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THE SPIRIT IN THE AIR. Under this title Rev. Dr. Prime, in one of his famous “ Irenajus Letters ” in the New York Observer, discusses, suggestively and forcibly, one of the most pressing and tremendous ques tions now before the civilized world. It is a subject that demands the earnest attention of every man, especially of ■every friend of popular government and its permanency. The incentive to the article was an unpleasant incident of a personal char acter, which happened to “ Irenaeus ” while seated in a car of the Elevated Railroad in Sixth Avenue, New York. He says: “Two decent-looking men sat immediately in front of me, on one of the cross-seats in the middle of the car. They had the appearance of respectable mechanics. Neither of them was in liquor. They spoke occasionally without turning their faces toward each other. At length one of them said, loud enough for me to bear him distinctly : “ ‘I am a NiAiZist,’ throwing the accent on the second syllable and giving the t the sound of «. My first impulse, on hearing this remark, was to leave my seat for an other, as the nearness to such a person was offensive, and a sort of foreboding of evil took possession of me. After a few mo ments’ reflection, I turned partly around and looked away. I was not aware of showing any feeling of contempt, nor of giving the men the slightest reason to suppose that I was aware of their presence. The train stopped at a station: both of them rose quickly : one of them struck me with the flat of his hand, and the other said, ‘You ought to have your old neck broke.' He put in an oath where I make a dash: then they passed rapidly out of the door and upon the platform. I turned to look after them, and the one who struck the blow was shaking his fist at me as he saw me through the window. “ What was the meaning of it ? You have all the facts, and can judge for yourself. I think they intended to provoke a fight, and, as either was more than a match for me, they would have robbed and perhaps killed me iu a moment, had they received provoca tion for prolonging the assault. They were desperate, wicked, lawless bandits, such as commit outrages on persons and property every day and night in the streets and rail cars. They make a row, and in a moment perpetrate a crime and escape by their quick ness and coolness, and the proverbial absence or blindness of all policemen when they are wanted.” Then, commenting upon the fact that human life is no more imperilled by assassins in New York than in Lon don, for instance, and that England furnishes a notable list of outrages, the writer proceeds to moralize upon this suggestive incident, and discusses the main question in its general bearing upon politics and society: We may doubt it, or try to deceive ourselves into disbelieving the fact, but there is a spirit of evil in the air. The Socialism of Germany, the Atheism of Ingersoll, the Nihilism of Russia and Poland, the alliance of politicians with criminals, so that “roughs” are as powerful in party conflicts as statesmen, are so many stimulants to violence and pro tections against punishment. The Irish dynamite plots in England and in this country, by which it was, and probably is, determined to destroy the lives of innocent beings for the sake of appalling the Government, are crimes that, even when imaginary, make the world turn pale. But there are men among us who have made assassination one of the fine arts, and are now devising infernal machines for the murder of men, women and chil dren. It is not likely that governments can repress these seditious heresies, out of which flow the streams of vice and crime that frighten society. It is a great mistake to suppose that Com munism, Nihilism, Atheism, or any other form of Infidelity, has its origin in bad governments. These heresies are often attributed to oppression. Excuses are made for criminals, who are said to be driven to their evil deeds by the hard times or the severe exac tions of the State. This is all bosh. The germ of Socialism, and every other vice that aims at getting property with out labor, is in the laziness of wicked men 1 . They want to have for nothing what honest industry has earned under the primal law of sweat and toil. Bismarck, the greatest living ruler, may combine with Russian and Aus trian despotism to crush Socialism. But the combination is powerless. The instruments of government are not formed yet that can suppress ideas. Thought is free even in a dungeon. Chains do not bind the soul. Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, mur ders, and the like, They are in the moral atmosphere, and death is borne on the air. We are becoming as famil iar with the idea of assassination as one of the steps to office and revolution, as they are in the Empire of the North. It is horrible to read in the leading newspaper of one of the parties of this country that the election of a President of the Senate will invite assassination. It is mortifying that such a thought can be harbored, and, still more, that it can find expression. To utter it is to inspire bad men with it. And when we ask, “What is to be done about it?” we are confronted with the great prob lem of all ages,— how to reconcile liberty with order. Men must be governed, but how is it possible where they are all equal and cannot govern them selves? Who will rule such unspeaka ble scoundrels as the voters who assail ed me three hours ago? It is an unspeakable calamity to live under a government that practically acknowl edges the right of such men to be the leaders of political parties, to control primary meetings, to nominate legisla tors and presidents, and dictate the voting at the polls. I do not know of any men in this city who have more influence in party politics than the roughs whose physical prowess is one of the chief factors in all political campaigns. The future of this Republic depends Secular Editorials—Literature— * Domestic and Foreign Intelligence. on the moral forces that are used to reform our politics and our people. The same causes that have culminated "in the murder of two Presidents already are rankling in the nervous system of the country. The fierce mobocracy, flying from Old World monarchies, rears its ignorant front, defying law and controlling elections. Brute force and weapons of war are elements in our civil contests. And the man must be very stupid who does not recognize the need of all pervading religious and educational influences to restrain and guide society through the next century of our national existence. Will it be a century? KING COTTON. International Cotton Exposition, Atlanta, Oa., 1881. CHARLES W. HUBS’ER. King Cotton, monarch of the Western World! Great Solomon In all his glory shone Not half so flue as thou upon thy throne, In rustic crown and white robe dew-impearl’d ; Crowns shall be lost aad thrones to ruin hurl’d, Yet when the mightiest of thy peers are prone, Then shalt thou see thy power still ampler grown, Thy conquering flag in every sone unfurl'd ! All-potent Lord of Toil I Benignant sire Os weal and comfort and prosperity 1 Here have we built a temple In thy name, Here bring we incense for thine altar-flre, Here Art and Science tribute pay to thee, Here sings the world the pean of thy fame I Fifth Baptist Church Concert.— The concert, last Thursday evening, for the benefit of the Fifth Baptist church was greatly enjoyed by a large audience. The programme was pleasingly varied, comprising appro priate selections of sacred and other music, rendered under the skillful management of Prof. Kruger. Mem bers of the Second Baptist church choir assisted the choir of the Fifth church. The singing of Mrs. Wade was especially admired. The solo “Judith,” was brilliantly rendered. The concert, as a whole, was gratify ing musically and financially. The choir of the church, and those who assisted them, well deserved the ap plause they received, for certainly their desire to please and entertain the audience was crowned with success. Personal. —Messrs. E. Hamlin and Wm. A. Hemphill, of the carpet house of Hemphill, Hamlin & Co., New York, were in the city last week, taking in the Exposition. These gentlemen have visited all of the leading South ern cities this fall, and they express themselves surprised at the wonderful amount of enterprise and thrift they have observed generally throughout the South. They left here for Savannah, and after a short trip through the Carolinas and Virginia they will re turn to New York. They represent one of the leading carpet houses in this country and have a large South ern trade. The friends and admirers of Sidney Lanier held a memorial meeting in Baltimore last week. President Gil man of Johns Hopkins University and others made addresses. It was decided to raise a memorial fund for the support of his family. Among those named as members of the Me morial Committee were George W. Childs, George H. Boker and H. H. Furness. This is a step in the right direction. It is an appropriate and practical way of honoring the memory of one of the purest and most richly gifted of our poets and litterateurs. Neither should Georgia forget her worthy son. Let her unite with Baltimore in substanti ally honoring his memory and his worth. In the Sanatarian, for October, the mortality statistics in the United States, of cities of 30,000 population and upwards, show that the six health ist cities were, at the date of publica tion, and in the order named : Utica, New Haven, Portland, San Francisco and Lawrence, Mass. We notice that Atlanta comes close to San Francisco in this report, the latter city showing 15.4 deaths per thousand, Atlanta, 16. The six unhealthiest cities are in the order named: Charleston, Memphis, Cleaveland, Chicago, Hudson, N. J., and Lynn. The six unhealthiest cities in the world are, in the order named : St. Petersburgh, Charleston, Malaga, Alexandria, Warsaw and Budha-Pest. On the application of the counsel of Guiteau, the Court postponed the trial of the