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JOHN n. SEALS, - Editor and Proprietor. W. B. SEALS, ■ Proprietor and Cor. Editor, MRS. MARY E. BRYAN (*) Associate Editor, ATLANTA, GEORGIA, JUNE 22, 1878. 'A Beautiful Story With a Fine Moral.—A friend asks ns in regard to the pro priety of lending “ Johnathan ” to a lady rela tive. Certainly we should have no hesitation, about suggesting it to any young lady, and in- d eed we wish it could be read by every one We commend it in the first place as a touching little story most agreeably told. We do not know when we have seen a sweeter picture than we have here of the quiet country Village where Johnathan plied his hammer and the gentle, lady like school-mistress came to follow her vocation. The whole scene forms a delightful idyl which only lacks numbers to leave upon the mind the impression of being one of the finest poems in any language. But beautiful as it is. there was something besides beauty aimed at by the authoress. While so eminently pleasing from the charms of its style, it is made the vehicle for teaching some very valuable lessons. One of these is the great truth directly enunciated in Holy Writ and confirmed by thousands of instances in human experience, that sin will almost surely find the sinner. Here we see a man rich, pros perous, and seemingly of good character who has done a great wrong to one of the poorest and feeblest of all the community. Studiously care ful of his reputation, he has taken every pre caution to hide his sin, and it seems for a time that his efforts will be successful. But by a chain of circumstances, which, though probable could not have been anticipated, his guilt be comes known to the very person from whom he is most solicitous to conceal it, and the cup of joy is dash away just as he was raising it to his lips. But there is another lesson taught, quite as important and perhaps even more needed than this. The lovely young school-mistress, poor, and craving the comforts of wealth for herself and her mother, promptly resigns the suitor who has offered her love and is able to give her the luxuries of an elegant home, when she be comes aware that he has acted the part of seduc er. Thus must every woman act who would preserve free from the slightest stain the purity of her character. If this course were followed more, we should have happier women and bet ter men. Women do not sufficiently appreciate the fact that they can in a great degree make men what they would have them be. Of oourse there are male bipeds who are incapable of be ing led to a virtuous life by the best of women. We hops for no such UtODia in wbicll nil j tuo men shall be gentlemen. But*'there is a large class who are now more or less licentious who would not be so if the women whom they choose to marry would firmly require purity of life as a requisite to this favor. We know of no 1 valid reason why the high standard of virtue in sisted upon by the one sex should not be as j strongly insisted upon by the other. More ‘Cruel Provocation* than Kate Sothern had, yet no Murderess and no ‘Heroine’ There has been an over-full chrism of sympa thy poured out upon Kate Sothern—the woman who killed her husband's paramour. Purses have been made up for her, crowds have flocked to see her, the press, in many instances, have glorified her, novices with the pen have rashly rushed into print as her champions, and women, gentle and pure, have hailed Ijpr as a heroine— ‘the one woman of ten thousand who dared de- defend the honor of her home.’ How silly, if not sinful, some of the sentimental gush has been! Every one pities Kate Sothern—young wife and mother, who in a moment of blind rage stain ed her hands with blood, but shall she be paint ed as a Venus, shall she be exnlted as a heroine, a saint and martyr for no earthly reason but be cause she has broken the law of God and man and committed a deed at which the gentle in stincts of her sex should have recoiled with hor ror ? Is this sufficient to proclaim her a ‘uoble, Christian woman,’ a ‘model of her sex,’ and to paint her as a second Helen with a ‘brow pure as the dew-bleached magnolia leaf and a form and face instinct with matchless graces.’ Strip the facts of their romantic excrescences and there remains the truth that Kate Sothern, common place, uneducated and somewhat weak minded and hysterical girl married a man whom she knew to be a libertine and entangled with another woman, and two months afterwards, at her father's house to which this other woman came an invited guest, stabbed her insolent rival, while her friends and the miserable apol ogy for a husband looked on at the fight; and then made her escape, leaving her sister, a child of fifteen, to suffer in ner place, and be con demned to the penetentiary as accessory to the deed, because the avenger of blood called for some object to punish. This then is Kate Sothern's claim to be called ‘heroine' ‘noble Christian woman’ and ‘martyr.’ Because she committed the orimein a moment of frenzy, because she is young and has suffer ed much already, and because she bears the ho ly title of mother, I rejoice that our good gov ernor commuted this woman’s death sentence to ten years of penal servitude and that she is now comfortably established as one of the cooks on Col. Smith’s convict-worked farm where she has the companionship of her sister and of her husband (if the company of such a husband be esteemed a blessing) and the presence of her little child, and where she enjoys, thanks to Mrs. Smith’s kindness, more real advantages than she would at her ewn home. I rejoice in all this, as fully as I honor the kindly sympa thy and the loyalty to their sex manifested by the many ladies, North and South, who have pe titioned Gov. Colquitt for a fuli pardon of Mrs. Sothern, who have sent her money and advocat ed her cause. But when she is held up as a model, and we are told to copy her example and defend the honor of our homes,” there I beg leave to withdraw from the army of Kate’s advocates. Defend our homes! Why, if all the wo'uen similarly aggrieved should set out to defend their homes in Mrs. Sothern’s fash ion, domestio peace would become obselete and convict-farms” would have more cooks upon | them than mush to be cooked or male mouths I to eat it. ! How many women are there in this broad ] land, who have had wrongs imposed upon them j similar to Kate Sotherns, but far, far greater, yet I who have borne them silently and given no sign. “Save fading lips and whitening tresses?” How many women are there who endure not only unfaithfulness, but scorn and neglect, derous hand? Yet no revenge was sought by this wronged wife, no community was convuls ed with excitement on her aocount, her children and her home suffered no want of attention be cause of her wrongs, no bloody tragedy was en acted save in the bleeding heart, and ov6r that was dropped,the curtain of woman’s silent en durance. Was there no heroism in this? Did it not take more strength of soul to keep down the throes of outraged love and trust than to arm Kate Sothern’s avenging knife ? ‘ Spare her: I know her temptation,’ wrote a New York woman of Kate Sothern. Yes; spare her; give her even full acquittal if you think best, but never apotheosize such a woman, neve? exalt her into a heroine, nor fling the glamour of' ro mance about her, that other women similarly tempted, may emulate her in ‘heroism’and seek in her way to ‘ defend the honor of their homes , as men do and are acquitted fordoing.’ Men are not the preservers of home peace and unity. It is not into their hands that the true regis of domestic union and purity is committed. If it were, God pity the broken homes and forlorn children there would be ! Man stands arrayed in the brave'nniform of honor and guards the outer door ofjtke domestic temple, woman is the priestess who stands beside the altar of the inner penetralia and keeps ever burning the purify ing flame of virtue and devotion. Ah ! too many women have known Mrs. Soth ern’s temptation—have felt the keen pang of wrong, the wild frenzy of jealousy, even the sting of a coarse rival’s taunt, and yet because duty to themselves, their children and their God, was paramount to the selfish thirst of re venge, they have dreamed not of defending the honor of their homes by bloodshed; they have taken up the burden of work, the cross of en durance and found peace and consolation there in; have throned sweet mother-love on the ashes of wifely affection, and died with a pray er on their lips, leaving to their children no legacy of dark and blood-stained recollections to cloud the thought of ‘mother. ’ * Growing Old Gracefully. —A friend has asked us to say if one can grow old without becoming unlovely, and if so, how it can be done. As regards the possibility, our fair friend has proof in the person of a parent, who though i fo* the sake of their own respect, for the sake past the age assigned by the Psalmist as the pe- of kee P in g P eaoe in their children’s homes, they riod of human life, still commands the esteem > endure in silence, only pressing their babies’ and admiration of a host of friends. heads close to their bosoms when the heart Of the way, we can only offer the recipe which the Physi cian gave Lucy Snow; ‘Cultivate happiness.’— which is but another form of saying, cultivate goodness. Nothing, we apprehend, will bring on the marks of age more rapidly than the in dulgence of depressing emotions, nor will any thing render the marks more unlovely than the cherishing of wicked passions. There are in the lives of many, griefs which no prudence can evade. But if one suffers with patient resigna tion, sorrow will purify the heart and impart a higher type of beauty to the person. If she would grow old gracefully, she must cherish faith in God and warm love for her race. These sentiments will impart to the face that trans cendent loveliness which a hundred artists have sought to put upon canvass in their conceptions of the Mother of our Saviour. It is the fault more than the misfortune of people if they are unattractive in old age. It is either because they have allowed evil passions to hold posses sion of their hearts, or because they have not bowed meekly to the will of Providence, and sought to find a blessing in its sternest decrees. Again, if we would have age graceful, the life must have been busy. There must be work for the hand or the brain, not from the sordid mo tive of accumulating wealth, but from the high er wish of benefitting the race. Many very busy men and women have become intensely ugly as they grew old;—but it was because they labored for unworthy objects. An active be nevolence that is constantly seeking some op portunity to exercise itself, will invest its pos sessor with a halo of beauty. Good deeds are better adornings than diamonds. The World’s Movers.