Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

OTI SU3 JOHN H. SEALS, - Editor and Proprietor. YV. B. SEALS, - Proprietor and Cor. Editor. MRS. MARY E. BRYAN (•) Associate Editor. ATLANTA, GEORGIA, MAY 18, 1878. Don’t fail to renew. Are Tlie.v Id*ss Guilty.—In common speech we call it suicide when a man cuts short the period of his life, and language fails in our effort to express our horror of the deed. But shall we class those as suicides only who kill themselves outright? who with drug or knife snap the slender cord that binds them to earth? Are not those who persistently follow courses that can not fail to terminate in premature death, equally guilty of the sin of self-destruc tion ? Intemperance in eating and drinking, shortens for thousands the periods assigned for them to live. Other habits deleterious to life contract the three score and ten, into two-thirds, one-half, and even one-fourth of that time. As a matter of fact every one who lives in violation of the rule which nature prescribes for the pre- servation of health is guilty of suicide. Tlio Sin «f Eli.—A weak indulgence for the misdetds of children has been the one great fault of many a good man besides the venerable Judge of Israel. Parents are not so blind to the shortcomings of their off-spring, as we in char ity are sometimes willing to suppose. They see the failings aDd bemoan them; but a weak fond ness closes their lips from thinking and with holds their hands from correcting, as was the fact in the case of the aged patriarch. Such in dulgence is an error as well as a sin. The tem poral welfare of boys and girls is not advanced by leaving them to pursue unchecked their own evil courses. The law requiring obedience to parents, has attached to it the sanction of a promise, and the history of all time bears out the assertion that they who flagrantly disre gard the wishes of father and mother, rarely come to a good end. The Value of Taste. —No intellectual faculty possessed by woman can do so much to wards making her home happy as taste. If she possess this, she can impart to the plainest abode some charm which endears it to its occu pants. We sing, “Be it never so humble there's no place like home,” and we sing truly if taste giveB attractions to homely details. But if when the husband comes from the field, shop or office, he finds his house at ‘sixes and sevens,’ with filth and litter everywhere, and nothing in the right place, he is ready to conclude that though there may be no place like his home, there are many places far better. Cultivation of the taste is the education needed to fit woman to be the presid ing genius of her household. Of course, we have no objection to her learning to read Greek tragedy and to solve poet lines in Euclid'—but far more important for the happiness of her hus band and children is the culture of {esthetic fac ulties which will enable her to give an air of re finement to everything about her home. * IMlate’s Question.—At no time in the world’s history would it have been more puz zling to answer the question, ‘ What is truth ?” than it is now. There is scarcely a limit to the diverse creeds, each of which is claimed by its adherents as true. In the matter of religion there is great conflict of opinion, even in the sect which professes to have an infallible inter preter of the Divine Decrees. In Metaphysies men are continually reasoning and speculating, and though they pile one logical deduction up on another, they are unable to assert with posi tive assurance that their conclusions are true. The man of science, with glass and calcular, is engaged in weighing the stars and estimating their movements, arfd with all this, he is unable * to tell us what is truth. Yet we are surrounded by truth everywhere; could our finite intellects j but grasp and appreciate it. ”•2 VouM Xot Help HI.”— 1 This is often the cry of mere weakness—the plea of one con scious of wrong-doing and casting about for some excuse for sin. But it is in many instan ces more true than they who use it suspect. Every person’s life is to a large extent controlled by antecedents which began to operate perhaps generations before he was born, and which of course, he could not have directed. Many a murderer expiates on the gallows not his own misdeed alone, but the murderous inclinations of a long life of ancestry. A predisposition to commit a certain act may be handed down from sire to son, until odo arises who can not help committing it Napoleon was wont to call him self a man of destiny, and so he was; but not more so, than the humblest soldier in the ranks of his armies. But the one and the other, was necessitated by a long train of antecedents to be such a man as he was, and perhaps to per form every act that he did. Public Hangings.