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>*■ JOHN H. SEALS, - Kd 1 tor and Proprietor. W. B. SEALS, - - Bntiness Manager. MRS. MAR V E. BRYA.Y (*, Associate Editor. A. L. HAMILTON, D. D., - Associate Editor And Manajn: of Agencies. ATLANTA. GA.. SATUR^Y, JULY 14. 1877. Every subscriber’s paper is dis continued at the expiration of the time paid for. Agents.—We are receiving a great many appli- j cations for agencies from different parts of the country. Scarcely a mail but brings one or more letters upon this subject. Now, we appre ciate these expressions of kindly interest, and the desire manifested by our friends to aid us in extending the circulation of our paper; and i yet, for prudential reasons, we are making no such appointments. We trust however, that ■ some good party in every community, who has j the confidence of the people will take it upon j himself or herself,to get us subscribers, and for- j ward them promptly, to this office. For such I service, we allow a commission of twenty-five | per cent for full subscriptions, and ten per cent, j on club rates. In this connection, we make an especial ap- j peal to Post Masters, every one of whom we j consider an Agent. The money must accompany each name in j order to receive attention. The Boys and Girls for June. We regretted to find on our return from a short leave of absence that the boys’ and girls’ paper had not been is sued, as we had left most of the matter in type and the engravings selected. We fear our young friends are growing very impatient, but we beg them to be quiet. The paper will be issued regularly after awhile. The first of October it will be issued every two weeks, and on the first of January it will be enlarged and issued weekly. No Culture for the Masses. — “An attempt to educate the masses here will result in injury to all.” So our contributor, “L. L. Y.,” closes in last paper his discussion as to whether cul- .Jjire is a bane or a blessing. The conclusion is v nworthy his usual shrewd penetration, unwor thy his Christian character. Education a bane ! the people to be left in ignorance, lest they be spoiled for the necessary work of the world ! Not so; let culture open to the working man doors of compensation for toil ; let it give him food fc^'hought when he follows his plow; a re- freshii'iose^nng of beauty as he pauses one mo ment in Ih j shade of a tree and sees the multitu dinous leaves thrill as the winds ripple through them ; let it give him something to talk about to his wife or sister in the restful twilight mo ments when they sit in the cool cottage porch ; let it give him enjoyment for his newspaper or his book on Sundays or leisure hours; let it aid him in combining and turning to account the facte of his own experience and the observation of others; let it furnish him with topics of cheer ful talk with his neighbors; let it curb his in stincts, raise his ambition and his self-respect; keep him from the village grog shop, from cruel or idle sports and brutal vice, and let it trans- f mit its good influences into the soul and body of his offspring by that inexorable law of heredity whose full meaning we are just beginning to understand. To working women is education even more a consoler, a compensator, a sweetener of toil, i Much of woman’s work is solitary; and without j mental resources, this would seem miserable I drudgery indeed. While the hands move in swift, mechanical performance of daily tasks, | the thoughts are busy in a nobler way, and the human being developesin spite of the bonds of toil. Then, in odd leisure moments how de- I lightful to snatch a suggestive image, a pure j sentiment or a nobler aspiration from some one ! of the many good books or periodicals of the day, and carry it along with you into your work; as one traveling along a dusty highway, snatches a blossomed spray from the roadside hedge and i takes it with him to perfume his steps. Your uncultured woman would fill her leisure with j sleep, or gossip, or dull, gaping idleness. Her j home would be lacking in the subtle charm of cultured thought and sentiment; her children : as they grew up would feel the want, even if they did not understand what was lacking.— 1 would feel that home was “tiresome,” and long I for and seek more attractive spots. L. L. V. holds that education makesworking people discontented and disgusted with their lot. They may be “ resigned but never happy.” ; Well, but we count such philosophical resig. nation, a better, larger feeling than the vacant content of ignorance—a feeling more worthy a being endowed with a soul as well as a body. As for the discontent, it is a noble discontent usually. It spurs the man to renewed exertion. It makes him improve upon his work, study to excel—to exhibit a skill that shall command bet ter prices. If he is a farmer, it will set him to improving his land and beautifying his home. > Because a working-man does not express the serene happinss of a cherub, it is no sign that the education he may have received is a bad thing for him. Let L. L. V. remember that discontent is j a necessary element of