Newspaper Page Text
JOHN R. SEALS, - Editor and Proprietor
W. B. SEALS, - Proprietor and Cor. Editor.
HRS. MARY E. BRYAN (•) Associate Editor.
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, JULY 6, 1878.
Princess of Thurm and Taxis, a third the Coun
tess of Trani, and the fourth the Duchess of
d’Alenoon—of a sudden he saw detach itself
on the skirts of a neighboring wood that the
setting sun was streaking in red and yellow like
the stained glass in the windows of a church,
the admirable form of a young girl all in white,
followed by an enormous dog. The sun set her
dress a-sparkling in a thousand points of light,
and she came forward in the halo of an appari
tion, her magnificent hair streaming over her
shoulders,' It was the Princess Elizabeth: at
sight of her, the heart of the Emperor felt itself
fixed. Some days afterwards, at a ball at Ischl,
he passed almost all the evening in dancing
with the lady he called ‘the fairy of the forest;
and so he marked his preference publicly.’
Mr. GEO. W. NORMAN will please
commmunicate with this office without
delay.
Accurate Knowledge.—A very great
defect in our system of education is that it aims
fa r more at teaching much than at teaching
well. Youths are encouraged to be satisfied
with a smattering. They are carried over a vast
field and impressed with the idea that they have
learned a great deal, when really they know
nothing as they should. The knowledge *hich
they have is so much a mere glimmering as to
be of little worth when accuracy is demanded.
How very few persons could stand a close, not
to say rigid examination, upon the most com
mon branches taught in our schools Not many
could write a page without misspelling a word,
or making some blunder in punctuation. Not
one in a hundred of those who ‘have been
through’ Cornell’s Series of Geographies could
read a chapter of Travels or History intelligent
ly. In Arithmetic the teaching is a little better;
yet there are many who could not tell you the
price of an article at a given per cent on the
cost price. Our merchants however render this
knowledge unnecessary by simply charging two
dollars for what has cost them one. When we
come to what is studied in the High Schools,
the lack of accuracy is still more marked. Of
the hundreds who study the classics, not a doz
en could safely venture on a classical allusion,
or understand one when made by others. We
of course do not expect a technical education to
be afforded by oqr common schools. We do not
expect young men to pass from college into pro
fessional callings without some special training.
But what we do expect is that they should be
so drilled as to know well what they know at
all. Pope says, ‘a little learning is a danger
ous thing,’and he was right from the standpoint
whenee he was looking. It is dangerous, ex-)
ceedingly so, if we grow\_presumptuous from
over estimating the amount and the value of
what we know. But a little, well known, is of
-more practical worth than a smattering of a
great deal. -‘Beware,’ says an old adage, ‘of the
man of one book,’ and the reason why such an
antagonist is to be feared is that he who has
i —i— ia ant. t.n lrnnw that, one
Francis *I»sc|ili.-IIis Busy Lite,
His Uoinantic Marriage.—M. Tissot’s
new book about Germany, Vienna and the Vien
nese is as vivid and interesting as one of Hugo’s
novels, and is interspersed with graphic de
scriptions and picturesque legends. The cen
tral figure of Viennese society—the Emperor
Francis Joseph—makes a striking picture as he
paints him, standing amidst the crumbled ruins
of his own convictions, thwarted by destiny,
fettered by his ministers, whom he endures
with stoical resignation, surrounded by decep
tions, yet preserving an unimpaired gentleness,
Says the eloquent M. Tissot: ‘Francis Joseph
has been elevated not lowered by his misfor
tunes. On all the thrones that surround his, I
see bo grander or more sympathetic figure than
that of this king in the torn mantle, whose ex
istence has been one political Calvary. Perhaps
there has never been a sovereign that like him
has carried the very flower of his youth on to
the steps of a tottering throne, who has shown
like him on all occasions so grand a po wer of
self-abnegation, so strong a sentiment of duty,
and who has so invariably sacrificed his person
and his interests to those of his people.'
