Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

2. HE ATLANT A W EE KLY bua- SUPREME COURT DECISIONS. Reported for the Daily San. Atlanta, Jaly 25, 1871. John Neal, etal., vs. George Patten, etaL Relief act 1870—from Mitchell. McKAY. J. Where a bill had been filed to marshal the assets of an estate, and under an in terlocutory decree of the Court the assets had been reduced to money, and held in the hands of a receiver, it was error in the Court to dismiss from the parties in the proceeding such judgment creditors as had judgments upon debts contracted prior to June 1,18C5, on the ground that they had not filed the affidavit stating that all taxes hod been paid upon the claim, as provided by the act of October 1$, 1870. Judgment reversed. * Lyon, deGraflfenreid & Co., Vason & Davis for Plaintiff; Wright & Warren, Seward A Hammond, John Rutherford, for Defendant. Moses P. Hollis vs. John Williams.—In junction—from Calhoun. WARNER, J. When a bill was filed by the plaintiff against the defendant, alleg ing that he purchased certain proper ty, including a steam mill and turnpike, of which the defendant represented himself as the owner, and having a good title thereto, when, in fact he did not have such title, but that there was an encumbrance upon the steam mill, and that he did not have a good title to the turnpike, which was one of the main inducements to plaintiff to make the purchase, and that complain ant had been deprived thereof by a su perior title, the plaintiff relying solely upon the representations of the defend ant upon the soundness of his title to the steam mill and turnpike; and the prayer of the bill is, that the defend ant may be enjoined from the transfer ring of the notes given for the purchase of the property, and that the notes in the bonds of third persons, due the de fendant, may not be collected, alleging that the defendant is insolvent. The Court granted the injunction. A motion was made to dissolve it on the filing of defendant’s answer, on the ground that there was no equity in com plainant’s bill, and if there was, it was sworn off by the answer. There were various affidavits which were conflicting as to tho equity of the bill. The Court refused to dissolve the injunction, and tho defendant excepted. Held, That tho question of retaining or dissolving an injunction, rests in the sound discretion of the Court, and in cases where the affidavits are conflicting, and especially when fraud is charged, this Court will not control the discretion of the court below until tho final hearing of tho case; though this Court would have been better if the injunction had been confined to the notes given for the property in the hands of the defendant, but, inasmuch as tho court below has the discretion to modify or continue the in junction, in its discretion, we will not in terfere with that discretion, D. D. Morral and H. A. Hawkins, for plaintiff in error. Lyon do Graffenreid and Irwin, Wooten and Hoyle, for-do. fendant in error. McKAY, J., concurring in the judg ment of the Court. The act of October, 1870, requiring all legal taxes then due to bo paid before any judgment or verdict to recover the same shall be had, and requiring the dis missal upon failure to file an affidavit that such legal taxes havo been paid, im poses no duly upon the plaintiff incon sistent with that clauso of the Constitu tion of the United States, prohibiting any State from passing laws violating tho obligation of contracts. act of October, 1870, only requires the performance of a legal duty imposed by the laws of this State at the date of the contract, which legal duty, being the payment of taxes, may be performed un der section 866 of the Code; and it is clearly within the power of the Legisla ture to impose upon suitors the perform ance ot' a duty for the collection of a debt upon which the dufy arises. Such penalty is not for the past delinquency, but for the refusal to perform a present and continuing duty. \VARNER J., Dissenting. This was an action brought by the plaintiff against the defendant on a pro missory note dated 28th March, 1864, on which there is due four thousand and odd dollars, besides interest. When tho case was called on the docket in the Court below, defondant’s counsel made a mo tion to dismiss it on tho ground that the plaintiff had not filed an affidavit, that all legal taxes chorgable by law had been duly paid upon the debt in accordance with the provisions of the act of the General Assembly of the 13th October, 1870, denying the plaintiffs the aid of the Courts to collect their debts contracted before the 1st of June, 1865, until the taxes thereon had been paid. The Court sustained the motion and fUsmis^ed the case, and the plaintiff ex cepted. My opinions in regard to this class of Legislative enactments have been repeat edly expressed, and this act is quite as obnoxious