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The Christian Index. BY JAS. P. HARRISON & CO. The Christian Index. Publication Rooms, 27 and 29 S. Broad. St. Rev. Hugh F. Oliver has been called to the charge of the First Baptist church of Tuskegee, Alabama. The Baptist church at Tennille will be served again by Rev. T. J. Beck, who has so efficiently and acceptably served it during the past two years. Macon Telegraph and Messenger: Rev. J. H. DeVotie, one of the most eminent as well as one of the most rev ered Baptist ministers in the State is in the city. Rev. Dr. S. Landrum, of Savannah, has accepted the position of financial agent of Mercer University, and will shortly enter upon the discharge of his duties. ► >4-^— - — —— The consolidation of the Western Union, Atlantic and Pacific, and Amer ican Union Telegraph Companie's has been ratified. It is now the greatest monopoly in America. The Dade County Gazette says: “A Georgia Baptist minister, of a former generation, who began to preach in middle-age, in order to improve his de fective education went to school with his own children! He made a man of himself, and wrought a work of power.” A. M. Rogers, Esq., of Waynesboro, has notified the faculty of Mercer Uni versity that he offers a handsome gold medal to be awarded at the commence ment, next summer, to the student in the college who excels in general ex cellence during the year, in general deportment and scholarship. There have been very heavy rains in Louisiana and Missippi; the county roads are almost impassable, and the business of the interior towns is at a standstill in consequence. The total rainfall in New Orleans for twelve hours was between four and five inch es. A similiar state of affairs exists throughout Georgia. The Southern Musical Journal, for January, Ludden & Bates, publishers, Savannah, is a fine number. Filled with chaste and appropriate articles, and giving, in every issue, several choice instrumental and song pieces, it appeals to the taste and the patronage of every music-loving person in our section. —Storms, unprecedented in their fury have ravaged England. The snow fall was enormous, stopping railway traffic, and business in town and coun try. Many ships were stranded and sunk, and hundreds of lives were lost. The weather in the United States has been unusually severe, snow storms and Hoods causing loss of many lives and the ruin of large amounts of property. ♦ < We acknowledge with mutual cor diality, and return with emphasis, the wish contained in the following note from our venerable brother, Seaborn Harris of Jonesboro: “Your old sub scriber of forty or fifty years, and your grateful pensioner, makes his bow to you at thebeginning of another year and as he has done for half a century, wishes you a happy and prosperous new year.” Massachussets is the most densely populated State in the Un.on, having 227 inhabitants to the square mile, which is more than any country in Europe except Belgium, the Nether lands, Great Britain and Italy. Rhode Island is second with 212 to the square mile, then New Jersey with 135, Con necticut with 131, and New York with 108. The average density of the various sections is as follows: New England 59, Middle States 93, West 24, Pacific slope 3, South 19. It will be seen that there is plenty of room for immigrants in the South ; indeed Texas and Florida are less densely populated than Siberia or Norway. Southern Cultivator.—We have received the January number of this sterling agricultural monthly from the publishers, the Constitution Publish ing Company, Atlanta, Ga. Its ap pearance, typographically, leaves noth ing to be desired by the most fastidious and its table of contents comes up to the best standard of publications of its kind. Every department is full and thoroughly edited; it keeps abreast of advancing science in the various branches of soil cultivation, and makes the Southern plantation, garden and orchard, its special province. The “Family Circle” receives due attention, and nothing seems to be omitted which ■ ought to be found in a first-class pub lication of its kind. Every intelligent and progressive farmer in cur section ought to be glad to receive its monthly visits. LITERAR Y NOTES AND COMMENTS The venerable poet Longfellow, pays the following graceful compliment to the Southern poet-priest, Father Ryan, in a letter written to the latter during his recent sojourn at Baltimore, where many public honors were tendered him: “When you call yourself the last and least of those who rhyme, you remind me of the graceful lines of Cat ullus to Cicero: ‘Receive the warm thanks of Catullus, the least of all poets ; as much the least of all poets as you are the greatest of all advocates.’ ‘Last and least’ can no more be applied to you than ‘pessimus’ to Catullus.” Scribner’s Monthly is now publish ing two series of papers on religious subjects of special and timely interest. One of these is in connection with the forthcoming revision of the Bible; one paper of this series has already ap peared, by Dr. Charles S. Robinson, on “The Bible Society and the New Revision ;” another by professor Fisher, of Yale, will be given in the February number. The second series is on “The Old Catholic and Evangelical Move ment in Italy, France and Germany.” A sketch of Gavazzi appeared in Dec ember; a paper by Rev. Washington Gladden on “Protestantism in Italy” will be printed in an early number. Bishop Doane, of Albany, has written for Scribner a paper on “Father Hya cinth,” and Dr. Dollinger will be the subject of an essay by Professor Fisher. The intense political excitement which is now prevalent in Norway, where a stupid reactionary Government is trying to overthrow a liberal constitu tion, will make the article by Bjorn stjerne Bjornson on “Norway’s Cons titutional Struggle,” in the coming Midwinter Scribner, an eminently seas onable one. Bjornson, who is himself a republican, and the king’s formidable opponent, is, at present, the most cons picuous figure in Scandinavian politics, being as a popular leader and orator a great power in the land. The present article was written expressly for Scrib ner’s Monthly. Bjornson is now in America. Many of those books which pay well are the last which would occur to per sons as being lucrative. Thus, “Thorn ton’s Family Prayers” has been a little mine of money to an English family. A son of the old Texan veteran, Gen eral Sam Houston, is preparing a bio graphy of his father for publication. Mr. Francis H. Underwood, of Bos ton, is preparing a series of studies of American men of letters, which will be published in book form. Lord Beaconsfield, it is shown, has appropriated in “Endymion,” without acknowledgment, a brilliant epigram from Burnett’s “History of His Own Time.” Mr. Whittier writes that he has “tried to make the world a little better; and to awaken a love of freedom, jus tice, peace, and good-will—something which shall suggest, however faintly* and imperfectly, the Christian ideal of love to God and humanity.” Judge A. W. Tourgee is at work in Philadelphia, where he is spending the winter, dramatizing “A Fool’s Errand.” “Mr. Gostwick,” says the A thenxum, “already known as a writer on German literature, is preparing for publication a book entitled “German Culture and Christianity.” It is intended to give in outline a history of the main contro versy in which for more than a century German culture, especially in philos ophy and Bible criticism, has been en gaged in opposition to certain Chris tian tenets. The chief aim of the book is to show that the attack, masked at times by various auxiliary movements, has always been directed mainly against the central tenet of Christianity. The history begins shortly before the time of Lessing, and ends with the date 1880.” Endymion is selling at an unexamp led rate. It is almost impossible to keep the two Appleton editions, paper and cloth, in stock; and Harper & Brothers sold forthy thousand of it in the Franklin Square Library in four days. Smiles’ “Duty” is another great success of to-day. Members of the family of Lucretia Mott are preparing her biography, and would be glad to have copies or the originals of any of her letters, which will be returned if so requested. They should be addressed to Maria Mott Davis, Oak Lane, Station A, Philad elphia. The Midwinter (February) Scribner has always been a special number, as rich as the choicest literary matter and the most beautiful wood engravings can make it. Os the last year’s mid winter number the London Times said : “It L a really magnificent triumph of American pictorial art and literary genius.” The English publisher of Scribner has telegraphed for 17,000 copies of the present number, —an ad vance of 6000 upon his orders, last year, and the largest edition of an American magazine ever sent to Eng- Literature Secular Editorials Current Notes and News. ATLANTA, THURSDAY, JANUARY 27, 1881. land;—in fact, it is said to be larger than the monthly sales of any English magazine. The American edition of Scribner has grown during 1880 about 20,000 copies. A delightful feature of the magazine this year is a series of sparkling novel lettes, or condensed novels, instead of a serial story. “A Fair Barbarian,” the story cf a piquant American girl in England, by Mrs. Frances Hodgson Burnett, begins in this February num ber with a twenty-two page installment, and will run through three issues. Her novelette will be followed by one by George W.Cable, authoi of “The Grand issimes,” etc., and afterward Boyesen’s “Queen Titania” will be published. “Peter the Great,” Eugene Schuyler’s historical work, begun in February 1880, will be finished in October of this year. By means of the recently pub lished special offers of Scribner, the whole of this great work, with its wealth of illustrations, can be had at a very low price, in connection with a year’s subscription. All