the present transi- ! . ticn period—a product of the confusion result- j YT ant on the breaking up of old habits of living and working and the effort to fall into new onqs. Restlessness, discontent, are necessarily rife, and will be until the turbid elements of change I have fully settled—until we have learned to adapt ourselves completely to a new order of things—a new manner of living and of making a livelihood. Meantime, this discontent is serving a purpose. It is helping some to find out what they are fit for ; it is assisting others to reach a higher excellence in the industry they have chosen. Education grafts the shoot of as- ! piration upon this discontent, and then directs and unfolds the impulse into higher achieve ment—better work. It is this higher excellence in every department of industry that we espe- j [ eially need. We have plenty of crude working j material. What we lack is superior skill and the cultured intelligence that will not fear to try new tests, and that is not satisfied merely to “ get on some way,” as is the case with most ig norant people of the laboring class. This am bition (born of culture) to do a thing as well as it can be done, may enter into and improve every work, down to the very humblest. Al- > ready agriculture in this country shows the effect of education. Our farmers are beginning to read, and think, and plan, and the result is increasing plenty and comfort in their homes. No education for the masses ! Ah ! L. L. V., it cannot be prevented. Education will be theirs. ; The electric, quickening influence is abroad in the very air. Its infection spreads every where,— i to the farthest backwoods, where the winds of j chance may carry the fragments of a newspaper, or a man or woman may come with the light of ■ intelligence in their eyes and the music of cul ture in their tones. The thirst for knowledge will come, and it will find ways to be gratified. The workingman will learn to read, to think, to be VlissatiiB:ed, perhaps, and to aspire. He will learn liowTo labor, to rest, to eat—to better ad vantage. He will refine in his diet, his person, his manners, his feelings—and his religion. He will leave off wife-beating as a diversion, and | cease to regard whisky and tobacco as the chief luxuries. Meantime, he will work none the j less. Education will resign him to this, by show ing that work is a necessity of our healthy moral I and physical being; it will console him for toil by its sweet compensations, and if it sharpens j his sense of pain, will bestow a keener subtler | sense of pleasure. * Two subscriptions for n The Sunny South ” one year for §5. Recreations—Atlanta on the Fourth.—Recre ation—rational recreation—is a religious duty ! necessary for the right development of our be ing; but can it be called recreation for one to i pack oneself in a crowded car—wedge oneself \ in a mass of seething humanity on a July day, steam away amid dust and heat, be landed ! in a hot, dusty, crowded city, rush and push about the Streets aimlessly, devour ice-cream in the presence of miscellaneous lookers-on, and in the still blazing, enervating afternoon, to be again sandwiched in the mass of sweltering hu manity in the cars and whirled away in the heat, dust and confusion? Such recreation five thousand stranger excur sionists took in Atlanta upon the glorious Fourth. Such excursion trains ! It was a pie- ' ture not to be forgotten, to see from the height j of a directly overlooking window those trains ; come in—the engine with its heralding bell ' dragging the enormous line of cars, each densely | packed as a match box, and overflowing in a bunch of heads out of every window, a crowded group on every platform, step, or coupling bar. But the greatest show was the train of negro I excursionists on the West Point road. Conceives I train, first of common cars, then of stifling freight boxes, of cattle pens, and, last, of open flats, all filled, pressed down and running over with a | mass of men, women, children and babies, of every color, from deepest jet to palest pumpkin. Bees in an over-full hive consulting for a swarm, , grasshoppers huddled by a gale, fiddlers on the sea shore when the tide is just out, may give some idea of the swarming life, but no concep tion of the delighted abandon that made this j motley mass one broad grin, one wave of many shaped hats and gorgeous handkerchiefs, one shine of broad faces and broad eyes, as they came slowly steaming into town. Ten minutes later, the great train had dis gorged its thousands, and they had fallen furi ously upon adjacent watermelon staAds, till, looking out, one saw everywhere ebony faces buried in big half-moons of ruby watermelon. How they entered into the pleasure of the hour! i Americans, it is said, do not know how to enjoy their recreations. They never fully throw off the yoke of care. The African race they have in their midst can give thenr,a lesson in this respect. They truly obey 07ie Bible edict. “No' thought for to-morrow ” was written in every face that surged by us. No meal in the barrel at home, and plenty of hungry little