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(For The Sunny South.) The English Classics. Kart* Ben Jonson, Beaumont and Flelcber. Br L U 7. •IOHX H. SEALS. - Editor and Proprietor. , ' , w. b. SEALS. - - Business Manager. Shakspeare was not the only great dramatist MRS. MARY E. BRYAN (*) Asocial* Editor. ! ? h ° adorned ‘ he a ? e of Q” ee ° Elizabeth, ben A. L. HAMILTON. D. D., - A,»ocIa.e Editor ! ^ ^On as he IS Called m the .... ’ . . i fond and not untrue epitaph upon his tomb— n anager of Agencies. | began bis career in the reign of the Princess, ■ ■ : - though he did not rise to his chief power and ATLANTA. GA., SATURDAY, APRIL 7,1877. } fame until the time of her successor. Like his | illustrious rival, play-writing was, with him, " 1 the result of play-acting. His genius was not “The Weight of the Human Brain.”—See an j of that high order which would enable him to excellent contribution on this subject in this i succeed as a tragedian. His two efforts in this j ggtlei : line, (hialine and Sejanus, were almost complete \ failures, and are now never brought on the “The Ghostoi the Malmaisok.”-We begin j • tag «: , Th ° n S h well versed in history, and ... . , . f. I deeply imbued with the spirit of the classics, .his grand and thrilling Irench story in this . bis knowledge in these particulars did not ena- issue. j ble him to give a life-like reality to the men and women whom he brought up from antiquity to Reeolleolions of South America.—We invite | mingle in his scenes. Indeed, his style labors special attention to an exceedingly interesting I under the charge of being pedantic of going nr , A i .. . ,, ° i out of the way for the sake of appearing and handsomely written article on the next | ] eflrnel j J ri e> page, irom the pen of the Hon. Wm. L. Scruggs, ! in comedy, he achieved a far greater success; late United States Minister to Bogota. He served i so much, in tact, that scarcely any critic has the government four years with distinguished I ventured to assign him any lower place than ability, and we are pleased to know that he has j second only to Shakspeare. It would seem re located in this city for the present, and will ’ markable in him, had not the same thing been probably make Atlanta his permanent home. Boys and Girls of the South. We guess all the subscribers to our young folks’ paper have received the second number before now, and are delighted with it. We are sure they are pleased. Everybody who has seen it iB captivated, and great surprise is manifested at its not having by this time the requisite 5,000 subscribers. We supposed that number could be obtained in a short while, but we are far true of so many literary men, that he did as well early as he ever did at all. His “Every Man in his Humor, ” written at the age of twenty-two, is fully as good as anything he ever wrote, and by many is considered his best. Later in life, he exercised more care—re-wrote, remodeled, pruned and changed—but none of bis later pro ductions rose above that standard. Whatever may have been the faults of his later works, they could not be ascribed to carelessness. Jonson seems to have been utterly destitute of pathos, and hence his failure in tragedy, which owes its great power to that quality. For the same reason, his best comedies are vastly infe-! short of it yet. We are anxious to issue it week- i r ^ or lighter and gayer plays of Shak- , , , . . ! speare—such as “ Midsummer s Night Dream,” lybnt cannot do so with less than the 5,000 , £ * Muoh Ado About Nothing.’* His comedies names. It will require more than that many to pay j are really not works of art, the chief design of the actual expenses of publication. Let all the i which is the creation of beauty. On the con- voung folks and friends of the paper then bestir j tral 7> ^ey ar °>.?[ e believe, without an exception, * ' . : ... gotten up to differentiate some leading idea in themselves m its behalf and let us make it a g js This is set lorth some times with weekly. It should have of, 000 circulation right | mucb beauty, and always with much wit. His away. We give below a handsome notice from that good old paper the Christian Index : Boys and Girds op the South, is the name of a new illustrated publication, published in At- ! wit was of that brilliant kind which excites ad miration without imparting any pleasure, and gave to his plays the appearance of being keen satires. His characters are more like persons , . , ,.. . T , „ _ , _ . i introduced that they may utter his smart say- lanta and edited by John H. Seals, Esq., of in gSi than like livi ng men and women. Notone Ihe Sunny South. The subscription .price is ! of ° them alI ha3 become so fami i iar to our im . only one dollar per year, and the paper is richly ! inatiolia8 to 8eem like one whom we have worth three times that sum. It is for the