M. Tissot thus presents the picture of the
Emperor’s busy and austere life—a life,'strange
enough for an Emperor in the midst of gay and
pleasure loving Vienna:
‘ He loves literature, music, and arts. His
private library is that of a man of study and a
man of taste. In this Vienna, so hcngry after
pleasure, he leads the existence of a conscien
tious functionary. He seldom goes to the the
atre, much as he adores the opera; he only
shows himself when he is compelled to do so;
at fetes and brilliant assemblies. At the hour
when the Viennese life is beginning, he retires
to rest; and at five o clock, in winter as in sum
mer, this active, laborious, vigilant prince is
invariably up and about. After his prayer, the
Emperor breakfasts on a cup of cafe au-lait,
placed on his desk; and while reading his de
spatches and reports, he smokes one of those
long ‘Virginias,’ which are the favorite cigars of
the Viennese. At eleven they bring him a ba
sin of soup or a glass of beer, and he continnes
at his work till the dinner-hour, when he usu
ally dines with his family.’
His only recreation is a few days.hunting in
his magnificent, game-filled grounds of Ischl.
He is passionately fond of rural scenes and
sports and- is said to have fallen in love with
his wife, because, though a princess, she had
been reared more like a farmer’s lass, or a
reclnse’s daughter than like a scion of royalty,
and she had the freshness and freedom of one
who had grown up among the wild loneliness
of nature
Read Before You SigiL-Persons are
often criminally reckless about signing papers
without having carefully informed themselves
in regard to the contents. Especially is this
true when the appeal is made to their good na
ture, and the question is one not likely to affect
their own personal interests. For instance, peo
ple frequently sign certificates to the characters
of individuals of whom they know almost noth
ing. They endorse applications for offices with
out carefully considering the fitness of the ap
plicant for the place. But perhaps more mis
chievously reckless than either of these is the
facility with which they sign petitions for the
pardon of criminals, when they have never
weighed the testimony and are perhaps not
aware of a single circumstance that would pal
liate the guilt. One can hardly be so bad, or so
flagrantly guilty that nobody will sympathize
with him, or wish him to escape the penally ot
his misdeeds. Pitying frieD<ls move petitions,
and the inconsiderate sign them, and the mag.-
istrates who are sworn to sustain the law are be
set by appeals to their clemency, in a- compli
ance with which they are assured that they will
please many. Much of this would be avoided
if every person would make it a matter of con
science never to sign any instrument without
being fully informed in regard to its contents
clouds that turn to richest gold when the sun
parts their shining drapery, and
“Aslant the dew bright earth and colored air
In boundless majesty looks forth—’’
all these, with the roar of the engine, the volume
of smoke that streams in its wake, and the ex-
hilirating joy cansed by the rapid motion, com
bine to produce that elevated state in which the
senses seem freed from bodily incumbrance,
and quickened into fuller and keener percep
tion by some subtle, spiritnal influence.
Bat how differ ntly the same objects affect
different minds! Mrs. Jones, who has been
asleep with her mpath open and her bonnet
awry, lifts her h^id from the shoulder of the
meek individual/ she calls husband, exclaims
that it is 'moSt day, thank Goodness !” asks if
her collar is pinned “straight,” and wishes
she had a cup of hot coffee, while the fat
man, just before her, grnmblingly declares
himself hungry enough to eat his grand
mother, and wondars when in the nation they
are going to stop f»r breakfast. Meantime, the
school miss, who is brimfull of sentiment,
smothem a yawn behind her Soa side Elition of
Jane Eyre, and, turning to her attendant beau,
asks if does not aioiire the pretty “streaks” in
the clouds, and hiving received as an answer,
that they are not hall as charming as the color
in her cheeks, simpers and takes out her pocket
mirror and toilet box to powder her face on the
sly.
Some people, like gnomes, are blind to the
grandeur of nature or the true beauty of art.
Standing wbere^^l^gara’s torrent thrills,” they
would listen for tly* dinner gon», or, if femi
nine, would be concerned for fear the spray
would take the curl out of their frizzes. *
The Rest of Governments. -It is a
piece of presumptuous dogmatism to say that
anv government is the best that the world ever
saw. Whether a government is good or bad de
pends entirely on the character of its subjects.
