Constitution shall
be submitted to a vote of the'people
The message states that the public,
credit has steadily improved; the
public debt is smaller and will be fur
ther reduced; that the State tax is
small, compared with that of other
States; sixty per cent, of the taxes
are levied by the counties for local
purposes, taxes induced by the ravages
caused by the late war, and the in
crease of crime and litigation, resul
ing from the emancipation of the col
ored race, which has added largely to
the expense attending the administra
tion of justice.
Though the past season has been
unpropitious to the farmer, planter
and merchant, and all classes have
suffered from depression in business,
the outlook is, nevertheless, cheering,
Literature Secular Editorials Current Notes and News.
ATLANTA, GA., THURSDAY, JANUARY 20, 1876.
with the State government in the
hands of our own people, and in
creased appliances and means for the
promotion of the common interests
and the general good; in view of these
fact the message concludes :
With all these, and the countless
other helps and advantages we possess,
it V .‘ll be our own fault ifwe dotlot, at
an early day, relieve ourselves of the
heavy burdens under which we now
labor. These burdens were placed
upon our should Of S, for the most part,
by unfriendly hands. The duty of the
hour is to remove them, and not to re
pine over the past. Our public debt
is small, compared to ouf vast re
sources. 1 hen, calling to our aid,
courage, patience and self-denial, let us
labor earnestly to advance the interest
of the Commonwealth, confident, in
the meanwhile, that a just and merci
ful Providence will eventually right
the wrong and reward the right.”
LITERARY GOSSIP.
Among some books lately sold in
London, is a rolled manuscript o£ the
Hebrew Pentateuch, acquired a few
years ago in a synagogue in Palestine.
It was written in the twelfth century,
on sixty skins of leather, and measures
one hundred and twenty feet in length
by two feet two inches in breadth.
The Hon. Robert H. Pruvn, of
Albauy, owns a copy of the Book of
Psalms, piinted at Mayence, in Ger
many, in 1478, by Petrus Schaeffer, the
son-in-law and apprentice of Faust,
and another volume printed at Venice,
in 1476. Both books are well bound,
and compare favorably with the typog
raphy of the present day.
—A. S. Abel & Cos., proprietors of
the Baltimore Weekly Sun, offersl,2oo
in prizes, to the authors of the six
best stories furnished for publication
to that paper, by March Ist next. The
best story will receive a prize of SSOO.
The stories are to be American, and
contain no allusion to the late war.
—Mrs. M. J. Preston’s last volume
of poems, “ Cartoons,” has met with
eminent success in the literay circles of
the North. Longfellow, Whittier, and
other standard poets, have written to
her expressing their congratulations at
her “ perfect success.” Several first
class Boston literary journals devoted
an entire column to a review of the
volume. The first edition was sold in
three weeks. Airs. Preston ranks first
among the female poets of the South.
We are proud of her, and of the splen
did manner in which she is illustrating
the literature of our section.
—Miss Braddon, the noted English
novelist, is residing in elegant style in
an Elizabethan villa near Richmond.
She is unpretentious and practical, and
devotes her time to her household du
ties and her writing desk. She has
coined a fortune out of her brain, and
is now enjoying the fine results of her
labors with the pen.
Music.—The College of Music which has
been recently established in New York city,
with an endowment of $11,000,000, five mil
liams of which wtre subscribed by Mr. Daniel
Hopkins, is another example of the vastness,
the magnificence, which eminently ciiaracterize
the public undertakings of Americans. It seems
that the material grandeur of our country, its
vast prairies, its cloud-capped mountain
chains, its unrivaled lakes, its majestic rivers,
conspires to invest the active brains ofour peo
ple with the elements of greatness, arid imbne
its inventions and inceptions with the pur
ple of royal supremacy.
Jt is scarcely to be conceived what theprop
| er administration of such an imperial endow
! uient will achieve in the interest of thisclassic
art, or the power such an institution will exert
in advancing and fostering its principles, and
in maintaining its professors and votaries. As
a monument of wise application of wealth to
wards the promotion of the beautiful,perse, this
College of Music will stand for ages to come in
unique splendor. But we look upon its wide
influence upon the popular taste for the art, its
dissemination of principles, its ability to raise
and fix a higher standard than has heretofore
obtained, as its prime claim to the regard and
unqualified endorsement ,of intelligent men
and women. There is no nobler art than mu
sic, when considered as a refining, elevating,
passion-dispelling power, or one to which the
heart of the masses inclines more readily for
solace and recreation ; hei.ee, this effort to es
tablish its manifestations on the grandest possi
ble scale deserves our respect and admiration.
