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“Who Saved Georgia.'*
Interesting Historical Remin
iscences.
BY AX EYE WITNESS.
When the war closed, by the surrender of the
Confederate armies, two plans of Reconstruc
tion were presented; one by the Executive, the
other by the Legislative department of the gov
ernment. The first proposed the restoration of
the insurgent states to the rights and privileg
es of the Union, without other guarantees than
the ratification of emancipation and the acknowl
edgement of the paramount authority of the na
tional government. The perpetuity of the Fed
eral union which the rebellion had assailed, and
the freedom of the slave which it had sought to
prevent, were to be placed beyond dispute for
ever. This was the condition precedent to our
representation in the Federal government. The
question of the extention of the elective fran
chise was, according to this plan, to be adjour
ned until after Reconstruction should be an ac
complished fact.
The plan proposed by Congress, contempla
ted quite a different basis of rehabilitation. It
contamplated the extention of political no less
than civil franchises to the freedmen; and this
as a condition precedent to our representation
in Congress. It contemplated the bracking-down
and complete annihilation of the ‘color line in
politics. It proposed to make the freedman a
voter in all local and national elections, and
therefore an important factor in the work of re
habilitation itself.
Such were the salient points of difference be
tween the two plans proposed. They related to
time rather than to principle. For with eman
cipation once assured, all thoughtful men fore-
saw that the bracking-down of the ‘color line’
would be a question of time only. Under the
genius and form of our government, negro suff
rage was bound to follow negro emancipation
as a natural sequence. The only real question
was as to the policy of enfranchising the negroes
at once and en masse or at some future time and
gradually, according as they might become pre
pared to exercise such prerogatives intelligently
and safely. On the question of disabilities im
posed upon leading Southern men who had been
active or conspicuous in the rebellion, there was
no material differencejsince each imposed sweep
ing disabilities,embracing a very numerous and
influential olass of Southern men of all former
political parties, to be removed only upon appli
cation to the department imposing them. Un
der one plan, disabilities were removable at the
will of the President ;under the other,at the will
of Congress. In both cases written or personal
application was necessary.
The champions of these respective plans of
reconstruction were equally determined not to
yield to the other. Perhaps both may have been
equally patriotic also. Rut, outside the South
ern states, Mr. Johnson had but a feeble follow
ing; and, unfortunately for him, that following
was made up from the odds and ends of a faction
then under the ban of close suspicion. As a
rule, the intelligence, respectability and wealth
of the Northern states were solidly against him;
and the South was not only powerless to aid
him, but, as every one clearly foresaw, an ele
ment of actual weakness to his policy. It was
clearly manifest, therefore, that, in default of
some compromise, Mr. Johnson’s ‘policy’ was
doomed to total and irretrievable defeat; and
that, in such a case, the South would be the
chief sufferer, on acoount of his obstinate per-
sistance in efforts to defeat the will of the law
making power of the government.
A compromise was accordingly proposed.
All men remember it. It came from the moder
ate men of the majority party in congress, and
contemplated the 14th Amendment as the basis
of ajustment. Southern men were asked, and
with wise precaution, to accept this plan as a
means of defense against what followed in 18G7.
It legalized the de facto state government set up
by Mr. Johnson, conditioned only upon their
ratification of the proposed Amendment. The
measure failed through the combined opposition
of extreme men of both political parties. The
result, soon to follow, was clearly foreseen by
intelligent southern men. The radical leaders of
the majority party in congress, became supreme
through the obstinacy and folly of Mr. Johnson
and his feeble adherents. The moderate men
of that party were daily losing consideration and
influence North by reason of their very moder
ation in the face of such blind and reckless op
position by a hopeless minority; and when the
Sherman-Shellabarger bill was finally agreed
upon, in the spring of 1807, that was the best and
most favorable terms then possible.
The bill became a law over Mr. Johnson’s
veto, by more than a two-thirds majority vote of
a Congressional quorum. It was enacted in the
form and by the means constitutionally appoint
ed. Objectionable it certainly was to all moder
ate and thoughtful men of both sections. Its
sweeping disabling clauses, affected more than
half the middle aged Union men of the South.