—Those who urge that criminals should be punished publicly in order te deter others from the commission of crime, an ignorant of one of the most fnlly established laws of tbe human mind. Familiarity it has often been said robs vice of its deformity; so does it Btrip the most painful spectacles of their horrors. Terrible as the details of a hanging may appear to the imagination of any one of re fined sensibilities, it is a fact that those who flock to witness such scenes soon learn to enjoy them. Publicity then shonld be avoided be cause of the cruelty which it cultivates in the hearts of the people. Bat worse even than this is the morbid ambition which it awakens in some to be a hero in such scenes. The resnlt is an increase rather than a lessening of crime. It has been well said that it is the certainty of punishment and not its horrors which will re press wrong-doing. How It Will End.—That the utterance of Canon Earrer, which has been endorsed by Mr. Beecher and others on this eide of the wa ter, will lead to expunging from the creed of orthodox theology the doctrine of suffering be yond the grave, we can hardly believe. But it may, and we believe will, resnlt in driving out that idea which some preachers take a pleasure in setting forth—that God, as a merciful Being, will delight in inflicting endless torments upon the creatures that He has fashioned and brought into existence. Snch an idea is derogatory both to the dignity and benevolence of the Su preme Being, and had its origin in the stern bigotry of the human heart. The Deity re vealed to ns by the Bible, is one of love and mercy, _who willeth misery to none, bnt who arrescwill not the sequences of sin. Those then who choose the way of evil—who make no effort for a higher and better life—shall enter the realms of hopeless misery not because God in his wrath punishes those who disobey Him, . bnt because such suffering is an inevitable con- f sequence of sin. Letters oi'IBiograpllcrs.— 1 The mangled fragments of letters commonly published in biographies are generally very stupid. They are like a table from which all of the choicest dainties have been selected, and only crusts and broken meats left. Really the great sharm of a private letter lies in those parts which are neith er intended nor fitted for the public eye. We do not want our correspondent to discuss grave questions of religion, science or politics in the majestic style ofRassilasjnor do we care to have him write us pages on the lighter topics of taste, fashions and amusements in the pleasant vein of the Spectator. We want letters full of news and gossip. Accounts of how people are court ing and being courted, of how they are running away to marry, and running away to beep from marrying; with all the sly and humorous com ments which these subjects may suggest. But, of course, if our correspondent becomes in any way so famous that some ambitious scribbler thinks he may turn a penny by “doing,him up” in a book, all these good letters are overhauled, all that give them life and spice cut short, and the dull parts taken to swell the volume to re spectable proportions. Such a Biography re sembles Hamlet with the Prince omitted. Great Rogues.—It is worthy of remark that while tbe newspapers have cried out clam orously against several men who were de nounced as stupendous rogues, w T hen the same men were brought to trial, nothing could be proved against them, and they were allowed to go free despite the popular prejudice in their disfavor. Are we thence to conclude that these men were innocent; and that the clamor against them was unjust? Perhaps so, in some instances, for the people who judge by outward appearances merely, are very apt to induige in sweeping de cisions. But there is a more probable explana tion of the fact. The man who steals very largely is able to buy off adverse testimony and adverse judgements. As a rule, gre^t crimin als are not punished. We send to the chain- gang the man who steals a sheep or a sack of corn; but the man who cheats the State or some corporation out of fifty or a hundred thousand dollars, displays his ill-gotten wealth with im punity. Were it proved that a man had gotten the office of baiiiff or justice of the peace by bribery and fraud, he might be turned out and even punished for his malpractices. But when it is established beyond a cavil that a man has been inducted into the highest office of the Nation by acts of high-handed and un blushing villainy, there is not enough honest patriotism in the land to haul the usurper from his false position and punish the bold schemers who placed him there. An Inconsistency.