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The _ Christian Index. BY-JAS. P. HARRISON & CO. The Christian Index. Publication Rooms, 27 and 29 8. Broad. St. Parents wishing to clothe their sons in good and elegant suits will find it to their interest to patronize Messrs. Poole & Co., New York. See advertisement. The Index office had the pleasure ot a visit during the week from our esteemed friends, Revs. J. W. Burke, of Macon, and R. H. Jackson, of Nor cross. We call the attention of. the travel ing public to the advertisement of the Central Railroad in our columns. It is one of the finest roads in the country, and managed superbly. Announcement has been made that a sixteen page illustrated paper, the size of Harper’s, is to be published in Atlanta. It is to be illustrated with Southern views, and devoted to South ern interests. Blight Proof Pear.—We direct the attention of fruit-groweis to the advertisement of Kieffer’s hybrid blight proof pear. Catalogue of fruits and flowers free. See advertisement of Wm. Parry, Pomona Nurseries. Rev. Aaron Perkins is one of the old est Baptist clergymen in this country, being over ninety years of age. On a recent Sunday he preached at the Ber gen Heights Baptist church, in Jersey City,his seventieth anniversary sermon. He is still an effective and earnest preacher, although not able to perform regular ministerial work. James Vick. —This name is familiar to every horticulturist and florist in the United States. His publications on subjects connected with flowers and seeds are elaborate, beautiful and stand ard. His customers are numbered by thousands. He pleases all who deal with him, and guarantees the excel lence of hie wares. We call the atten tion of our readers to the advertisement, catalogue, etc., in this issue of The Index. The new prohibitory eonq>el.» every ph oath eseary J® mg car: buy amphor, extracts, except upon scription. An interesting article in York Herald speaks of the marked an" beneficial influence Carlyle’s workshave had upon the literature of bis times. The Herald speaks of all that Emerson owes to Carlyle, that Dickens said his “Tale of Two Cities” was in great part due to his reading of Carlyle, that Car lyle painted the French Revolution, took Cromwell out of the dust and made him a man, introduced Goethe to English readers, and rescued Fred erick the Great from the misrepresenta tion to which he had been dismissed by French criticism. “Chatham,” the popular and übiqui tous Atlanta correspondent of the Sa vannah News, says: “Mr. W. G. Whid by*s address before the State Agricul tural Society at Thomasville has been published, and Is highly commended, especially his views on immigration and "moonshiners.” Good roads to the mountains would do much to break up illicit distilling.” Mr. Whidby’s address is certainly an excellent and timely one, on a subject of importance to the material interests of Georgia, and commends itself to all who desire the prosperity of our great State. Rev. Phillip Schaff, D. D., President of the American division of the Bible Revision Committee, publishes the fol lowing : In answer to many questions, and to correct a misunderstanding on the part of the public, I beg leave in behalf of the Bible Revision Committee to make the following statement: First the revised new statement will be published by the English University presses in May next, in different styles of binding at corresponding prices; second, the American committee give their sanction to the University edi tions as containing the text pure and simple; third, the committee have no connection with any proposed reprints; fourth, the publication of the revision will be on precisely the same footing as the present authorized version, that is, protecting by copyrighting in England and free in this country; fifth, the American committee will present to every old and new contributor of not less than ten dollars towards the ex penses of their work, a memorial copy of the best University edition in royal octavo, handsomely bound and in scribed. This offer holds good till next May, and the copies will be forwarded free of expense as received. LITERARY NOTES AND COM MENTS. —The birthday of the poet Lessing was celebrated in Charleston recently by the delivery of an essay, by Prof. Muench, of Leipzig, upon the life and works of the great author. A large number of Germans citizens were pres ent. —“Surely,” says a writer in Macmil lan’s Magazine, “the family of Mil ton or of Locke deserves as much from us as the family of Marlborough. Yet the former could derive no benefit at all from the actual labors of their an cestor, while the latter received a free pension from the nation of £4,000 a year forever. A successful brewer may found a family of peers; but the prop erty of a Newton or a Shelley is con fiscated seven years after his death.” —The salary of the editor of the Atlantic Monthly is five thousand dol lars a year. The fortunate man who wilt draw this salary, henceforth, is Mr. T. B. Aldrich. Mr. Howells, the former editor, having resigned to accept an interest in the publishing house of James R. Osgood & Co., Boston. —A statue