In striking at the supposed enemies of the
Union, it struck down a whole people, including
many of its ablest, best, and truest friends. In
seeking to break down ‘the color line,’ it enfran
chised the blacks en masse, wholly regardless
of the inability of three-fourths of their number
to exeroise the privileges of the elective fran
chise with safety to free institutions. It dictat
ed what should be done, how it should be done,
and by whom done in order to secure to the
South the privilege of home rule and represen
tation in ths national councils; and as a penalty
for non compliance with its exactions, the whole
people ot the State were to be remanded to ab
solute Military Rule the end whereof no man
could undertake to foretell. It thus placed
the southern people in the most remarkable di
lemma. If we accepted it as a basis of recon
struction, it would work an instant revolution
in our local government, politics and civiliza.-
tion. By its acceptance, we would notoDly dis
franchise many of the ablest and best Union
men in Georgia, but enfranchise ninety thousand
of those who were utterly without preparation
for so sudden and radical a change. On the
other hand, by rejecting it, we threw ourselves
completely into the hands of an extreme faction
North whose open and proclaimed policy
was, and had been from the first, confiscation.
To rejeotthe plan proposed would be therefore
to invite the very worst form of millitary despo
tism accompanied by the most aggravated form
of agrarianism. So that, in its last analysis, the
choice thus forced upon us was merely a choice
or evils. .
As the lesser evil, or what we conceived to be
such, some of us in Georgia boldly proclaimed
for reconstruction under the laws of Congress.
Of our number, were many prominent and in
fluential secession democrats. All past politi
cal differences were forgotten in an honest and
united effort to save the state from utter ruin
and hopeless degredation. We were cognizant
of the fact that Mr. Johnson’s ‘policy’ was
• already a thing of the past; that the nery harsh
ness and unreasonableness of the plan un
der which we proposed to co-operate ‘was
brought about by our failure to accept milder
terms; that we had gained nothing by reject
ing the terms first proposed in July 18G0; and
that our contemptuous rejection of the 14th
Amendment in October of the same year, only
served td weaken our friends and strengthen our
enemies north. In taking this oourse however
we quarrelled not with those who as conscien
tiously chose the opposite method of ‘saving the
tate’ for after all, it was only a matter of an
honest difference of opinion as to means rather
than ends.
Well, ten years have passed and now what do
we see ? A ‘solid South !
Solid, not in opposition to the constitutional
amendments, but solid in support of those
amendments. Solid, not in efforts to maintain-
tha ‘color line’ in politics, but solid in a pur
pose to break it down forever. Solid, not in
opposition to a single one of the principles ad
vocated or enunciated by the reconstructionists
of 1867 8; but solid and even enthusiastic in the
annunciation and support of each and all. To
assume the existence of a ‘Solid South’ in oppo
sition to a single line or word of any one of the
constitutional amendments, or in opposition to
a single line of policy maintained by Southern
reconstructionists in 1868, would be to charge
the grossest insincerity upon Southern men as
•a class.
We care nothing for mere party names. Oft-
ener than otherwise they represent nothing
more substantial than the memory of an almost
forgotten prejudice. In too many instances they
are mere empty sounds signifying nothing.
They are certainly meaningless when all men
of all former parties profess to believe, and ad
vocate the same thing. It is, therefore, a mat
ter of small moment by what name the present
‘Solid South’ is known. ‘Things equal to the
same are equal to each other,’ and U is is as true
in political as in mathematical science.
There are, then, two classes of ‘State Savers.’
One represented Reconstruction in 1868; the
other opposed it. One tried to induce native
Southern men of talents and influence to take
partin the great work of reoonstruction; the
other tried to prevent them. One sought a
Constitutional Convention composed oi South
ern men of education and character; the other
sought to Africanize the Convention by en-
joining ‘respectable white men to keep aloof
from it. One sought to save the State by trying
to save the character of the new State constitu
tion and government; the other sought to save
the State by degrading both. One called public
meetings to induce native white men to join in
the effort to oontrol legislation; the other called
public meetings to persuade white men to aban
don all legislation to ‘carpet baggers and nig
gers.’ Doubtless both were equally patriotic.
