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JOHN B. SEALS, - Editor and Proprietor
W. B. SEALS, - Proprietor and Cor. Editor.
HRS. MARY K. BRYAN (•) Associate Editor.
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, AUGUST 31, 1878.
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Dennis Kearney in a Cotton Fac
tory.—On bis recent visit to Lowell, Dennis
Kearney, the famous Californian agitator and ad
vocate of working men’s rights, had his first
sight of an Eastern Cotton Factory. Accompa
nied by his friend Carl Brown and the ihevita-
ble reporter, he went through all the depart
ments of the immense slave-shop, his indigna
tion rising as he noted the pale faces and weary
looks of the women and children operatives and
learned that for their monotonous work of tend
ing the looms and spinning machines, they
received but sixty cents per working day of ten
hours.
‘It is slavery of a worse kind than any we have
among our Chinese' cried the Californian.
With the unceasing whirr and click of the ma.
chinery stunning his ears and the linty, unwhole
some air stifling his lungs, the agitator turned
from a slender girl he had been questioning and
exclaimed to his friend.
The Yellow Fever Seourgc-Man’s
Humanity to Man.—‘Man’s inhumanity
to man makes thosands mourn’ sings the poet
of a past century, and there are many pessimists
who would have us believe that inhumanity is
ever on the increase; but to those, who cry out
that the shell of selfishness is constantly hard
ening over our civilzation, and that ‘every man
for himself’ is becoming the supreme law, the
recent wide spread sympathy in behalf of the
yellow fever sufferers, and the prompt pecuni
ary aid sent to them by communities and indi
viduals, affords a striking rebuke. More than
all do the efforts of the brave and self sacrific
ing benevolent associations to alleviate sickness
and distress, show that ‘man’s humanity to man,’
still exists and ‘countless thousands' are the
recipient of its power to save, to soothe and con
sole. In New Orleans the fever rages at the rate of
fifty-eight deaths in a day. Business is sus
pended and great suffering exists among the
poor. The little riverside city of Grenada is
absolutely crushed in the grasp of a plague of
unprecedented malignance. Five per cent of
its population are dead with fever, men are
dropping in the streets, negroes dying ‘like
sheep with the dry rot. In Memphis all who
can get away are flying from the city, and the
fever rages. In Vicksburg new cases are multi
plying and the death rate averages twenty-two
per day. There is a call for help from all these
sorely scourged cities. The noble Howards and
other benevolent societies stand to their post,
through danger and fatigue and death, but they
ask for outside aid, for money to procure food,
nurses, and medicines. And their call is
promptly responded to. Boston, New York
and Chicago send liberal donations. Philadel
phia contributes generously, George Childs and
Drexel sending each $500. St. Louis, Cleve
land, Petersburg, Chattanooga, Montgomery,
Columbus Ga., Atlanta and other towns have
fowarded aid to the stricken cities. From San
Francisco comes a contribution of a thousand
dollars, with additional large donations by the
Jews, to be distributed by the Hebrew Relief
Association of New Orleans. Norfolk has also
come forward with a noble offering.
It is this cordial response to the call of hu
manity, this thrill of sympathy at the cry of
distress, that makes us feel that the electric
chain of brotherhood that binds us is not yet
broken. Man is not indifferent to the suffering
of bis brother man. At the call of the afflicted
no questions are asked, no differences of partvi
or section or worldly station are coSsidered. Itl
is man appealing to his brother, and in spite of
financial stringency, the appeal is heeded and
man proves himself to have a heart in his breast
As the big souled Greely would say: ‘It is a good
fact; let it be remembered.
Our American Court—a Prophetic
Picture.—The prospective putting forward of
Grant for the third term of the Presidency is
thought by many to be preliminary to a change
of government, a Napoleonic coup and assump
tion of kingly privileges on the part of the ex-
tanner, and an elevation of his friends and kins
folks to the rights and titles of the noblesse. In
this light his European tour and the trumpeting
abroad through paid press-retainers of his tri
umphal progress was a bit of keen sighted
policy, intended to impress American Snobo-
cracy with the belief that his contact with
crowns and courts had rubbed off no small de
gree of the gilding of royalty upon his repub
lican person. In view of the prospective mon
archy, and in the summer dearth of other
sensations, various journals have indulged in
fancy pictures of the future American Court.
In this burlesque painting, Piatt is of course
ahead. Here is part of his sketch:
Our refined, cultivated neighbor, the Repub
lican, would be the court reporter. Herr Burgo
master Clapp in silk tights and diamond-buckled
shoes, under a huge cocked hat, resembling an
extinguisher, would have his corps of accom
plished and polished pen-drivers on hand to
report items something of this sort:
liis Imperial Majesty, at 9:30 a. m. precisely,
graciously took a pinch of snuff.