The hone that sets an edge on the husband
man s scythe helps him to mow the grass.
NEW BOOKS.
Abbott’s Commentary on the New Tes
tament.—From Mr. R. L. De Lea, Agent for
A. S. Barnes & Cos., Publishers, New York, and
whose headquarters are with Messrs. Burke &
Cos., No, 20 Alabama street, we have received
a copy of this beautiful and valuable work.
The notes and comments embrace the Gospels
of Matthew and Mark. The book is appropri
ately and elegafitly illustrated with Bible
scenes and objects' of interest, elucidating
the habits, customs and domestic life 01 the
people, and lias accurate maps of lands and
cities.
Kev. L ymaii Abbott, the author, is thor
oughly competent to perform, satisfactorily, the
profound critical labor to which he has devoted
his pen in this work.
It is a scholarly, exegetical review of the
inspired text, drawing critical sustenance from
every possible source, ancient or modern, and
embodying, in brief, all that the researches of
Biblical scholars and antiquarians have been
able to acquire, relative to the subjects which
are, and should be, of unspeakable importance
to the heart and the mind of every Christian.
The order maintained in the work is admira
ble, and the aid it will afford to every consci
entious student can only be appreciated by
those who carefully peruse these pages, and di
gest their wisdom and erudition.
The author truly says:
“No work is more delightful than that
which throws ns into fellowship with .great
minds; of all works, the most deliijfcijil is
that which brings us into association vK/m the
mind of God, This is the fellowship to which
the student of the Bible aspires. I can have
for those who use this book no higher hope
than that they may find in its employment
some of the happiness which I found in its
preparation, and that it may serve them as it
has served me, as a guide to the Word of God,
and, through that Word, to a better acquaint
ance with God himself.”
And this, by a prayerful and studious consid
eration of its rich and varied matter, the work
will assuredly do.
Explanatory—“ Leah Mordecai.”
The Index wishes to withdraw the un
due prominence given the above work
in last issue. While we would not de
tract from the merits of the work,
whatever they be, the inappropriate
nees of the review, to the reading
columns of The Index, renders
this apology to our readers necessary.
Our work is not to commend novel
r fiction reading, and the article
in question ought not to have had edi
torial prominence, hut should have ap
peared, ;f at all, in the business col
umns of the paper.
Personal.—We were gratified dur
ing the week by a call from our much
esteemed friend and brother, Rev. G.
A. Nunnally. He is in the enjoyment
of good health. Brother Nunnally is
one of our most devoted, zealous and
successful pastors and preachers, and
we are always sincerely glad to grasp
him by the hand.
Rev. J. S. Jordan has resigned the
pastorate of the Sixth Baptist church
in this city.
-——-——- .
THE FA RMER'S SON.
A farmer and his little child
Walked out one summer morn,
Through meadow-land and forest-land,
And fields of golden corn.
“ Seo, child,” the sturdy farmer said,
“ How fair the growing grain !
Twill mako tliy father rich and free
When winter comes again.”
Then plucked he at the golden corn.
The little, gentle lad,
And kissed it: “Bless the corn,” he said,
“ That makes my father glad.”
“ Nav, child he smiled upon his boy ;
“ The fair grain does its best;
Yet as it grows and ripens here,
Obeys but God’s behest.”
Then raised the lad his little hand,
And bared his curly head ;
“ Bless God, he loves my father dear,
80 loves us all,” he said.
The sturdy farmer's eyes were wet,
“ Amen !” then whispered he,
“ ’Tie rare I pray, but bless the Lord,
Who gave my son to me,”
GEORGIA YEWS.
Rev. Theodore Koberle, formerly of
Atlanta, is the now pastor of the Ger
man Lutheran church, in Augusta.
—A greater amount of land has
been sown in wheat than ever before,
and the wheat prospect is excellent.
—The Newnan Weekly Blade is a
handsome paper, and evidently handled
by energetic men. The first number
appeared January 15th.
—Long Cane claims to be the ban
! ner district of Troup county, because,
up to a few weeks ago, not a white man
'd taken the homestead, and now,
only one has taken it.
—A Male High School is to be es
tablished in Newnan.