Time alone will show which were the wiser; and
since the line of difference between them is now
happily obliterated, let us hope the present
generation in Georgia will never see a repetition
of the events of the decade from 18G8 to 1876.
A Glimpse of the Olden Time.
Through a Tolumeof old Newspapers. Politics
and Society Sixty Years Ago.
BY PBOF. H. A. SGOMP.
The Glow-Worm Bird.
In India it is said that a species of sparrow
builds its nest of grasses, which it weaves very
skillfully into the shape of a bottle, and sus
pends it firmly to the branches of a tree, with
its entrance downward, so as to secure it from
the attacks of birds of prey. But the exterior
of the nest is not its most wonderful peculiar
ity. Within, it is divided into several cham
bers, which, according to the popular belief,
the bird is in the habit of illuminating during
the night with glow-worms, or fire-flies. The
story goes that, after collecting a number of
these luminous insects, the bird fastens them
to the inside of its nest by means of a peculiar
kind of clay of a glutinous nature; and thus
when the glorious sun, in whose beams it de
lights to spread its airy pinions, is withdrawn
from the world, the bird can retire to its pen
dent couch and be rocked to sleep, basking in
the mild beams of the glow-worm/ A gentle
man who had resided many years in India,
speaking of the nest of the Indian sparrow,
states that, taking advantage of the absence of
the bird in the afternoon, he examined four of
these nests, in three of which he found glow
worms attached to the interior. In the fourth
heujunfi^a iiUie fresh clay attached" to tL= oiufc-
of the nest, evidently for the purpose of fasten
ing a worm to, but no glow-worm. On subjec
ting one of these nests to a second examination
on the followin day, he found that the first
glow-worm had been removed, and a second
substituted in its place. Sir William Jones en
deavors to account for the glow-worms in the
nest by the supposition that the bird places
them there for *tbe purpose of feeding upon
them. He, however, grants to the little feath
ered ‘Indian’ various qualities, whiohare, if any
thing, more wonderful than the above. He says
that it is easily tamed, and may be taught to
fetch and carry like a dog. If a ring be drop
ped into a well, the bird will, upon a given
signal, dart down after it, and, seizing it be
fore it reaches the water, bear it with apparent
exultation to its master. It can also be taught
to - carry notes from one house to another. The
young Hindoo women at Benares wear, accor
ding to Sir William, very thin plates of gold
between their eyebrows ; and when they pass
through the streets it is not uncommon for
their lovers, who amuse themselves by training
these birds, to sead them to pluck the pieces
of gold from the foreheads of their mistresses,
and bring them in triumph to the mischievous
swains.
American Women and Hosiery.
‘I infer from your remarks that American wo
men, as purchasers, are somewhat capricious.’
‘They are the most capricious, the most ex
travagant women that Ged lets live,’ continued
he. ‘I can’t begin to tell you all this nonsense
about hosiery. Why, an eighth of an inch in
the width of a stripe is sufficient to ruin a
whole invoice of fine hosiery as sslling goods.
Stewart was bit this way once. He had 20,000
dozen hose with a stripe that was pronounced
a little too narfow or a little too wide, I forget
which, and they had to sell the whole lot at less
than half cost price in Europe. And they were
difficult to get rid off then.’
‘But this scarcely sounds like hard times.’
‘Hard times!’ reiterated Mr. Berwick, sarcas
tically. ‘Times hard or soft, makes no differ
ence in the extravagance of American women
concerning hose. What do you suppose is go
ing to be the next rage?’
I gave it up.
Lice stockings—all lace from the toe to over
the knee—all lace.’
‘What sort of lace—Valenciennes? I asked ;
for having just seen white kid gloves in the Rue
de la Paix announced as ‘patented,’ the whole
arm-length of which was a series of insertions
of finest Valenciennes lace between bands of
kid I thought it might be something similar.
‘No, not Valenciennes, nor any of that sort of
lace ; the open-work lace of the stocking itself.
