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Georgia and the Georgians.
seas, and was captured by Russia in 1800,
Russian Georgia has 28,000 geographic square
miles. The soil in the valleys is of great fertil
ity; the climate, mild and delightful. All the
cereals, maize, hemp, flax, wine, cotton, and
unlimited quantities of exquisite fruit, are the
rich products of Russian Georgia.
The natives are of the Caucasian race, and as
murh celebrated as the Circasians for the ath
letic forms of the men and beauty of the women.
Had we been describing modern American
Georgia in the same particulars, we should have
used the same words, so remarkably identical
are the two countries in soil, climate, produc
tions, and the physical character oi their people.
But American Georgia and her chief city are
allied with another classic association, more cu
rious and interesting than that of the Russian.^
• * Atlanta ” is derived from the Latin “Atlantis,”
the name of the pre-historic Queen Isle of the
Atlantic Ocean, situated in the vicinity of the
West India Islands, the Gulf of Mexico and the
seacoast of Georgia. YV e 'have the authority
of Plato, Diodorus Siculus, and subsequent jdul
writers on the-ancient history, that such an j crowning glory of the siege and capture of
island existed; that it was one of the finest and j jj ex { c0 —; a great city in the interior of a great
most productive countries in the universe-pro- j and populous country—as part only of a eomb-
. j j ne< j f Q r C e of twelve thousand troops; the most
famous feat ot arms of the age. Th.ese. laurels
menced taxing them heavily without represents- j
a w tion in Parliament. The tax upon tea, among
other stamp duties, was considered onerous. !
“Georgia” is a classic name, brought down Complaints were made, but not heeded. The
to us by Persian historians from “Gourgistan j5 r jtj s h tea on shipboard in Boston harbor was
Guorsten,” also “ Guorgistan,” a country situ- j ge j zed an( j cas t into the brine of the harbor—a
ated near the centre of the present Russian pro- most unpalatable dish with British tea-drinkers,
vinces, on the south side of the Caucasian and g0 0 ff en ded their cultivated tastes and re
range, and now included in the Russian govern- vcd ( ed their stomachs as to induce them to
ment of Tiflis. It is bounded south by an tbrea ten war on the colonists—always on the
Armenian range, which separates the basin of a j er f for a fight with Indian or Englishman,
the Koor from that of the Aras; west, by a Tbe resu j t was the declaration of American In
branch of the Caucasus, forming part of the dependence of all the colonies of 1776, a mani-
water-shed between the Caspian and the Black f est0 0 f W ar, the inauguration of the Revolution
1.0c aiwt wns nantnred bv Russia in 1800. an q the heroic participation of Georgia and
Georgians in all the glorious and gloomy cam- j
paigns of the seven years’ war, that finally cele
brated colonial independence with bonfires and
universal manifestations Of joy.
But the path to independence was rugged and
bloody, and Georgians endured and suffered |
and reaped tbeir share of the gory booty.
in 1778-9-80, Georgia was in the hands of the
British troops. Savannah was captured by them
December 20th, 1778, and the combined Ameri
can and French armies were repulsed by the
British in an attempt to retake it, with a loss of
eleven hundred men to the allies.
In 1838 the Cherokee Indians were removed to
the Indian Territory, west of Arkansas, and the
State then, for the "first time, became what she
now is—free of foes, purely Georgian, and richly
entitled; by her heroism and endurance, to the
regal title of “ the Empire State of the South.”
In the subsequent'war with Mexico, Georgia
again fleshed her gallant blade, and brought
laurels from the victorious fields of Monterey, |
BUena Vista, Yera-Cruz', the National Bridge, and 1
. ' • • 1 P XV ' » J " A
cal grains and vegetables, boundless pastures
ind wide-spread torests, mines of numerous
netals, hot and mineral springs; in a word, all
hat could contribute to the comfort and refine-
nent of life* * Her commerce flourished under
i good government, which was divided into ten
kingdoms and ruled over by as many sovereigns,
ill descended fiom that stormy god of the seas,
rjested on the happy brows of prosperous Geor
gians until the great war of the Rebellion of the
Southern states made manifest the soldierly
qualities of her men the heroic faith and endur
ance of her women, the latter of whom bated the
hot breath of war with an unconquerable zeal
j j.1 IUaiii A/iMTifwir onid if□ nonco
II descended fiom that stormy god of the seas, \ and en thusiasm for their country and its cause,
eptune, under whose central power they all j and fired tbe beart8 0 f their heroic fathers, hus-
ved and moved and had their being, in perfect j hands and brothers until their : ambition for mil-
Brmony with each other, though severally inde- slid tr, caHptui and akhonsh
endent, as our United States.
