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The Oglethorpe Echo
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FRIDA V MORNING. APRIL A. IH»5.
jr i» about unanimously agreed that
the United States should annex Cuba.
It would make another county in
Georgia very well.
Everybody’ at the government’s
headquarters seem to be “spiling lor a
fight” with somebody. But then the
long roll has not been sounded yet.
11 the United States ever expect to
annex Cuba now seems to be the time.
As matters now stand we don’t believe
cither Spain or Cuba would offer any
formidable objections.
The babyish way in which certain
papers keep up their abuse of Fresi
dent Cleveland’s every act is getting
lo be quite disgusting even to many
anti-adniiuistrationists.
Were we ever better prepared for
war with Spain or some other foreign
nation? In the Atlanta police com¬
mission we have some well trained
fighters. Turn the war over to them.
The Constitution will not hlep its
cause much by branding everybody
who docs not favor silver monometal
ism a goldbug. The Consti. hasn’t
got a corner on all the brains in the
land as yet.
— - *
Mi Kin lev’s trip to the South “for
his health” is now definitely known
to be nothing less than a skirmish cam¬
paign for Republican candidate for
President. Surely the governor be¬
lieves in taking lime by the forelock.
Tom Watson does not favor joint
discussions in the Tenth because they
would be liable to keep up the strife
and ill feeling already existing. But
he is writing some mighty fiery letters.
Wonder if he thinks he is fooling any¬
body.
It our capital city could fully realize
how the outside world looks upon her
unprecedented muddle of municipal af¬
fairs her people would rise up in their
might and reduce everyone of the par¬
ticipants therein to the ranks of com¬
mon citizens.
The greatest of them all is the Eas¬
ter edition of the Atlauta Journal is¬
sued last Saturday. It contained for¬
ty-eight pages all filled to overflowing
with good reading matter and paying
advertisements. The Journal is a
whole team these days.
Georgia’s great silver monometal
istic organ does not favor an interna¬
tional conference on coinage, but it
finds lots of consolation when Germany
declares in fayor of such a conference.
Tbe policies of some men and papers
are past understanding.
The battle cry of the Republican
party in the next natioual campaign,
they say, is going to be “high tariff,”
and nothing else. That of the Demo¬
crats we are told will be exclusively
“Free coiuage of silver.” No pros¬
pects, then, of any clash in joint dis¬
cussions.
Money may flow like water when
the Republicans get in power, as many
predict; but the source of the stream
will, to a great measure, be in the
South while the mouth will empty it¬
self in some other section. We can’t
Bee where we are to be benefltted in
such a status of affairs.
The last issue of the Madison Madi¬
sonian comes to us enlarged to eight
pages, all full to overflowing with
bright local matter. Of course we feel
proud of Will Bacon and Edgar Wise
and any evidence of their success is
gratifying in the extreme. They are
certainly making one of tbe best of pa¬
pers of the Madisonian.
And now the reports from all over
the cotton belt are t® the effect that
the cotton acreage will be about as
large this year as last. If only those
who make it had to suffer because ®f
large cotton crops it might do,
four-cents for one more crop will
bankrupt almost ail lines of business
and bring the Whole oouth to rum and
(lespondency.
TILE OGLETHORPE ECHO, LEXINGTON, GA.: FRIDAY, APRIL 5 1895.
SURELY 'TWAS TALK.
All the. commercial agencies and au
thorities on financial and commercial
affairs are now unanimous in their re¬
ports of decided improvement in busi
ness and that the stringency or bard
times which has existed, or was
thought to exist, is dispelling. This
opinion has taken hold, to a great
measure, upon the people and there is
nothing like so much despondent aDd
discouraging salk as there was a few
months since, That times are easier
we can readily see by the improvement
all around us. Everybody is more
cheerful, tbe prospect for busi
ncss this spring and summer is about
as bright as usual at this season, col¬
lections are fairly good, we see people
investing money in enterprises and
others building and improving their
homes, and all around us there are ev¬
idences to prove that there is money in
the laud yet and that nobody is really
suffering for the lack of a sufficiency to
keep soul and body together and pro¬
vide some of the comforts of life.
We naturally look for the cause or
causes of this marked improvement
within the past few months. What
has brought about such great changes
and made the condition of the country
so different from what it was predicted
a short while back it would be? Con¬
gress adjourned without baying enact¬
ed measures that it was said were nec¬
essary to keep the country from ulti¬
mate ruin; the farmers sold their cot¬
ton at no better prices than prevailed
when <ve were all made to look starva¬
tion and financial wreckage in the face;
no philanthropists have taken compas¬
sion and distributed their wealth
among us; there have been no produc¬
tion of the soil to sell and replenish our
empty purses—in fact, we can think of
nothing tangible that has transpired
tending to improve the situation, while
on the other hand it seems that there
has been failure of everything that was
looked upon us a deliverance from our
deplorable slate.