A government might be theoretically perfect,
and yet be wholly unsuited to those whom it is
designed lo benefit. Our government, which
claims no strength save the law-abiding princi
ples of its citizens, would certainly not be able
to preserve life and property among the savages
j of Timbuctoo or of the Feegee Islands. On the
ether hand, the autocracy of Russia under which
that people have developed into civilization anfi
greatness would hardly have achieved such a
destiny for our country as our institutions have
done. Nor are we to conclude that because a
government is once good, it must always be so.
As the manners and de? ree of civilization
,00 »o nee-
change, changes in the orgi^/jia^
-M-f—*, -a~ at other ti/L’/S;
when opposed by a bigoted adnerence to estab
lished customs, it requires the convulsive
throes of a revolution. Any form of government
is good if it enjoys the love and cheerful obedi
ence of its subjects, and none can be good
against which they rebel. Perhaps onr idea can
have a realization only in Utopia; but it is onr
opinion that if the people could, without in
fluence of force or prtjudice select their form
of government, they would always have the one
best suited to them, and which would therefore
be the best of governments.
‘Till all the beauty of the place
Was in her heart and in her face.’
M. Tissot has nothing prettier in his pictur
esque book than his sketch of the romantic
meeting of this yonng prince and princess:
‘He married a princess who was almost a
shepherdess. She lived in the mountains with
her sisters and an old bonhomme of a father, a
kind of country gentleman, who dressed him
self in coarse cloth, and .his daughters in wool.
She had not been brought up for the throne,
and it was one of her sisters that they destined
for the youthful Emperor. Francis-Joseph ar
rived one evening in hunting-dress at his future
father’s-in-law, on the banks of the Lake of
Traun. As he was chatting before the house
the four young girls—who are since be-
one the Queen of Naples, another the
Hard Run for Sensations.—The Press is
hard run for sensations. The Public—fed so
long on highly-spiced condiments that its pal
ate rejects plain food—calls out like Oliver
Twist for * more. ’ A hard effort was made in
Washington to have Congress expire in the
stench of a pretty strong sensation, but there
are fears that it will prove a failure. In sheer
desperation, poor Wilkes Booth has b9en un
earthed, and some fresh sensations hung about
his defenceless ghost; one among them being,
.that in shooting Lincoln, it was not the Brutus,
but the Othello role he enacted, that he and
Robert Lincoln, son of Abraham, were rival
lovers of Miss’ Bessie Hale—daughter of Senator
Hale, and that in a passion of jealousy Booth
concieved and executed the original idea of kil
ling his rival’s father. Your average sensation-
monger has not imagination enoug h to conceive
any other agents of tragedy than the threadbare
ones of jealousy and revenge. It is a little dam
aging to the Booth seqsation that Mr. Robert
Lincoln comes out in.the Chicago Inter-Ocean,
declaring he never knew Miss Hate, and never
was Booth’s rival in any matters of the heart,
and we’ll all bear him witness he never was in
matters of the head. *
Hay Break From a Car Window.
Nearly all of us, in this day of steam, have wit
nessed the phenomenon. We have seen the
sleepy-looking lamps of the train glimmer and
wink like the eyes of a ball-room belle after a
night’s dissipation, and seem ashamed to be
caught by the fresh, rose-tinted light that comes
peeping through the blinds; we have thrown
back the hair from onr faoe, and, turning away
from the sleepers aronnd us—half buried in
brown veils and slouched traveling caps—have
opened the window and watched
“The picture God hangs daily in the East—”
the glorious picture which no earthly painter
may copy. The panoramic scene of dawn and
sun-rising is at all times grandly beautiful; but
when this triumph of nature is viewed from the
whirling, rushing steam-car—that triumph of
art, the sublimity and impressiveness of th e
scene seem doubly enhanced. To be borne
along with the speed of the condor’s wing, yet
with no effort of onr own—now through gorges
dark with the huddling shadows of night, now
emerging into the light among the quivering
shade of pines, and the rain of the early breeze-
scattered dew; to watch the changing scenery of
the sky, the gradual paling of the stars, the
“first, faint gleaming in the dappj^ East," the
wreathing and varying of the^ iy colored
• . v*—
“ Merry Jlaretzek**- A Chicago corres
pondent of the Home and Farm gives a very pleas
ant description of Madame Maretzek and ner
playing on the harp at a recent concert, of which
Marie Roze was the star. Writes the lady:
•My chief enjoyment of the evening was un
expected; for, when I read the announcement
on the programme that Madame Maretzek would
play on the harp, I was glad, simply besanse I
love the harp and seldom heard it.