to the fundamental law of the land as any of the others.! It imposes conditions on tho legal rights of the plaintiff which did not exist at the time the contract was made—it is ex post facto in its character in ns much as it assumes that one class of the citizens of the State are gnilty of a criminal offence and it prevents them from the enforce ment of the legal rights in the Courts— invades the legal rights of the plaintiff under the contract at the time it was made—and impairs the obligation there of, within the true intendment and meaning of the provision contained in the 10th Section 1st Article of the Con- _stitution of the United States, and is ’therefore void. Centra! Railroad and Bunking Company vs. Mayor and Council of the city of Macon, etal., and Mayor and Council of the city of Macon, et al., vs. Central Railroad and Banking Company—In- jnnetion from Ribb. WARNER, J. Hold, That tho State of Georgia and the city of Macon, on the statement of the facts disclosed by the record, were not proper parties to complainant’s bill of complaint. Held, also, That the Macon Sc Western Railroad Company had legal power and authority, under the provisions of its charter,'to lease that road to the Central Railroad and Banking Company of Geor gia; ami that the latter company had the legal power and authority, under the pro visions of tho act of 1852, to accept said lease as specified in the contract set forth in the record. Held, further, That the Court below erred in granting the injunction prayed for in complainant’s bill. Judgment reversed. Lochrane, C. J. concurred in the opin ion of the Court McKay, J., dissenting, Held, That under the act of 1852, and under the charter of the Macon & West ern Railroad, the Directors of the Cen tral Railroad Sc Banking Co might, with the assent of the majority of the stock holders, have the &>ad of the said Macon Sc Western Railroad Company for the term of the existence of its charter; but a lease of said road, having for the consid; eration covenants that on certain events the Macon road shall cease to exist, is il legal, nnless assented to by all the share holders. Held, That a railroad company to which the leased rood is an important feeder,.has such a pecuniary interest in the result as to make it'and the stock holders proper parties to the bill, charg ing that the lease is illegal, and praying that it may be enjoined. Jackson, Lawton & Barringer, Lyon, deGraffenreid and Irvin, and B. H. Hill for Central Railroad; Whittle & Gastin, A. O. Bacon, Nisbett Sc Jackson, C. An drews, W. Phillips and B. B. Hinton for the city of Macon. Correspondence of The Atlanta Daily Sun. Cbawpordvilte, Ga., ) July 22,1871. j Editors Sun: The weather has been dry here for some time, and crops are needing rain. A called session of the Superior Court for Wilkes county was held in Washington this week—Judge An drews presiding. At this session, Willis Beckwith, of Warren county, was tried for murder. The case had been removed from Warren by order of the Judge. The trial lasted two days. , The result was a verdict of acquittal by the jury. The State was represented by So licitor General Morton, and the priso ner by Col. E. H. Pottle, of Warren, and Hon. Linton Stephens, of Sparta. The verdict gave general satisfaction to all who heard the testimony.— Willis Beckwith is one of the parties so long confined in the barracks in your city, by military order, on the charge for which he has just been tried and acquitted. In conversation with an old citizen of this place to-day, I was informed that just thirty-seven years ago, 22 July, 1834, Hon. Alexander H. Stc- pnens was admitted to the practice of law in his village, upon which I might moralize, hut forbear at pres ent. - 1 *— -S I am sure, however, that it will he agreeable to the many readers of The Sun, to know that his general health was never better. Aside from that unfortunate cripple, I doubt if his health Has been as good in years as at present. On The Wing. NEW YORK. The first Steamboat Engineer Bead-A Grand Slaughter of Calhoun Head—The Pope to Jjtate Rome—hooking About tor Ids Suc- many Douglas County and tlie Georgia Western Railroad. Atlanta, July 24, 1871. At an informal meeting this day held by the committee appointed by the citi zens of Douglas county, to report to the Directors of the Georgia Western Rail road, the following report was adopted: 1st. That the citizens of Douglas coun ty are r.:ady to donate the right-of-way to the Georgia Western Railroad on the line indicated by the Board of Directors, in a resolution which they adopted. 2d. That the citizens of said county are ready to subscribe to the stock of said Company the sum of Fifty Thousand Dollars. 