Atlantis had numerous splendid cities, to
;ether with a large number of rich and popu-
itary glory was filled to satiety; and although
vanquished from want and famine, and comp
elled to retire before the .embodied forces of the
Northern States, and all the hungry hordes of
ous towns, villages and seaports. Her deep and European emigrants, who swelled the forces of
afe harbors encircled her sea-girt borders, and | tbe Federalists—they retired from their battle-
eceived the products of all the commercial ! flelds aD q the forums of diplomacy with their
:ountries of that day. They had numerous for- j arrns and their honor untarnished, to receive at
ifications, arstnals, and all the paraphernalia] *. Home, sweet home,” the crowning smiles and
if a warlike people, capable of self-protection, fl ora i honors of the brave, intrepid, dauntless,
nd of aggression, if necessary. j soul-inspiring women who fed and clothed, and
Neptune was the emperor, legislator and prin- , wept anr i prayed for them without intermission
;ipal divinity of the island, and had a temple a j during all the bloody years of the most shame-
,tedium in length, ornamented with gold, silver I j egg aDd oppressive brutality of the enemy that
ind ivory, and among the numerous statues ever £)j S g raC ed the soldiers’ epaulettes, or blast-
vith which it was adorned was that of the god ed w j tb eternal infamy the cowardly Catalines
limself, which was of gold, and so high that it of tb e North and the hordes of house burners,
ouched the ceiling of the temple. He was | thieves and robbers that made horrible and in-
represented as standing in a chariot and hold- j f erDa i “Sherman’s tramp to the sea through
ng the reins of his flying steeds. j the heart of Georgia, when her heroic defend-
Such are some ot the bright memories of I erg were at the front, in Lee’s Army ofVirginia,
;ormer days respecting the lost island of Atlan- : and tbe prou d but defenceless women of Georgia
is—long since, by volcanic fires and floods, j were COK1 pelled, without arms in their hands,
In the deep bosom of the ocean buried.” | to bid utter defiance to the army of “inhuman
, , u ' iramvs."’ blind to beauty—deaf to the wails of
Admitting that Atlantis was situated in Ae At- wan £_ in8en8ible to the woes and tears of “God’s
ar-ic ocean, we may point to the peculiar con , t0 men> "
ormation of our continent, and e s ores ° oh ! what a wreck of humanity—what a sir-
he Atlantic and borders of Georgia and Florida of crime> what a simoom 0 f brutality, what
tnd the Gull of Mexico, w here t ^ e , Tol ° d nlc . a crimen lege majestatis was that tramp of Sherman
mains and the formations o earth and ocean “ J C0D J ^ by brutal lorce , yet con-
ith the fabled lava of the Gulf btream, indicate “ ’ 5 rev t . r 8 .i,L raC ed and debared
quered and forever disgraced and. debared
the social and chivalrous circles of Georgia and
the Georgians, and of all the gifted pure and
virtuous of the earth. If the sea did not open
and swallow him, it was only to punish him
with a living death.
” May all th’ infections that the sun encksup
From bogs, fens, flats, npon them fall, and make them
By inch-meal a disease 1 .....
“ Poison he their drink I
Gall, worse than gall, the daintiest meat they take
Their softest touch as smart as lizzard’s stings 1
Their music frightful as the serpent’s hiss !
And boding screech owls make their concerts full.
But this army of criminals were still alive,
and must live and move, and have a being; the
knaves could not get rid of themselves. Fol
lowed by the scorn of mankind they were com
pelled to engage in new conspiracies against the
peace and honor of the South. Unaccustomed
to do right, devoid of honor, unfit to live or to
die, crime was their necessity, and they de
nounced the anathema maranatlia of excommun
ication of the South from the family of American
free states, and placed them under the military
domination of their manumitted slaves and a
viler hord of foreign mercenaries.