—We pray that men may learn to love each other—that wars may cease to the end of the earth and that all the paraphernalia of war may pass away ao^ become unknown. In such a prayer all must join who have seen even in imagination the horrors which hostile armies leave in their track. But scarce has the prayer passed our lips when we begin strains of martial glory to tell of the soldier’s deeds of daring, and to place upon bis brow chaplets of undying fame. We honor him as we do no other man. And for what ? Because he has not feared to risk his own life in the ef fort to destroy the lives of others. Because he has been skillful and successful in forcing the will of others to yield to the hand of might. Could there be a greater inconsistency between our prayers and onr laudations? No; peace and good-will will never prevail on tbe earth so long as it is held forth that military glory excels all other fame, and that the soldier’s occupation is the most honorable which a man can pnrsne. So long as we reserve onr brightest garlands and highest praises for the honors of war, will onr prayers for the prevalence of universal peace sound like mockings in Heavens’s ears. Rev, Win. T. Harris, D:D.—This distinguished divine preached at Trinity Meth odist chnrch of thi3 city last Wednesday even ing. His sermon was one of the ablest efforts the writer ever heard. As an orator, Dr. Harris certainly has no superior anywhere, either in pulpit or on the fornm. He is a son of the la mented G. W. D. Harris, D.D., of the Memphis Conference, and nephew of ex-Gov. Isham G. Harris, Tennessee. He is chairman of the del egation, and confessedly one of the first preach ers in the South. The writer does not know that Dr. Harris oonld be induced to relinquish the pastorate in his own Conference nnder any circumstances for any position which his brethren of the Gen eral Conference might call him, bat certainly his splendid abilities ought to have the widest field for their employment If a change is made in the secretaryship of the Missionary Society of the churoh, no bet ter selection coaid possible be made than that of Dr. W. T. Harris, of the Memphis Confer ence delegation, for that important place. Georgia Press Convention—Geor gia Editors.—Tbe Georgia Press Association held its annual convention at Gainesville on the 8th inst—the representatives of the press — over a hundred in number—many of there ac* companied by their families, leaving Atlanta in splendid passenger coaches placed at their dis posal by the liberal officers of tbe Air Line Rail Road, and reaching Gaipesville before noon, where a graceful reception and elegant hospi talities awaited them at the hands of the citizens. Some business was transacted that day, and much pleasant social intercourse enjoyed, and next morning, the Association having been ten dered an excursion to any point on tbe road, chose Toccoa, and were whirled there in rapid time, across a country whose green beauty of hill, slope and valley was freshened by recent showers, and arriving at the quiet and pretty town of Toccoa, enjoyed a ride to the Falla in commodious hacks, saw the white wonder of the loveliest of cascades, sti oiled through the greenwoods in which the Falls are setlikea pearl in emerald,and retnrped to Gainesville,fresh for some afternoon business—transacted (in rather irregular, and informal, but lively and enter taining fashion) in the tastefully decorated Li brary Hall, and a reception in the evening, with speeches, musio, recitations, etc., and next morning,good-byeto hospitable and picturesque Gainesville and back to Atlanta where a sumpt uous dinner was spread free for the hungry knights of pen and scissors by Mr. Campbell, the new proprietor of the Kimball House. After this, and a stroll around to look at Atlanta lions the jovial excursionists availed themselves of Gov. Brown’s generous invitation and took pas sage on the Stale Road train for a trip to Chatta nooga and a view from Look Out Mountains, all arrangements for their comfort being made by the ex-Governor in his usual princely 3tyle. The entire excursion was enjoyable—a most grateful recreation of the Editorial zaind and body. Travel on the Air Line, with its splen didly conditioned road and attentive) officers, is the perfection of rapid and luxurious transit. Gainesville is- delightful with its picturesque views, its alroady fanyerns Springs, it&srisp air, crystal water and pleasant society; To-ocoa, the village, is pretty and .quiet, and the Falls—a thing of joy and beauty forever. Tbs trip to Chattanooga and Lookout is said to have been equally pleasant, though concerning that, this deponent does not speak from personal knowl edge, since cnee back within range of Atlan ta brick and mortar, our Nemesis reached for us with remorseless hand, the word ‘copy’ broke tbe pleasant spell and the mantle of tLs happy excursionist dropped from our spirit like the robes of Cinderella. The representatives of the Georgia Press were on the whole a sensible and very fair looking body, presenting the greatest variety of phy sique and character indications but with a gener al air of shrewdness, independance and well-to- do ativeness, at variance with the idea that the Hard Times