booksellers can give the terms. In the same ratio that Scribner’s Monthly is prospering, St. Nicholas, the famous magazine for girls and boys, issued by the same publishers, grows apace. About 100,000 copies of the Christmas (December) number were sold, while the January number has been for some time out of print. In February there is a full account of the Obelisk, richly illustrated from sket ches and photographs, showing the great monolith in all stages of moving. “The hymns of Luther,” says S. T. Coleridge, “did as much for the Re formation as did his translation of the Bible. They were indeed the battle-cry and trumpet-call of the Reformation ; the children hummed them in the cottage, the martyrs sung them on the scaffold.” After his death, when his friend Melancthon heard a little maid sing ing on the streets of Weimar Luther’s grand hymn, “A Mighty Fortress is our God,” he said, “Sing on, my maid, for you little know whom you com fort.” _ An exchange says : “Among the late publications from the Congressional printing office is a handsome volume embracing the memorial addresses upon Julian Hartridge, who died two years ago to-day. It is handsomely gotten up, but does not contain the usual steel engraved portrait. Strange to say, though a gentleman of the broadest culture, Mr. Hartridge, throughout his life, had nurtured so strong a super stition upon the subject that he had never sat for a picture. A short time before his death he concluded to do so, but was prevented by an accident. After his death a lady of his city, apt with pencil and brush, and who knew him well, essayed to paint his features from memory. In the midst of the work she died very suddenly, and his hand some and intellectual face lingers only in the memories of those who knew him well.” The above item suggests and im presses the value of our “Index Portrait Gallery” and of our “Biography of Baptist Ministers.” Many of our old ministers had neglected to sit for their portraits, and it required hard work on our part to get their pictures for our Gallery. Again, the pictures of others were very inferior. Our Book of Biographies will con tain sketches of the lives of some of the best and most revered men that have ever lived, but whose faces are not represented in the volume because it was impossible to get their likenesses for reproduction by the engraver’s art. In this connection let us urge upon all of our readers, who have not yet given an order for the book, to send in their names at once and secure a copy. The edition will be limited. The Italian Government is alarmed at the continued emigration of its subjects to America. During the ten years between 1868 and 1878 no less than 1,168,000 emigrants left Italy for other lands, most of them for America. These are only those who obtained certificates of emigration from the government, but, in addition, large numbers leave every year without say ing anything about it. The Italian statesmen are exerting themselves in devising schemes to keep the people at home, or, at least, under Italian con* trol, but their efforts so far have come to naught. The Italian statesmen should go to work and so improve the condition of affairs at home, that their countrymen would have no reasonably grounds for deserting their native country. Italians are very fond of their beautiful native land, and the extrem est degree only of distress and mis government will compel them to leave their homes for less congenial climes. This principle holds good as to other European countries, where misgovern ment, and the feudal spirit of caste, op press the toiling and disheartened masses. The war between the Russians and Turcomans is becoming very extensive and bloody. COMPULSORY EDUCATION. A bill has been introduced into the Indiana Legislature providing for com pulsory education, and specifying that an emergency exists which requires its immediate passage and enforcement. All the children between the ages of six and sixteen who are physically able to attend school, and who do not attend a private school, are required to go to the public schools, and the parents or guardians will be find not less than $2 or more than $5, for each child not at tending school, and the same fine will be collected for each day that each child is absent. Upon the School Trus tees devolves the duty of prosecuting parents and guardians. The bill pro vides for a uniform common school sys tem. The following provision (section 6) is a very excellent one: “The common schools of Indiana shall be taught in the English language, and in them shall be taught only the following branches,to wit :Orthography, reading, writing, mathematics (not be yond algebra), geography, English grammar, and the history of the United States; provided that cities and towns incorporated under the laws for the incorporation of cities and towns may have graded schools, in which addi tional and higher branches may be taught, as now provided by