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Athenian Correspondence.
Athens, Ga., Oct. 19th, 1870.
Messrs. Editors :—Having arrived
in your City on the afternoon train
and being a perfect stranger, after
securing a room at the Hotel, and
getting a refreshing evening meal,
being attracted partly by the loveli
ness of the night and partly by a de*
sire to know something of the topos
graphy of modern Athens, 1 started
out for a stroll. After wandering for
some time through the gas lit streets,
which, by the way, were not very
brilliantly iigbted, and enjoying the
weird appearance with which moon
light clothed the scene, my attention
was attracted by a crowd moving to
wards a church. Still willing to grat
ify my curiosity I entered the church
and soon found the occasion of the
vast concourse of people was an ans
ticipated wedding. After spending
some time in anxious expectation,
the arrival of the bridal party was
announced, and immediately all eyes
were turned upon them with an idly
curious gaze. Taking a more phil
osophical view of it, I began thinking
of how disagreeable it must be to
feel that one’s self is the cynosure of
all eyes and a subject of free criti
cism. But looking with admiration
upon the train of attendants, I found
realized in the spectacle before mo
the most glowing accounts I had
hitherto heard of Athenian beauty,
for truly, such transcendant loveli
ness never adorned earthly creatures
as beamed from this beauteous
throng. Particularly was 1 struck
with the appearance of one among
the cluster of beauty, one whose
countenance seemed ever radiant
with the light of heaven, far gentler
than the first rose tint of morn, or
aurora’s brow, and milder than the
fading light on an evening scene,
whose eyes, bright “ebon orbs” of
truth, seemed to send forth in every
glance, love’s divinest charms, and
each moment to tell the fate of some
unknown worshiper. To find aught
so pure as to bear comparison, we
must indeed look to heaven. As she
passed out I heard my own senti
ments of admiration whispered
throughout the crowd. She was
with justice, styled by all, the Sov*
ereign Queen of Beauty. Though a
stranger I felt as though I could with
true sincerity kneel at her shrine and
breathe vows of living devotion. —
With such feelings as these, I leave
Athens much loathing to leave.
Yours truly,
Visitor.
P. y,—By way of designating the
above mentioned young lady, she
was second bridesmaid. V.
...Prof, Homer B. Sprague, former
ly of Cornell, has accepted the Pres
idency of Adelphic Academy, Brook
lyn, N. Y., at a salary of SG,OOO. —
Home Monthly.
THE GEORGIA COLLEGIAN.
LOCAL ITEMS.
...The Law School is wellattended,
consisting of two classes, Junior and
Senior; the latter of which have a
moot Court on every Saturday,
which is visited both by the students
and citizens.
...The street railroad is now oppo
site the Deupree building; with vvbat
anxious expectation do wo await to
see it completed—when the people of
the city will be benefitted with the
great convenience of a street car.
...We have to announce to our read-,
ers the sad news of the bad defeat of
our “Nine” at the Atlanta Fair—
upon whom we had centered such
bright hopes and anticipations—
thinking beyond a doubt, they cer
tainly would take tho prize, and re
turn to resume their College duties
in great delight, as the brag nine of
the State; but quite to the reverse,
only nineteen to seventy-two, was
the result of the game. Too much
confidence in themselves ; they ought
to have practised more and been bet
ter prepared.
...We noticed several of tho old gra
duates on a visit of a few days. Mess.
Hughes, Meldrim and Rucker—
whose faces seem as natural and fa
miliar as ever, which calls to our
mind many, many that graduated
with them, who, as they, are busily
engaged in a combat with the moro
stern realities of life.
...On Tuesday evening, the 18th
inst., Mr. Ciias. Hill was married to
Miss Carrie Hughes —both of Ath
ens —in the Episcopal Church, by the
Eov. I)r. Mitchell. To those who
witnessed the ceremony, it is need
less to say the bride looked lovely;
but to those who wore not present,
wo would say, the array of beauty
displayed both by bride and brides
maids, was such as only Athens can
boast of.
Notice !—The Phi Kappa Library
will be open on the follawing days:
On Monday, from sto 6P. M. On
Saturday, from 11 to 12 A. M.
P. H. Mell, Jr., Librarian.
...Mr. James Thomas, Jr., of .Rich
mond, subscribed $5,000 for the en>
dowment of Richmond College, a
Baptist Institution. Instead of pay
ing his subscription, according to tne
proposal of the Trustees, in State
Stock, he generously, nobly, laid out
the whole amount in stock, and then
handed over to the Treasurer SIO,OOO
in State bonds.
...Three things to love—Courage,
gentleness and affection.
Three things to bate —Cruelty, ar
rogance and ingratitude.
11 The Greatest Goose that ever Gab
bled on a Green.”