And yet times are easier. All high
authorities say so, and we see enough
with our own eyes to convince us that
they are not mistaken. Then vve must
be convinced that there must haye
been some mistake about the times be¬
ing as hard as they were said to be, for
surely if they were it would have taken
some great revolution of circumstances
or surroundings somewhere to have
brought about tbe evident improve¬
ment. That there has been no such
revolution makes it clear to us that, as
we have held all along, there was more
talk than reality in the hard times.
The cry was started mainly by political
demagogues and calamity howlers and
taken up by the people generally and
went so persistently parroL-Jike from
mouth to mouth, serving no purpose
save lo depress and injure individuals,
corporations, values aud communities
that capital was frightened into lockers
there to remain inactive and dormant
when it should have been In circula¬
tion and serving its purposes of paying
debts and keeping enterprises going
that would give the idle ppjployment
aud create markets nnd better prices
for products of the soil; that people
were discouraged aud therefore lost a
great deal of their energy; that enter*
prise was killed, everybody became
wary aud distrustful, and what else
could settle upon the couutry but a
spirit of depression and disfourage
ment.
And now since all these direful com
ditions have quPbtly melted away with¬
out any apparent cause we can the
more plaiuly see that the causes for
them were imaginary; that they were
created by scuaejess and unwarranted
pratings; Ibat, in short, the useless cry
of hard times was responsible for them
all. We have held to this idea all
along aud time and again in these col¬
umns tried to show the utter waulon
nesa of such cry. We have always
thought the cry was to a great extent
one of wolf. It was certainly one that,
though as unfounded as it was, di/fi
great damage to the country. We are
to be congratulated, though, that no
more damage was done thau has been,
and that matters are so surely and
speedily assuming their normal condi¬
tion, and that the croaker aud calamity
howler are losing their prestige.
Times are really no better now than
they have been—there is simply less
cry of hard times. And we arc now
thoroughly convinced that ’twas surely
all talk.
IS IT POLITICS.
All close observers of passing events
agree that never before in its history
has this country bad such a carnival of
crime as that through which it is now
passing. The daily papers lay before
their readers each day column after
column reciting the particulars of ujur
ders, outrages, assassination, robber
ries and other lesser transgressions of
civil, criminal aud moral laws, until
we are forced to thiuk that nothimg
else hardly is happening. So nolicea
ble has this become that the thinkers
of the age are casting about for some
cause fOr the great increase that has
been in crime during the past
years. Many reasons are advanced,
some of them from the highest religious
and others from lofty scientific stand¬
points, but it remains for one practical
minded Georgian to advance what
looks to us to be the best reason. lie
lays all the blame at the door of the
political craze which has held the
whole country in sway for the past
year or so. He takes up ancient coun¬
tries and cites to them to prove that
almost without exception that when
these countries were passing through
great political struggles or when the
minds of the people were more occu¬
pied with political affairs than any¬
thing else, and when politics found its
way into almost everything there came
with or on the heels of such epochs
great carnivals of crime, and that in
numbers of intances the season of
crime was but a connecting link be¬
tween great political strifes and the
downfall of governments.
Many will there be who will agree
with this prognosticator. He bases
his theory upon known facts of the
past and they are well borne out by the
indications of the present. We do not
fully realize how firmly politics has
every interest of this country in its
grasp now. Its impress is seen in the
courts of justice, in the administration
of all municipal affairs, in the conduct
of private and public institutions of
learning and charity, in business af¬
fairs and it can even be seen in church
affairs. Criminals go unpunished and
unmolested for political purposes;
municipalities are torn assundei and
warring elements are made of what
should be peaceful and sympathetic
communities; the usefulness of institu¬
tions of learning and the good
charitable institutions might do
are greatly decreased; legitmate bus
ness is crippled; and churches are
shorn of much of their power to saye
souls—all by politics. What else can
follow but crime, but distrust of neigh¬
bor, but the fall of those institutions
that keep up a standard of civilization,
but failures iu business with attendant
recklessness upon the part of those
who fail, but a too universal disregard
of that greatest of all powers that up¬
holds governments and nations—the
church of Christ—and finally a fall of
our government and a loss of all our
beloved country has gained in high
standard of civilization.