For nine long and weary years Georgia and
ie sinking at a remote period of a large tract
f land, the place of which is now occupied by
ae waters of the Gulf of Mexico and West In-
ian Oceanica—a sinking occasioned by vol-
jnic eruptions and the descent of a large vol-
me ot water down the present valley of the
l’ssissippi. The mountain-tops, the disjecta
\tmbra, of this noted island still appear to view
i the islands of the West Indian group, and
he large continent known to be lying beyond
itlar .is may have been none other than the
.mr-ican; and the State of Georgia—evidently
n elevation trom the ocean—the product in part
f the destroyed Atlantis.* The mysterious
nder-curren 1 of hot water known to flow deep
own through the Gulf Stream, across the At-
intic to the sho es of Spain and France, cre-
ling mild climates there, and returning again
ith the trade-winds on its breast, begotten as it
s of the central volcanic fires of interior earth-
11 tend to convince the student of modern geol-
gy ard marine geography that the bountiful,
laminated and inspired Atlantis, the queen
de of the Atlantic ocean, with all its cultivated,
rosperous, happy and refined inhabitants, was
ailed to the judgment of Heaven, and its last -p or nine j 0I1 g and weary years Georgia ana
»y of final accounts on earth, in the Oceanica [ tbe Q eorg i aIls submitted to this demoniac rule
the West India Islands, whose rocky, jagged pa tj ejn tly and heroically — until the days of
her thraldom and chains have been broken by
the force of her own people, and that of univer
sal emancipation—the disregard and contempt
of the military tyranny inaugurated over them
id volcanic peaks are the majestic monuments
this vas* eemete.y of the great, the good, the
ixoic and tbe beautilul of an oriental period.
So much for Persian, Russian and Latin Geor- ^ ^ _ o
a and the Georgians, on the Eastern continent by tbe reconst ruction acts of congress, and the
d Oceanica. Now for “Georgia and the Geor- j dnad adoption of a new and free constitution,
ans” on the Western or American continent, [proclaiming the emancipation of their people,
th less of romance, but with all the heroism j and tbe ent i re restoration of republican liberty,
d chivalry ot their men, and all, and more, ot | Tbe p resen t Empire of Georgia is the Empire
e grace, dignity and beauty of their women. of ce< Her appetite for martial glory has
The Georgia of George the Second, of British been en tirely satiated, and with her martial
nerica, dates from June the 2d, 1;32, when j c j oak ar0Tl nd her she now looks to God, the
then King of England issued his Royal I sunshine and the shower, for occupations that
irter for all the country now occupied by the j gball sootbe the path of her people to glory and
te, and also the t< rritory westward to the Mis- j tbe m
tipp ; river—including the present great, no
! States of Alabama and Mississippi—truly
the grave.
Since the war, Georgia is the fabled Phcenix
. appi—truly j of the Confederate States. Literally and mira-
. empire colony of the South in the magni- j CTt i 0US iy rising from the fuming embers and
ie of. its go.geous and wonderful domain, j asbes 0 f “ Sherman’s tramp to the sea,” she has
a the cornucopia of the earth in the multi- j become tbe WO nder of one world and the admir-
city of its soils, productions, plains, forests, | ation 0 f ano ther. Her brethren of the Confed-
ers, lakes, mountains, mines and mineral j eratg g tates -visit, gaze and wonder, while
rings: and last, not least, in the numerous : tbe m enof the federal North amazed at her vigor
lletic and htroic tribes of Indians that occn- ; and j nte u e ctual and muscular powers, pay the
=d the same territory, claimed dominion over obe j saDCe 0 f homage to their superiors in all
and held its possession by the strong hand ot ^ tbat CODSt itutes an independent, prosperous and
i bow, the arrow and the tomahawk. | Christian state.