It will be so transparent that ladies will have to
wear colored silk stooking under it.’
‘That will be pretty.’
‘Pretty! I think it the wildest extravaganoe I
ever heard of,’ said Mr. Berwick, ‘the stockings
will be fearfully expensive, and in no other
country save America will they have anything
but a limited sale. But once let the American
women see them, and they’ll all die but what
they’ll have them, until some new folly comes
in, and then you won’t be able to sell a pair at
one-fifth its value.’ —Paris Letter to Cincinnati
Enquirer from Olive Logan.
An Indiana girl says she finds nothing so
good for the complexion as rubbing her faoe on
a young man’s vest. The young man must be
inside of it, though.
The Governor of Louisiana has pardoned a
woman sentenced to five years’imprisonment at
hard labor for perjury, but the Sheriff refuses to
release her till the Senate has confirmed the
pardon.
In looking over some of the old volumes be
longing to our College Library my attention was
attracted to an old volume of the National Intelli
gencer (Washington) for the year 1816. I glano-
ed over the numbers for January and February
of that year, and thinking that some excerpta
from a contemporary newspaper might aid your
many readers in gaining a distinot and vivid
view of the life and thought of sixty years ago,
I have concluded to furnish you some extracts
from the papers before me.
The national Intelligencer at that time was a
four page tri-weekly; the page measures about
twenty and one-half inches in length and
between twelve and thirteen inches in breadth.
It is divided into five columns. Of course,_ it
is well known that the Intelligencer began with
the oentury, and it was therefore at the time in
question, entering its seventeenth volume.
Even from the first, it was a kind of govern
ment organ, and during the sessions of our
National Legislature, it was for the most part
filled with the reports of Congressional pro
ceedings.
The period to which I have alluded (Jan. and
Feb. 1816) belonged to an ei^och of political
excitementand intense agitation throughout the
nation. Our seoond struggle with Great Britian
had just been concluded, and the angry passions
which it had engendered were still burning
brightly, and sectional animosity was embitter
ed. A striking parallel is furnished to the
violence and storms of another period fifty
years later, when another great conflict had
just closed, and the angry waves of political
commotion were still dashing high, and seemed
loath to come to rest.
Besides our own land was "not the only one
whioh had lately been in the throes of a desper
ate conflict. Only a few months before, Europe i
had ended at Waterloo a struggle, the greatest
in her history, and predictions were not want
ing that the end was not yet.
The Man of Destiny, though a prisoner on
the rocks of St. Helena, and guarded by Eng
land’s jealous fleet, stiW exerted a mysterious
Bpell upon the nations; and thousands not only
of his own countrymen, but also of foreign
birth, believed that he, like the Men of Grutel,
would yet start forth to redeem his native
France.
South America and Mexico were involved in a
life and death struggle with Spain for their in
dependence, and Simon Bolivar at the head of
the Patriot Army, was the rising star which at
tracted the gazs of the world toward the South
ern Hemisphere.
More than twenty years of bloodshed through
out the civilized world, had almost taught men
to believe that war was ths normal condition of
nations. Yet, notwithstanding all this, it is
gratifying that at this stormy epoch, the tone of
the debates in the American Congress was so
calm and statesmanlike. The contemporary
record of our National Congress show nothing
of the wild ravings of the French National
Assembly, nor of the bloody, proscriptive edicts
of the potentates of Europe. Then Clay was
speaker of the House, and Crawford was Presi
dent of the Senate, and Clay, Webster and Cal
houn, all then in the prime of life, were al
ready acknowledged political leaders, and the
cynical Randolph then a member of the House,
was making all fear the sarcasm of his scathing
tongue. But of the other political lions of that
time, haw few are remembered to-day ! Their
fame has perished with their^ ashes. What a
sad comoj6L.lai j -upon Inv 8*^iJWlid\ "f - -ime
for whioh so many public men are striving !
One of the subjects which agitated Congress
during several months of this session was the
question of ratifying the Commercial Treaty
with Great Britian. The House stood upon its
rights, many of its members believing no treaty
to be valid without the concurrence of the Low
er House, and perhaps few, if any subjects of
national importance, were ever more thorough
ly discussed in Congress than this same Com
mercial Treaty.