Is it not time to stop and consider
these questions. Would it not be well
for the people of all classes and all sta¬
tions in life to read up on the histories
of all the great countries and (nations
that haya risen and fallen in the past.
Should we not lay aside our political
prejudices and enthusiasm for awhile
that we may clearly consider whither
we are drifting. There is not reason
for mistaking'the direction. The great
prevalence of crime is a plain and un¬
mistakable sign board that points out
tbe direction we are taking. It is at
the first fork of the road leading from
a continual growth in civilization, mor¬
als and prosperity to the downward
path leading to the opposite of all these,
Politics is the great motive power that
is impelling us to turn into this treacher¬
ous path. Shall we be driven by it or
resist jts force?
The time, it wotylrf seem, has fully
arrived when the people should con¬
sider these matters and consider them
from a practical standpoint. It is time
that the masses were applying their
thought to the situation. One of the
greatest reasons for the rapid strides
vve are making pn the downward road
is the universal proneness prevailing
to blindly follow self-constituted
ers who ate too often unsafe men to
follow. They are artful enough to
keep the people blinded as to tbe
course they are pursuing and selfishly
grasping enough to lead their followers
into eternal ruin to satisfy their own
asperatiops. They are the politicians
of the age and tbeir polities is entirely of
that class that brings about such dire
ful results as we have seen befall great
nations of ancient days and as are
Ihreating this great nation.
Let the people rise up in their might
and call a halt, relegating politics and
the politicians of the day well to started the rear
until they can again get in
the road from which they are being di¬
verted.
Tut: war cloud grows. England and
Frauee are now making wry faces at
each other.
Awarded
Highest Honors—World’s Fail
DR
1 \ l w &!Cf! CREAM
ffNaftt A W/ ~BHk T /n
1 ^ wP
1*”Mw IMllllSl
■ m.mm
MOST PERFECT MADE.
* Ammonia. Gnpe Crea m of Tartar other Powder. Fr«
rom Alum or any adulterant
AO YEARS THE STANDARD-
SEEING IS BELIEVING!
Then See and You’ll Best Believe!
That is why we simply invite the good people of Oglethorpe County
to see our tremendous line of seasonable
Dress Goods and Notions,
*
Novelties and Fancy Goods
Trimmings, Laces, Embroidery
Knowing that when they have done so they will be thoroughly convinced that no¬
where can a larger variety or more choice selection of these goods be found upon
which lower prices are named. Come, see for yourselves and be convinced.
We have a tremendous line of New Carpets, Matting, Shades and Curtains that
we bought way yonder below former prices and will sell accordingly. Good, heavy
Jointless Matting from $5.00 per roll up.
We arc showing the handsomest line of Gent's Neckwear to be found in the city,
at prices that will astonish.
It would take too much space to name all we have and the bargains we offer.
Seeing is believing and we therefore only ask that you inspect our large and com¬
plete stock before buying.
M. MYERS & CO.
College Avenue, ATHENS, GA.
J. W. rown & Sons’ House Furnishing Depot
227 Broad Street, ^.tliens, Q-a,_
We tlie largest and best selected stock of
GROCKERY, G LASSWARE. LAMPS
CHINA DINNER AND TEA SETS
And Fancy China in great Variety:
tf^sr^We are the largest jobbers in the City.
X- TXT. BBOT 771 T SOITS.
WILL CARTER,
Basliiona'ble Barber
follrse Avenue, Athens, Hit.
1 4 Y CORDIAL invitation is extended our Ogle
tliorpe friends to visit us. YVe will give
them the best of work and the most polite at¬
tention. Shaving reduced to 10 cents
The Hungry Fed!
T L HAVE opened a Restaurant at 105 Jackson
street, in rearof Michael Bros.’ store.
MEALS AT ALL HOURS.
Will be glad to receive the patronage of my
Ogletborpe friends and the public generally.
COBB BETTIS,
Jackson Street, ATHENS CA.
ABSOLUTELY FREE
A business Education to Some
Worthy Boy or Girl.
T^Mae^.TT*£^2! ?n
triiil an ! ° one woru ‘y boy or gvri of < igiethorpe pp^
atoScr wque * to *
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IFires Will Occdr !
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And it is the duty of every Property
owner to protect himself against
them. That, is to always
Keep Your Properly Insured.
r Represent the third largest and
one of the best companies in the
world. Rates as low as any.
W. A. SHACKELFORD,
OGLETHORPE ECHO OFFICE, LEXINGTON, GA.
STIMES, GRATE$ AND RANGES.
TIN,.ZWOOD AND» WILLOWWARE
SilmarplatLWare and Table Cutlery.