—The number of persons who have done anything towards carry ing the world forward is really small. Even of our progressive race, the great mass, if unstirred by a. few master minds, would stand still. It is owing to the thoughts and acts of a small num ber of men that we to-day enjoy so large a share of civil and religious freedom. Left to them selves, the masses would soon quietly submit to the domination of some ambitious spirit, or yield implicitly to priestly rule. What a nation becomes depends .really on the few men who oontrol its destinies. within feds most like breaking, but praying for the faithless husband, working for him, loving him, trying to lead him into purer paths? Yet these women are never called heroines. I know women in this very city who work and whose earnings are partly spent by their hus bands upon wantons. Let me tell you of one instance because it is parallel to Kate Sothern’s in so much that the woman, like her, is country raised, young, poor, unoultured: she is however far more refined and sensitive than the Pickens county heroine. This woman has a dissolute husband and three little children. She has worked hard all her married life; she keeps her humble home bright and clean, yet she fails to win her husband from his vices—vices which she, marrying at fifteen, pure and untaught in the world’s wickedness, could not suspect. Last year, her father gave her the use of a few acres of land upon which she planted cotton. She worked it herself, with her little chil d to heip her. What plowing she hired done, she paid for by sewing and washing; the hoeing she and her little boy, ten years old, did themselves. Her children and herself were without shoes, without decent clothes. Barefoot, they walked to the little patch every day, the husband doing “outside jobs,” and spending his wages himself. “Never mind,"she would say to her little chil dren, “when we make our bale of cotton, you shall have good shoes and whole clothes and can go to school in the winter.” At last the cotton was made, picked out by the hopeful, busy fin gers of mother and children, packed and ready to be sold. The woman could not take it to market herself, her child was sick and she could not go with it She trusted the precious bale, freighted with so many hopes, to her hus band. He brought it to Atlanta, was gone two weeks and came back without a dollar, or a yard of cloth or other article for his family. Th« cotton made with so much labor—the cotton that meant shoes for bare feet and clothes for chilled limbs during the winter that was now at hand— this cotton was sold, and its proceeds spent in a den of infamy. Was not the pang of disap pointment and wrong, that struck deep to the wife’s heart as she gathered her children in her arms and wept with them, greater than the j sense of injury that nerved Mrs. Sothern’s mur- Petty Pilfering. —Stealing in a small way is one of the greatest blisters of Southern hu manity. Rape indeed is it to find a farmer who does not hav e to fret over the appropriation of his fruit, chickens and eggs by those who have forgotten their fear of the lash and have not learned to fear the law. What remedy can be suggested for the evil ? If we should attempt to arrest, try and punish by fine and imprison ment every son of Ham who steals a bag of ap ples or a nest of eggs our counties would be bankrupted by the costs. Besides, fine and im prisonment are not penalties which inspire much terror in the African breast. Few of them grieve much over the loss of money if they hap pen to have it, and as for being confined in jail where they are fed and not required to work, they regard it as a luxury. Some are hoping that education will improve the matter. But we have not yet found that learning ‘ABC from Webster’s Spelling Book ’ tends at all to lessen the ccbfounding of meum and tuum in the Ethiopian hlf in. We most heartily endorse the position of (Tie negro who advocates the revival ot whippiip^'* a mode of punishment, and we think his wisdom deserving of encouragement. The last would diminish the number of petty crimes, and ’ye know of nothing else that would. How Royalty Rides.