What was my amazement to see walking up the
platform-stairs a lady at least sixty years old-
short, very short—fat, very fat! Could she man
age the harp—that instrument of poetic associa
tion, whereat y?e always seat in,our imagination,
a tall, willowy figure, with dreamy eyes and long,
tapering fingers?
Up she tripped, the funny old lady. We knew
she was funny before she was fairly on the plat
form .
“Her eyes—how they twinkled!
Her dimples—liow merry!”
I laughed. rry one was laughing, and yet,
not a word ha i been said.
It was the contagion of good nature—of a heart
overflowing with happiness, walking in its own
sunshine, and lightning with its rays, every face
in that great r<4)in. ,
The little ladk-’s Asst coming wtfs for the pur
pose of playing an obligato for Madame Ilozes
song, which was also to have a piano acconlpa-
nimeut. .
The pianist crossed the stage and seated him
self at his instrument. Madamo Roze swept to
his side, her stately_ beauty heightened - by her
drjss jef.:’s ’here
smiling figure; toi daughter rippled down her
sleeves and rustled in the folds of her black
silk dress. The gray hair was brushed smooth
ly back, but I am sure that hairpins were multi
plied to keep hidden dancing curls. The rib
bon that tiled down the hair was revenged on
the pins, for it twinkled in spite of its blackness.
Madame Maretzek sat down at her harp. There
was a pause. The pi mist waited—Madame Roze
waited —we all waited. What could be the mat
ter ? The dear little woman’s smile was answer
ed all over the audience, and still there was sus
pense. W hat, sou Id the matter be ?
Ah, all was right new! Madame Maretzek has
found her spectacles! Snch a shout oilaughter
as went over the house!
And then the exquisite music began, and we
could only listen.
Madame Maretzek, whose place was assured
in the hearts of her listeners, afterward played
a harp solo; and then we knew that no ordinary
musician was before ns. We were listening to
snch playing as we might never hear a^tin. The
little hands swept over strings that vibrated to
the heart-beat. And a stranger left a memory
that will never die. *
Peaches and Southern Enter
prise.—Among those who stand out promin
ently in the Sonth as men of energy and indom
itable will, none are more worthy of special
mention than S. T. Jenkins, Esq. Though he
makes Atlanta his home, where he prosecutes
with untiring energy several usefnl and import
ant business schemes, he finds the time to man
age most successfully a large Fruit Farm in
South Western Georgia, and is supplying the
whole country from this nursery with fruit
trees and grape vines of any and every variety.
He is the first in Atlanta we believe every year
with delicious peaches frqm this farm and deals
them by the wholesale to the fruit sellers in and
aronnd the city. He gives the matter his per
sonal attention and so great was the demand
this season for his earliest peaches that they
readily commanded $10.00 per bushel. He is
the originator and proprietor of that sterling
and popular Agricultural and Horticultural
journal. The Southern Enterprise through which
he is disseminating broadcast over the Sonth
wholesome and practical information upon these
the most important of all branches of industry,
and his earnest efforts in these fields will be
productive of the richest benefits to the whole
country. In this important work he is assisted
by Col. J. S. Newman, an able and accomplished
gentleman who is connected with the Agricul
tural Bureau of the State, and is possessed of
an exhaustless fund of practical information
upon all these subjects. We say good for Jen
kins and Newman. They are on the rigUt line
and their lebors will tell most effectually upon
the general prosperity of the South.
Tlie Atlanta Female Institute.
—This seminary is one of the bright features in
the educational department of the Gate City.