3d. That the sum of Twenty Thous and Dollars has already been subscribed, 4th. That a company of the citizens of said county are willing and ready to take the contract for the grading of said Road through .'aid county, and take in stock one-half the amount for the work done, and at as low rates as any other contract ors. 5th. That the citizens of Campbell county, from the line of Fulton to the Chattahoochee river, are willing to grade that part of the Road upon the same terms. All of which is respectfully submitted Jno. M. Edge. A. L. Gorman. Z. A. Rice. E. If. Whitley. B. N. Williford. The Plague of New York. City. There are 20,000 tenement houses in New York city, anti in these, it is said, fully half a million of people are crowded. The greater portion of them are huge barracks, littered all over with dirt and festering humani ty. There are 294,000 persons living in such as these in New York city, according to the report of the hoard of health. The death rate, taking the average of all these, is seven per cent, per annum, while the rate of social destruction—crime engendered by the pestilent associations among the mass—is beyond calculation. It is probable that seven-tenths of all the crime committed in New York city—the murders and burglaries and those other demoralizing crimes that are included in beggary and prostitu tion—spring from the training of tenement houses. One of these tene ments, Gotham court, is being rooted out. Upwards of 84 families (384 persons) lived in the one building, all huddled together in a mess of amaz ing filth and wretchedness. JGSTD;'. Carroll writes the TForiifs per sonals. New York, July 25.—Charles Dyke, as sistant engineer of Fulton’s first steamer on the Hndson, and engineer of the first boat down the Ohio and _ Mississippi^ to New Orleans, died yesterday; aged 85. The wife of Gideon Lee, grand-daugh ter of John C. Calhoun, died at Oarwel, New York, Sunday; aged 26. The Herlald’s cable dispatch from Lon don on the 24th, says the Pope may leave Rome at any day. Preparations are being made for his reception at a chateau at Carte Corsica. Valery, the owner of the chateau, has had an understanding with AntoneUi, and is to place it at the dispo sal of the Pope. There is a movement going on in France to guarantee the Pope a temporal sovereignty over Corsica. The Pope wishes to publish a syllabus in regard. to the occupation of Rome by the Italian government and declaring that the meas ures withholding from him all temporal power are void. Measures have been taken already, in Rome, to prepare for the choice of the next Pope. It is proposed to choose one who may be moderate in his ideas and not unfriendly to Italy, and by this means effect a compromise with the Italian gov ernment. Cardinal Camilla di Cietro is mentioned. The disposition made by the French Chamber of Petitions in regard to Oper ative power is equivalent to laying them on the table. WASHINGTON. Red Cloud not Packing Ids Haversack— Testi- nxonj/ of Hon. Thomas Hardeman before the Ku-Klax Committee—.Wellman's Kin Re- fnsted. Washington, July 25.—Red Cloud’s preparations at Omaha for the war path are contradicted. Hon. Thomas Hardeman, of Macon, Ga., testified before the Ku-Klax Com mittee to-day that- he knew of no Ku-Klux organizations. The whites instead of the blacks were kept from the polls by intim idation, negroes having taken possession of the polls. No organized violence or opposition to the law had been made, except in oneinstance where a number of negroes attempted to tar and feather a negro for voting the Democratic ticket, but the row was easily suppressed. Dr. Walsh, who is here, has a dispatch from Wellman’s kinsmen that they have arranged the Savannah Custom House defalcation satisfactorily. •Wore Troubles in the JVew Territory—A Mis sissippi Radical Before the Ku-Klux Com mittee—He Throics Hand.Grenade into the Radical Camp—Weather Report. Washington, July 25.—Tlie Board of Public Works, having been enjoined from negotiating $4,000,000 worth of Bonds, has stopped work on the streets, avenues and alleys, and many are thrown out of employment. Among the Ku-Klux Witnesses to-day was a member of the Oxford, Mis sissippi Gaand Jury, who is a Republi can. He testified that their investigation of disorders showed that politics had no thing to do with them. Their taxes were increased ten fold. School teachers were sent among them at $60 00 per month, who were not content with such buildings as the counties could furnish, but must have uew ones for their average of twen ty-five negro scholars. He said the co habitation of negroes with white women often provoked assault, but a majority of the cases had their origin in theft. Synopsis of the Weather Report. Washington, July 25.