—Mr. Stephen son the New York Car-manufacturer is now building a superb, street car for the use of Dom Pedro, the Emperor of Brazil. The Dom will use it in going from his country house to his executive mansion. It is described as artisti cally finished in ash, basswood, plain and wild cherry, and plain and bird’s-eye maple, the roof of perforated wood. The oolors of the exterior are the national ones of Brazil—green and gold —the Brazilian arms occupying the middle pan els on either side, with Sketches of American scenery in the other panels, There are five windows all of plate glass. The metal work is niokel-plated. The prevailing oolor of the inte rior is dark blue, the furniture being a sofa, two chairs, and a centre table in the Eastlake style. The lambrequins are of dark blue leather, having black velvet borders and a fringe of wooden tassels, a large central lamp, on the doors mir rors, and mirrors between the windows. The panels are decorated with landscapes, and the floor will be carpeted with Axminister. Wire gates protect the platforms, and a life guard is arranged to prevent persons from getting under the wheels.’ Pedro’s street car however is surpassed in cost liness by the saloon rail-way carriage of her Brit ish Majesty which cost thirty thousand dollars. Yet the Empress’ Indian subjects are many of them starving. * Wll.lt Do YVe Hate.—B. F, Butler says he does not hate the Southern people, but he hates their ways. Perhaps he believes that there is really a distinction in the two, and thinks himself not quito so bad a man. The difference however, to our apprehension lies only in the words. What is it in people we like or dislike ? Certainly not tberf bodies. We do indeed ad mire a fine figtT*> in a man, and a beautiful face of a woman; and! were this all we knew of them, we might regard them with much such feelings as we look upon the Apollo Belvidere or the Greek Slave. But it is the beauty or deformity of the soul that awakens our love or excites our ha tred. When the vital spark has fled—when vir tues no more command our reverence, nor vices stir our loathing, the cold, lifeless form awakes in us neither the one sentiment nor the other. We hasten to hide it away from our sight Though we may shed tears as we lay it away in the narrow house, we feel that it is no part of *w. which we loved—it is not for that moulder ing clay we weep. Nor would we, like the bar barous hero of Troy, treat with indignity the in animate body of him whom while living, we re garded with the sternest resentment, and op posed with all the force of hand and brain. It was not the head,1nor the body, nor the limbs that we hated, but the spirit within that made these act in a manner to arouse our indignation. If Mr. Butler says he hates not our bodies we can believe him. But if he hates our ways, he to all intents and purposes hates us. A Desirable Gift.—What a very desira ble gift it would be to be able always to say the right thing at the right time—a gift which we suspect, however, is possessed only by the dwellers in Utopia. With this many would be eloquent who are now but mute inglorious Mil- tons, and others would be the life of every con vivial circle who have never been known to say a fine thing in their lives. Who has not thought of very brilliant sayings that he could have ut tered if they had only oqfiurred to him at the proper time? We think that Greek must have been a dull fellow who said he had never re gretted having been silent. Had his imagina tion been at all active, he would have thought of hundred of instances in which he missed ma king himself famous by not having uttered at the right time the smart sayings which he thought of a little later. Biographers—if one should be deemed worthy to be written upon— supply, as far as they are able, this lack of read iness on the part of their heroes. It is a strik ing instance of how men can sometimes merge themselves into those whom they admire, when historians put their, own fine expressions into the months of those about whom they are writ ing. Porus would have deemed it a happy thought to have said that he would like to be treated dike a king,’ but unfortunately it did not occur to him when brought before his cap- tor, and if the conqueror of Gaul had said to the frightened sailor just at the right time, ‘Why do you fear? You carry Ciesar,’ it would have afforded him as great pleasure as the conquest of the Helvetia. Thousands oi ‘the gems of his* tory’ if carefully examined in regard to authen ticity would be found to have been not the im- promptues of those to whom they are attributed, but the studied wit of the histriographer. Still we do not mean to say that persons never have happy thoughts at the right moment. Of course, they do. But such cases are rare compared with the instances in which the individual says nothing or makes an inappropriate speech. Giving Iutroillictioiis:—When we intro duce one man to another, we rarely mean any thing more than to let the parties know each other’s names. Sometimes, however, even among men, the introducer becomes a voucher for the character of the party introduced. This is, or at least should always be the case when a man introduces another