rhe first settlement of the State was made by Emerging like the drowned but brilliant and
lethorpe, under the British charter, at Yama- , magD jficent Atlantis from her sleep of centuries
iw Bluff— now Savannah—in 1733, more than ■ jn tbe deep j^sonr 0 f the Atlantic ocean, by the
e hundred years after the settlement of most j game sx ,p frrb nman power that entombed in a
the original colonies and sixty-nine years common grave the ten kingdoms of Atlantis—
er that of South Carolina. The infant colony i Ge orgia moves up her gigantic proportions of
s involved in severe contests with the Span- , pla j ng> b ju S( mountains, forests, lakes and
ds of Florida, and in 174.0 Oglethorpe in- j divers—occupying all the vast domain that
ded Florida, took Fort Diego and besieged stre t cbes acr0 ss the continent from the Atlantic
, Augustine, but finally raised the siege and j ocean t0 tbe Mississippi river—now Georgia,
urned to Savannah. . . Alabama, and Mississippi—the equal of the
rhe Spanish, in turn, invaded Georgia in j fable d queen of Atlantis in territory, state
42, but being alarmed by a stratagem of Ogle- j and mT1I1 i c ipal governments, with three and a
oipe's, retired without a contest of arms. half millions of inhabitants, expert in all the arts
Ihe proprietors of the colony, harassed by ^ 0 f p ea ee and war- inferiorto Atlantis only in the
b constant difficulties tbat surrounded them, | g ran( ^ mythology of the latter,
ve up the province to the crown in 1<o2, when j yyhile'the whole political and civil edifice of
. Franklin was appointed its agent near the ; (Georgia is surmounted with Christian churches
itish government. of all denominations, colleges and high schools,
In 1761, the Cherokee Indians were attacked j male and female, standing out like solitaire
Col. Montgomery, on which occasion the [ d j am onds on the gorgeous crest of this noble
rages"so bravely resisted that though Mont- | state _ t k e -whole panorama is penetrated from
-ery claimed the victory he did not pursue j center to circumference by five great trunk
ind allowed the Indians to retain their lineg of ra iPv a y and interlacing lines that
reach out their Briaream arms to grasp the
commerce'of the world, and like the risings and
sittings of the sun, daily go out and come in
laden with the commerce of all countries and
from all
he following year Col. Grant burned their
ns, wasted their country and forced them to
n°the meantime, the other twelve colonies of
old thirteen were progressing in trade and
amerce, and the British government com-
the late wreck of the fsew York acd Mexican mail
unship was caused by one of the many rocky projec-
• in the Gulf of Mexico.
news from all nations lumbering at their
backs.” A vast perpetual motion and commer
cial movement and removement, operating all
foreign and domestic exchanges, creating daily,
monthly and yearly revenues and incomes that
circulate among the people like the rays of the
morning sun on an unclouded sky. The whole
complex but vast machinery of the Stite, work
ing like a full jeweled watch to the times, mark
ed by the daily circle described by the sun, and
producing daily, monthly and annual revenues
—state and individual, that descend from sire to
son in perfect obedience to her well-regulated
civil, moral and religious codes; thus per
fecting her county, municipal and state or
ganizations in one compendious whole-consti
tuting “ Georgia and the Georgians.” Well may
her statesmen say as Napoleon to France:
“ When thy Diadem crowned me, I made thee
the Genl and the Wonder of earth.”
Thus far we have been dealing ostensibly with
physical Georgia; but Georgia without her
Georgians would be “vox et prefer in nihil. _It
is the noble men and women of Georgia that
constitute the State. While in the possession of
Yankees and negroes, it was merely a place—a i
sort of fiddlers green, or play ground for the mi
nions of Satan; now that Georgians have suc
ceeded to their royal crown and dignity, Georgia
is a state—a free state, an enlightened state an
honest and upright state—a prosperous and
rapidly growing state—a populous, agricultural
and manufacturing state—a highly educated ;
scientific state—studded all over with colleges, [
schools and scholars, which stand out like
fixed stars in the heavenly firmament, shining [
alike by their own and by reflected lights, and ■
thus combining a crystalization of the knowl
edge of all the world.
High up on the apex of Atlantis, towering
above all other habitations, is the Seer s Home
of that Wizzard of the winds, light, air, ether
earth, and ocean,
PKOFESSOK W. J. LAND,
State Chemist to the Agricultural Bureau and
Geological Survey of the State of Georgia, and
Chemist and Chemical Analyst of all the myr
iad forms and atoms of matter. What a power in
the Land is this? His name should have been
World, not Land; the latter constitutes but an
atomic particle of his territorial and aerial dom
inion—riding as he does upon the wings of the
winds—directing the storm—playing with the
lightning’s mane—now dissecting the rays of
the central sun into its prismatic colors—then
rending the vast oceanic volume of air and ether
with his lightning bolts and voltaic thunders—
like an eagle from his eyre in the heavens drops
down on the billowy seas—picking its mountain
waves into liquid pellates like the sands of the
deserts—now floats his aerial yacht to the shore
crying “Land ! Ho! what is going on down here
in Atlanta?” a city in which his mortal body eats,
drinks and sleeps, but to which he bids daily
mental adieus when entering his laboratory,
and mounting his Jacob’s ladder, he climbs
through nature up to nature’s God ?