At 9:30 Lord Roscoe 'Conkling was observed
to sneeze.
His Imperial Majesty, at G:25, deigned most
graciously to sneeze, and all the court exclaim
ed, ‘God bless him.’ Lord Roscoe Conkling
turned a somersault.
Dowager Duchess Poppy Taft, Guardian of
the Night-shirt and High Custodian ox the Boot-
jack, drove to the Summer palace with his I. H.
Prince Frederick. The D. D. Poppy Taft
brought the sweet Prince to the Imperial palace
in hie arms, exhausted from the fatigues of the
day.
The clan Cameron, represented by the chief,
Don Cameron, and a tail appeared at the Im
perial palace, bearing tribute, at 11 a. m. yester
day. The tribute was made up principally of
old rye, which His Imperial Majesty was pleas
ed to commend highly. His Imperial Higness
was pleased to observe that the clan Cameron
had resumed the Highland costume, and there
by dispensed with the panatloon, and H. I. M.
condescended to say that this made kicking the
more effective. High Admiral Lord Secor Robe
son remarked smiling, that this was a joke; but
the clan Cameron did not laugh. To illustrate,
His Imperial Majesty kicked the venerable
Chief Simon. The V. C. kicked the deputy
High Chief Don, and the D. H. C. kicked the
delegation. There may be courts in Europe
that' vie with ours in grandeur and state cere
mony, but none that approach the Emperor of
the Yankee Doodles in cheerfulness.
At the reception last night Lady Gail Hamil
ton appeared in her favorite costume of a
blanket Indian armed with tomahawk and scalp
ing knife. It was observed that none approached
her but bald-headed courtiers, and it was
thought best to avoid any temptation to this
lady. She was assisted by Lady Agnes Jenks
and Lady Eliza Pinkston.
Sir Pig-Iron Kelley, now restored to the Im
perial favor; danoed with his usual grace and
agility, with the belle of New Orleans, a quad
roon of vast proportions.
H. I. Majesty, assisted by Prince Frederick,
knighted sixteen commoners by mashing their
noses and blacking their eyes. He raised Sir
Landaulet Williams to the peerage with a kiok.
This is the delicate and tasteful way in which
court that is to be will go to record. *
‘Sixty cents a day for a tender woman to stay
here and make life hideous. My God! Brown
its awful. Let’s leave it. Mr. Reporter, put this
down, that this is a terrible place to raise the
mothers of future freeman. The next ge nera-
tion must become a race of Lilliputians and im
beciles, for no girl raised in such a place can
impart a strong form or an independent mind
to her offspring. We’ll, change this shortly.
The day at is hand when with God’s help, their
fathers, brothers, or husbands will support
them or else these stock jobbers, who are now
spending their thousands at Long Branch,shall
pay them a decent share of their dividends.'
In the carding room, Kearney’s quick glanc
ing eye was caught by a pale little bare foot boy
in patched shirt sleeves, who was attending to
two machines. Stepping up to him and taking
his morsel of a hand, the leader of the working
man’s movement asked: ‘How old are vou.Son-
ney ?’ ‘Going on eleven.’ ‘Merciful God! a white
child a slave at eleven, and men slain to free
the black man! It is infamous; it is outrageous.
But the laws are to blame and not the poor pa
rents. Under just laws made by the peopla
themselves, such things could not exist. The
poor could then support their children.’
On seeing the number of able bodied men at
work in the factory at wages so small they could
lay by nothing for sickness or loss of place, or
even burial expenses, Kearney said:
‘Why do they not go on farms ?’ On the Superin
tendent saying that they would not work on
farms if given them, and attributing the hard
times to an over-production of food and
clothing, said Kearney: ‘Give idle men farms
and the means to get on to them,and see if they
won’t work. The trouble is due to class legis
lation; the laws are all on one side like a jug
handle. And as for over-production, sir, the on-
ly over-production lean find is the over-produc
tion of the blamed fools that preach it and swal
low it. There is no over-production while one
man is naked and another hungry.’
Kearney is said to be an uneducated man,but
a remark he is reported to have made in the
Lowell factory shows he is sufficiently cultured
to appreciate the value of brain work. He was
in th6 pentoerapbing room watching the pro-j
cess of etching ‘designs on copper for piints.
On being told by the lady operator that the wa
ges paid her was a dollar a day,he said: ‘A Chi
naman's wages for an artist! It’s rascally!'
The operatives, most of them, knew it was
Kearney who was talking to them and when he
moved away,wistful eyes followed him and the
women said to each other: ‘I hope he will be
able to do us some good.’