—The low bar ometer which was Monday afternoon west of Wisconsin has moved north-eastward, and is now probably central, north of and on Lake Superior. The pressure has fal len from the Upper Mississippi to Lake Ontario. The barometer is quite low off the coast of the Middle States. Threat ening weather, with rains, has been very generally reported from Missouri to the Gulf, -and from Wisconsin to Lake Su perior. Cloudy weather, with north easterly winds, has continued this after noon from Cape Hatteras to Cape Cod. Partially clear and clearing weather are now generally reported from Lake Michi gan to the Carolinas. The Agricultural Report, gives elaborate crop tables. The com parison based upon 100 for last year. Maryland tobacco acreage 91—condition 83, wool yield 95; Virginia tobacco acreage 95—condition 93, wool 93; North Carolina tobacco acreage 93—con dition 97; wool 99; South Carolina su gar acreage 105—condition 100; tobacco acreage 100—condition 102, wool 104; Georgia sugar acreage 107—condition 109, tobacco acreage 102—condition 102, wool 98; Florida sugar acreage 100—con dition 102, tobacco unchanged, wool 105; Alabama sngar acreage 110—condition 106, tobacco acreage 106—condition 108, wool 95; Mississippi sugar acreage 98— condition 99, tobacco acreage 100—con dition 98, wool 92; Louisiana sugar acreage 110—condition 100, wool 93; Texas sugar acreage 115—condition 103, tobacco acreage 103—condition 104, wool 93; Arkansas tobacco acreage 106—con dition 92, wool 105; Tennessee acreage 88—condition 96, tobacco acreage 93— condition 98, wool 100; West Virginia tobacco acreage 96—condition 94, wool 100; Kentucky tobacco acreage 87—con dition 95, wool 95; Missouri tobacco acreage 102—condition 102, wool 101. The culture of sorghum shows large de crease in acreage. MISSOURI. A violent Hailstorm a fire sensation spoiled vt Bold Express Robbery—Ticenty thousand ^Bailors gone tcith the Robbers. St. Louis, July 25.—A violent hail storm in Pike county has destroyed the corn and tobacco crops. The report that the Indian chief Sa- tana, and Big Tree were killed while at tempting to escape,‘is untrue. Both have been tried and and found guilty of murder in the first degree. An express robbery was committed on the Mobile & Ohio Railroad, in Heikman county, Kentucky, last Saturday night. Three men got on thetrain at Union City, and at Nassau, when the train halted, two of the robbers got off, and their con federate remained on the platform. As the train moved ont from the depot, the two jumped into the Express car, over powered the messenger, and robbed the safe of $20,000. They then halted the train and disappeared in the dark. NEW_YORK. Ilon'l Want to be President. Niagara Falls, July 25.—Senator Fenton was serenaded and spoke here to night. In the course of his speech, after declaring his devotion to the Radical par ty, he said that he had been credited in some quarters with entertaining special concern with relation to personality of the next Presidency. The suggestion was founded on a misconception of his feelings. His only wish was that the next candidate should be one who would most frilly embody the principles of the party and be most capable of leading it to vic tory. CALIFORNIA. San Francisco, July 25.—The Miner’s League terror in Amador county contin nes. A force of men, not members of the League, are besieged, and unable to hold out Troops will be ordered imme diately to the scene of disturbance. E. E. Walsh, book-keeper of the Ama dor mine, was assassinated by the League, but before he fell he succeeded in shoot ing the leader of the League. Tlie trial and Sentence of James Oxford. MISSOURI. Express Robbery. St. Louis, July 25.—At noon to-day, Delivery wagon U. S. Express Company, in charge of the driver and Messenger, stopped at the month of the alley be tween 4th and 5th Streets to deliver a package addressed to a party in the alley. The Messenger left the wagon in charge of the driver, and while he was absent two men jumped into the wagon, gagged the driver and drove off; after taking several packages from the safe, they threw the driver backwards into the wa gon and escaped. A Policeman captured the wagon and the driver, a man and a boy stated at police station they saw two men jump out of the wagon with pack ages, and the driver told them he had been robbed. They offered to remove the gag but the driver would not let them. A correspondent of tlie Savannah News writing from Sandersville, on the 19tli, gives the following particu lars of the trial of James Oxford: On last Monday morning, soon after the opening of Court, the case of the State vs. James Oxford, charged with the offense of murder, (he having killed George Washington, colored, in October, 1867,) was called, when it was ascertain ed that Oxford had no counsel present, His Honor, Judge Twiggs, assigned Messrs. John N. Gilmore, Milo G. Hatch and S. B. Jones to defend the prisoner. The State was represented by J. A. Rob son, Esq., Solicitor General pro tern., and Messrs. Langmade & Evans, all of the local bar. Owing to the absence of witnesses for the defence, the case was continued un til Tuesday