enter tainment, instruction, and improvement of the young, and the initial number, now before us, splendidly fulfills the promise. It is full of at tractive pictures, short and good stories, poems, original contributions, appropriate editorials, puzzles, t conundrums, charades, problems, etc. known, as is the case with many of Shakspeare's people. Though a classic, Jonson is now but little read, and his plays are rarely brought forward on the stage. Nor can we, notwithstanding the many beauties to be found in his pages, regret that it is so. We cannot pronounce his plays We discover no taint of sentimentalism in any j sound, healthful reading. Much of his language of its well-filled pages, of which there are six teen ; nothing is displayed for the eye or sense of the prurient curiosity that revels in the vul gar and vicious through the channel of so many of the pictorial papers of the North. Because The Boys and Girls of the South is a pure, high-toned, interestingjand conscientiously con ducted paper, worthy of a place in Southern homes, we commend it to the people as worthy of the widest patronage, and hope this paper will soon push aside the trashy, mawkish, wishy- washy, deleterious'literature with which the country is afflicted by Northern paper mongers. Is Woman Inferior I—Whenever a combina tion of circnmstances has thrown a woman of good mental capacity outside of the educational and social groove in which the sex is ordinarily confined, she has shown what she could have done had that groove never existed. Mary Som erville and Caroline Herschel in science; Queen Elizabeth and Mme. Roland in politics; Char lotte Bronte and George Eliot in literature; Joan of Arc in war; Burdett-Coutts in finance—these, and a score of others who might be named, prove that there is no inevitable and inexorable inferiority warring against woman. In propor tion to the number of women who have entered the fields of science, politics, literature, war and finance, there have been fewer failures than among the men; and if we could search the an nals of private life, we should find enough in stances of first class executive ability to con vince the most incredulous that what woman wants to achieve success in the strugg’e of life is not brains, but practical and thorough educa tion, supplemented by encouragement and a fair chance.—Ex, Now Settlers in Florida. IVe recently published an excellent article on this “ Italy of America ” from the pen of Col. G. C. Player, now a resident of that State, and in this issue will be found another handsome article, and we learn the following additional Shakespeare" himself, facts of interest from a distinguished gentleman ’ who has recently returned from there: Colonel D. Morgan Seals, of Eufaula, Ala., an eminent lawyer, has recently bought a bearing orange grove on Lake Eustice, Sumter county, Fla., in a neighborhood where many of the prominent citizens of Alabama have settled. The country around Lakes Eustice, Griffin and Harris is rapidly settling up from Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia. Dr. J. Marion Sims, of New York, has recently been on a visit to his son-in-law, Rev. Dr. Cottrell, and has taken a place for an orange grove on Lake Harris, next to Dr. Cottrell’s homestead. To reach Lakes Eustice and Harris, Valusia, one hundred and forty-four miles up the St. Johns river, is the place of landing. Mr. L. H. Eldridge keeps an excellent house at that point, and is prompt and efficient in sending passengers by two-horse hack across to Fort Mason, a distance of twenty- five miles, where a steamboat will take them out into Lake Harris to Leesburg or Yalaha. Yalnha is a new town, opposite Leesburg, the bounty seat of Sumter county, Fla. It is a Tat of trade for a neighborhood rapidly set- n T .g np with citizens from all parts of the E uuntry. Within five years, the lake front has jail been taken up in homesteads, except such as pwere before entered and planted in orange /groves. Captain Jack Farres, Dr. Gaston Drake and Major James Drake, Selma, Ala., formerly large cotton planters, are permanently settled there; also Mr. James Padget, of Greenville, Ala., Mr. Spioer, of Columbus, Miss., and Major Hecker and. several of the Venables of Virginia. The family of J. B. Cottrell, D. D., of Owens boro, Ky., is of the neighborhood, Mr. H. H. Duncan, a son of Mrs. C., with his step-brother, Mr. C. Jennings Cottrell, having entered a homestead on Lake Harris three years ago. Chnrch and school privileges are at hand, and the community is one of rare promise. Across the neck ef the Lake from Yalaha, Mr. Homec Blackman, formerly of Cbnnnennggee Ridge, 1 his sons-in-law and several of his old Ala- neighbors, make np another community. must have seemed coarse, even in his day, and would be now shocking to decent ears. Nor can we, despite his