mouths; but i no matter, there goes the last nickle for a cake of pea-nut candy. Their dresses, too ! Many of the women wore second-hand finery, doubtless given in ex change for laundry or cooking services by the managing daughters and wives of the aristoc racy. Around these garments of tarnished splen dor hung many a tale for the idle fancy. That handsome but faded pea-green silk, robing a a dusky damsel who is in danger of getting a crooked neck from her constant back glances at its train—what fair form of a Montgomery belle wore it first under the gaslight with the acces sories of lace and diamonds? And that hat of pink silk, with its limp flowers and dirty plume overtopping the broad, yellow face of a fat mulattress, how the bit of faded splendor must mourn its fallen estate, remembering the rich, waved locks on which it once rested—the piq uant, brunette face whose brilliancy it once en hanced. The funny incidents of the day must have been numerous. Doubtless our local reporter, who dives everywhere and stands heat like a salamander, has picked up a budget full; we, in our den, armed with a palm-leaf fan and a gob let of crushed ice, could only take window ob servations; but the bridgs gave us many a comic glimpse in the changing panorama that swept over it—a rustic swain feeding his sweetheart on watermelon and ginger-snaps; a ragged city gamin hoaxing a round-eyed country boy with tales of wonder; a fat old lad}-, who had come as chaperone for nine young misses, gathering her flock together like a clucking, motherly hen, counting them over, dismayed on finding a couple is missing; a tall blonde and her mous tached beau hanging ove* - the bridge railing talk ing sentiment and eating fried chicken from the lunch basket. City merchants reaped rich profits. Not in vain, in the early morning, spider-like, had they spread out their webs and tried on their most drawing smiles. Incense of silver and nickle was poured steadily on the marble shrines of soda founts and ice-cream tab : es. Photographers came in for a share of the tfa.Ment patronage. One scene in the gallery of the artist Scarratt was highly comical. A burly individual had come in to get himself photographed in a- “romantic attitude,” doubtless for the lady at whose shrine he worshipped. But he had been worshipping more devoutly at tb<" shrine of Bacchus that day, and, after the artist had disposed him in the romantic attitude, had adjusted the focus, and was about removing the cap, he discovered that his subject was fast asleep—head dropped to one side, mouth wide open, and emitting a mild, pig-like snore. Mr. Scarratt approached him, took out the bottle he saw protruding from his coat pocket, and putting it in his lap so that his arms embraced it, proceeded to take the burly young man’s photograph in this most un romantic attitude. But, really, there was verj little intoxication. Notwithstanding the decline of interest in temperance societies, the world is growing better as regards drunkenness, and will still improve as men grow to understand themselves physio logically—to learn by proper food, recreation, regular habits, bathing, attention to mental equilibrium, etc.—to forestall and prevent the morbid craving for stimulants. The coming temperance society will take this broad view of its purpose—will combat inherited predilection by hygiene, and thus strike the root of the evil, instead of its top. Meantime, such recreations as these great, crowded excursions have a tendency to nourish the evil of intemperance. The nervous excite ment they engender: the thirst, heat, confusion, miscellaneous associations are all demoralizing. Carefully managed they, no doubt, are, and useful in bringing trade to the city, but not the less are they a poor species of recreation—thorough ly American in their feverish hurry, push, dem ocratic free-and-easyism. and determination to crowd the most enjoyment—to see, eat, t' Jk niyj walk the most—in the shortest time, yet, ]ike_ our watering plf «a life, public entertainments* and other ways of-fusing darselves, "they are a wide remove from wise recreation. * Two subscriptions for “ The Sunny South ” one year for $5. A Laurel Party.—A somewhat unique ei' ur- sion party left Louisville lately, in quest of the beautiful pink blooms of the mountain laurel growing on the Knobs, eighteen miles away from the city. They stowed themselves in wag onettes and carryalls—a decidedly democratic party—having among them “cooks, foundry- men, artists, botanists, druggists, machinists, punsters and teamsters—an erratic jumble of people who had never met before, gathered by an indefatigable and kindly young Englishman, in man’s fashion, without consulting the propri eties or social etiquette that a woman would be sure to ponder over, even in a picnic party. ” But it proved a delightful informal gathering; everybody became acquainted; friendships were formed and congenialities discovered “that would never have been known in an etiquetical hot-house, presided over by female precision.” Various adventures gave spice to their gyp- seying. A water-spout burst upon