Congress was at this time literally besieged
with petitions from individuals and corpora
tions, olaiming compensation for losses sustain
ed, or services rendered, in the late war.
Among these petitions was an older one from
Mrs. Elizabeth Hamilton, widow oi Alexander
Hamilton asking for the ‘commutation’ of half
pay due her husband as an officer of the Revo
lutionary army.’
In the paper of Jan. 27 it is advised that the
salaries of Congressmen be raised from six dol
lars to eight dollais per day.
The Tariff question was already looming up
from the horizon. Among the numerous peti
tioners who claim ‘protection,’we find Jones
Guernsey & Co, and Billy Todd, manufacturers
of Yermont, who pray that importation of wool
en goods be prohibited. A like prohibition of
cotton fabrics is asked for by some cotton deal
ers from Baltimore, and some cork manufactur
ers of New York, ask for additional duties on
imported cork.
The observance of the Sabbath was not then
obsolete, as is evidenced by two petitions, one
from Tennessee, the other from Vermont, pray
ing that the mails be not transported or opened
upon the Sabbath. The number of military
academies in the country was another subject of
controversy, and many. patriotic statesmen
thought that several such institutions were de
manded for tne training of American youth.
The Army Appropriation Bill in January
oansed a hot contest between Clay and Randolph.
In view of the commotions of other nations, and
especially in view of the South American )Var,
in which it was thought not improbable that we
should beoome engaged, Clay desired the
Army to be put on a strong footing. Randolph
sneered at the proposit'on, and avowed that he
had no confidence in the movements of the Pa
triots, that they were inopAsble of freedom, and
that the effort would end as its predecessor in
Franoe had ended. It will be readily seen that
Clay represented the popular feeling, which was
one of strong sympathy for the Mexican and
South American heroes in their efforts for inde
pendence, and this feeling seemed for a time
likely t» culminate in something more substan
tial than mere sympathy.
Spain was then at the height of her insolence.
On the 26th of January, President Madison sub
mitted to Congress Three Demands from the
Spanish Minister to the Secretory of State (Mon
roe), as follows: 1st. “The territory west of
the River Perdido, held by the United States
under the Louisiana treaty, must be delivered
up to Spain.” After which, the Minister inti
mates that the two governments may disouss
their respective rights to it. 2nd. The Lnited
States shall take measures to “punish and^ dis
perse a factious band of insurgents, who,’ the
Minister says, “raise armies, and light the
flames of revolution in the Spanish Provinces,
and he especially demands that the hostile spir
it be repressed in the States of Kentucky, Ten
nessee, Louisiana and Georgia, as he i» inform
ed that 1000 men from Kentucky and 300 from
Tennessee are already on their way to join the
Mexican insurgents.’, 3rd. “He demands that
no veeeels bearing the Republican flag, be al-
Dr. Robinson.Humbert, Majors Piere and Preire
and their followers.”
One is struck by the insolent tone of tne
Spanish demands, but then he should not for
get the diffenence between the relative condi
tion of haughty, aristocratic Spain and our
young Republic in 1815 and their relative posi
tion at the present day. Spain was a larger
land-holder even in North America than our
selves, and she evidently appraised our strength
at about the value of that of her revolted Prov-
Elizabeth Gurney Fry.
inoes. ,
The reply of Mr. Monroe foreshadows the pol
icy which ba» since guided our national policy.
He flatly denies the right of Spain to the terri
tory in question—which it will ba remembered
we purchased with undisputed title from France
—denies the charge of fillibustering in the West
and South, asserts that Z iledo is operating in a
section of country beyond the reach of our laws,
and says, “All that your government has a right
to claim is that the United States should not in
terfere in the contest, or promote by any active
service the success of the Revolution. On these
principles the United States have acted.” We
can almost see the shadow of the Monroe doc
trine in this reply.
On the Commercial Treaty with Great Britian
Clay and Calhoun made speeches, on which the
Intelligencer says, “They might be satisfied to
rest their fame as statesmen, patriots, and ora
tors.”