case from November 7th to No vember 14th. Mr. Scoville, in his argu ment, stated that, in his judgment, the Court had jurisdiction, and intimated that he would not raise any question on that point. Judge Potter, of New York, tele graphs his willingness to assist in the defense of Guiteau. ATLANTA, GEORGIA, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 1881. LITERARY NOTES AND COM MENTS. —A new scientific journal entitled Knowledge, will shortly appear in Lon don, under the editorship of Mr. Rich ard A. Proctor. —There was a dinner given to the Literary Congress at Vienna by the editor of the Wiener Allgemeine Zei tung. The contributors of the paper made speeches to the foreign guests in Spanish, French, Italian, English, Polish, Swedish, Latin and Greek. —ln “Aurora Leigh,” the greatest poem ever written by a woman, Mrs. Browning tells us that “♦ » » We get no good, By being ungenerous even to a book, And calculating profits—so much help By so much reading. It is rather when We gloriously forget ourselves and plunge Soul-forwar.l, headlong, into a book's profound, Impassioned f r its beauty and salt of truth— ’Tls then we get the right good from a book.” “lt is less difficult,” says Dr. Samuel Johnson, in one of his honest and striking essays, “to write a vol ume of lines swelled with epithets, brightened with figures, and stiffened by transpositions, than to produce a few couplets graced only by naked elegance and simple purity, which re quire so much care and skill that I doubt whether any of our authors have yet been able, for twenty lines together, nicely to observe the true definition of easy poetry.” —St. Nicholas is unquestionably the foremost magazine for boys and girls in the world. The wonderful success of it is due probably to the wisdom of its editorial management and the lib erality of jjts publishers. It may be reckoned among the curiosities of modern literature that so many emi nent persons have been pressed into the service of writing for young people. It is very likely that, if this magazine had not been invented, we never should have heard of Longfellow, Bry ant, Whittier, Bret Harte, Charles Dudley Warner, Mrs. Oliphant, and Bayard Taylor, as being engaged in juvenile literature. Perhaps, when they first ventured into this rich field, allured by the bright pages of St. Nicholas, they were surprised to find that they had in themselves the rare faculty of interesting the children as well as the older folk. If for nothing else than this, we should be grateful that St. Nicholas has been brought into the republic of letters. It is some thing to be worthy of the noble repu tation won by this magazine. It is very much more to have brought face to face some of the foremost writers of the time and the young folks of Eng land and America. It may be truly said that the boys and girls of the English speaking race have now presented to them, in the annual volumes of St. Nicholas, the best work by the best writers for young people. It will be a happy day for our country when such wholesome, attractive, and en riching literature as this shall displace the wretched stuff with which the land is flooded. —With fine point and pith Prof. Matthews, in one of his charming es says, remarks: “Journalism, which reaches the" million, is the very last kind of literary production that should be abandoned to feeble, shallow think ers, and vulgar writers who lack ca pacity for more enduring work. It should be the work of minds of the largest size and of ‘the divinest met tle.’” True, true, and hence how un fortunate it is that so many “feeble, shallow thinkers and vulgar writers” are permitted to disgrace the profes sion 1 Nor is this class of impostors to be found exclusively in second and third class journals, some that claim the honors of first class journals per mit their columns to be disgraced by feeble and vulgar work, the mana gers being too penurious to employ first class talent, at first class wages, or because they wish to cater to the depraved tastes of certain low classes of patrons. Either of these motives are unworthy, and malign the fair fame and weaken the good influence of legitimate journalism. —A new romance, entitled “Descen sus Averno, or the Downward Drift'” a story of real in New Orleans and the South-west, written by Rev. J. H. Curry, pastor of the Baptist church in Dallas, Texas, is in press, and will soon be published by C. R. Barnes, St. Louis. —According to the poet Longfellow, who takes the hint from Dante, Italian is the language spoken in Paradise. —The Philadelphia A of the opinion that if Mr. Tennyson had died or ceased to write some time ago, it would have been the better for his fame, and it adds : “It would be hard to find anything more ridiculous, in point of fact, than his recent lines on the marriage of Princess Frederica, of Hanover, and Baron Von Pawel-Ram mingen, wherein the late King was represented as leaning over the celes tial battlements to bless the union. The truth is that the King was bitterly