—Suit has been commenced by the
Governor against ex-Treasurer Jones,
for the recovery of the alleged de
ficiency in the latter’s accounts with the
State.
—The feeling to call a convention for
the revision of the Constitution is
growing throughout the State.
—Mr. Henry Temple has been elected
Mayor of Milledgeville.
—Corn sold at 55 cents per pushel at
Lincolnton a few days ago, at publiQ
outcry.
—The Lumpkin county gold mines
are prosperous.
—Tunis G. Campbell, the noted ne
gro whose case before the State and
Federal Courts has excited some at
tention, lias finally been sent to the
penitentiary.
—Violets and hyacinths are in full
bloom in Athens.
—The Gainesville Eagle says, the
Legislature ought to pass a law taxing
every pistol in the State $5. This would
bring more revenue in than the tax on
dogs, and would help to clear out one
of the greatest nuisances that ever
cursed any country.
—The following are the officers of
the Hall c runty Agricultural Society
for the current year: John Dorsey,
President; W. R. Bolding, Vice Pres
ident ; G. G. Thompson, Treasurer; A.
M. Cochran, Secretary. O. B. Thomp
son, J. E. Redwinc, and W. R. Bold
ing, were elected delegates to the State
Agricultural Society for the present
year.
—Rev. James D. Anthony has asso
ciated himself with Mr. Medlock, in
the publication of the Sandersville
Georgian.
—The next session of the Georgia
Teachers’ Association will be held in
Savannah, May 2d, 3d aud 4th.
—The Greensboro Herald says farm
ers generally have supplied themselves
with labor for the year, and are paying
wages to a large extent. We are glad
this change has been made, and hope it
will eventually be the rule.
—The Ellijay Courier of January
12th, says: We hear there is now green
com knee high on Flattop Mountain,
some twelve miles from Ellijay.
—Capt. T. M. Jones has been elected
Mayor of Dawson.
—Rev. Mr. Lockwood, formerly of
Hawkinsville, will have charge of the
Methodist church in Bainbridge the
present year.
—A very interesting meeting of the
Western Georgia Co-operative Grange,
was held at Long Cane, on the sth in
stant. The meeting of the delegates
was he Id in the Baptist church. The
meeting lasted several days, and many
useful addresses were made on subjects
of vital interest to Georgia agricul
tuie.
—The LaGrange Reporter has the
following venerable paragraph:
Mrs. Margaret Johnson, who lives with
her son, in Heard county, near the line of
Troup, was the first white woman that ever
lived in Troup county. Her deceased hus
band, Mr. Nicholas Johnson, was the first
clerk of the Inferior Court of this county.
She is 81 years old, and is the youngest of
seven children, and she has a gourd which
her mother prepared and used in her early
womanhood. This would make it consider
ably more than a hundred years old. It is
polished very highly and shines like mahog
any.
—The Sandersville Herald says :
The leading Granges of this section are
taking steps to form a “ Co-operative Asso
ciation.” Application will be made to the
State Legislature at an early day, to have it
incorporated under the name of the “Mid
dle Georgia Association of Patrons of Hus
bandry.”
From the Irwaiton Southerner we
clip the following :
On Tuesday night, the 28th of December,
a party of disguised negro kuklux, went to
the house of Jake Coney, a peaceable, law
abiding, well-to-do negro farmer of Laurens
county (respected by the whites for his hon
esty, and his efforts to control the evil pas
siousol his colored friends) and shot a valu
ab 0 horse belonging to him, and fired seve
ral volleys through the window where Jake
was, with the intention of killing him, but
which fortunately failed. They then fled.
Suspected parties were arrested, hut not be
ing identified, were released. ~ .
—A dastardly outrage is reported bv
t,he Hawkinsville Dispatch. It says.
A negro woman living near Cochran,
standing in the door of her own cabin, was
brutally murdered by unknown parties. Tw>
men, on horseback, rode near the door ana
called for the woman’s husband. She re
plied that he was sick. The men then be
gan firing, and as the woman ran to the.
door to take her child away, a pistol ball
struck her in the stomach and produced
death. An inquest was held by Coroner
Aaron Dixon, upon the body of the unfor
tunate woman, but no evidence could bo ob
tained as to who committed the deed. Every
exertion is being made to discover the vil
lainous murderers.
S3 A YEAR IN ADVANCE.
GEORGIA FARM NOTES.