law, except that in every such system, the common school, as defined in this act, shall be the primary department, cut of which no pupil shall be for any cause what ever graded, transferred or advanced to any other or higher grade, until such pupil can answer in writing, correctly, ninety per cent of the questions em braced in a fair examination in all the branches taught in the primary or com mon school department, of which pro ficiency such pupil shall have a cer tificate signed by his or her teacher and indorsed by the trustee or trustees of the township, town or city, as the case may be.” A good many people spend all their life hunting for the place in this world which they were intended to fill. They never settle down to anything with any sort of restful or contented feeling. What they are doing now is not by any means the work that is suited to their abilities. They have a sunny ideal of a very noble life which they would like to reach, in which their powers would find free scope, and where they could make a very bright record. But in their present position they cannot do much of anything, and there is little use to try. Their life is a hum-drum and prosy routine, and they can ac complish nothing really worthy and beautiful. So they go on discontented with their own lot, and sighing for an other ; and while they sigh the years glide away, and soon they will come to the end, to find that they have missed every opportunity of doing anything worthy of an immortal being in the passage to eternity. The truth is, one’s vocation is never some far-off possibil ity. It is always the simple round of duties that the passing hour brings. Some one has pictured the days as coming to us with their faces veiled, bearing only the commonest gifts in their hands; but when they have passed beyond our recall the draped figures become radiant, and the gifts we rejected are treasurers fit for king’s houses. No day is commonplace if we only had eyes to see its splendor. There is no duty that comes to our hand but brings to us the possibility of kingly service.— S. S. Times. - ■ ■■ » * •—■ - The mercantile failures in the United States during the year 1880, were in number 4,735, with liabilities aggregat ing nearly 66 millions of dollars. The failures for 1879 were in number 6,650 with liabilities of 98 millions. The decrease, therefore, for the past year is 1,923 in number, and in liabilities 27 millions thus showing an improve ment equal to 40percent in number, and a saving in losses by bad debts in the same proportion. While the compar ison of the last year with the previous one is so extremely fe.vorable, the com parison of 1880 with 1878 is even more remarkable. In 1878 the failures num bered 10,478, while in 1880 they num bered only 4,735, indicating a lessened number of casualities by 5,743, equi valent to nearly 60 per cent. But in the amount of liabilities the change for the better is even greater, for in 1878 the indebtedness of those who failed was 234 millions. The figures also show that the fail ures in the Southern States are less in number, as well as in amounts, than* those of other portions of the country —a fact that speaks favorably for the South. —Orthodox Lutherans, as well as Rationa.istic ministers in Germany, for merly objected to Sunday-schools, but there are now in Berlin nearly fifty schools with 700 teachers and 12,000 scholars. —Sunday is to be kept more strictly in Prussia. Hunting is prohibited on Sundays and church festivals, under a penalty of 20 to 100 marks, or four weeksjmprisonnient. A Washington correspondent says that a decided majority of members of both Houses believe in a change in the i pension laws. Most of them have I come to a belief in it because previous | legislation is entailing more expense ; than was expected, but there is no doubt many intelligent men think the laws should be changed because extensive frauds are alleged to be com mitted under them. The subject is important, and it may not be out of I place to mention the two measures j proposed as substitutes for the laws now governing the allowance or rejec- 1 tion of pension claims. One provides additional safeguards against frauds on the part of the claimant, or unfairness on the part of the pension office, by creating what may lie called a court of appeals in all such cases. This does not do away with the chief objection to j the present laws, viz : that cases must be allowed on ex. parte evidence, and i that the government has no opportu- : nity to cross-examine the witnesses, i The other bill provides for a number— anywhere from sixty to three hundred ' —Pension Boards, sitting at as many ! different places throughout the coun-' ry, and before which the claimant and i his witnesses must come. The objec tion to this bill is, that hardly one ; claimant in a hundred now resides in 1 the neighborhood of his witnesses, and I the necessary cost of getting them to- j gether and making proof, would