them on the mountain; dry gullies became foaming torrents. They were forced to plunge through, but they clung to their laurel, and brought back the plentiful blooms in triumph—the flower-painter to draw and color the beautiful cups, the de- sigher to make them serve as a model for a drinking-cup, and the others to drink in their perfect loveliness as a soul-freshener. The flowers served other and less selfish uses. The lady chronicler of tfie laurel excursion closes her long letter by saying : As a botanical excursion it was not a great success, but we started out to have an uncom mon time, and we had it. We went for laurel and we got it. Its beauty drips in sea-shell tints over the sides of my flower vases, and lends its wild-wood beauty to my room, while the day’s adventures, startlingly unique, are recalled by every shimmer of its dark-green leaves. One woman, who bends over her needle all day, and whom I even heard say she had not seen a flower growing this year, I sent a bunch of the mountain laurel. A feeble old man—an Easterner—at our hospital says the flowers brought back his boy hood strolls over the mountains of his New Eng land home, and told him besides that in this strange oity he. w^s not all alone; some one re membered him. A young girl, an invalid, sent thanks for the waxen blossoms, the most beauti ful flowers she had ever seen. So our laurel party was not a failure. If those mountain flowers helped one tired working woman, on brightened for a moment the closing hours of a poor old man, or sent the pure thoughts to the heart of an afflicted girl, their beautiful mission was God-like, and the laurel gatherers are content. We learn that Col. B. W. Frobel, of this city, has been appointed by the United States Gov ernment a civil engineer on the river improve ments in this State. There is no appointment that will give more satisfaction to our people. Col. Frobel has long been identified with the internal improvement interests of the State, and we may say of the South. He is a thorough master of his profession, and in everyway qual ified for the position he holds. We would call the special attention of all our readers to the advertisement in this issue, headed “ Piano playing learned in a day.” Mother and Author.—Don Piatt’s paper, so given to saying little bitter things about writing women, gives this picture of a bus bleu, as good natured as it is just: “We are delighted to find the distinguished Mrs. Esther Harding one of the passengers of our steamer, and like ourselves bound for Piney Point. She was out prospect ing for a summer's camp where seven beautitul children could find fresh air, safe play-grounds and healthy food. The wonder about this lady is that with such a family to care for—and she ! does care for them—she finds time for study, and j for the many exquisite essays with which the I reading worid is so familiar. The reading world knows that her literary productions are charm ing. but so quiet and and unobtrusive is she that only a circle of devoted friends know that she is eminently handsome, with full, matronly, graceful figure, with a face in which it is difficult to tell whether its charm comes from its beauty of feature or expression. Few live posess- ed of her clear, cultivated intellect, and no one is her rival in a sincere, kind, magnetic disposition. What, however, is more charming, because so rare in woman, is a genuine sense of humor, that originated way back among her ancestors of that people possessed of wit as a national trait. There is one little drawback to the entire sense of enjoymeut such a companion of travel can give, and that is a lurking suspicion of delicate sarcasm, or rather irony, one has at intervals. A brainy woman is auch a cool observer, with such unhappy advantages of situation for obser vation. It is a wonder to us that any woman consents to remain second fiddle in the orchestra of life when she has all the time rear view of some very awkward fiddling, and is in continual hearing of bad music. The most dangerous of this sort are the sincere, sympathetic creatures who draw unsuspecting mortals out, and then suddenly pierce the unprotected creature with a flash of irony.” EDITORIAL MENTION. Mercer University-—The commencement ex ercises of this old and honored institution have just passed with great eclat, and we are really gratified at our own unanticipated good fortune in having been present. Its board seems not to have made any very extensive public announce ments of the occasion, and the result was a small attendance of visiting friends. Since the removal of the University from its original loca tion to Macon, Ga., it seems to have lost to some extent the sympathy of many of its former adhe rents and earlier graduates. We noted with pain ful solicitude the absence of the old familiar faces which always gathered in great throngs in Mercer’s old halls on her carnival days. Her sons, whom she has so carefully and tenderly nurtured in other days, seem disposed to forget and leave her in the hands of strangers, but it must not be so. We plead much personal guilt on this