Mrs. J. D. Ballard, the principal, has > i roven
herself worthy of all commendation. She has
prosecuted her favorite calling for over ten
years, consecrating all her best energies to the
work. Being eminently fitted by nature and
culture for the beautiful art of teaching, no
wonder that her devotion has won for her the
laurel wreath oi excelsior. She deserves* the
great success she has achieved, and well may
she be proud of it. True merit,' after all, be
stows lasting honors. These she has won, no
bly won, and no one wears them more graceful
ly-
This is not spoken as fulsome praise, but ex
pressed as a deserved tribute to a fair lady in
our midst whose good works in this communi
ty as teacher are approved and highly appre
ciated by onr very .best citizens.
The object of this communication is to call
attention of parents at a distance to this fine in
stitution, located on the corner of Church and
Forsyth streets, near the First Methodist
•Church. Mrs. Ballard designs making it a first
class boarding school, find non-residents can
rely upon the very best care and culture of their
children in this splendid institution. The as
sistant teachers are Miss Katie Hillyer, Madame
live this beautiful institution,^the^ prut's" ofTts
exctllent founder, and an ornament of our so
cial fabric. Meritorious.
Historical Record of Macon Ga.
Mr. -J. C. Butler, of Macon, will soon bring out
a handsome volume of 300 pages, giving a com
plete and deeply interesting record of the early
history of that city, ‘going back to the clays of
the Indians.’ He has bestowed immense labor
on the work, and being peculiarly fitted for it,
we feel sure the volume will give universal sat
isfaction. It will not only be interesting to the
people of Macon and Bibb county but to every
citizen of Georgia. The price will be $2,50 per
copy.
The American a& a Politician.—
Mr. Dale, sketching for the Nineteenth Century
the impressions he received of America during
a recent visit to that “land of the free,” says
tue nonchalence of the average American con
cerning the government of his country is a most
remarkable national feature. He says:
The great material prosperity of the Ameri
can people has contributed to make them indif-
lerent to their political and municipal respon
sibilities. Sometimes I was told in a tone of
complaint thac^ogues went into municipal of
fice with no ofher’object than to make money.
“Why don’t you keep them out?” I asked; ‘there
are more honest men in the country than
rogues.”
. “We can’t afford it," was the reply; ‘we are
making money, and on the whole it is cheaper
to be swindled than to give our time to public
work to prevent ourselves from being swin
dled.”
I ventured to answer: “The rogues according
to this account, do public work in order to make
money, and the honest men neglect pnblic work
in order to save money. Judged by the laws of
public morality, there is not much to choose
between them.”
On one point of pnblic duty most Americans
seem to have a conscience—they go to the poll.
To vote seems to be recognized as a duty, ln-
deed, in the old colonial times, every voter in
Virginia was compelled to vote, under a penal
ty ot a hundred pounds of tobacco. But there
are considerable classes—or rather there ire
considerable numbers of men in all olassej—
who have not yet learned that it is the duty of
the citizen of a free country to give time and
labor and money to promote the diffusion of
the politicel principles in which he believes,
and the triumph of the politician whose integ
rity and ability command his confidence. There
are many Americans, as there are many En
glishmen, who have not yet learned that in
claiming the right to govern themselves they
have accepted the responsibility of doing their
part toward maintaining a jnst and wise and
vigorous governmen. In politics, as in every
other region of morals, rights and duties are
inseparable. Free institntions are worthless
nnless they are sustained by the zeal of an in
telligent and virtuous people. *
“Whispering Winds”—This is the
title of a most readable little volume by George
K. Gamp Esq., which will be ready for the
reader this week at the small priee of
50cts. per copy. Don’t fail to read it. Every
article in it is rich and raoy.
The Globe Dramatic Company.—
This popular company which has won tlie high
est encomiums from the press and public of the
South, have been engaged to give an afternoon
and evening entertainment at De Give’s Opera
HonJb on the 4th of July. They will present
the beautiful Society Play by Campbell, entitled
‘Rose Cottage or The True Wife.’ Tickets will'
be only 75 and 50cts.
The Public Schools of Atlanta.—
The paat week has witnessed the closing exer
cises of our pnblic schools for the scholastic
year of 1877 and 1878, and we have the most fa
vorable accounts from all of them. The super
intendent and teachers have been faithful and
antiring and their labors have been crowned
with abundant success.
Editorial Correspondence.
Texas-A run through the state-The
Routes-Texarkaua-Clarksville-
Paris.