op posed to the match, and it was not un til after his death that the lovers dared to marry! But when one is laureate, one must be laureate.” —A reward was recently offered by M. Henri des Honx for the best poem on the birthday of “his Majesty Henri Cinq,” the poem to consist of thirty five verses. Five medals—one of sil ver, four of bronze—were struck, to be given to the five candidates who should produce the five best pieces. The re ward was not quite so generous as that bestowed on the English poet-laure ate, whose butts of sherry have so long served to sharpen the wits of satirists and brother poets, but the successful candidate was to have the additional honor of beholding his verse inserted in La Civilization. To the amusement of many, the supply has been so great that the republic is in doubt whether the poem and Civilization, and Henri Cinq himself, had not better be sup pressed. —The Christian World says that Mr. Froude, the English historian, is to have a peerage. —Among the manuscripts of the de ceased German poet Scherenberg, an epic poem has been found that turns upon Franklin’s North Pole Expedi tion. The friends of the poet intend to put his work into print. —We cordially indorse the follow ing, in the Augusta Chronicle and Con stitutionalist, concerning our genial and richly gifted friend: “Newspaper correspondents appro priately unite in paying just compli ments to Mr. Joel C. Harris, of Atlanta. As an editor and author, few men have more to be proud of than Mr. Harris; a writer as pure as his heart is kind, he has warm personal friends as well as literary admirers. Mr. Harris does not affect the aesthetic or diletante, and he is the most natural of men, as his writing embodies the simplest and most engaging of styles.” Sir William Harcourt, in a speech at Glasgow, said that both the late and present Governments were reluctant to proceed at an early stage against the Land League, because it was not desirable to suppress what pretended to be a constitutional agitation, especi ally if connected with a real grievance, but when such an agitation avowed illegal ends, no Government would fail to be supported in any and all meas ures it might take for the safety of society. The task, he said, was diffi cult and painful, but the Government having set its hands to the plow, they might rely upon its not turning back. The speech was received with pro longed cheering. Mr. Plunkett, Conservative member of Parliament, and formerly Solicitor- General of Ireland, addressed a meet ing at Chelsea. He approved the recent action of the Government in Ireland and declared that partisans of sedition must be shown that they would find all loyal men of every party against them, and that vigorous action in the present crisis should not be abated until every sign of resistance to law be overpowered. These declarations and those of Mr. Chamberlain at Liverpool, made almost simultaneously, attract much attention, as they demonstrate the practical agreement of various sections of politicians on the present treatment of the Irish question by the Govern ment. Rev. Wm. Fitzgerald, D. D., Catholic Bishop of Ross, has issued a letter in condemnation of the “no rent” mani festo of the Land League, in which he says that the manifesto has excited dismay among the best friends of the Irish people. The Senate confirmed the nomina tion by the President of Judge Folger, for Secretary of the Treasury; James, the present incumbent, as Postmaster- General ; .Frank Hatton,as First Assist ant Postmaster-General vice Tyner, removed. “With all its faults,” says Charles Dudley Warner, “I believe the moral tone of the newspaper is higher, as a rule, than that of the com munity in which it is published.” That depends . —lt is estimated that there will be a deficiency of one million bales in the cotton crop this season. — Groat destruction has been occa sioned on the upper Mississippi by floods. CONFEDERATE BONDS. “About two weeks ago,” says the New York Sun, “a dispatch from Lon don said that dealings in Confederate bonds has been revived there, and that a considerable amount of the bonds has been purchased for the Amster dam account at £2 10s. per SI,OOO bond. Since then small transactions in Confederate bonds have been made in Wall street at prices ranging from $2 to $4 per SI,OOO bond. A dispatch from Chicago was pub lished yesterday morning which stated that R. J. Moses of 61 Wall street, New York, had telegraphed to banks in Memphis, Tenn., and other South ern cities, requesting them to secure for him as many Confederate bonds as possible at $2 per SI,OOO bond. It was also alleged in the dispatch that the value of the bonds lay in the fact that there was on deposit in England $7,000,000 in gold which had been placed there by the Confederate author ities to purchase supplies, and that, as the money has not been used, it was applicable to these bonds. Mr. Raphael J. Moses, Jr. is a lawyer. He was found yesterday afternoon en gaged upon a deskful of letters and dispatches. He