As the human brain builds the human body,
so the men and women of Georgia create and
build the political entity called the State. They
breathe into it the breath of life, and light and
knowledge, and society and Christianity, and
single out and identify it among the great polit
ical divisions of the earth like a “ star on Eter
nity’s ocean”’
That Georgians have accomplished this great
crowning glory, has lately been definitely set
tled by the adoption of their new constitution—
vindicating as it does their character and
capacity for enlightened, successful self-govern
ment and elevated statesmanship, beyond the
power of detraction to deny, or political enemies
to conceal from the gaze of an admiring world.
A Republican people, so successful and tri
umphant in the aggregate, must have had and
reared in their midst great and skillful military
leaders; full-minded find patriotic politicians
and statesmen; learned and pure judges and law
yers; pious, illumiry*d and eloquent divines;
highly-cultivated, full-hearted, refined and no
ble women—alike the base and the apex of earth
and Heaven.
In the commercial centre of this great State
stands her capital city of Atlanta, with her forty
thousand inhabitants, all daily toiling in the
various avocations of life, and making the wel
kin ring with screaming railroads from the four
quarters of the earth; manufantories, trades,
merchandise and the arts. The spires of her
noble church edifices, like old Broadway Trin
ity of New York, reach near to the heavens,
their pews are well filled with worshippers and
their pulpits with eloquent Clergymen. Her
educational institutions of all ki'fidS— literary,
scientific, medical, surgical, chemical and geo
logical—are filled with able professors. Her
lawyers and judges stand—nobly stand at the
judicial forum and repose on its ermine—the
peers of the eloquent, honorable and wise of
earth, while her statesmen outrank those of most
of her sister cities of the American Union.
The political and literary press of Atlanta is
most ably conducted—alike with unusual intel
lectual power, and that prudence and good taste
which only results from careful study of political
philosophy and economy, apart from personal
considerations.
The agricultural and religious press is also an
important element in the mental character of
Atlanta, and speaks trumpet-tongued for the
deep-toned religious sentiment that pervades
the city and the State, and the marvelous indus
try and enterprise that now universally charac
terize Georgia and the Georgians.
The “ art preservative of all arts,” the “Frank
lin Printing House,” of Atlanta, is of itself a
miracle, in the wonderful ingenuity of its ma
chinery, and the exactness, celerity and beauty
of the vast amount of work it executes.
The architecture of the city—always a badge
of the progress of civilization—is of the most
modern and highly-improved character. Her
public buildings, private residences, banking
I houses, factories, large mercantile establish-
j ments, and custom house, post-office and fed
eral court rooms—now building—are all “things
j of beauty,” and, in the philosophy of Tupper,
I must be “a joy forever.”
Nor have the Atiantese forgotten that “ in the
midst of life we are in death,” nor to provide a
! most comely and inviting home for their dear,
1 and brave, and beautiful departed. The Oak
land Cemetery of Atlanta, like the star of Beth
lehem, rises in the east. Its highly beautified
| grounds, floral displays, classic monuments and
affectionate memorials of the lost Pleiads of
[earth; the plain but giant column of native
J rock that raises its pyramid form over the vil
lage of the Confederate dead—all these, and a
; thousand other symbols of veneration and per-
1 petual affectionate remembrance of the “ loved
i and lost,” spring up before us in this city of
the dead on earth, but the beautiful gateway
and sacred entrance to the city of the Redeemer,
eternal in the heavens.
“ To this complexion hath it come at last. ”
But why talk about Georgia and the Georgians ?
What spot of earth so uniformly bland, beauti
ful and productive? What generation of men
and women so remarkable for muscular vigor,
grace and beauty ? Do not her scientists, states
men, jurists, lawyers, merchants, manufactur
ers, artisans and laborers outrank all_ her sister
j States, and in all the States of the Union, like
1 constellations in the heavens, proclaim the wis
dom, Christianity, and social elevation of the
“Empire State of the South?” Ask Fame, and
[ she will tell you.