man to a lady. He should never do so unless he can vouch for the standing of the party introduced, for his act is nothing less than a recommendation. We fear that this rule is violated tnoughtlessly by many to whom we should dislike to deny the name of gentleman. At balls and other social gatherings young men who are not of a worthy class often ask for introductions to young ladies, and the men of whom they make the request have not the moral courage to refuse. True the rules of society permit a young lady to pass a ball room acquaintance unrecognized if subsequent in quiries have led her to know that he is unwor thy. But it would be far better if her male friends would spare her the pain of making such discriminations by introducing to her on ly such men as she may safely know. The Connecting Gink.—Physiologists tell us that in from five to seven years all the particles of the human body are changed. Whether they be correct or not as to the time, it is quite certain that changes are perpetually going on in our bodies and that after a time we have really a different set of bones, muscles and sinews. How then do we preserve our identity? How do we retain a consciousness of being the same persons we were ten, fifteen or twenty years ago ? Memory is the connecting link. It is this which binds together the man of yester day and to-day. Without this faculty, every period of existence would become a distinct life with no apprehension of anything preceding it. Perhaps we appreciate memory sufficiently as the faculty by which we retain knowledge; but we are not want to think of it as the sole means of rendering a personal history possible. Yet it is true that without this we could not have the consciousness of having lived, suffered or enjoyed five minutes ago. Memory makes our lives. Drank at the Altar —We are told that a young man was lately married in this city so drunk that he could hardly stand long enough to promise to ‘love and cherish’ the too confid- • ing creature that leaned on his arm and inhal ed his odorous breath. Indeed he could never have ‘stood up to the rack,’ as one of the wit nesses said, if two of his comrades had not tak en him out and walked him around, until his manly pegs were sufficiently sober to admit of standing upright, though tottering under the weight of his new responsibility. The bride did not belong to the new order of girls, lately inaugurated by that Cincinnati young lady who refused at the very altar to marry a young man because his breath smelled of liquor. Her friends remonstrated; would she spoil the wedding? ‘Yes,’ said the noble girl, ‘rather than spoil my life forever. He prom ised me he would never drink again, he has broken his promise; he would break his mar riage vows as well.’ Every true woman and man should glory in her firmness and good sense. If all girls followed her example, we should hear of fewer wretched • wives, and the practice of ‘'priming' for the marriage ceremony on the part of the bride groom, would be done away with. * The Hero Brothers.—Following the fine picture of Lieut. Gen. Joseph Wheeler, already announced as in preparation for the Sunny South, we shall present a magnifi cent double picture, appropriately border ed with martial designs, from one of the most eminent engravers in the country, of the Hero-Brothers’ who fell in the terrible ‘Battle of Atlanta.,’ July 22, 1864, No more gallant or chivalrous young soldiers entered the Confederate service, or died more heroically on the battle field, bravely facing and fighting the foe, than Capt. Joseph Clay Habersham, of Gen. Gist’s staff, in Walker’s division, and Private William Neyle Haber sham, Jr., Company F, 54th Georgia Regiment; the noble sons of Mr. William Neyle Haber sham, of Savannah, Ga. The sketch of their lives and the record of their heroic death will melt the hearts of our readers with the deepest sympathy for the still sorrowing and bereaved, though patriotic and submissive parents, whose two sons bravely fell in the same battle, and within a few hours of each other. Diet and Physical Development. Wirtes a gentleman of Indianapolis: ‘In your recent sensible remarks about the physical de velopment of girls, you omitted one suggestion that I confidently expected from one who has so often written about the influence of diet upon health. I believe you are a vegetarian; has diet nothing to do with physical develop ment?’ Beginning Wrong.—Among the many false sayings current among men, none is more erroneous than that a bad beginning makes a good ending. It is time that people, who are not discouraged by one, two or a half dozen failures in the outset, may and most generally do, eventually succeed by dint of perseverence. But if they begin wrong, it is anything else than a favorable augury of a successful career. A false step need not be irrimediable, but with very many people it proves to be so. We know young men who begin life by spending more than their income; who stretch their credit to its utmost limits and then betray the confidence reposed in them. We cannot believe that the after part of their career will be successful. Most of them will continue as they begin, and the end will be suicide or the felon’s cell. But if they would, as some do, listen to the dictates of common sense, be taught by experience, and submit to the hand that corrects their errors, they may indeed become both better and more successful men by having begun wrong. Two Little Girls Smothered in a Trunk.