Are tbore no fops save the kid
gloved, cravat-choked, little legged
exquisites? Yes; there are intellec
tual dandies who dress and crimp and
trim their thoughts. Os all the fancy
millinery which they with female ex
travagance, bestow upon their ideas,
the most disgusting article is allit*
eration, an insane notion of making
successive words begin with the same
letter. Many of our students love it,
“ not wisely but too well.” Quis,
the able correspondent of the Augus
ta Chronicle , severely blamed the
Junior speakers, last commencement,
for this contemptible word trickery.
Alliteration was born in what
Dickons quaintly styles the Middling
ages. Its low birth is a good argu 4 '
ment against it. The worthless
rhymesters of the Middle ages wrote
such affected lines as these :
Propter<ea properans,
Proconnul poplite prono.
The preachers of that period, with
ungodly affectation, gave such names
as these to their sermons: Crumbs
of comfort for the chickens of the
covenant; sighs of sorrow for sin
ners; biscuits baked in the Bible,
carefully conserved for the chickens
of salvation; seven sad sobs of sore
sorrow for einuing souls, or Peniten
tial psalms of the princely prophet
David ; Iluinnis’s handful of honey
suckles. Wilson, tho first rhetorician
of note in Great Brittain, thus caris
catures alliteration, “ pitiful poverty
prayeth for a penny, but puffed pre
sumption passeth not a point, pam
pering bis paunch with pestilent
pleasure, procuring his passport to
hell pit, there to be punished with
pains perpetual.” In a modern pen
nyaliners attempt to rescue himself
from deserved oblivion, wo find the
laughable line, “ Round a rugged reck
the rascals ran.”
Hon. B. H. Hill has been heard to
say that “ the orator should use lan
guage as a means, not as an end.”—
Now if an audience notices that a
speaker has artfully alliterated his
phrases, the thought will como up
that ho pays more attention to his
language than to his ideas, and he
can produce no conviction, for detec
ted art is always distrusted. But if
an audience does not notice the allit
eration, why all the labor spent on
it, is wasted. Either horn of the
dilemma impales tho alliterator.
In antithesis alone, alliteration is
legitimate. Thus, in a recent work,
“ the girls of the period think more
of their bonnets, than their brains.”
Thus in Emerson, “ tho fungus under
foot, or the lichen on the log,” or
where ho speaks of model farms that
“ look more like they were cultivated
with a pencil than a plow.” Or this,
“ die and endow a College or a cat.”
Who then is the greatest goose
that ever gabbled on a green ? The
man who avails himself of “ apt allit
eration’s artful aid” to string to
gether a long train of words simply
because they begin with the same
letter.
Book Notices.
Bullions & Morris' Latin Grammar ,
(Sheldon & Cos., New York, Publish
ers.) We declare without hesitation
that this grammar is the best. That
Andrew’s & Stoddard’s work, which
contains everything that is un impor
tant and omits much that is very im
portant—should bo used at this Uni
versity and at Emory College, is to
us a matter of wonder. Why, the
last named grammar does not even
give a full paradigm of the four con
jugations, and tho number of nouns
declined is strikingly insufficient.—
These useful exercises are doubtless
crowded out, in order to make room
for whole cart loads of valueless ob>
servations, which the authors reck
lessly empty upon the pages. Prof.
Waddell himself has set a noble exn
ample to Grammar-makers in his
work, by discarding the multifarious
exceptions and remarks with which
other books are loaded. We hope he
will either soon prepare a Latin
grammar liko his Greek, or will dis
card this work of Andrews & Stod
dard’s, which is stuffed with details
and trifles that Horace and Cicero
never dreamed of; and adopt Bull
ion’s, which has fished out from Latin
literature, the pearls of its construes
tion, leaving out all the trash, the sea
weeds and the mud.
Shaw's Manual of English Liter a
ture, (Sheldon & C 0.,) is superior to
any book of the kind, that we have
seen. The shades of Chaucer and
Spenser may rise up to bless the in
dustrious and appreciative editor. —
The work has these two advantages.
Ist, the authors of less importance
are noticed in small type, and thus
greater prominence is given to tho
most prominent writers. 2d, the re
view of English literature extends up
to the beginning of tho war; thus
criticisms are passed on modern
authors. Tho sketch of American
literature affords instruction which
we believe can be found in no other
book.
University of Virginia. —Prof.
Charles S. Venable has been elected
Chancellor of tho University of Vir*
ginia, vice Prof. Maupin resigned.—
Southern Presbyterian.
...Tho erection of a largo hotel
and resturant is contemplated by the
authorities at Harvard University
for the accommodation of such stu
dents as may desire to avail them
selves of its advantages. —College
Herald.
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