God knows some helper is needed to.come to
the aid of working women who labor so hard and
so faithfully and whose work is so poorly paid,
whose wages (always less than those which men
receive for the same kind of work no better done)
are doled out to them grudgingly, often with
rudeness amounting to insult. It is hardly like
ly that Kearney is ihe Messiah of the working
men and women, but he may be the one ‘sent
beforehand with all his coarseness and fanati
cism, he may be charged with a mission to rouse
caj italists and rich emp'oyers from their indolent
self-engrossment and sting them into a consci
ousness that the workmen who fill their bloated
purses, are of the same mind and flesh and have
the same rights as themselves,and that the work
of these should not be done under conditions of
pain and imperfect health and restricted devel
opment, because their scant pay allow’s them to
afford themselves no margin for rest and recrea
tion, no money to procure wholesome food and
comfortable lodging.
Cl Olifl Pictures —The most prosaic ap
preciate clouds as dispensers of moisture on the
earth. Your practical farmer, in whose mental
‘make up’ there is not the faintest tinge of im
agination, gazes with interest at the summer
cloud as it rolls proudly onward to the grandest
of all music, and glittering with a fearful dis
play of electricity. In it he recognizes the har
binger of well-filled barns, the promise of food
for man and beast. But full of interest as are
the clouds when surcharged with the most indi-
spensible of earthly blessings,it is not thus that
the poetic imagination loves best to contemplate
them. Most beautiful are they when floating
like great birds over the deep azure of the sky,
they are continually changing their fantastic
forms, now looming up in vast folds, and anon
molting into the air. As we sit idly watching
this celestial pageantry, imagination busies it
self in shaping them into the scenes and inci
dents of real life. One seems a warrior equip
ped with casque and shield and brandishing a
mighty sword; another, with arm uplifted in a
sublime gesture, seems an orator uttering some
stirring appeal wl.ich shall convince the intel
lects and enthuse the hearts of listening thou
sands. There appears a king with the royal
crown upon his brow and with sceptre uplifted
he stands in the attitude of command. Again,
a bride cometh forth with snowy drapery and
fleecy veil, and as we gaze we seem almost to
hear the vows of love and devotion which shall
bind heart and hand ‘until death do them part.
And there is a cloud shaping itself into the last
scene of earth—the shroud and pall, with a form
meekly folding its arms in rest. All these scenes
and hundreds of others does the fancy in its
dream-like spell delight to weave from the mass
es of white winged clouds. Thank God for the
clouds. Not alone are they His appointed agen
cies for giving us bread from heaven, but they
feast the eye with over varying tints and forms
of beauty.
We would say onoe more, in reply to ques
tions, that Mrs. Bryan’s editorials have a star (*)
affixed to them.
Butler and the Workingman.—The
General's Latest Speech. — Butler’s
name in the South has stood as a sydonym of
all that was detestable, and ten years ago, it
would have seemed an utter impossibility that
he could have ever been spoken of with toler
ance by a Southern man or woman.
Buried under obliquy, it was never thought
he could have risen one jot in Southern estima
tion. But there was too much force and tal
ent and faith in himself in the Massachusetts
politician for him to be kept under. To-day,
he is the most conspicuous figure in our polit
ical arena, and his boldness, and ingenuity
challenge one’s admiration. Though the man
himself fails to command our respect, he is
none the less a curious and interesting study.
Our people can forgive much to boldness
and acumen. Butler has shown both in his
recent course, and however much we may
distrust him, and look out for the cloven
foot under all this show of honesty and inde
dance, we must certainly award him praise for
his shrewdness, and keen-sightedness—quali
ties belonging to age and experience,but which he
combiaes with a vigor and ardor worthy of some
youthful aspirant for political leadership. In
his late extraordinary speech at Biddeford, he
openly cuts loose from the Republican party
and allies himself with the workingman’s move
ment. He takes the laboring men to his bos
om, and grasps the hand of Californian Kear
ney, the fanatical apostle of the men who live
by the sweat of their brows. What this may
mean can only be discerned by those who pos
sess preternatural insight and can see
through the muddle of American politics. It may
be that Ben Butler with his undoubted acumen
perceiveB that the two old parties are virtually
defunct, and that the brace of Phoenixes that
shall rise from their ashes will be two parties
founded on the claims of labor on the one hand
and capital on the other. He determines to
identify himself thus early with the one he be
lieves will be most powerful, that he may be
come its leader, and be recognized as its foun
der. In his Biddeford speech, after repeating
his former assertions that the Republican party
had betrayed the people and the laboring-class
which brought it into power, and put them un
der the feet of the Capitalists and bond holders,
after declaring that every law, made by the
Republican party since Grant went into the
White House has been for the rich and against
the poor, he goes on to define his position, to
show where he stands, which was quite neces
sary for a man who so often changes his base
and who so evidently believes with Emerson
that ‘consistency is the virtue of fools and Bar-
row heads,’ and that ‘with consistency a great
mind has nothing to do.’ Says the ex-Democrat,
ex-Republican, ex-Hayes man: ‘the Democratic
and Republican party to-day are one and the
same. The platform of the two parties do not
differ. The Republican platform of Main and
the Democratic platform of Delaware are the
same upon the of Q great question of finance.