has cut short their allowance of creature comforts, or tkat having occasionally to tike ducks, beAisf cMilling wheels and'but termilk in lieu of greer^ack subscriptions has crashed the bouyant seff-esteew which seems one of their distinguishing characteristics. It was entertaining ior a quiet looker on to sweep the assembled body with curious eye. and note the physiognomies of the men who have the directing, if not the creating of public senti ment and opinion in this which we call the Em. pire State. Not a very scholarly or literary looking body on an average certainly, though sprinkled here and there were notable exceptions, earnest, thoughtful faces, or bright, mobile ones, but may we say it in the face of the favorite fashion of self-glorification ?—the average was a little disappointing. Our Georgia editors—speak ing generally and setting apart the bright ex ceptions do not seem to magnify their office in the sense of comprehending its full scope, appreciating its possibilities, and feeling their responsibility as leaders of public taste and opinion. Their range of thought and of reading seems rather narrow, their conception of jour nalism circumscribed, and their culture not ex actly the finest or the broadest, and some of them seem jnst a little lacking in the modest self-distrnst of true talent. There ! we have said it, and are going to get transfixed by editorial pen-points for doing so, but really we could not rest until it was “out,’’ like the King’s barber, who was forced by tbe restive imp within him, to whisper into the ground his secret concerning the donkey ears of King Midas. Not that we would insinuate that this compar ison applied to the whole or to a part of the members of the Georgia Press. On the contrary, it is because their shrewdness, energy and na tive intelligence impressed us so favorably that we venture to speak as we do, in order to sug gest that a zeal for improvement, a higher ap preciation, and a better understanding of their profession and a litsieA conscientious exertion to increase their fitness for it, wonld greatly raise the average of the Georgia Press. We hoped that CoL Styles,in addition to his ad mirable eulogy of the Press, would have given ns his idea (without doubt a vigorous and com prehensive one) of journalism as a science, touching on the duty of an editor to keep pace with the thought of his age, to acquaint himself with at least the general features of the world’s progress in literature, science and arts, to be not merely a collector of facts, bnt able to de tect their underlying significance, not merely a month-piece of the mass, bat an interpreter of the thoughts, opinions and tastes of the higher minds among them; to set more store npon clear ideas of good government than upon flattery or abase of oertain politicians, more value npon correct information, npon nsefnl subjects and good taste about beautiful ones, than npon local hits or personal flings; though these are very good in their way and do much to enliven a pa per, thongh it requires culture and information to make even politioal squibs, and gossip bright and epigrammatic. No small degree of the talent of the Georgia press—young talent as well as old—is up to all this, and we took pride in listening to its pos - sessors—in looking into their thoughtful or the ir eager, bright faces; and seeing theirhopefnl ev. ergy, their wholesome ambition, their enthu siasm about their profession, or their quiet knowledge of, and attachment to it; feeling that in snch hands as these the Georgia Press would indeed be a civilizing power, able to instrnct in the true, as well as to denounce the false, to direct and raise the literary and moral tastes of the mass instead of ‘writing down’ to them, as some short-sighted Machievellis tell us should be done for policy’s sake. * If you cannot renew for a year do so for six months at $1.50 or four months for $100 or three months for 75 cents. We do not wish to lose your name from our books. For $2.50 we give you a renewal for 12 months. Tl»e Homan who is lire Truest Erieml,—When we meet with a woman who has grown great through suffering, softened and made more sympathetic to others—we feel that we are :n the presence of some one who has been touched with living Sre from the altar and rendered in part divine. That sweet and gracious woman who has gone through years of illness and yet has kept her sympathies fresh and her heart warm, is she not richer by far for her trials than if she had been one of those who are wrapped in the well-being throughout? A woman of this kind is of infinite value to the wosld. Her judgment is matured by quiet thought, and because of her partial removal from the centre of things. She stands to the side, more as a spectator than an actor in socie ty, and is able to see things with more clearness than those who are blinded by the dust and