A “ Georgia farmer” givc-s in the following
as his experience in making bacon :
Early in the season I planted an acre of
good productive land in speckled peas. These
I cultivated well; as soon as the peas began
to harden I turned my hogs upon them for an
hour or so every morning. T never saw hog#
improve so fast in all my life. This pea
patch, together with the pasture, after my oat
crop had been ha?rested, lasted until I could
open a, field where the corn liad been gathers#*
After pastures, peas, potatoes, &c., had been
eaten out, I put my fattening hogs upon corn
for a short time The result was, that instead
of being, as feared in the first part of the spring,
short <jf meat, I made art abundance of excel
lent bacon sufficient for three years; better meat
I nevei raised in my life.
—The next semi-annual meeting of the
State Agricultural Society will be held at
Brunswick, on the Bth day of February next,
and will remain in session three days. Dr.
Pendleton says that his report upon the opera
tions of the experimental farm will be the most
interesting one he has yet made. It will be a
detail of the experiments ot the past year to
ascertain the cost of production of cotton and
the cereals, considered with respect to the three
elements which enter most prominently into
their production, viz: food, labor and fertili
zers.
—At a recent mass meeting of the planters
of Burke county, it was resolved that of the
three classes of labor, the wages system was the
best; that the share system should be aban
doned. They also resolved that farm labor in
a cotton country is necessarily of twelve month’s
service, and should be so engaged. The giving
of Saturday as a rest day was pronounced mis
chievous and demoralizing, and so was the
practice of certain merchants in purchasing
seed cotton. They then pledged themselves
not to plant over fifteen acres of cotton to the
plow, or pay more than sixty dollars a year
to a field hand.
Grapes.
To the Editors of The Gkoboia Gbanoe :
In your issue of the 18 ult., in 'your
brief reply to questions relative to the
above fruit, you have expressed felici
tously a peculiarity of it, in your state
ment as follows: “The same grape
will vary considerably on different
premises in the same neighborhood.”
Allow me to add something I have
learned in regird to this. Redding,
in his book on wines and wine-making
in Europe, has desscribed the wide*dif
ference in the value of wines made of
grapes of the same kind, and the vines
propagated the same way, in the came
neighborhood. On this account, some
vineyards are worth several times as
much as others near them. All at
tempts by special culture, to force the
inferior up to equality have failed.
There is a striking instance of this
in the old and flourishing Dutch-
English settlement, back of Cape
Town. The wine of the Constantia
vineyard there has lohg ranked among
the very finest European, commanding
enormous prices in the market. This
stimulated the people to set out many
vineyards, so that a considerable quan
tity of wine is made for exportation ;
but none approaches the Constantia in
quality. An interesting account of
this is given in Murray’s Encyclopedia
of Geography, which may be found in
the Young Men’s Library, of Atlanta.
Grapes that are not excellent for
wine, may yet do fairly for the table ;
for which latter purpose it is richly
worth cultivating them; indeed, the
training of vines for the two purposes
is widely different in some localities.
Mr. Redding writes that the finest
champagnes are made of grapes small
and shrivelled, that look worthless for
eating; the vines are topped so low
that the branches grow within a foot
or so of the ground—the object, I sup
pose, is to have the fruit ripened partly
by the warmth of the soil, as well as
by the direct rays of the sun. The
vines which produce the generous Port
wine are, also, low and scrubby; are
described as looking like gooseberry
bushes.
In the numerous and extensive vine
yards of Cincinnati, when wine was
first made in large quantities in the
United States, the vines are allowed to
grow about five feet high, and are set
about six feet apart.
Writers on the subject recommend
eastern, southeastern and southern de
clivities as being much the best for
vineyards, and they cannot be too
steep. Indeed, an economical feature
of grape culture is that they may be
grown to perfection on land entirely
too steep and stony for the plow and
sickle. Thus in Portugal, the grape
district is so mountainous and rugged
that it was difficult to construct roads
through it. The Cincinnati vineyards
are very steep.
It behooves those who drink wine in
our country, to promote the making of
it by our own peopie, if they would
avoid that which is filthy ; for if trav
'ers are to be believed, the bruising of
v 1 grapes, for making even some of
the most noted wines— Burgundy and
Por*, for example— -is lothesome in the
evtren : gangs of laborers tramp the
fruit with their hare feet.
borne of the best European vineyards
are worth several thousand dollars per
acre. Q. C. Player.
Decatur, Ga.