We are astonished at the great number of In
dian treaties concluded at this period. Nearly
all the tribes of the West and Northwest had ta
ken sides during the recent war, and they were
compelled to conclude separate treaties at its
close. One is amused at the form of the treaties
which, in nearly every case, consist of these ar
ticles.
The first stipulates that injuries and acts of
hostility shall be mutually forgiven and forgot
ten. Second: That there shall be perpetual
peace between the contracting parties; and
third, that the ratifying chiefs and warriors ac
knowledge themselves to be under the protec
tion of the United States and under that of no
other nation or power whatever. Some of the
subscribers’ names are decidedly peculiar; as,
The Blackbird's Grandson, Cow’s Rib, Black
Thunder, The Liar, All at Once, Who Puts His
Foot in It, etc.
In nothing doe3 our advantage over our an
cestors appear more forcibly than in the differ-
encs of time between one of our cablegrams, and
the time required sixty years ago to get late
news from Europe. Thus on January 20th we
learn that the fast-sailing brig, Tom Hazard has
made the voyage from France in thirty-six days.
From its dispatches we learn that Marshal Ney’s
trial was in progress, and it was thought he
would be condemned, though strong efforts
were being made to effect his '-release. A Lon
don paper of the preceeding November (1815) is
quoted, which mentions Ney's trial, and says
that ‘of the other conspirators, Soult and Fou-
che would be brought to trial.’ From Spain we
hear that the King has issued to the Provinces
the strictest orders against the Afranisadas and
Liberales, and rigidly prohibits one to be a Free
Mason or a member of the Cortez, and it is ad
ded that a violation of this law will be a suffici
ent cause for punishment or imprisonment
without previous judgment.’
‘Furthermore, ‘they are now carefully exam
ining all the libraries, to see if they contain aDy
books contrary to the views of the Government.
Commodore Decatur, with his squadron was
cruising in the Mediterranean; he had just con
cluded a peace with the Dey of Algiers’
The papers of January 30th, contains an ac
count of the closing trial and execution of Mar
shal Nay, who was shot on the 7th of December.
Many others, as Marshal Massena, had been ar
rested, or banished like Fouche, and a reign of
terror seems to have prevailed in France for
mouths after Y^jjefloo. ... ... ,
‘Feb. 1st, via Baltimore: ‘We are rejoiced to
announce the arrival of Marshal Grouchy in
this city, he having made his escape from the
vindictive tyranny which persecutes and massa
cres the distinguished patriots of France.’
A striking comment od the inviolability of treat
ies is presented to us in the New Treaty, just
published between France andthe Allies(Russia,
Austria, England and Prussia).
By this treaty Napoleon Bonaparte and his
family are forever excluded from the throne of
France—all the Allies afterwards acknowledged
Louis Napoleon—to accomplish whioh the Al
lies engage to use their whole united force if
needful, and they reserve to themselves, if it be
oome necessary, the right ‘to prescribe by com
mon consent such conditions as shall hold out
to Europe a sufficient gratuity against the re
currence of a similar late.’ This laat evidently
means the right to re-enact the drama of Poland,
to partition France among themselves if they
choose, and, oven after the specified time—five
years—for occupying French territory shall
have passed away, their—the Allies engage
ment shall continue in full force, and the Allied
sovereigns shall meet together periodically,
either personally or by deputies, to consult and
preserve the peace of Europe. How much of
this ‘forever’ treaty remains in force to-day ?
But this is only an example of the usual fats of
European treaties.
TO BE CONTINUED
Love-Mu Icing.
Summer is eminently the season for love and
love-making, probably because it is a period of
comparative leisure. When young people meet
together at the seaside or mountain hotels,
when they indulge in communion of spirit
while the gentle moon silvers the waves, or
fringes the fresh trees with subdued radiance,
all the rough questions of the daily business of
life are toned down, and their imaginative fac
ulties are alive to fresh impressions. Then the
man becomes a hero, and the maiden an angel,
and central point of romantic attraction.—The
common-sense person will tell you that all this
is a poor foundation on whioh to build a life-
long'union, whioh is likely enough, true, as far
as experience teachee, but for all that, who
wishes to be bereft of that short, sweet experi
ence, which idealizes affection, and raises it be
yond criticism ?