Thanks to steam, Texas is no longer ‘A far off
Country.’ A journey of weeks has been nar
rowed down to as many hours. Taking the cars
in Atlanta at two o’clock in the evening on Mon
day, the traveler will eat his breakfast in Tex
arkana Wednesday morning, having made the
run in a little more than two nights and a day,
or about 44 hours. At Chattanooga two routes
are offered, one by way of ColumOus Ky. and
thence by Iron Mountain Road to Little Rock
and on to Texarkana. The other by Memphis
and Charleston and Memphis and Little Rock
Roads to Little Rock, and thence by Iron Moan-
tain Road to Taxarkana. Having recently tried
both, I can confidently assert that they are good
routes, under able management with scarcely
ever an accident. They make the distance in
the same time, and friends separating in Chat
tanooga, are reunited in Little Rock.
TEXARKANA;.
is a new town situated as is supposed, at the
junction of the three States, Texas, Ark., and
La., but it is a mistake, as the Louisiana line
does not approach nearer than two miles of the
town. This is owing to a change in the loca
tion by the Railroads, after the name was made
which, as maybe readily perceived, is a mixture of
the names of the three states. The population I
should judge to be about twelve hundred though
a larger number is claimed by the inhabitants.
The country about it is pool, grown up in long
leaf pine, which is being rapidly sawed up by
numerous large mills, and transported to the
middle and western portions, of the state.
The place has no significance whatever, and no
lntnre unless it should become a Railroad center
which is more than probable. At present, only
two lines of road terminate here viz. The Iron
Mountain, running from St. Louis to Texarkana,
and The Texas and Pacific or Trans Contiental,
as it is sometimes called. This ®oad has
two branches, one running ninety odd miles to
Sherman, and the other by way of Marshall to
Dallas and on to Fort Worth. These Roads are
under the supervision of Col. Geo. Noble, with
head quarters at Marshall. They are “P 1 ®”"
did order, handsomely equipped and make fast
time. As the Railroads of the state lie in a
comparitive eitple, it is usual for the traveler
entering at Texarkana to take one branch c* the
Trans Continental, and pass aronnd the circle,
leaving the state by the other branch at
the point of entrance. Following this idea
your correspondent left Texarkana on t e
15th inst by the northern branch, for Sherman,
stopping at the various towns on the route.
This branch, runs due west, through the
counties bordering on tha Indian Territory.
For 15 or 20 miles nothing is seen on either
side of the road but virgin forest of oak,
hickory, and pine, with scarcely a stick amiss.
When nearing Clarksville, the county seat of
Red River County, the grand prairie for the
first time bursts upon the view. I have heard
much of the Texas praires and read many glow
ing Recounts of them, .but nothing I_ have over
heard or read are worthy of the subject. They
are simply indescribable. Their beauty is cumu
lative, growing upon the beholder the longer
he looks. Their grandeur is overpowering, ris
ing into the sublime, while a feeling pf awe
pervades the soul similar to what one feels
viewing the ocean for the first time. To form
even a faint idea of the reality you most imagine
a level expanse which seems boundless, but
which, though level, seems to rise higher and
higher until it reaches the sky. There is no
timber upon it, not even so much as a ndmg
switch, but a luxurious growth of grass about
knee high, interspersed with flowers of every
conceivable trom and color. These load the
atmosphere with their fragrance, sweeter and
more delicate than any that can be bought from
the Crucible of the Alchemist. They are in fact
nature’s great distillery which man in his
best efforts can only feebly imitate. Over this
vast land-ocean innumerable heads of cattle
and horses are feeding, which .extend in every
direction form within a stone’s throw until they
seem as specks between the beholder and the
horizon. A village can be distinctly seen twen
ty miles away, while the traveler can relieve his
impatience by watching his train approaching a
full hpur before it reaches him. Prairie
chickens, plover, quails, larks aud birds of
paradise abound and rise up at the noise of the
approaching train.
The prairies are inconceivably rich and pro
ductive, bringing from 30 to 50 bushels of wheat.
60 to one hundred bushels of corn and a bale of
cotton to the acre. They embrace the entire
middle portion of the state, full three hundred
miles in length by as many in breadth.