said he did not know who wanted the bonds, or wherein their value consisted. Having lived in the South, and having connections abroad, he had been requested by cer tain London stock brokers to buy for their principals a large amount of Con federate bonds. He had attempted to execute the commission by sending the dispatches mentioned, and had re ceived in reply a large number of the bonds. He received yesterday bonds of the par value of about half a million of dollars. Mr. Moses said he had not heard, before its publication yes terday morning, of the story that $7,- 000,000 of gold had been deposited in England during the war for Confeder ate supplies. Mr. Moses advertises this morning for Confederate bonds, which must be coupon, and have attached all the cou pons since January, 1865. All the rebellious elements in Ireland are in a ferment, caused by the arrest of their leaders, and the evident deter mination of the Goverment to enforce the laws of the land and to defend the. dignity and peace of the realm. Os the manifesto issued by the Irish Land League, the London Morning Post says: “We consider the manifesto a direct incentive to civil war.” . The wording of the League manifes to is exceedingly violent. It reminds the people that their ancestors, though without leaders, had abolished the payment of tithes, and declare that it is as lawful to refuse to pay rents as ft is to receive them. It says: “Against the passive resistance of an entire popula tion the military power has no weapons, and it is no more possible to evict than to imprison a whole nation. The funds of the League will be poured out un stintedly for the evicted and exiled. Oui brethren in America may be relied on to contribute as many millions as they have already contributed thousands. One more heroic effort will destroy the accursed system of landlordism.” For the quarter ending June 30, 1881, which was the first quarter of the administration of Postmaster-General James, the expenditures of the Post Office department were $9,974,060.02. Os this amount $304,583.24 was paid to railroad companies, on account of and chargeable to previous months, leaving the net expenditures for the quarter $9,669,466.78. The receipts were $9,589,587.37. This shows a de ficiency of $79,879.41 for the quarter. The expenditures during the corres ponding quarter of the previous year, were $9,101,863.20, the receipts SB,- 515,165.13 and the deficiency $586,- 698.07. It thus appears that the deficiency in the last quarter of the fiscal year ending June 30, 1881, was $506,818.- 66 less than the deficiency in the last quaiter of the previous fiscal year. The trial of Guiteau, the assassin, is fixed for November 7th. His counsel is engaged in an effort to gather testi mony as to the alleged insanity of the murderer. Ex-Governor Franklin J. Moses, of South Carolina, is under arrest in New York, on the charge of receiving money under false pretences. The Apache Indians in Arizona are committing horrible outrages. Other roving bands have joined the inair gents. Secretary Blaine will retire from the Cabinet December Ist. GEORGIA NEWS. —Street cars in Rome is to be its next new thing. —The sugar-cane crop of Randolph county is a good one. —The sweet potato crop of Sumter county will be a short one. —The rice crop in Southern Georgia is said to be very good. —Good cotton crop in Dooly county—corn crop an average one. —A large crop of small grain has been sown in Greene county. —targe crops of oats and wheat will be planted in Houston county. —Rome is to have a telephone exchange with twenty-five subscribers. —Newton county is saving the largest hay crop ever made in the county. —Judge J. J. McKendree, one of the oldest citizens of Columbus, is dead. Warren county crops are considerably above the aver.ige over the State. —Calhoun county is making fine oom crops, and two-thirds of a cotton crop. —The cotton crop of Forsyth county is turning out better than was expected. —The rice planters of the Altamaha have harvested a fine crop in excellent condition. When the Atlanta Exposition is ended the building is to be made a cotton factory. —From one-eighth of an acre, J. R. Win ter, of Meriwether, has gathered ten bushels of rice. —The Chattahoochee river is lower than it has been for years, and is filled with sand bars. —lt is estimated that fully four hundred Northern visitors will spend the winter in Thomasville. —The Early County News says thereseems to be a certainty that the cars will run into Blakely by the sth of November. —Hon. Henry B. Tompkins has been appointed Judge Fleming’s successor on the Superior Court bench of the Savannah Cir cuit. —Augusta is to have a new steamboat, to ply between that city and Savannah. She will be able to carry 800 to 900 bales of cotton a load. —Fifty freight cars are being built for the Georgia railroad on the newly patented Raoul truck. Each car will carry 40 000 pounds. —Atlanta is to have two new daily papers —morning and evening. Mr. B. F. Sawyer is to take charge