smoke of the active turmoil—able to measure all by a truer standard than can those who stand so close that small matters become dispropor tionately great and insignificant ones too grave. And eke who has withdrawn somewhat from the world by reason ot sorrow, and who has let that sorrow ripen her soul, not harden her heart, how pitifully she can feel for others—but also how wisely she cau comfort and how clearly ap portion the amount to be paid to suffering ! She can console a child thao cries for a pleasure de nied—the girl that has loved for a few days un wisely, and declares that her heart is broken for gocsS and aye in consequence —the man who has lost all that made life worth having—the woman who is shipwrecked for time and eter nity. She knows that each suffers, and has pympathy and compassion for each; while all that time of gentle exhoi‘ation and sweetest sympathy her own woun-. are bleeding, her own sores smarting.” These are very hard times and we need the assistance of every friend of the paper. Renew your subscription and seifrl one more subscriber. A Texas correspondent of the Phrenologica 1 Journal, tells the following story of how a Mr. Hurley, of Texas; turned his knowledge of cra nial bumps to good account. Hurley was known as an examiner of phrenology, and near the close of the late war he was’taken by certain politicians to Austin during a session of the Legislature, and it was made his business there to measure the integrity of different members, and report to his employers the sum of money which, in his estimation, would be sufficient to buy them over to the advocacy of certain meas ures. Having reported, his employers—lobby ists probably—would give him the money and he would apply it in the direction specified, buying a man’s vote for three hundred, five hundred, one thousand, or more dollars, as the case might demand. The Phrenologist made this work profitable to himself, as it is said that he returned home at the close of the ses sion with a stock of goods worth $20,000. * A great many subscriptions expired with No. 150 and we hope every one of them will be renewed. The Vatican Tapestries.—Leo XIII. is about to deserve well of all interested in art needlework. Hanging on the walls of many of the 11,000 rooms of the Vatican, into which strangers cannot penetrate, and hidden away in numberless cupboards, are an infinite variety of pieces of ancient tapestry. There are those saved from the sack of the city in 1527, for which Raphael made the cartoons; there are splendid examples of Flemish work of the four teenth and fifteenth centuries, and any number of Gobelins, for daring two centuries the French kings keep up the custom of sending the Pope an annual present of a piece of tapestry. All these Leo XIII. has decided shall be gathered togeth er and placed where they can be seen, arranged chronologically and formed into a collection unique of its kind—a new museum, in fact, to be added to the many the Vatican contains. Perhaps Leo XIII. unconsciously acquired a taste for ancient tapestry when, sixty years ago, he was playing at horses np and down that long hall hang with arras in the family manor-house at Carpineto, where he was born. Washington Star:—“Gentlemen here from Georgia represent that the re-election of Hon. Alexander H. Stephens to the next Congress is a settled fact Hardly any opposition to him has been doveioped. Senator Hill is not they say, by any means so popular. He has not been for given for his opposition to the silver bilL Sen ator Gordon is represented as being certain of a re-election, although his intimacy with the ad ministration has resulted in making some of his backers dissatisfied. THE OLD TABBY HOUSE. BY GARNET McIVOR. This popular story has been interrupted by the illness of the distinguished author, but he will soon be able to resume it and bring it to its grand denouement Mrs. Sothern-Should Her Sex Shield Her? Mrs. Kate Sothern, of Pickens county, who kill ed “Miss” Cowart, having been fonnd guilty of mnrder in the first degree and sentenced to death, certain members of the press have plead ed in her behalf that, because she is a woman, she shonld not be bang—a conclusion which may be called gallant, but is not jnst; nor is it one that a woman ought to regard as compli mentary. That a female shonld be pardoned for a crime simply because of her sex, as, if to be a woman were equivalent to being an idiot or a lunatic is as nDflattering to women as it is unfair in law. Sex should be no excuse or shield for crime. A woman who commits a deed of criminal violence iB as guilty as a man. There is even less excuse for her, sinee she breaks through stronger social restraints, and she sins against gentler hereditary instincts. So, no indulgence should be asked for Mrs, Sothern on the ground of her sex, ye) there are other extenuating circumstances that palliate her