of Edgar Allen Poe is to be erected in Central Park, New York, near the Museum of Art. —We received the following by mail: “Mr. Editor: Enclosed herewith, please find some specimens of my which you may print if you remit me a one dollar greenback bank note, and one of your papers in which the Poetry is printed, otherwise, find a one cent stamp enclosed to return these papers to me. Address me at Woodsville, N. H. • Lorenzo Palmer.” Upon conscientious comparison of the relative value of the “specimens” with the value of a "one dollar green back bank note,” we find the latter so incalculably superior to the former, that Mr. Palmer must really pardon us for declining his very modest and con siderate offer. The inclosed “one cent stamp” has been misplaced—will Mr. Palmer oblige us by remittujg another Jur mail? We have the of the forehead of their innocent victim, Ireson. It is said Mr. Whittier acknowledges that Mr. Roads has succeded in estab lishing the innocence of Skipper Ireson; but, as a contemporary well says: “Most people prefer picturesqueness to accuracy, and doubtless ‘the wicked skippers’ reputation will never recover from the injury inflicted upon it by Mr. Whittier’s ballad.” Very likely; but we hold that it would be an honest thing for Mr. Whittier’s publishers to insert the truth in a foot-note to the poem in future editions; and poetical justice suggests the production of an equally powerful poem by the venerable bard denouncing the blind fury and inhumanity of mobs in general, and the Marblehead-Ireson mob in par ticular. —The third volume of Von Hoist’s “Constitutional History of the United States” is in press. —A third edition of Mrs. Margaret J. Preston’s book of admirable poems, “Cartoons,” will be published this spring. —ln Lippincott’s, for February, we find the following pleasing and sugges tive sketch of American literary high life. It has all the quietly humorous and photographic realism of the “in teriors” of the old Dutch and Flemish schools, and, as a picture, might be labeled; “Interior of a Literary Kitchen —Boston—1881.” The writer says: “There is a lady living in a little four-roomed cottage in the environs of Boston whose name is well known to literary people. She depends wholly upon her own exertions for the support of herself and children, and does all her own housework, yet her cottage is the focus of the best society of the locality. A gentleman calling there recently was received at the door by a daughter of the lady, who told him her mother was too busy to be called, but that he could see her in the kitchen if he pleased, and he followed her to that room. The lady greeted him without the least embarrassment, though she had on a big apron, and her sleeves were pinned back to her shoulders. She was cutting a pumpkin into strips for pies; and there sat a venerable gentleman gravely paring the strips to the accompaniment of a brilliant con versation. I was asked to guess_who General Literature—Domestic and Foreign Intelligence—Secular Editorials. ATLANTA, THURSDAY, MARCH 17, 188 I. this gentleman was, and, after several fruitless attempts, was told that it was the poet Longfellow. While the pump kin-paring was in process, another dis tinguished poet called, and he also in sisted upon being impressed into ser vice. It was a dreary day outside, and no one cared to leave the pleasant cottage, so they all stayed to lunch, one of the pies forming the piece de resis tance of the occasion. “Speaking of this incident afterwards, the lady said, ‘My friends are kind enough to come to see me, though they know I cannot leave my work to entertain them. Visiting and work must proceed together, and when I set my callers at work with me we are sure to have an agreeable time.’ ” The Phrenological Journal for March contains an excellent likeness of Gov ernor Alfred H. Colquitt, and a well written sketch of his life. This is fol lowed by an article entitled “Georgia Statistically,” being a resume of an ar ticle written for a New York paper by President Haygood, of Emory College. Speaking of our State, to whose pres ent high grade of political and material prosperity Governor Colquitt has con tributed in no slight degree, the Jour nal says: “Among the Southern States, Geor gia was the first to indicate an awak ening from the terrible depression in every department of industry which was produced by the war, and during the past ten years she has been far in advance of the others in commercial activity, and those social and political enterprises which stimulate the growth of a people. She has had her share of political excitement, contest, and em barrassment, but it has served to stim ulate inquiry among the masses with regard to the causes of the irregularity and confusion in public affairs, and so promoted measures of reform in official circles. J “Much remains to be done, for Georgia is so ’jy. must, to some extent, tlie movements in the her, yet V* 1 ■ ( ■ n imi part is now permanenW , York in the continue as editor-in-VhienM®' nal, and will favor the readers teresting articles concerning musical circles in the North and East/ Rev. Henry W. Cleveland has