The writer—a Mississippian—indebted to
j Georgia and the Georgians for a welcome as
j broad as the former and as generous as the lat
ter, begs to apologize for this hasty and imper-
! feet sketch of his hosts, written as it is from
memory, treacherous at best, and a soul over-
| burdened with a social debt it can only repay
by a sight draft on Ylississippi and Mississippi-
; a ns—the acceptance and payment of which he
guarantees to the uttermost farthing. He will
be at home on and after the first of October,
when Mississippi and Mississippians will be
readv to receive Georgia and the Georgians.
To the Bench and Bar, who have accorded
him the professional courtesy of an admission
to their inner temples, he makes his most gra
cious bow, promising to become a trustworthy
brother, and that a like cordial reciprocity awaits
them, one and all, whenever they may seek ad
mission to the judicial forums of Mississippi.
With most grateful emotions,
Your friend and servant,
John D. Freeman.
RELIGIOUS DEPARTMENT.
THE ONE TALENT.
should recite a verse from the Bible; and it was his
own little niece who repeated (Psalm xiv. 1, and
lxiii' I), 'The fool hath said in his heart, there is no
God.’ It was uttered in a sweet, clear voice. There
was no human design in the selection. The bow was
drawn at a venture; but the bolt smote the unbe
liever between the joints of the breastplate and
pierced his heart.
“Not long since, being asked how he was, he
replied, ‘Oh, I am better; that mighty load of sin
and unbelief is gone; 1 am all packed and ready for
my trip to that better land.” And the humble
missionary has joined him there.—Xetc York Ob
server.
In a napkin smooth and white, ,
Hidden from all mortal sight,
My one talent lies to-night.
Mine to hoard, or mine to use,
Mine to keep, or mine to lose;
May not I do what I choose ?
Ah ! the gift was only lent.
With the Giver's known intent ■ •’
That it should be wisely spent. •
And I know he will demand
Every farthing.atmy hand
When I in his presenee stand
What will be my grief and shame
When I hear my, humble name.
And cannot repay his claim I
Some will double what they hold;
Others add to it ten fold.
And pay back in shining gold.
Lord, oh .I teach me what to do;
Make me faithful, make me true,
And the sacred trust renew.
Help me, ere too-late it be,
Something now to do for thee—
Thou who hast done all for me t
THE DUTY OF SINGING.
It is the duty of the church to subsidize every
pure means possible to accomplish her purpose.
She cannot,innocently ignore any. A failure to
merit the eulogy “ She hath done what she could”
is to deserve the condemnation, “ Thou wicked
and slothful servant.”
The influence of music is a fact that discovers
itself in the experience and observation of every
day. It is said when David played skilfully on
the harp the evil spirit left Saul. It did not work
his regeneration, but it opened his heart tothose
divine influences of the Spirit that mollified his
passion-
Rpusseau tells us that for awhile it was necessa
ry to enforce a statute prohibiting the use of the
Swiss national air in the French army. For
whenever those notes fell on the ear of the Swiss
soldier he started for home, and there was no
power in entreaty, or potency in command to stop
him. If we say less infrequently the national airs
of heaven, many in the army of sin would be influ
enced thereby to run towards that happy place.
Some wise-acre lately attempted to depreciate
the work of Moody and Sankey, by saying that
Sankey’s singing had more effect than Moody’s
preaching. For one we do not care whether the
work was done by singing or preaching. If people
were made better, we are not specially concerned
about the instrument employed, particularly if it
be so divinely honored a means as music.
Why are the Psalms read more frequently than
any other part of the Bible if there is no legitimate
power in music and its sister poetry ? Why were
they ever written? Why preserved? Why by a
strange providence in language do they retain even
in translation their poetic form if music is not an
allowable means of grace.
The truth is if we would sing more we would sin
less.
It is no mere figurative expression that, reveals
the notion of heavenly music and angelic harps.
It is one of the innocent elements of human nature
that will not be left unsatisfied in the world to
come
James Ylontgomery in his “ World Before the
Flood,” expresses in beautiful drama a normal in
stinct of the soul, when he shows the power of
music on the soul of Cain:
“ Till Cain forsook the solitary wild
Led by the minstrel like a wearied child. ”
It is feigned that Orphens drew trees and stones
by the power of his lyre. That is a fable but it
is true, that we may melt hearts hard as stone by
the power of music. One can very easily believe
with the great f dramatist:
“ Since naught so stockish. hard and full of rage,
But music for the time doth change his nature.