Cpoii cue caVin*n'-o'nii<*u the old parties J;ffcx
very little. ThJgreenback party is the party of
the poor; the Democratic and Republican par
ties of the rich, I love the laboring man—the
prince of the earth. I despise the worthless na
bob and the communistic tramp. Specie pay
ments cannot be resumed in 1879, with 207,000-
000 in gold and 700,000,000 of greenbacks. Gold
is not money. Like any other commodity it
varies. Our great financial disasters have been
caused by the withdrawals of gold by England.
The bank of England stops the departure of
gold by a higher rate of discount. I want a dol
lar issued by the United States, with the stamp
of the United States government upon it. t
don’t want it redeemable in anything. I want
it based simply upon the faith of the grandest
government the sun ever shone upon. I want
it non-exportable. The dollar of the world is
the catchword ofShylock, the Jew. There is
no such thing as a measure of values. The
French yard is thirty-nine inches, ours is thir
ty-six inches. I want $400,000,000 to take in
the national currency. I want the bonds paid
aDd cancelled. I want all the foreign bonds
brought home. Let them be distributed here.
We pay the interest. Let us pay it at home,if for
no other object than to tax the income. I am
for an inconvertible currency, called the green
back, which fought our war, whicn paid our
soldiers and their orphans, which is at once the
engine and exempter of industry. Society is
not divided between capital and labor,. but into
capital, enterprise and labor. There is no an
tagonism between enterprise and labor, but
there is between enterprise and capital. I want
all property equally taxed as lightly as possible
just once and no more. We now have nearly
$2,000,000,000 bonds untaxed. The rich bond
holder enjoys all the privileged class. England
has for years taxed her bonded debt. I want
that mortgaged property should not be taxed
but once. My platform is equal rights, equal
powers, equal privileges, equal burdens and
equal taxes for all men under the law. *
Hilk and Fever.—'A writer in the New
Orleans Times contends that sweet milk is very
injurious to young children,and asserts that the
yellow fever has been most prevalent and fatal
among children who drank milk. He says milk
is not a natural food for this climate, that it is
too rich for a summer diet and develops bilious
complaint. What does Dr. Wilson ol our Health
Department say to this? Another correspondent
of New Orleans shows that the practice among
boys of ‘going in swimming’ is now almost al
ways followed by fatal fever. The same prac
tice here seems to have been conducive of bil
ious fever. In and around Stone Mountain,
where bilious fever is unusually prevalent and
severe this season, a great number of the cases
among children, says Dr. Hamilton, had their
origin in bathing in mill ponds. Several boys
in one family were taken down at once after a
mill pond bath. Doubtless the time of bathing
when over heated, or the exposure to the sun or
the remaining in the water too long, was to blame
for the evil consequences, and not the mere act
of bathing. But there are plenty of old men and
ladies who will shake their heads at this and
tell you that to get wet or bathe in dog days is
‘rank pizen’ to the human animal, *
Tlie X. ©. Times urges the owners of Street
Railroads to give free passes to the physicians
who are giving their services gratuitously in
aid of the work of the Howard Association that
noblo fraternity who are caring for the fever
sufferers of New Orleans. The free passes
Bhould have been given from the first. *
Girls and lee Cream.—Girls, poor dear
creatures are (as a class) almost always impe
cunious. Having no way of making money (un"
less they have moral courage enough to brave
Madam Grundy and join the army of ‘working
girls’) and their petitions to papa for a ‘little
change' meeting usually a gruff response, it fol
lows' that the pretty portmonnaies they tuck
away in their ornamented pockets are often
empty as a newspaper puff, or the prayer of a
fashionable Christian.
And the girls have plenty of needs, real or
imagined; but better let these remain ungratified
than be too ready to accept favors, involving pe
cuniary obligations from miscellaneous gentle,
man acquaintances. Gloves and bouquets, the
atre tickets and pink ices are very nice things,
but self-respect and perfect freedom of speech
and action are far better, and these are some
times marred by the sense of small obligations
thoughtlessly incurred. The young girl who
has been regaling herself on ice cream or beer,
or has just drawn on a pair of gloves paid for by
her escort, does not feel quite at liberty to re
sent any familiarity on his part, and is almost
bound to listen complacently to his love-making.