morning, when, at 9 a. m., it was called again, and both parties an nouncing themselves ready, the trial pro ceeded. A jury was impannoled without any trouble. Two colored and four white witnesses were examined on the part of the prosecution, and two white witnesses on the part of the defence. Able argu ments were offered by counsel on both sides, especially so on the part of the de fense, who, without the hope of fee or reward, labored assiduously to counteract the effect of the damaging evidence of fered by the prosecution. - About mid night the jury retired to their room, and after an absence of fifteen minutes, re turned with a 'verdict of “Guilty fo mur der.” This morning at 9 o’clock Judge Twiggs passed sentence upon Oxford, to the effect that he be hung in Sanders ville on Friday, September 1st, between the hours of 9 a. m. and 5 p. m. James Oxford is the younger brother of William Oxford, who was tried in this court last week for the killing of a col ored man in 1868, and who was sen tenced to the penitentiary for three years. Both brothers are young men. William is about twenty-five and James twenty- two years of age. Their mother, i younger brother, and three married sis ters live in this and the adjoining county of Jefferson. Their father, John Oxford, who died three or four years ago, was a blacksmith by trade, and moved to this county from Baldwin about thirteen years ago. William served in the Confederate army during the war, and James in the latter part of 1864, until the surrender, after which they worked on farms for various people in this county, where they were considered hard-working boys. But evil counsel and drink, that bane of society, got the mastery over them, and hence their downward career. There are indictments pending against James in Hancock county, for the mur der of the superintendent of the Sparta Factory, in 1869, and for the murder of a colored man in Burke county recently. It will probably be recollected that about a year ago James, while incarcer ated in Jail at Sparta, on the night pre vious to the day set for bis trial, was re leased by an armed crowd, who had ef fected • forcible entrance into the jail. Large rewards having been offered by Gov. Bullock for the apprehension and conviction of both the brothers, detec tives from Augusta got upon their trail, and captured William in Burke county, where he was at work under the name of Taylor, on a farm belonging to his wife, whom he had recently married, though having a wife living in this county. James was captured in Jefferson county, under the same name, while at work in a steam saw mill. He has a wife and child living there. Both had been car ried to Augusta jail fore safe keeping, from whence they were brought here for trial. During their short confinement in jail here the building was, by order of the Court, gurrded every night by a special guard of twenty-four men. After their conviction William was sentto£h.eAu- The Asiatic cholera has made its ap pearance in Poland. This news has been officially announced by the Russian au thorities. ALABAMA POLITICS. Fidelity—Courage. There are nien. Who talk and. act as if the world began and ended with the Confederate war—men who are abased and abashed by one defeat, and give up all hope and give over all effort to restore the public liberty. A people may be whipped, but not conquered. Nearly two centuries ago Ireland was whipped and. carpet-bagged and con fiscated by the Dutch and English of Orange. But the spirit of Ireland is not conquered yet. There are among us men who wore the gray, and boast ed of it, whose hearts quailed and whose spirits sunk within them after one defeat. A four years’ war was an eternity to the actors in it; but it is a moment in the span of a nation’s life. Shall we, then, mope and mourn over the adversity of the past, and fill the public mind with the croak- ings of despair, or, like men address ourselves to the glories of a rehabili tation of our rights and a reconquest of our lost liberties ? “Never despair of the Republic!” is an injunction as wise and manly now as it was when uttered eighteen centuries ago in the streets of Rome. The conflict be tween good and evil is the law; of our human condition. Shall the good give it over and leave the enterprise, and courage, and effort to the evil? Shall the lovers and champions of liberty cower and tremble when the satellites of despotism are loud, fierce and militant? Political croakers and barnacles should be sent to the rear, and not allowed to demoralize the men in the front of the- battle. In our American case, there is no need for despair, but everything to encourage us to push on and con tinue the fight. A half hour more of combat would have saved Shiloh—an hour, Gettysburg. We are now entering upon a po litical campaign that is full of the auguries of victory. It is our own