What would not either man or woman give
who has once indulged in a genuine kitten love,
to feel once more the desolating grief or over
powering joyfulness of that happy period.
It is the fashion now-a-days to laugh at a love
which sees perfection in its object, to sneer at
its blindness, and make jokes of its self-abnega
tion, but is tnere in the whole list of human
virtues a sentiment more generous or enno
bling ? When romances were written, describ
ing the virtues of almost impossible heroes and
heroism, they at least held up a high standard
of honor and fidelity to the youth of both sexes,
audit is a question whether the caustic Satire
whioh exposes the obliquities of human nature
in the novel of the period has not a reverse in
fluence on the present generation.
Louise Pomeroy will open the fall season at
De Bar’s Opera House, S:. Louis, on the eve
ning of September 21, under the management
of John W. Edwards, supported by a dramatic
combination selected from good New York ma
terials. Tne rumor is that Miss Pomeroy has a
new play in preparation, which was written ex
pressly for her, and with whioh she will vary
- UioBSij iui “»*.* nL,v * " * v . - t
lowed in U. S. harbors,or sell the shameful pro- | the level interest of her
coeds of their piracy, much less shall such ves- | liet, Lady Macbeth and other Shake JP£™
aels be equipped and armed in American ports, ^roiues. bne is also t ha whole fall
The Minister furthermore demands the deliv- Miss Pomeroy will travel during the whole iau
ery up, or tke prosecution of Ortez, Zcbedo, and winter season.
BY ODESSA C. STICKLAND.
How large an element suffering makes in the
development of exalted and exceptional charac
ter no analyst of snch individual phenomenon
will have to be told, or student of history deny.
Elizabeth Fry, third daughter of John Gurney
of Earlham Hall nearNorwich, was remarkable in
early life for a certain unselfishness and benevo
lence of disposition which found expression
even then outside the home limit, in the found
ing and superintendence of a school on her fa
ther's estate for poor children. But still she
was in no small degree sensitive to the world’s
colorful attractions, and not a little inclined to
indulgence in the vivid pleasures and gay ex
travagances of youth, nntil an illuess of most se
rious character brought her time for meditation
upon the vanitas vanitatum of all temporal
things. That she never outgrew the severe dis
cipline of that bitter experience or the chasten
ing influence it had upon her was proven by
the deep and abiding change which appeared in
her life. She openly renounced the love of the
world for the love of Christ and none were left
in doubt by her walk and conversation after
wards as to the reality of her profession. She
was the light of a home that a mother’s loss had
left desolate, the wise counselor and sympathet
ic friend of her father as well a3 of a large num
ber of brothers and sisters nntil her twentieth
year when she married Joseph Fry, of London,
in 1800. Here, whether becausi of enlarged
possibilities, or that she found the work inalien
able from her ideal of duty as she grew older
she first began to put forth her energies in such
a marked manner as to become known and reo-
ognized as a Christian philanthropist. The poor
of ihe city found in her a friend whose sympa
thy was of rare and spiritual quality; it never
failed, and class-walls might well have been lev
el as -Jericho’s past Jor Jan,’ like as a Browning
wished, for all the effict they had upon this
noble woman in the pursuit of her labors.
No life was too degraded for her aid, and
nothing oounted too insignificant for her to per
form which could help a human soul climb up
from earth’s drear flat toward heaven and home.
It is certainly remarkable that with all her
thought aDd work for others she should still
have maintained wisely and delicately the sanc
tity of her domestic relations, and had it been
otherwise we may be sure the world would not
have found her philanthropy beyond criticism-
let the laugh which has been so long and loud
against that most whimsical creation of Charles
Dickens’ lacile pen, pauvre Mrs. Jellaby, bear
witness. The climacteric of Mrs. Fry’s benevo
lent designs was the melioration of prison life, a
seemingly Utopian undertaking whoso final ful
fillment won her the praise and earnest support
of nearly all the governments of the Continent.