bitter satires upon vice, say that the general tendency of his writings is favorable to virtue. True, his villains are in the end dis appointed of their purposes and punished; but we fear most persons would be more fascinated by the agreeable form of their profligacy than warned by their final discomfiture. Doubtless, he did not intend to make vice attractive, but he has not made it sufficiently hateful. It does not altogether atone for the fiendish malignity of Yolpone that in the end he is victimized by the wretch who had served as his tool in play ing upon others his horrid practical jokes. It is well that the alchemist should be eventually dis comfited, but this does not occur until after he has shown himself a very cunning and amusing fellow. We know that in the world of reality, wicked ness often flourishes, and the good do not al ways triumph; but it is incumbent upon him who would teach mankin 1 to make the one detes table and to invest the other with all the interest possible. As a comedian, Jonson will always rank high. Indeed, though he has been sharply criticised and much abused, there are few in this branch of literature who are entitled to precedence of him. But it is upon his shorter poems that his best fame will rest Many of these oontain ex quisite gems of beauty which may be read by all. His plays we would trust only into the hands«of those who have discernment to sift the wheat from the chaff. He was in fact a very unequal writer. Some of his finest utterances are found amid masses of dullness. To sum him up on the whole, we join in the verdict that has pronounced him “ rare Ben Jonson.” Among the wits of Queen Elizabeth’s reign, occur the names of Beaumont and Fletcher— names indissolubly linked together by love and and genius. So intimate and unselfish was this friendship that we know not to which of the two to ascribe any particular work. Their writings were almost wholly dramatic, mostly comedies, some of a high order of merit. In some of the qualities of a dramatic poet, they rank next to Their works, together with those of Massinger, who was their contem porary, though not their equal, are now seldom read. They have been ranked as classics, and no one who wishes to be acquainted with the history of English literature could afford to pass them by. “Is it Compulsory A lady writes : “I agree with you perfectly in your article about ‘low neck’ dresses, but pray tell me, is this style of so-called ‘full-dress’ really the rule at the English Court, as you intimate ?” The low bodice and short sleeves are positively compulsory at Court. A recent authority tells us that no lady is admitted without being dressed in this way unless she is furnished with a spe cial permission, to obtain which she must get from her physician a medical certificate, which must be forwarded to the lord chamberlain’s office, stating that the lady is unable from the state of her health to wear a low dress. This must be submitted to the Queen, who, usually, not always, gives her gracious permission for her subject lady to appear with her arms and shonlders covered. This permission the appli cant must show, on her arrival at the palace. But the permission only lasts for one “drawing- 1 room.” If she attends another, she must arm j herself with a fresh medical certificate, and so write herself down as a confirmed invalid. Quite likely this is one cause of the alarming increase of drus^nneas among well-born English ladies, of whioh the London Press complains. These who are unfortunately in the category of Pha raoh's lean kme drink ale and beer in self-de fense, not liking to thrust their sharp elbows and shoulder-blade* into the faces of the festive public. * (For The Sunny South.) The Origin and Progress of the English Language. BY KATIE DARLING. We learn from history that the earliest inhabi tants of Britain were of the same Celtic stock which first peopled Gaul and Spain. They were no fur ther advanced in civilization than the Sandwich Islanders of the present day. Their language was correspondingly rude. Very few traces of it are found in the present English language. It still forms a great part of the dialect spoken in Ireland, i the High lands of Scotland, and the mountains of Wales and Cornwall. Britain was invaded by the Romans about i 50 B. C. They probably endeavored to introduce their own language, but it appears never to have | gained in Britain the supremacy it acquired in Gaul and Spain. Very few Latin words were in corporated in the language at this time. The great j majority of them were imported by learned men in ; after ages. After the Romans left the island, it was again ; invaded, about the beginning of the fifth century, | by the Angles, Saxons, and Frisians, all German ; tribes, speaking different dialects of the same lan guage. The Celts were partly driven