point ourself, but the recent exercises brought back so vividly the halcyonii dies of our former connection with the institution that our love and veneration were stimulated into active life. On the rostrum we noted three central , •,’qures which carried us forcibly back to the I goci old days and awoke a flood of memories— I Sh^Ron P Sanford, T os 'fc. Willet and David E. Butler. The two former then held the same positions as professors which they now hold, and were then, as now, loved and honored by everybody. “Old Shelt” and “Old Joe” were always favorites with the boys, and the term old was used more as an expression of esteem than of age. The lines of their faces are now a little deeper and the hair more frosty, but with these exceptions they are the same earnest, devoted and beloved teachers they were then. The other figure, Col. D. E. Butler, so well and so favor ably known everywhere, was the only represen tative present of that grand old body of Romans who watched so long and so faithfully over the interests of the institution. Most of them have been gathered to their fathers, but Col. Butler, who is now the faithful and honored President of the Board of Trustees, still remains, and we trust may yet be spared for many years. He is only now in the prime of life, and though bur dened with other honors his familiar and pleas ant face should never be absent from a com mencement occasion of old Mercer. We were also impressed with another pleasing feature, not before noted, that the present Board of Trustees is largely composed of graduates of the University. We noticed on this occasion the Rev. James G. Ryals, Hon. Jno. T. Clarke, Rev. A. T. Spalding, Hon. T. G. Lawson, Rev. A. B. Campbell, Prof. Richard Asbury and Rev. Andrew J. Beck. These are all noble and dis tinguished sons of the institution, and it is gratifying to see the mantles of the fathers fall ing upon such shoulders. One of her graduates, ! also, the Rev. E. A. Steed, is filling with unsur passed Ability the professorship of languages. All the graduates of the University must be j gathered there next year and have,a grand re union. Let the faculty and trustees begin right away the digestion of a plan for getting them together. It can be done, and would be a grand day in the history of the institution. But some better arrangement than they now have for a hall should be made without delay. Ralston Hall, in which they now hold their exercises, will not do. It is unsuited in every particular. A bush arbor or wooden shelter would be infi nitely preferable. An immense crowd can be gathered next year if the proper steps are taken, and since one of hex most distinguished sons, Gov. R. B. Hubbard, of Texas, has been selected as the alumni orator, let all the graduates, with their friends, turn out to meet him. We are proud to know that the institution is still in such efficient hands throughout. The entire faculty are able, earnest, faithful; and their distinguished president, Dr. Battle, won golden opinions from every one on this recent occasion. His genial nature, dignified bearing, and graceful manners elicited general admira tion. It affords us special pleasure to bear testimo ny to the success of Prof. W. G. Wood fin in training the Sophomore speakers for this occa sion. This department has been placed in his hands by special resolution of the trustees, and faithfully has he discharged the burden. Much of the material from which he had to manufac ture orators, was crude and forbidding, but his efficient hands worked wonders and made it all passable. He is a cultured and finished gentle- j man, and we are proud to chronicle his success. The exercises of the various classes were good. All the voung men did themselves and their teachers much honor; and the baccalaureate ad dress of the president to the twenty-eight grad uates was appropriate and impressive. His spe cial and honorable mention of one of the class for moral deportment should have a happy and stimulating effect upon all the others in and out of college. A special feature of this occasion was a brass band composed of young men of the institution, and their proficiency was really remarkable. The address of Prof. Jno. C. Rutherford, of Macon, to the Sophomore declaimers was most unique, original and entertaining. We have never heard it surpassed by anything in that line, and every one was delighted. The address by the Hon. Jno. T. Clarke before the Alumni, and the literary address before the societies, by Mr. E. W. Eutler, of Madison, Ga., we failed to hear, much to our regret. But many encomiums were passed upon both efforts by those more fortunate. The commencement sermon, by our Dr. Gwinn, was said to have been most brilliant and happy. The Brown House, at Macon, Ga.