CLARKSVILLE.
is the first town after leaving Texarkana, a dis
tance of twenty-four miles. It numbers about
one thousand inhabitants, is built entirely of
wood, and enjoys a good trade. The people are
^cultivated, fond of reading, and remarkable for
their hospitality to strangers. They have a
good hotel that is well kept, a moderately good
court bouse, and an excellent flouring mill. It
is the capital of one of the best farming counties
in the state, and if spring or summer could
last always, would be a nice town to live in. The
mud is its curse.
PARIS.
This is one of the nicest towns in the State,
and reminds one of Bowlipg Green, Ky., which
we think remarkable for its beauty.
it nas sprung iikb a pnoenix out of its aairee
of last fall, and has come forth as bright and
clean as a new pin. Indeed, the fire was a God
send, and is so regarded by all save those who
were ruined by it. The buildings are of brick
with granite trimmings, iron fronts and plate
glass windows. The most of them would do
credit to any city. With admirable good taste
the court house, a magnificient building, has
been erected on a side street away from the bus
tle of business, leaving the main piazza cr square
for a piiblic park. The view from one of its tall
domes is one of the finest I have ever enjoyed.
To the north, the heavy timbers extrend from
the city limits to the Red River, which is 11
miles. off. On the other three sides the o.pen
prairie lies before you, dotted with innumerable
small farms and white, cozy-looking farm hous
es , while two small villages are in plain view
at a distance of 20 miles.
Herds of cattle and horses fill up the intervals.
From this height one fully realizes the meaning
of that passage of Scripture, which says: ‘And
the cattle upon a thousand nills are His.’
The city is situated in the edge of the timber
ed land upon a light soil with a substratum of
tough clay. You can walk the streets with dry
feet aud polished boots in an hour after the
hardest raiD. The dividing line between the
gray and black lands, is midway between the
business portion of the city and the depot, which
is a mile off. A street railroad runs through the
city to the depot, however, so that the distance
causes no very material inconvenience. It is
of the same gauge with the Texas’ Pacific R, R.
and freight cars are drawn up into the city and
unloaded without breaking bulk. Pipes are
now being put down, and soon the whole town
will be lit up with gas. I doubt if a more refin
ed and elegant people can be found any where,
even in the old states. This is attested by their
elegant churches, palatial residences, beautiful
flower gardens, flourishing female college, their
grand hotel, neat, sprightly and prosperous-
newspaper. tVheat is one of the main staples
m this county and produces a wonderful yield.
Fruits of every kind grow to great perfection,
and water melons are raised which weigh over
90 lbs.
The county takes its name from Mirabeau
B. Lamar, a native Georgian of honored memory
who moved to the state many years ago. The
population of the city is about six thousand.
More anon. ^y < g g
A Scene From Life.
A young man entered the bar-room of a vil
lage tavern and called for a drink. ‘No,’ said
nnL land i°? d; ‘ yoa have had Mirium tremeha
once, and I cannot s«ll you any more.’ Ha
stepped aside to make room for a couple of
had -> ust entere<J . and the land-
lord waited upon them very politely. The
when tv, ad fi t0 °? *>y siiently and sullen, and
when they finished he walked up to the land
lord and thqs addressed him:
Six years ago, at their age, I stood where
those young men are now—I was a man of fair
prospects. Now, at the age of 28, I am a wreck
body and mind. You led me to drink! In this
"XJ for “ ed the habit that has been my ruin!
wort wil? hi f 6 “ fe ? passes more, and your
„„ „ h 0 done. I shall soon be out of the
hope for me. But they can be
Md let 6811 , u to them. Sell it to me
but o ^r d ’ and ‘ he world wil1 he rid of me:
The iL?. 7 n , a 8ake 8611 no more to them’’
Setrin^f l0rd i 18te “ ed * P“le and trembling,
betting down the decanter, he exclimed ‘Gtvi
I will eve, selt to
anyone 1 And he kept his word.
fe ®t that George Washington’s wife never
“te£tn& e he had , beeD whe “ became home
in«r ?° es a lon * wa y® towards account-
mg for his extreme truthfulness.
r—t*-