been se cured as managing editor, and will hereafter devote his attention to its columns. Mr. Cleveland is well known as an able and forcible writer and highly cultivated scholar. The price of the Journal is only $1.25 per an num, and each number contains two excellent and popular pieces of vocal or instrumental music. We can com mend this publication to all interested in musical matters. We had the pleasure of attending the tenth soiree musicale, given by the Southern Conservatory last Thursday evening at the hall of the Estey organ company, corner Broad and Alabama streets. The concert was compliment ary to the members es Trinity church, and was attended by a select audience of our music-loving people. The pro gramme embraced high-class instru mental and vocal music, and was well rendered. These concerts are becom ing very popular, and cannot fail to influence very favorably the musical taste of our people. The refining ten dencies of these performances are mani fest, and should be sedulously encour aged in every community. President Garfield has expressed an intention of keeping himself clear of quarrels of the last administration, and will probably renew few of the nomi nations left unconfirmed by the Senate at its adjournment on the 4th of March. It is believed, however, that any of them sent in by him would be confirm ed, unless upon inquiry the nominee should be found personally unfit for the place. No extra session of Congress is an ticipated. The only subject which any one has thought rendered such a session necessary is Funding, and the President thinks the new session would com mence to wrangle where the old one left off wrangling, and he hopes that something will turn up before the regular session in December next, which will instruct Senators* and Rep resentatives’on the subject. "THE ORIGIN OF MAN.” An Admirable Lecture by Rev. A. J. Battle, D.D. I Macon Telegraph and Messenger Sth Inst.] The fifth of the series of lectures in the First Baptist church in this city was delivered last Sabbath night by Dr. Battle, before a very large and in telligent audience, composed of all de nominations and classes of our people. All were charmed with the admirable production, which was pronounced by many as the best effort ever made by the learned President of Mercer University. We regret that limited space forbids giving only a synopsis of his discourse on the “Origin of Man,” for the lecture was a bouquet of rhetor ical beauty, a mine of golden thoughts, silvern sentences, and religious instruc tion. The lecturer began by briefly reca pitulating the points of his former lec ture on “The Constitution of Man.” “It was shown,” he remarked, “that man’s body is the highest and most perfect type of material organization known upon the earth; that although in its mechanical structure and physiological constitution it is closely allied to the highest division of the brute kingdom, thus revealing an archetypal unity in the plan of creation, yet the perfection of the organism and its adaptation to the noble ends of intelligence and mor al agency, prove that this is the well devised organ of the conscious, rational soul, and therefore not only places man at the head of the animal king dom, but gives him a special sphere in creation.” “But,” continued the speaker, “that which constitutes man’s essential na ture, his pre-eminent distinction, and establishes beyond question his title to this specific and elevated rank in tha scale of being, is the soul—the part of his constitution. It is makes him capable of re reasoning, of the articulate of thought, g° vern ’ Es your bamUat ran the alphabet, and ever develop, out of these SMrontary forms of language, the Dr omon of Bacon, or the Principia of Newton, or the Paradise Lost of Mil ton, or the Analogy of Butler? Yet the expectation of such results would be angelic wisdom in comparison with the idea that man, the greatest, nob lest and most skillfully contrived of all productions, should be the creature of accident.” The speaker then proceeded to re view briefly several theories of evolu tion. First, he examined the scheme of mechanical evolution, as expounded by Haeckel and Huxley, and showed that it resolved itself into a doctrine of chance which could not account for the existence of man or the universe. This theory denies the Creator, and pronounces the divine agency in crea tion “an impertinent intrusion.” It denies the responsibility and immort ality of man, and even denies that he has a soul —or spirit, distinct from material substance. The theories of theistic evolution were then glanced at, among them Professor LeConte’s hypothesis, which was char acterized as an ingenious, grand and startling conception. The speaker suggested that possibly some consistent scheme of evolution may be devised which shall harmonize with the Mosaic history of Creation. There is no doubt that the world has been built up through a long period of progressive development, under the di vine power of a wise Creator. The lecturer believed that there were at least four primeval creations—mat ter, force, life and soul. He had not been able to admit the