out of the country, and partly incorporated into the Anglo- Saxons. The Celtic language was suppressed by the Saxon, which forms the basis of the English, i Of the forty thousand words found in the full- j est English dictionaries, about twenty-three thou- ! sand are Saxons. They embrace the commonest I words; the terms used in ordinary daily life ; the pronouns, irregular verbs, and most of the short adjectives and adverbs ; also the termination of the plural number and possessive case, and the suffix ly, which enters into the formation of so | many adverbs. The Saxon language was spoken in England for J about six centuries. During this time it remained ] almost entirely pure, with the exception of a few I Danish words, brought in by the Danish invasion, i In 1066, England was entered by the DukeofNor- ; mandy, and conquered in the memorable battle of I Hastings. William seated himself on the English ! throne, and ruled the country as he pleased. He brought with him his retinue of French nobles, who, of course, continued to speak their native tongue. French became the language of chivalry, of love, and of poetry. It was taught in all the schools ; laws and deeds were written in this lan guage, and the pleadings in the courts were requir ed to be in French. The Saxon was left to the use of rude and degraded serfs. Even the Saxon gen tlemen were ashamed of their native tongue, and tried to speak the language of their conquerors. This state of affairs continued until the wars be tween the French and English during the fifteenth century. These wars completely changed the pop ular feeling toward France. Hating the country, the English came very naturally to hate its lan guage. An edict was made, banishing French from the courts and tribunals of the land. The consequence was the mixed language, composed of Saxon and French, which has gradually improv ed from that time until it has become the polished, expressive language which we now speak. The French words in the English language are used to express delicate shades of thought and feel ing, and also generalities and abstractions wtiich are quite beyond the scope of the rude Saxon. Many modern French words and phrases have also been introduced into the English. From time to time, a taste for French expressions has prevailed in England, *£kich has led to the impor tation of such phrases as a la mode, and others similar to it. Scholars have also drawn largely from the Lat in and Greek, especially* for scientific terms. Com merce lias added many ‘creign terms to our vo cabulary, such as divan, bazaar, from Persia, and Arabia has contributed to our quota of scientific words, as algebra, alkali, alcohol. The English language has been very much sim plified, especially in spelling, since the days of our forefathers. It has been made very expressive from its variety of synonymes. It has produced some of the greatest writers in the world. Milton, Scott, Tennyson, Shakespeare, Dickens, and Bul- wer present an array of wit, grace, beauty, and dignity equaled by no other nation on the globe. If, as at one time seemed probable, the plantag- enets had conquered France, what a great misfor tune to English literature it would have been. These kings always showed a preference for their French subjects. The capital of the kingdom would doubtless have been at Paris. The revenue of England’s greatest estates would have been spent on the banks of the Seine. French would have remained the favorite language, and the great language which Milton Rnd Burke have made glo rious would have been only the dialect of base, ig noble slaves. The Cheerful Face. Next to the sunlight of heaven, is the sunlight of a cheerful face. There is no mistaking it, the bright eye, the unclouded brow, the sunny smile—all tell of that which dwells within. Who has not felt its pleasing influence ? One glance at this face lifts ns at once out of the arms of despair; out of the mists and shadows, away from tears and repining, into the beautiful realms of hope. One cheerful face in a house hold will keep everything bright and warm within. Envy, hatred, malioo, selfishness, de spondency, and a host of evil passions may lurk around the door, may eves look within, but they never enter and abide there—the cheerful face will put them ail to shame and flight. It may be a very plain face, but there is some thing in it we feel, that we cannot express, and its cheerful smile sends the blood dancing through our veins for very joy. We turn towards the sun, and its warm, genial influence refreshes and strengthens our fainting spirits. Ah, there is a world of magic in the plain, cheerful face ! It charms us with a spell of eter nity, and we would not exchange it for all the soulless beauty that ever graced the fairest form on earth. It may be a very little one that we nestle upon our bosom