The man that hath not music in himself
Nor is not moved with concord of the sweet sounds
Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils:
The emotions of his spirit are dull as night,
And his affections dark as Erebus.
Let no snch a man be trusted. ”
It is not a matter of option whether you join in
the church music. If you can assist to make it grea
ter—or better, if you cau sing—it is a Juty. To
neglect duty is as truly sin as to commit crime.
INFLUENCE.
There is something awful and solemn in the
thought that there is not an act nor a thought in
the life of a human being, but carries with it a train
of consequences, the end of which we may never
trace: not one but to a certain extent gives a color
to our life, and insensibly influences the lives of
others about us. The good deed or thought will
live, even though we may not see it fructify, but
so will the bad; and no person is so insignificant
as to be sure that his example will not do good
on the one hand nor evil on the other.
There is indeed an essence of immortality in the
life of man even in this world. No individual in
the universe stands alone; he is a component part
of a system of mutual dependencies, and by his
several acts, he either increases or diminishes the
sum of human good now and forever. As the
present is rooted in the past and the lives and ex
amples of our fore-fathers still to a great extent
influence us, so are we by our daily acts contrib
uting to forerun the condition and character of the
future. The living man is a fruit formed and rip
ened by the culture of all the foregoing centuries.
Generations six thousand years deep stand behind
us each laying its hands on its successor’s shoul
ders, and the living generation continues the^ag-
netic current of action and influence destined to
bind the remotest past with the most distant
future.
No man s acts die utterly; and though hi3 body
may resolve into dust and air his good or his bad
deeds will still be bringing forth fruit after their
kind, and influencing generations of men for all
time to come. It is in this momentous fact that
the great peril and responsibility of human exis
tence lies. Samuel Smilxs.
To read, to think, to love, to hope, and to
p ra y—these are the things that make men happy.
They have power to do these things; they never
will have power to do more. The world's pros,
perity or adversity depends upon our knowing
and teaching these few things, but upon iron or
glass, steam or electricity, in no wise.—Ruskin.
The graduating class of Princeton Theological
Seminary consisted of forty-two students. Thirty-
eight of these young men, having taken the full
course, were regularly graduated, and received the
usual diploma from the hands of the venerable W.
D. Snodgrass, President of the Board of Directors,
now over eighty-tv'o years of age.
there is no action of man in this life, which is
not the beginning of so long a chain of consequen
ces as no human providence is high enough to give
us a prospect to the end.—Thomas 'f Yalmsburg.
The Free Church of Scotland has now more than
a thousand ministers. It started with under five
hundred, so that in thirty-four years it has just
doubled itself.
The Rev. Dr. Andrews, pastor of the Presbyte
rian Church, Doylestown, Pa., has married one
thousand couples during his ministry.
Simon Peter saith unto them, I go afishing.
They say unto him, we also go with thee.
PEN PORTRAITS
Of Some Literary and Social Notables.—
FROM “ SAPHIR.
Miss Dudu Fletcher, the much talked of author
of Kisme t is a blonde of medium stature. Hrr
frank eyes look out from under the jauntiest
Tyrolese hat in the world, set on a frieze of thick
light hair. About the pleasant mouth plays an arch
smile, and the tip tilted nose gives additiopal
piquancy to a face that has in it every indication
of candor, brightness and a fun-loving spirit. The
attitude is free, and a neatly-gloved little hand,
shadowed by quite a profuse array of bangles,
points a parasol as though it were some alpen
stock, and the author of “ Dudu,” (whose papa, by-
the-way, besides being a clergyman, is a prolific
writer,) a mountaineer par excellence.