of the afternoon, and Mr. E F. Hoge the morning, paper. —Captain Tutwiler, ot the Atlanta exten sion of the Macon and Brunswick railroad, reports that there are now 5,000 hands at work between Macon and Atlanta. —There are four Pickens county women at the Exjrdsition, engaged by the Williman tic Thread Company, in carding, spinning and weaving in the old primitive method. They attract as much attention as any other feature. —Mr. H. H. Sanford, Superintendent of the South Georgia display in the Atlanta Exposition, strongly appeals to the people of his section to send up articles for exhibition. He fears they will be ashamed of the Georgia exhibit when it is too late to make amends. —Mr. H. C. Tanner’s damage suit against the Air-Line railroad came to an eud in Fulton Superior Court. The jury returneda verdict for Mr. Tanner for the sum of $9,000. It will be remembered that in the first trial the verdict was for $17,000. -Mr. George I. Seney, of New York, has sent Miss Rutherford, of Athens, his check for SIO,OOO, donated by him for the purpose of erecting the chapel of the Lucy Cobb In stitute. The full amount Athens was to raise has been secured. —George B. Loring, Commissioner of Ag riculture at Washington, D. C., has issued circulars to all agricultural societies known to him in the South, requesting them to send delegates to a Convention of Cotton Growers to be held at Atlanta, Ga., on Wednesday, November 2d. —One of the most enterprising and suc cessful planters of Thomas county informs us that the farmers of that county are doing remarkably well considering the adverse circumstances of the crop year. He says they are marketing their cotton and paying their debts without incurring new obliga tions. —The annual meeting of the stockholders of the Northeastern railway was held at Athens. The President reported that the work on the extension to Clarkesville was nearly completed, that the iron had been shipped, and that the road would be in runs ning order to that point by the first of Janua ry. The increase in earnings was $15,638.45, and in expenses $11,113.65. —Col. T. I. Smith, Master of the State Grange of Georgia, died at Leesburg, Florida. He had recently purchased a large orange grove in Sumter county, Florida. He has been Master of the State Grange of Georgia from the time it was first organized, and the Patrons of Husbandry have sustained the loss of their leading member. Col. Smith was widely known and highly esteemedd. —Cartersville Free Press: “We are happy to announce that the whistle has blown, the ponderous engine has been set a going, and the music of the looms has begun to sing out that the Empire Woolen Mills, located about four miles from town, have started out under the most auspicious circumstances. This drives another spike in the list of Bartow county enterprises, and in one that our county may justly feel proud of. The mana gers, Messrs. Jones, Morris & Earnshaw, are gentlemen of long experience in regard to handling wool,” —Mr. H. I. Kimball, in an interview with a reporter of the Atlanta Constitution, said: “We have just about completed the survey of the Atlanta and Gainesville canal. “ What is the result of the survey ?” “It has demonstrated that the canal is perfectly feasible, and that it can be dug at very much less cost than we had dared to hope. The survey has been made at a cost of but little more than one thousand dollars in the most thorough and accurate manner, and it shows that we can build a canal that will give Atlanta all the water she needs for the city and ten thousand horse-power between here and the Chattahoochee at a cost of less than two millions and a-halt dollars." “Can the money be raised to build it?” “There is not the slightest doubt of it. It can be demonstrated in the plainest manner that the income from the rent of water-power and from water for the city would pay a handsome dividend on the money invested. As the city grew larger, and manufactories were added, it would become an exceedingly valuable property. I think the money can be raised in very short order, and as soon as the affairs of the Exposition are off my shoulders, I shall go to work at it in earneet, and there is no reason why we should not have commenced digging before the first of next June.” “ You feel sure that it will be started that soon ?” “ I do. I have already had correspondence with leading capitalists in New York, and I know that everything is ripe for the project. We ought to be able to start in six months from to'day, but whether we start in six or twelve months, you may rest assured of one thing—l promised the people of Atlanta, in an address at the Gor don banquet several months ago, that I would take hold of the canal and never rest until I had the water of the Chattahoochee flowing into and through Atlanta. I have never yet failed to consummate any enter prise that I gave my promise to, and I don’t think I ever had an easier job than building the Atlanta canal. You need not be aftaia that I will not do it.”