gnilt and should mitigate her punishment. The slander and abuse she is said to have suffer, ed at the hands of the woman she killed, would be thought extenuating in the case of a man. Moreover, we are informed, that she was epilep tic, and had had two fits of that nature the night before the fatal occurrence; also that the attack was unpremeditated, the knife in her possession, having been used that night to cut tooth-brushes for the circle of “dippers” that gather around the snuff-box on festive occasions among people of the class to which these belonged; for, contrary of the romantic impressions that have gone abroad concerning the affair, the parties seem to have been uneducated persons in humble life, Kate Sothern being an uncultured country girl and the ‘accomplished and coquettish” Miss Cowart, an ignorant coarse woman about thirty, with a reputation by no means sans reprr.che, while the “ball-room” was a “grand saloon” six. teen feet by eighteen, with two beds in it; facts which impair the elegant romance of the story— bnt, as showing the condemned woman to be un cultivated and likely to resent in a rough man ner a rival's coarse insult—afford a better extenu ating circumstance than her sex; while her youth, the misery she has suffered, her infirmity of the brain; devotion to her husband and to the little child, born seven months after the murder, strongly appeal to our sympathies. Your paper is discontinued at the ex piration of the time paid for. LOCAL ITEMS. Con. Robert Bonner is still raising the dead with his pads. We have been pleased to meet our Georgia brethren of the quill this week. The new Directory for Atlanta will be out this week and will be by far the best ever pub lished of this city. Dr. W. J. Land, our distinguished analytical chemist, will soon begin a series of illustrated scientific lecture^ in this city. His first will be delivered on the 28th inst. We had a pleasant call from J. W. Angier, the faithful and gentlemanly agent of the Eclectic Magazine. We can commend this publication to our readers. We have a card from Mr. Sidn ey Root, for merly of this city, but now of New York, stat ing that he will make Atlanta his residence after the lGch inst. A gentleman of this city after taking a charm ing lady eight miles with a fine turnout seated her on the river bank at Iceville in sweet antic ipation of a delightful confab when she opened up by saying: ‘My dear sir, I have nothing in the world to talk to you about; and as for your self, you have but two ideas in your head and I have had the full bonefit of them as we came out, so we will hold a Quaker meeting and listen to the music of the waters,’ It was with some dif ficulty that the gallant adorer was saved from the Chattahoochee. The ameteur Dramatic Association of our city is preparing a choice bill of fare, to be given about the 22d of the present month. The rep utation of the association is established and we doubt not the forthcoming entertainment will draw deservingly well. Dehair’s celebrated composition ‘The Storm,’ as arranged for the piano by the popular duetto writers, Kunkle Bros., has just been published. We are in receipt of a copy from the publisher, Mr. C. D. Benson, of Nashville, Tenn., and we take pleasure in recommending it to onr readers. Do not forget that on the evening of the sev enteenth of May, the beautiful drama—A Queen’s Coronation or Titania’s Gift—will be performed at the Opera House, for the benefit of the Ladies’ Memorial Association. The piece consists of a lovely ideal story, told by a suc cession of finished poems, by arch and grace ful acting and exquisite tableaux. There are a great number of performers, each of whom will be beautifully costumed; the scenic effect will be fine. Indians in San Antonio, Texas. They are still killing and stealing on this side of the river. They were reported to be about forty in number, well armed and mounted on good horses. They were eight days in the coun try, and no troops nor any person wonld follow them, all being afraid and not certain of the nnmber of Indians, who were dividod into sev eral parties. STOLEN CHILDREN. Mr. W. H. Steele, living near Fort Ewell, has written a most pathetic letter to General Ord, requesting him to use his influence to recover the two boys stolen by the Indians, for the re covery of whom he offers a reward of $500. Mr. Steele’s letter concludes as follows: 'Please, for the sake of a broken-hearted wo man and in the interest of onr common human ity, do what yon can with these Mexican offi cials, so that the children may be restored.’ General Ord had the letter printed in English and Spanish, and it will be put in the hands of all the officers, American and Mexican, on both sides of the river. Besides carrying off Mr. Steele’s children, the raiders murdered his brother and all hie she _ herds, which ie probably the late of the boys