be a virtual denial of justice in many, per- j haps in most, cases. From present in- ■ dications, however, the latter scheme will probably prevail. A correspondent writes: “A church was constituted at Baa-tow, Jefferson ' county Georgia, Saturday the 15th of January, composed of six members— : Presbytery pres.nt, Rev. J. H. DeVotie, D. D. of Griffin Ga., and Rev. J. M. ! Cr. ss, of Bethany Ga. After the j church organization was perfected Rev. i J. M. Cross was unanimously called as pastor. On Sunday the 16th, the I church building was dedicated and ! presented to the Lord without a dollar of indebtedness hanging over it. The dedication sermon was preached by brother DeVotie to a large and appre ciative congregation. Full of tender j pathos and deep-toned piety and pre- j sented in such an able and effective manner, the sermon could not fail ‘to ■ impress itself deeply upon the minds' of those who heard it. The church building is neat, beautiful and com fore* table, and speaks well for the noble, generous hearted community, moved i by the love of the Gospel to erect such | a building for the worship of the Lord. ! While others contributed liberally and i generously, we think especial mention I ought to be made of Judge A. E. Tar-1 ver, brother B. A. Salter, and brother Warthen, through whose agency the i house was built. Their labor of love | will receive its appropriate reward. Communities are always benefited by \ such men, and may God raise up many more like them to honor His name ! and bless their generation. The field is an inviting one and we look to the future hopefully.” —The world is now going through a period as important in the advance ment of society as that which we call the Renaissance. Discoveries follow one another with marvellous rapidity. Light shines where darkness has pre vailed. Steam and electricity are to us what movable types and the mariner’s compass ■were in the fifteenth century. One or two or three centuries hence the historian will look back upon this last half of the nineteenth century as we look back to the fifteenth century, and will see what we are too neai to appreciate fully, but of which we are all more or less conscious: that we live in a transition period, when man kind is advancing with a rapidity never known before. He will see that in our day the fetters of human thought fell away, and that better health, better education and better morals were de veloped in old societies, and were car ried to new states by the triumphant power of Christian civilization. We hear the revival of letters spoken of as dating from the overthrow of Con stantinople and the migration to Italy of companies of learned Greeks. Let us not forget that two hundred years before the Reformation and the revival of letters, one hundred and fifty years before the invention jf printing, uni versities began to flourish. In their walls were planted and nurtured the germs which blossomed in the discovery of a new world, in the restoration of I classic letters, in the beginning of mod ern literature, in the initiation of sci entific research, in the diffusion of b<xAs by the press, and in the eman cipation of the human mind from dog matic authority. Let us see to it that in our day, likewise, full scope is given to the loftiest and ablest plans of uni versity organization. Dr. S. IL Ford, editor of the Chris • tian Repository, of St. Louis, Mo., ex pects to lie at the Union meeting of the Mercer Association, which con-: , venes at Groovervillej on Friday, Jan | uary 28 th. ESTABLISHED 1811. GEORGIA NEWS. I —An Irish Land League has been organ | ized in Savannah. —Macon is anxious that the State Fair 1 shall be held in that city. —Farm hands are scarcer in Thomas county than they have been since the war. —Sixty families in Lagrange contemplate going to Fort Smith, Texas, at an early day. —Bishop Gross sent $2.50 to the Catholics of Athens, to aid in the erection of their new church. —James Leroy, a negro, was elected coro ner in Lee county, and succeeds another negro. —The Georgia Railroad will be refitted with an entire outfit of steel raiis during the present year. —The name of the Chattahoochee factory has been change ! to the West Point Manu facturing Company. —There are in Georgia only 10,310 people of foreign birth. This is because Georgia does not encourage immigration. —Sandersville is rapidly filling up with new citizens, who are seeking the a Wanta ges of the new public schojlsystem recently organized there. —After an imprisonment of nearly two years, Asa Gunn, c >lored, has been acquitted in Fulton Superior Court, of tne murder of Mr. DeFoor and his wife. Mrs. Rebecca Frost, of Hart county, is 107 years old, is in good health and in the enjoyment of all her faculties. She relates many reminiscences of the revolutionary war. —The cotton manufacturing report of the Census Department is very full. According to the table, Georgia has 4 713 looms. 