— An awful catastrophe took place, near Dixon, Missouri, last week. Mrs. Amelia Moenck, teacher of German in the Franklin school at St. Louis, has two little girls of five and eight years, beautiful and intelligent little creatures, whom she is obliged to leave with their father on his farm, near Dixon, a hundred and thirty miles from St. Louis. School was soon to close, the mother was fondly anticipating a reunion with her family when came the cruel dispatch that both little girls were dead, smothered in a trunk while playing, their father having gone to town to mail a letter to his wife. The coming home of the poor mother was far different from that her hopes had painted. * Mr. Henry Grady, by urgent request, will de liver, in this City oa next Thursday night, his unique and beautiful lecture, ‘The Patch Work Palace.’ . * It certainly has, and though we are not strict ly vegetarian, and like a broiled steak or Spring chicken occasionally, we have no doubt that a diet composed largely of meats especially * fried meats, ‘fatty’biscuits, highly spiced condiments, strong coffee, rich pastries etc., is most unfavor able to pure, sound health, clear complexions or fine physiques. Many of the most wholesome and nutritious articles of food that are almost constant dishes in other countries are rarely seen upon our table. The apple, which cooked or fresh is the chief food of the active Paris grisette, baked beans that the rosy New Englanders eat three times a day, oat meal from which the long-lived, sturdy Scotchman draws his brawn, and muscle, these seldom appear on the Southern table. The healthiest and the most nutritious article of food that we can get is oat meal properly cooked Some one says: ‘Oatmeal, now found on every gentleman’s breakfast table, was, a few years ago, used exclu sively by the Scotch and Irish. Dr. Johnson, who, in his hatred of the Scotch, lost no oppor tunity of saying a bitter word against them, de fined oats as in Scotland food for Scotchmen, but in England food for horses. ‘Yes,’ answered an indignant Scotchman, ‘where can you find such men as in Scotland, or such horses as in England?' We have heard of a shrewd old Scotch mother who used to make her family eat oatmeal first, saying: ‘The bairn who eats the most porritch will get the most meat after it.’ But the bairn who gained the prize always found himself too full to enjoy the meat. It is mentioned in a most charming book, The Life and Letters of Lord Macauly, that Carlyle, catching a sight of Macaulay’s face in repose, remarked, ‘well any one can see that you are an honest, good sort of a fellow, made out of oat meal.’ If oatmeal can ‘make such men as Walter Scott, Dr. Chalmers, and Lord Macaulay, we may well heap high the porritch dish, and bribe our chil dren to eat of it. One thing we do know, that it is far better for the blood and brain than cake, confections, and the scores of delicacies on which many pale little pets are fed by their foolishly fond mothers. ‘The Queen’s Own,’ a regiment of almost gi ants, recruited from the Scotish Highlands, are, as Carlyle said of Macaulay, ‘ made of oat meal.’ So boys who want height, and breadth, and muscle, and girls who want rosy cheeks and physical vigor, should turn from hot bread and other indigestibles, to ‘ this food for Scotchmen and horses.’ * Cloutlinc Thoughts in YVords.— Many modern essayists use words of learned length, and their periods flow with sonorous grandeur very pleasing to the ear. But what they are talking about it would take one as learned as themselves to tell. They write good English we suppose, though many of their words are rarely seen outside of a Lexicon. We pre sume their sentences could be parsed by the rules of Lindley Murray, though nothing short of such rigid analysis can ascertain *the relation which the several clauses bear to each other. When you have read a whole essay of such writing, you are at a total loss to determine which side of the question the author has taken, nor could you for your life tell where he started, nor to what conclusion he has arrived. What a contrast between this grandly obsoure litera ture, and the clear,{luminous sentences of Mao- auly. With him the paramount consideration was to be understood, and to this he hesitated not to saerfioe any other grace of style. He fre quently discuss'ed subjects of great abstrusness yet he never failed to make himself under stood. The difficulty with our modern philoso phers is that they have but a dim idea of what they attempt to write about and of oourse they cannot make others understand what they do not understand themselves.