development of man and the animals from one ances tor. The absence of the necessary con necting links or transitional forms, both in the existing animal kingdom and in the chain of life in geological time, militated strongly against it. Here he criticised humorously Haeck el’s plan of succession of animal life, beginning with the monera and ending in man. The fatality of the scheme was that a number of the links are mythical—supplied by the imagination. Dr. B. then said: "Hence I hold that manfwasforiginally a direct creation of God, and not the development of an ape or any lower animal.” The Bible account of the creation of man was then read, and the speaker proceeded to demontrate that man, in his spiritual constitution, bears the image of his Maker. We can give only a mere outline of this part of the argument. Man, by his powers of original conception, in vention and artistic genius is, in a sense, a creator, and thus reflects the image of Him who created and built this majestic universe. By his intellectual attainments, his vast accumulation of learning, man re veals a dim adumbration of the omni science of God. This knowledge em braces not only the past and present, but even glances into the future, and thus he reveals a faint reflection of that everlasting Being to whom all duration is eternal. Now, lastly, the perfect goodness of God—His moral nature finds its feeble reflex in the conscience or moral nature of man. Thus the creatorship of God, bis omniscience and his holiness, have their corresponding images in the ar tistic and inventive powers, the acquis itions and the moral sense of His ra tional creature—man. This part of the subject was expand ed and illustrated at very considerable length, but limited space forbids us to follow the train of thought in detail. The lecture occupied forty-five or fifty minutes in the delivery. How publicly and as a matter of course the traffic in “black ivory” is carried on by the Dutch Boers in South Africa Lord Kimberley recently showed in Parliament by a quotation from a letter written by the wife of a Boer, in which she states that a “Boer had come home with six head of cattle and one Kaffir girl, and that another came home with thirty-two large Kaffir girls, whom he was selling for half a sovereign apiece.”— N. Y. Sun. Still these virtuous Boers are the lauded “chainpions of freedom, fight- Km: against dßAftfeanslavement and - ■rat Sunday,SHMwning act in the infamous hiscßryrrmodem Commun ism, of which heresy the Russian Ni hilists are the practical exponents. The terrible deed has shocked the civilized worid. For devilish ingenui ty, implacable hatred, reckless disre gard for consequences, and savage, wolfish pertinacity of purpose, this plot for the assassination of the Czar, ex tending over a number of years, and finally consummated under circum stances of peculiarly aggravating char acter, is almost unparalleled in the annals of regicide. The effect of this tragedy will be dis astrous upon the political welfare of Russia, and, to a large extent, injuri ous to other countries of the Old World, whose people are struggling in a legit imate way for political reform and con stitutional liberty. The malcontents will take courage, the rulers will tight en the reins of government in retalia tion, and the innocent and order-loving will suffer between the upper and the nether mill-stones. The Westminster Review (American edition: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, 41 Barclay Street, New York) for the the first quarter of 1881, is of a very high grade of merit in its leading papers. It stands in the front rank of the expositors of the best thought of the age. Some of the most scholarly men of Great Britain contri bute to its pages, and its discussion of scientific questions, and its political and literary essays, are of the very first order. The contents of the present number are, 1. The Progress of Ship building in England. 2. Plato as a Reformer. 3. The Early History of Charles James Fox. 4. The Irish Land Question. 5. The Science of History. 6. Afghanistan. 7. Bi-metalism and the Finances of India. India and our Colonial Empire. Also, a remarkably full and high-toned critical review of contemporary literature in all its de partments. Secretary Blaine is fifty-one years old; Secretary Windom, fifty-four; Postmaster James, fifty; Attorney Gen eral McVeigh, forty-eight; Secretary Kirkwood, sixty-eight; Secretary R. T. Lincoln, thirty-seven; Secretary Hunt, fifty-two. ESTABLISHED 18 21. GEORGIA NEWS. —A wagon factory is to be erected in Cov ington. —The port of Savannah is crowded with vessels. —Potatoes are forty cents per bushel in Blackshear. —A telegraph office has been opened in Warrenton. —Marietta will soon have the benefit of • steam fire engine. —Work oa the Augusta and Knoxville road is progressing rapidly. —The new Catholic church in Columbus will be dedicated May 8. —The Columbus Library already contains twelve hundred volumes. —Hawkinsville has fixed an annual tax of $lO on commercial drummers. —Gainesville and Dablonega have been connected with telephone wire. —About half of an average crop of wheat