—Who has ever passed through the beautiful city of Macon, during the last twenty or thirty years, without seeing the chubby form and pleasant face of that hospitable old caterer, Col. E. E. Brown, of the Brown House. For twenty odd years he has been receiving and entertaining the traveling public at the same stand; and his genial pres ence has become so familiar that it would be a real disappointment not to see him at his accus tomed place. Large hearted and accommoda ting, he has made thousands upon thousands of friends, and though now beyond three scores of years, his memory is still bright and distinct. He remembers the first man whose name was entered upon his hotel registers, and thousands of things which have well nigh passed from the recollection of men, he recalls with vivid dis tinctness. By well ordered additions to his original building, he has now one of the most happily arranged and pleasant hotels in all the South. Everything about it displays mature taste and a special regard for the comfort and convenience of his guests. His large dining room is cool and pleasant, his bills of fare always excellent, and everything about it has an air of home-like comfort. For many years the house has been mainly managed by his efficient and most worthy son, Capt. William Brown, whose pleasant face is now becoming as familiar to the traveling pub lic as that of the father. Always at his post, " genial in temperament, and ready at all times to accommodate his guests, he makes one feel easy and at home. He is a cultivated gentleman, and his fine manners make it always pleasant to stop at his house. He is now assisted by his very efficient brother-in-law, Mr. Lane. Dumpy lit tle Fillmore Brown, fat as a Mobile oyster, broad as he is tall, and solemn as a Roman sentinel, runs the cigar and news-stands. We d > not see how the traveling public could get along without the Brown House. Its conve nient location and excellent accommodatons, cheap fare and spleitdid management make it a public blessing. Americus, Ga.—A recent visit to this hand some little city satisfied us of its right and title to the reputation of being the most important place in Southwest Georgia. In population, wealth, commercial standing, educational advan tages and the culture of its people, it is sur passed by only a few towns in the South, and we feel really proud of it as a Georgia town. Though prevented by ill health, excessive hot weather and a short stay, from mingling much with its good people, we were readily convinced of its superior advantages and multiplied attractions. The commencement exercises of Furlow Ma sonic Female College, which is justly the pride of this people, gave universal satisfaction to the public, and reflected great credit upon the in- strutors. The graduating class was a large one, and was composed of sweet and intelligent young ladies, some of whom were too young, however, to graduate, and should not yet lay aside their books. Prof. A. H. Flewellen, the worthy president of this institution, has the entire confidence and esteem of that community, and will com mand a very large patronage. The field is broad, and the pupils plentiful. The concert of Prof. Schneider, the efficient musical instructor of the College, was a rich treat, and gave generaj satisfaction. The people of this portion of Georgia are alive to the importance of mental culture as well as material progress, and we only wish all our peo ple were as much so. Our schools and colleges everywhere must be liberally sustained. W A L T E It SCOTT. WAS HE A GENTLEMAN. BY X. O. K. In a recent number of the Stout South, L. L. V. says that in a letter of the published cor respondence of the late Judge Stephens, he ex presses the opinion that Walter Scott was not a gentleman. L. L. V. does not agree with Judge Stephens in this, but he will perhaps be sur prised to learn that the same opinion was enter tained by no less a personage than Lord Macau lay. In the recently published “Life and Let ters” of that eminent writer and historian, he says, in a private letter to the editor of the Edin burgh Review about Sir Walter Scott : “I have not, from the little that I do know of him, formed so high an opinion of his character as most people seem to entertain, and as it would be expedient for the Edinburgh Review to express. * * * * * In politics, a bitter and unscrupulous partisan; profuse and osten tatious in expense; agitated by the hopes and fears of a gambler; perpetually sacrificing the perfection of his compositions”, and the dura bility of his fame, to his eagerness for money: writing with the slovenly haste of Dryden, in order to satisfy wants which were not like those of Dryden, caused by circumstances beyond his control, but which were produced by his ex travagant waste or rapacious speculation; this is the way in which he appears to me. * * » I cannot think him a high-minded man, or a man of very strict principle.” While Macaulay gives a reason or reasons for his opinion different from the reason upon which L. L. V. says Judge Stephens bases his opinion, yet may it not be that neither of them is very far wrong in the conclusion arrived at ? Macaulay expresses his sorrow at being con strained to entertain such an estimate of Scott, for he “ sincerely admired the greater part of his works.” I may add that few had a keener appreciation of the power and beauties of Scott as a writer than Judge Stephens. BETINCT PRINT