200,- 794 spindles, which consume yearlv 67,874 bales of cotton, and employ 6,678 opera tives. —C. P. McCalla, who was arrested in At lanta several months ago, charged with forging applications to procure money for the maimed and disabled Georgia soldiers, has been sentenced to eight years in the penitentiary. —Dr. H. H. Cary, Superintendent of Fish eries of Georgia, will soon .uake another dis tribution of the German carp. Tnose who failed to get a supply should apply at once to Dr. Cary at the Department of Agriculture at Atlanta, Georgia. —The Sparta Ishmaelite well says: “It would be better to have no elections at all than to have corrupt ones We call upon all our readers to stand up for the purity of the ballot box, and to sustain the laws which are provided for securing that end. Tire common good demands it.” —ln regard to “The Turpentine Indus try,” the Berrien County News says: “This comparatively new industry is attracting much attention in our vicinity. The peo ple of this section who, in a great meas ure, own the timber, have allowed it to lie idle and undeveloped, notwithstanding the turpentine is a great source of reve nue.” —Every Georgian may learn the exact value of any brand of fertilizers sold in the State, tor that value is ascertained by careful an • lysis and published to the world. The neglect of some of them to inform them selves so as to avoid all impositions will not much longer continue. The day is not distant when the shrewd Georgia farmer will pav no more for his fertilizer than its real value. The total census footings for Georgia are: Males. 761,152; Females, 777.831; Natives, 1528 673; Foreign, 10,310; White. 814‘218 ; Colored 724 765. Os the latter 17 are Chi nese. 93 Indians and Half breeds, and one Albino. Richmond county has It Ihinese and six Half-breeds; Chatham county has 13 Indians, and Harris county 20 Indians. The rest are scattered anout in other coun ties. The Albino is in Baldwin county. —Says the Dahlonega Mountain Signal: ‘•For the past month work at the mines has been at a standstill. The severe cold of the last month has been rarely seen in this lo cality. Miners were not expecting it, and were consequently not prepared for it. The • mills have been almost entirely stopped on account of it. Land slides at the various mines have given much trouble, but they are now being removed rapidly, and we hope soon to be able to report every obstacle to milling removed.” —Rev. J. H. Campbell, in the Columbus Times, gives the following fine testimony relative to the Jews, as a people : "In ail my experience among the poor, extending back over fifty years, I have never had an application for charity from an Israelite. Last week, when wood for the poor was being distributed, and when people of both races and of all denominations were clam oring for their share, the Jews stood entirely aloof. They sometimes give me money for the poor, but never ask charity themselves. If there are needy ones among them they are provided for by their own brethren. I leave it to others to account for these facts. They are worthy of serious consideration, and are highly creditable to the Jews.” Hawkinsville Dispatch : “There is gen eral complaint on the part of the planters and farmers as to a lack of labor. The colored people, who constitufe two thirds or more of the agricultural population, are slow about making contracts for the tear, and many farmers are unable to get even plow hands. There seems to be a general desire among freedmen to avoid yearly contracts, and in augurate a day-labor system. Every freed man who can obtain an acre of land and a cabin of hisown, thinks he can earn more money and have an easier time by working for daily wages, and picking up odd jobs. The farmers of this section say they cannot, at the ruling prices of cotton and provisions, afford to pay hands more than one hundred and ten to one hundred and thirty dollars per year, with the usual rations. Some of the farmers declarethattbe.se wages, if hon estly and justly paid, will leave the farmer no profit on his crop at the end of the year.” —The Clinch county correspondent of the Waycross Reporter writes that paper : “An old negro man near Stockton, in this county, has set out several hundred orange trees. He has gone among the pine trees and set out his grove. His plan is to clear up a space twelve feet square and plant a tree, then twelve feet from there clear up another twelve feet square and plant again. This is done among the green pines. He leaves them growing as a protection to the trees. Our colored friend is a pioneer in this line, and will, at no distant day, reap the reward of his industry and enterprise. We learn of a gentleman in an adjoining county that contemplate* setting out several thousand trees. There are two gentlemen in this county that propose to plant a grove of trees on an island in the Suwanuoochee, near DuPont. Don’t go to Florida or to the West, j but.stay in Clinch county.”