Soon after her removal to London she was in
formed of the extremely wretched condition of
the female prisoners at Newgate. She resolved
to visit them in spite of the warning of some of
the prison officers te whom she applied for ad
mission that she periled not her watch merely
but her life. At her own request she was locked
up with the promiscuous multitude, a id that she
awed first with her gentle dignity and afterwards
won them by her gracious words the regulations
which she proposed and they accepted en mass
before she left certainly attested. From this
small beginning, the consecration of one rare
womanly life, there was evolved the ‘British La
dies Society for the reformation Qf female pris
oners, whose humane aid by means of compe
tent committees was soon extended to the prin
cipal prisoners of England, Scotland, and Ire
land. But the enthusiastic founder was not
satisfied auVl by her individual influence she
succesdediTater m securing the adoption oi her
plans in many of the prisons of Prussia, Franoe,
Denmark and Holland. The numerous reforms
which fellowed upon the execution of her wise
measures must have been deeply gratifying to
her and her noble associates, but it is a faot
worthy of note, that the unanimous verdict of
herself and co-workers was that no deep or last
ing change in the character of the prisoners was
either looked for or accomplished until they were
led to believe in Christ. Ah, these simple soul-
ed women were deeply learned:
“Your Pouricrs failed
Because not poets enough to understand
That life develops from within.”
Mrs. Fry’s manner had in it the peculiar
charm and winning grace that spring only
from heart-culture, and never by any ohance
from surface polish, a fact to ~•• she doubt
less owed much of her extr - iv. .ry success,
in addition to another poses 'hick is count
ed an excellent thing in a wou.—a soft musioal
voice. Once, while a foreign prince was inter
preting for her to a vast company of orphans, he
was so overcome by her touching eloquent talk
that he cried ‘C’est le don de Dee,’ yea verily,
that indefinable something too spiritual in its
nature to be better analyzed, what else could it
have been? which won for her a way alike into
palace and prison, into the hearts of the rioh
and noble, the suffering and the poor. The
exquisite quality and perfection of her example
as a Christian woman was farther attested in a
fact recorded with peculiar emphasis by one ot
her biographers which was that no life that
came at all within the circle of her influence
was allowed to escape her wise and tender min
istrations neither friend or stranger, servant or
child. In all little things as well as great she
proved her love by her works, and she grasped
the small opportunities that thronged her daily
steps as enthusiastically as the larger ones to
which kings deigned to lend their gracious
approval. She loved nature both reverently and
intensely and like Raskin fouud whereof to feed
and whereby to grow in all things, from the
gray infinite of a dying day to the blue birth of
a violst. Her friends necessarily, as she did not
have the world’s standards, were of various
classes, and some hint of her unique power
over others may be gathered from her last re
ceptions in Paris where she was surrounded by
the antipathies of many ciroles daily. The
king of Prussia was so oordially attached to
Mrs. Fry that when in England he visited at
her own house and upon his return wrote her a
most friendly letter. The appreciation of the
true and great, the noble and royal of nature, as
well as of ancestry greeted her wherever she
went—her vast sympathy and unfailing charity
proved a magnet the universal heart could not
resist. In J uly 1845 she retired with her hus
band and family to Ramsgate, a sea board town
where it was hoped she might regain her health
whioh had been for some time declining. But
she would assume none of the idiosyncrasies or
privileges of invalidism even here, _ instead
she attended church and went about doing good
like Him she worshiped until the last.
What her end was none oould doubt who heard
the last triumphant word that left her lips al
most with her life.
‘Safe!’
As inevitably as are His promises.
‘Lord when saw we thee au hungered or fed
thee, or thirsty or gave thee drink ?’
‘Or when saw we thee sick or in prison and
came unto thee?’
And the King shall answer and say unto thess,
‘Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the
least of these my bretheren ye have done it unto
me.’
A young man who is mtoh given to athletic
sports, wouldlike to know when the much-talk-
ed-of Anglo-Saxon raoa is to coma off.