or sing to sleep in our arms with a low, sweet lullaby; but it is such a bright, cheer ful face! The scintillations of joyous spirits are flashing from every feature. And what a power it has over the household, binding ail hearts together in tenderness and love and sym pathy? Shadows may darken around us, but somehow this face ever shines between, and the shining is so bright that the shadows cannot re main, and silently they creep away into the dark corners when the cheerful face is seen. It may be a wrinkled faoe, but is all the dearer for that,and none the less bright. We linger near it, and gaze tenderly upon it and say, “ God bless the happy face I” We must keep it with ns as long as we can, for home will lose much of its brightness when the sweet Sace is gone. And after it is gone, how the remembrance of it purifies and softens our wayward nature! When care and sorrow would snap our heart strings asunder, this wrinkled faoe looks down upon us, and the painful tension grows lighter, the way leas heavy. As is the spirit, mind, dis position, so are the features. —Ez. A copy of the Boys’ and Girls’ paper free one year for a club of 10. | The Philosophy ot‘ Sleep—Who Should and Should not Sleep Together. DY a. M. o. In this day of scientific investigation and re- j search with works on biology and physiology, important and interesting facts are being discov- | ered and developed, and what to the mind in days past was perplexing and unaccountable, is now being made plain, and elucidated upon rational and sound principles. It is a known fact that in a state of sleep the system becomes thoroughly relaxed and its absorbing power great. Hence, diseases are more readily con tracted in sleep than at any other time, and more especially, those of a miasmatic kind; and hence, the importance of SLEEPING HIGH above the ground; as mephitic air rises about fifteen feet as an average, and the importance is manifest of sleeping above that height in all humid climates, and especially, in those sub ject to malarial or miasmatic influences. Thus it is observed, that when an epidemic breaks ' out in a city, that those who live and sleep in eellars or on the first floors are more liable to i take the disease. The reason is plain: for in sleep the body absorbs the floating disease that is in the air through the lungs and relaxed system. Hence, in high and dry latitudes epidemics are seldom, and are never feared. Thirty feet above the ground is a safe height, but forty is still bet ter, and the higher one gets tko purer the at mosphere. Also the importance and necessity of keeping out of the night atmosphere in the fall season. electrical influences. It is well known that the human system is full of electricity, and it has much to do with our physical comfort. The same principle holds good relative to human as to other bodies sur charged with electricity. Different persons are differently charged with electricity, according to their temperaments and perhaps habits. Some are decidedly emissive in nervous force, while others again, are absorbent in nervous force. No two such persons should sleep together, for it is life to one and death to the other in time. EMITTER AND ABSORBER. There is nothing that will so soon derange the nervous system of a person who emits nerv ous force during sleep, as to sleep with another who is an absorbant. The absorber will go to sleep and rest quietly all night, and get up in the morning feeling bright and refreshed; while the emitter will be tossing, restless, nervous and excitable, and will get up fretful, peevish, feeling out of sorts and unrefreshed by sleep. Yet not one out of ten thousand, will know the real oause of their feelings; they only know that they did not sleep well. No two persons, do matter who they are, should habitually sleep to gether. One will thrive, grow strong, healthy, and resist disease; while the other will grow by degrees weak, nervous, peevish, and sink un resistingly under disease. It is astonishing that physicians have not given the subject more thought. OLD AND YOUNG. Nature never intended that the old and young should sleep together; that is to say, those whose waste is greater than their repair. After fifty, as a general rule, the waste of the human body begins and the repair deolines. But in children and those in the forenoon of life, the repair is far greater than the waste. Hence, the old would become an absorber, and take from the young some of its force. Grand parents should never sleep with their grand children under any circumstances; for the wasting body of the old would keep warm and absorb the heat and force of the child at the expense and health of the child. THE SICK AND WEAK should sleep to themselves, no matter whether children, young folks or old folks. Consump tives should ever have a bed to themselves, for