Charles Warren Stodard has returned from his
tour in foreign lands and has been lazily summer
ing at beautiful Eagles Wood Park—the fine castl-
like building erected near Sandy Hook, by the
late Marcus Spring, for the purpose of carrying
out the phalanstery system of Fourier the famous
communist, in whose theories Mr. Spring was a
believer. Mr. Stoddard is resting on his oars,
but will shortly proceed to California where he
may imbibe fresh inspiration. In person the au
thor of “The South Sea Idyls” is a tall, lazy-
lengthed individual, about thirty-one years of age,
with keen, kindly eyes, a prominent Roman nose
and a beard cut short, in the English style, ihe
top of his head is a trifle bald, and the brown hair
that remains is cut after the fashion of a monk s,
that is, without parting, and forming an obtrusive-
fringe. He has long, nervous hands, which he
allows to wander occasionally over the keys of the
piano-fort in the long saloon at Eagles Wood, play
ing entirely by ear snatches of operas and quaint
foreign ballads. Outside of that, during this sweet
do-nothing period, he smokes prodigiously, or tri
fles with the pearl-handled gold pen which has
been his constant compagon de voyage. He was for
three months in London, and for a period before
that in Paris, but says he felt no disposition to
write since April
Charles Warren Stoddard is to be ranked, as re
gards origin, with Bret Hart, Joaquin Miller and/
those other shining lights who won their spurs—
or at least “ reached for ” them—in Frisco, He is
a firm friend of Joaquin Miller, having not only
known him in California, but lived in the same
house with him in London, Miller has portrayed
Stoddard in one of his publications as the charac
ter whose “ catch-word,” to use a theatrical term,
is, “ I will reform—to morrow.”
An Arrow fiom a Child’s Hand.
One of the latest letters of D. M. Alter, mission-
! ary of the American Sunday School Union, who
recently died in Illinois, after long, faithful, and
! successful work, contained the following illustra
tions of the Bible power; “An old infidel being
1 very fond of music, was attracted to one of my
! Sunday Schools by the singing. On his second ]
1 visit I asked him to look over tae Bible lesson as !
[ it was recited by the children. He said that I
he thought they ought to be taught to read, and |
, perhaps they might as well learn from that book [
1 as any other; but the Lord had prepared an arrow
| for him.
“It was the rule of the school that each child
The Juliets of the Stage.
No actor now-a-days thinks himself sterling
dramatic coin until he has stamped Hamlet upon
his repertoire, and no actress feels in the depths
of her heart that she is the admitted peer of Sid-
dons and Rachel, and allege vassal of Wallack, or
Shook & Palmer, until she has minced and tipped
along the stage as Juliet. The penchant of the la
dies of the stage—“ soubrettes,” “ingenues,”
“ singing chambermaids,” “ first old women
to wrestle with Juliet, though mirthful at first,
has grown to be a maddening wrong. The last re
corded instance of fools rushing in where angels
fear to tread is that of a little Boyle, which broke
upon the surface of the stage recently in New Y ork,
incited probably by the greed of relatives and the
injudicious applause of friends who had heard her
read “ in private,” and whose milk of human
kindness welled to their eyes and blinded their
judgment. The young lady, who utterly lacks
tuition and training, made a painful failure, which
would have been ridiculous except for her evident
earnestness and honesty of purpose. Her youth
and girlish freshness softened tbe hearts of those
Sioux of the press, the critics, and turned the
edges of the scalping-knives away. When I saw
the pretty little novice last, on the wide waste of
Booth’s magnificent ftige, struggling with the in
spired lines of the divine William, she recalled to
my Boswellian mind the comment of gruff old Sam
Johnson on the dancing bear: “The wonder is,
sir, not that the bear dances well, bat that the bear
can dance at all.” Anna Boyle, though, has a
mine of artistic wealth in her if it is properly
worked. Adelaide Neilson made a sweet, gushing
Juliet in look and gesture, but, although the eyes,
those “ windows of the soul,” were there, the soul
was wanting. There was the flavor of the bar
maid hanging about her still, bathed, scented, be-
jeweled as she was. Few women on the stage
have at once the mental and physical gifts to por
tray the most charming of the poet’s creations.
In the turbulent days of fighting Montagues and
Capulets, when Romeo loved, Mercutio railed and
Tybalt fought; in the sunny land where once the
poet sang, the sculptor carved and the painter
dreamed, and poble youths and lovely maidens
laughed life lovingly away, Snakspeare’s Juliet
was possible. It is, perhaps, too much to expect
to find her on the modern stage, where the mod
ern Montague (H. J.) invites his Juliet, after the
play, to a chop-house repast of tripe and beer.
The devouring devotion of the passionate Montec-
cio, which prompted him to drink the draught of
the Mantuan apothecary, is expressed now-a-days
differently. Our Romeos of polo, boat and gun
clubs scatter the treasure of their hearts and purs
er at the feet of blonde beauty as carelessly as a pet
monkey would shower around a casket of the Ester
hazy dimonds.
BETINCT PRINT