fault if the friends of the Constitu tion do not win and deserve to wear its blessings and its honors. It can never be Avon by men who are eter nally blubbering over ruin and hope less defeat, and crying out “it is of no use to struggle, we are conquered, we are lost.” The battle of liberty is never lost except to people who do not deserve it. To our own race it has never been lost, because our blood has never given it up under storm or adversity. If there ever was a people who were beaten in the field, but un conquered in soul, it is the people of the South. They have shown a forti tude, a constancy, and a courage in adversity that shines brightly in com parison with the deeds done in the Held. They have as manfully accept ed the situation as they fought to avert it. They have exhibited a patience in endurance to which there is no par allel in history. And yet no rack of insult, no torture of tyrany has been able to extract from their suffering lips one syllable of retraction of the right and duty that inspired them to take arms. They submit to the law of the victor, but they would die be fore confessing that they had been guilty of the crimes of “rebels” and ‘traitors.” It is upon this that we found our confident hopes of regene ration. It is to this spirit in the peo ple that the Register has addressed itself since the hour that the “con quered banner” was “furled.” We knew that all was not lost while the honor of the people was preserved, We have thus compelled our late ene mies to respect us, and when once more the time is ripe for our reap pearance, clothed, with all our rights in the family of the Union, we shall go in Avitli heads erect to command the confidence and the admiration, as well as the respect, of our peers in that Union. Our duty is iioav as it has been since the Southern flag went down, courage ; For Freedom’s battle once begun, Bequeathed by bleeding sire to son, Though baffled olt is ever won. —Mobile Register, 21st July ’71. TENNESSEE POLITICS. our Treasury surplus ? The present generation, with its weight of nation al debt, pronounce that a very “dead” issue ; but Avith a half centry of Dem- ocratic rule, the hope is not extrava"- gant that it may again become the pivot of politics Avitli our children Later came the Native American? and then the Know-Nothings; and we may have to fight tlie struH e over in the near future. Twenty years ago, internal improvements came knocking at the public door as beggars; the people voted to give them a start in life. Twenty years hence, internal improvements are likely to come up again, not as beggars, but as domineering tyrants- and the people, under the lead of the Democracy, Avill have to meet the changed issue. Thus our principles have been tried and proven equal to every issue in Avliicli the interests of the people and of free institutions are involved. Those Avho imagine that the Democracy must make a “neAv departure” to meet newly sprung issues, do not understand the live old party which has survived all the shocks of time, and Avhich emer ges from a horrible ciyil war, more united than its triumphant opponent, so that to-day Radicalism gives every evidence of early dissolution, Avkile the grand old Democracy never bore greater promise of coming and continued usefulness. While Radi calism barely subsists in a dozen States, fed on Federal porridge, the Democratic banner floats to the breeze throughout the Union, rally ing the people by its invocation of time-honored principles.— Union and American (Nashville 20tli July.) From the Savannah News, 25th. ANOTHER “BORGIA” IN THE FIELD. A Husband Witnesses tlie Death of liis Wife and Tliree Little Children Poisoned by Her Own Hand. The Live Old Party. From the memorable campaign of 1800 down ro the present, amid all tlie shifting issues of three quarters of a century, the Democratic party has ever been in the field, and, with a feAv exceptions, in the van. To that party belong all the glories of the past; its reign has been the re’gn of peace, prosperity and progress; and when it has at times been displaced, manifold and bitter evils have come upon the country. The fate of the nation and that of the Democracy are intertwined. The explanation is, that our party maintains the living, essential principles of our system of government. It has been more than a party; it has been the embodiment of the political life and legitimate as pirations of the American people.