consumption is contagious, whether so declared by medical authority or not It is not as rapid in its workings as that of small pox, measles, mumps, etc. A weak, sickly, feeble child should never sleep with one that is just the opposite, unless the object is to keep alive the feeble at the expense of the strong. What is true of children is equally applicable to those who are older and in all the stages and conditions of life. Does the South Head ? BY SALLIE KOLA EEXEAU. A Southern editor says: “Our ladies do not read;” while Northern editors and publishers make the broader assertion that Southerners in general do not read. Figures are better authority and more convincing than random assertions, and 1 am convinced by statistics that the men, women and children of the South do read—that they read Northern periodicals, at least, to the neglect of the publications of their own section, which, it would seem, they are in honor and duty bound to read and encourage materially ; nevertheless, they read. I will take, for instance, the village in which I reside, as an average example of the country com munities of the South, while our cities are propor tionately far in the excess of it, in the reading of literary periodicals and newspapers. We have here a reading population, within the village and its vicinity, of four hundred men, women and children, to whom the regular delivery of mail through the post-office everages each, one news, political, agricultural, religious, literary, or scien tific paper, daily or weekly, besides a fair propor tion of monthly periodicals. Taking in connection with this, the number of papers and other period icals irregularly purchased in the city, or of news agents on the daily trains, and the custom of neigh bors to exchange compliments in reading each oth ers papers, it is 3afe to calculate the reading of at least, two papers each, while some read many more. This estimate will, I think, average the rural district throughout the South, which, with the higher average of the cities, is sufficient to show “ that our ladie3,” and Southerners generally, are equal in reading to any other readers of period ical publications. That they read books, is estab lished by the sale of books in the South. That they read Northern periodicals, is established by the extensive circulation in the South of Northern weeklies and monthlies. Where are “ the dark corners of the South ” that have not been penetra ted by Godey’s Lady’s Book, Peterson’s Lady’s book, Demorest’s Fashion Magazine, The New York Ledger, and Weekly, the Fire side Companion and Fireside Friend ! How many thousands of dollars have been spent by good church members on the Christian Union (New York), while their own church papers suffer for their patronage ? How many thousands have the “Ignorant and barbarous eopleofthe 8outh” paid Harper's Weekly, and rank Leslie’s Popular Monthly to insult them with falsehood and slander, and indifferently executed oaricatures of Southern life, which Northerners are utterly incompetent to represent! What ten Southern daily papers have a oombined circulation in the South equal to the circulation of the New York Herald, in the same section f The Tribune and ether New York, also several Cincinnati and Chicago dailies or weeklies, have each a larger cir culation in the South than any Southern paper can claim. Whose fault is it? It is inpart the ftuCt of Southern publishers and agents. A lack of the “ do or die” capital defeats success in their busi ness. The publishers of Northern periodical lit erature, ugly pictures and vilifications are a push ing set. They push their pushing agents, with that pushing trap, the cheap print, mis-called chromo, through the length and breadth of the South, and push their papers, full of insults, into the hands of Southern readers. What is the sum annually collected from the South by these tax- gathering publishers, who pander to the prejudiced North, while Southern readers, assessed by push ing agents and so called chromos, pay for it ? Surely, they read at their cost, and at the sacri fice of their self-respect! Southern men, women and children do read, and they will read. Who of them is not thoroughly read in the latest Northern sensational scandal, etc., while the rising genera tion would lose the names of Lee, Davis, Jackson, Beaureguard and Johnston, unless they found them in Northern print? If Southern reading matter is not pushed upon them, they will continue to read the Northern publications with which they are crowded. Let the Southern publishers and agents, and even chromos, arise in their strength and push with all their might, until they crowd Northern periodicals out of the South, or crowd tlieir own into the hands of Southern readers— Happy Home. EDITORIAL MENTION. From all we have heard during the past num ber of years concerning Bradfield’s Female Regulator, we are prepared to give it our hearty endorsement, and think it should be brought to the attention of all the women of the country. See the advertisement of that very prince of landlords, Jno. G. Trammell, of the Piedmont House at Gainesville. This is one of the finest summering points in the South, and Mr. Tram mell is one of the Very best hotel-keepers in America. Prof. Willoughby lleade.