has been sown in Oglethorpe county. —ln ten years the cotton receipts of Rome have increased from 12,000 to 100,000 bales. —A company is being organized in La Grange for the purpose of building a cotton factory. —Rev. Geo. 0. Clarke has been presented with a fine gold cane by the citizens of San dersville. . —The people around Quitman have plant ed one hundred and fifty acres in water melons. —A narrow guage railroad can be graded from Bowersville to Carnesville, at a cost of about $6,000. —Plans are on foot to build in Macon a first-class hotel, four stories high, and all modem improvements. —Mr. A. St. Clair-Abrams, well known in Georeia, is State's Attorney for the 7th Flor ida Judicial Circuit. —Nearly $1,200 was subscribed last week by the Presbyterians of Macon to the Theo logical Seminary at Columbia. —The Odd Fellows Hall in Hawkinsville is nearly finished. It will be one of the finest buildings in ths town. —Mr. Ferdinand Phinizy, of Athens, wants a narrow gauge railroad from that city to Hartwell.. He thinks it would pay. —An attempt was made to burn the San dersville jail by the prisoners, but was frust rated by the vigilance of the deputy sheriff. —A plan is on foot in Athens to unite the Georgia and Northeastern depots and locate them nearer the business portion of the city. —Rev. Dr. A. Hamilton, President of An drew Female College, at Cuthbert, was re cently stricken with paralysis, and has since died. —Mr. James Wade, of Banks county, is 73 years old, and says he plows now as stead ily as he did thirty years ago, and expects to J keep at it as long as his strength will last. ShtaAt Milledgeville a negro boy who had KMkM in the public schools to write, different orders. for which he was to the penitentiary for ten years. hopes soon to have a female cols Khonsand dollars have it only requires three e to insure the building fwsre asaaureg of the Presbyterian s been induced to re tbsence has been grant- is prevailing to an alarming some of the cities and much alarm MRb. People where it has not yet made ■WTppearance should guard against it by vaccination. —Treasurer Speer is receiving the returns from SIOO,OOO ot the State debt incurred in aid of the Gulf railroad, and paid on the first of February. Three more annual payments of SIOO 000 each remain to be made before the debt will be wiped out. —The recent Agricultural Convention at Thomasville accepted the offer of the city of Macon, and decided to hold the State fair in that city, commencing October 17, 1881. It is intended to make it the grandest exhib ition of the kind ever held in Georgia. —The Valdosta Times: We are informed that wild cats in the South Ocean Pond dis trict have destroyed all the lambs in the vicinity, and have commenced to kill full grown sheep—something never heard of be fore. The cats are plentiful and very large. —The Cuthbert Enterprise says: We are glad to record the fact that there is not a single unoccupied dwelling-house in Cuth bert. No doubt this fact is to be attributed in -ome part to the general revival in bus iness, but most of all to the educational ad vantages of the place. —Rev. C. M. Howard, of Virginia, has been carrying on a union meeting in the churches in Elberton, for several weeks, and the result was the addition of twenty-five members to the Methodist church and six to the Baptist. Mr. Howard is engaged in a meeting at Paoli, Madison county. —The Macon Telegraph and Messenger has donned a new dress. Its make up and personal appearance are greatly improved, and it is now one of the most attractive looks ing papers in the State, says the Savannah News.all ofwhich we cordially indorse,with the addition that it is also one of the very best newspapers in this country. —Mr. M. B. McGinty has taken a $58,000 contract to put up a new factory buildine at High Shoals. It is to be a new building, but is for the purpose of enlarging the caps acity of the present factory. Work has been going on at Barnett’s Shoals for several weeks. It is proposed to build a large fiu> tory there as soon as possible. . —The North Georgia Times says: “From all we can learn a larger acreage of cotton will be planted in Murray county the present year than ever before. Farmers are already purchasing and preparing the fertilizers in large quantities, and if the yield of the fleecy staple should be as good this year as last, the county will number her bales by the thous ands. —The Walton county News reports that Dr. Lucas, of Boston, a most skillful miner and experienced geologist, visited the As bestos and Oorrundum mines, one mile east of Monroe, and expressed himself highly pleased with the outlook. Men who have every means of knowing, say there is an abundance of the above minerals in this mine, and that they are quite valuable. —The surveying party engaged upon the Macon and Brunswick Railroad extension arrived in Macon, having finished the sur vey to Atlanta. They proceeded out to the Cross Keys neighborhood, and will resurvey a portion of the route leading into Macon. In a few days the railroad officials will de termine upon the route to be adopted, and work upon the extension will be begun. ”