— Compared with European annals, our history reads as if the Democracy were the constituted government, while other parties, arising from time to time, have been the successive essential : —forms of Opposition. The — t° be confinetl-ihere un- principles that give such vitality to til the guard from the penitentiary calls ;L ir . identical with the peniteiobnr for him. James was, this afternoon, sent to the jail at Macon, there to be confined until the day set for his execution. It is hoped, by all the good citizens of Washington county, that with the trial and conviction of these parties,lawlessness within her borders may have come to an end. There are 134 cities in the United States with a population of 10,000 or over, and of these Massachusetts has 16. jqur party, being identical Avitli tlie constitution of 1789, are equally dur able. They were applicable to a con federacy of thirteen States and three millions of people; they will prove equally beneficial to forty States and for millions. With our fathers, the absorbing question, on which Clay, Calhoun and Webster burnished their brilliant intellects, was, What shall we do Avitli The most awful and appalling tragedy that has stirred the hearts of any com munity in this section for many a year, if ever before, occurred in Effiingham county, about two miles above Station No. 3J on the Central Railroad, about 3 o’clock yesterday morning. Mrs. Ash, the wife of John H. Ash, formerly of this city, killed her three lit tle children and afterwards committed suicide by administering a sufficient quantity of strychnine to produce almost instantaneous death. It appears from what we could learn from a gentleman who was an eye wit ness to the homfying scene, that Mrs. Ash, formerly Miss Laura Dasher of Ef fingham county, has for a iihort ti .e past been slightly deranged, at least she was suspected of being in this condition from certain singular appearances and conduct noticeable to those nearest her and in most continuous association with her.— However, nothing serious was appre hended, except that her husband felt a little anxious about her, and com ntinica- ted with her brothers on the subject.— This was all. No more serious apprehen sion was felt, although her husband con tinued to keep a strict watch over her conduct. A short time previous he had purchased a small bottle of strychnine for the purpose of destroying the rats and dogs that were rapidly killing off their poultry. This he secreted in the night time, taking the precaution to lock it up in an old bureau drawer, hiding the key in a place least likely to be dis covered by his wife, no other p arson in the house knowing of the hiding place. Sunday night all went to bed as usual, though before retiring Mrs. Ash sat down and wrote a long letter, to whom we could not ascertain, her husband read the letter but did not suspect anything, al though it contained an account of her feelings towards certain members of her family, with whom there was some un pleasantness. Mr. Ash took all three of the children in bed with himself and his wife. Mr. George Patterson, a friend and relative of Mrs. Ash’s, occu pied an adjoining room. About 3 o’clock yesterday morning, he and Mr. Ash was aroused by the cries of two of the children, and entering the room found Mra. Ash in the act of taking a spoon from the mouth of the oldest child, a little girl, who had struggled and resisted until her cries woke her fa ther and his friend, both of whom feel ing alarmed, asked her what she was do ing. She replied, “only giving the chil dren a little powder, and am afraid I have not given them enough.” They begged and entreated her to tell them what she had given them—Mr. Ash tasting the powder which he discovered on the mouth of one of the children, dis covered that it was quite bitter.— She finally took him to the bureau drawer and showed him the bottle of strychnine from which she hid. dosed herself first and then each one of her three little ones. It was but a short time after this before the mother, a young wo man about twenty-five years old, and her three interesting littie children, two girls and one boy, were lying stiff and cold in the arms of death. Dying in rapid suc cession, one after the other, the mother, although the first to take the poison, liv ed to see her children all die and then followed them herself. It is said the struggles of the poor little creatures were awful, the oldest falling backwards was drawn together in such a manner that her head and feet nearly touched each other. The afflicted father held his little ones and his wife in his arms till they breathed their last. The time was too short from the dis covery of the deed to procure any aid, although a physician was immediately sent for. He arrived in time to save the father, who, in his efforts to discover what the .drug was, had swallowed enough to render liis condition dangerous. Mr. Patterson came to this city yesterday af ternoon to procure coffins to bury the dead, and as soon as he returns an inquest will he held previous to the interment. Mrs. Stanton has announced her determination to use her influence to prevent Grant from seeking a renomina- tiou. She forgets that she is getting too old to have >i. -• influence over lusty > oung folks like the President.