—A large and intel ligent audience was entirely captivated by this distinguished reader, at the Opera House in this city on Tuesday evening last. His conception of the spirit and meaning of the various selec tions rendered were in the main very fine, and his manner most admirable. We differ much with him, however, as to the proper rendition of Poe’s “Raven,” and think he falls into the same error which characterizes the attempts of all elocutionists to present this weird poem. La.-y Thursday was opening day at Mrs. McCormick’s Millinery and Fancy Goods Store on Whitehall street, and the ladies hovered about the beautiful things displayed, like butterflies over a flower-bed. There were hats in the new est spring styles, new and unique jewelry, silk and lace ties, flowers, feathers and ribbons in all the beautiful fashionable firms and tints. See the lady’s advertisement in this paper. She has with her Mrs. Durand, so well known for her fine taste and long experience in millinery. Frosi Phillips & Grew we have Lippincott’s Magazine for April, with a continuation of MacDonald’s deeply interesting serial "Marquis of Lossie," and of Auerbach’s novel, “Young Aloys; or the Gawk from America,” a story that fastens on the attention in a magical way, like all the works of this gifted German. The shorter stories are, as usual, from the boat writers, and one of them is especially good. The “ Monthly Gossip ” is full of bright, suggestive comments on current events, and the literary reviews are racy and discriminating. The illustrated sketches of foreign scenery and customs are an attractive feature of this magazine, which is among the brightest of the many monthlies blossoming on the counter of Phillips & Crew. Another old favorite is Godey. The April number shows that the pioneer lady's book is still the “Old Reliable,” in the matter of the latest and prettiest fashions, and the many charming artistic industries for home adorn ment. The stories are also entertaining. * The Daguerrean art seems at last to have reach ed its highest perfection in the exquisite photo enamel miniature, which transforms the colorless photograph into the semblance of breathing life. Mrs. Gregory of this city does this work in the best style. Her photo-enamel miniatures are gems in delicacy of coloring and carefulness of finish : the flesh tints are admirable, and the pictures closely resemble the finest ivory types. Any pho tograph carried orjsent to her will be returned in a few days transformed into a photo-enamel min iature in elegant gilt, and velvet case and at a very moderate price. She can be addressed at 1-54, Collins street, or orders can be left for her at Phil lips and Crew’s, Marietta street. * Editor Sonny South,— In reply to “ Dell Dare’s” letter in your last pa per, we have this to say:— That the anouneement ef the award of the prize, was sent to you in December last, with a batch ef the “ Papers,” but was never published. That the notice printed two weeks since, was sent to you in January. That we notified every contributor privately as to the result of the contest. That what contributions we have on hand, are held subject to the orders of the writers. That the “Absent minded man” appeared in The Sunny South, December, 16, 1876. We trust this is sufficient. T. H. Robertson. The North Eastern R. R. of Georgia.—The completion of this Road has almost entirely chang ed the appearance of the whole country through which it passes. Small towns and villages have sprung up, and thrift and trade have developed on all sides. The energy and business tact displayed by its able and energetic superintendent, Maj. Edwards, seems to have been infused into every busines man on, or near the Road. We find large stocks of goods in all the stores, the merchants busy selling to cash customers, and the farmers oc cupied in plowing and preparing to plant large crops of corn and plenty of cotton. Traveler Mr. Beecher is good for fifteen or twenty thou sand dollars every time he takes the lecture field. He is a bonanza unto himself, and the lower he is worked the higher the yield. His new oountry house is pronounced by an ex change to be “a thing of beauty and elegance and comfort, a glorified cottage of two fnS ato- rien, a high basement, and high rooms under the roof, with doable piaz^m, and would seem to promise abundant satisfaction to Mr. Beech er's comfort-loving and luxurious tastes.” I