Evan where there is no familiarity nor love-
making the sense of obligation has a shade of
uncomfortableness in it to a right-minded girl,
particularly if there is any suspicion that the
gentleman felt the offering of such attentions a
kind of social duty. And the truth is, there are
girls (few let us hope) who are pretty sure to
make their escort feel that it is expected of him
to be liberal of such favors. There are girls who
levy taxes on the purses of their admirers, some
times under the cover of ‘bets’ philopenas or
other pretexts, but often openly. And if the in
vitations to buggy-drives, concerts, ice cream,
etc., are not forthcoming,the young man is voted
‘mean and stingy,’ while the one who taxes
his purse or strains his credit for their pleasure
is praised in all the extravagant terms character
istic of the vocabulary of average young lady
hood. Knowing this, the young man who wish"
es to economize or has no money to spend in
useless ways, often avoids the company of young
women, fearing to be involved in expense, and
thus Rioses the pleasure and improvement he
might find in the society of ladies not of this
thoughtless order. Jennie June, inherSeptem-
ber ‘Talk with Girls,’ gives some sensible advice
to those who, because they are engaged, think
it right and proper to put themselves under
small financial obligations to their promised
husbands. She says:
Suppose that their interests have become iden
tical, and that- what he has he is quite willing
she should have a share of; does he look upon it
as more of less than paying a mortgage upon
what is to be his own property ? Does it not
falsify and degrade the position of the girl from
the moment she enters wedlock and takes upon
herself new duties as wife ? Is it possible to
maintain freedom of speech and action under
the pressure of financial obligation, for which
there is no possibility of recognizable equiva
lent.
As a wife who performs her duty in caring for
her husband’s house, maintaining his s<>cial re-^
iations and becoming the mother of hi) child-’’
ren, a woman has a perfect right to an equal di
vision of the income, after the family expenses
have been provided for, There is no depend
ence and no obligation in this.
Her position is one of perfect equality, and
her moral right to a share in whatever the labor
of her husband produces, is undoubted, wheth
er the legal right be acknowledged or not. But
the establishment of such claims, the acceptance
of such obligations before marriage, puts a yoke
around the neck of the girl, which remains and
becomes heavier and more burdensome to the
woman. Moreover, it is not necessary to remind,
even the youngest girl readers, how few of these
immature and preliminary acquaintanceships
and relations ever grow into important and per
manent ties; while under the influence of this
noxious custom of receiving and conferring
money favors, a world of slights, miseries and
mortifications, annoyances and humiliations
arise, whose mischievous consequences not un-
frequently pursue their victim, till the grave
closes over her head.
It would be too much to say that the taking so
much for granted, the willingness of girls to let
Tom, Dick, or Harry pay their society bills, as
the case may be, is the cause of the falling off in
the number of marriages, and the general un
willingness on the part of young men to assume
domestic responsibilities, but it is certainly
true that it has discredited the actual character
of young women, and done great injustice to
their real strength, and true unselfishness of
heart and purpose.
What I would have girls do is, to keep their
birth-right, their real independence, their loyal
womanhood, their true nobility, as a possession
and an inheritance for their children, and not
rid themselves of all that is most precious in
life and character for the sake of a few poor
dishes of ice-cream, of very doubtful benefit to
their digestion, and adornments which add noth
ing to the grace of their youth or the freshness
of their beauty.” *
Jlosiii—The new work of Henry Greville,
which begins to-day in the “ Sunny South,” is a
Russian story. The author, H. Greville—her
true name is Madame Durand—has been living in
Russia for a long period of time; she is familiar
with the life of all classes in that Northern
country, and is especially conversant with the
manners of high life, among which she has been
moving. But being a stranger in Russia, her
impressions have been more vivid and her imagin
ation seizes at once the difference existing between
Russia and the more meridional countries of Eur
ope. Many things which would have passed un
noticed by a Russian writer—as Tourgenieff, for
instance, who always depicts his people with his
own native propossessions, had, forMme. Durand,
the attraction of novelty, and she did not fail to
give them a place in her work. Hence her cap
tivating descriptions of the young officers’ life in
camp, the regattas, Karskoe-Selo, the skating
scenes on the Neva, and many other episodes of
daily life.
The work is full of emotion, acute penetration
and true sensibility ; it has been well conceived,
well executed, and is, besides, perfectly moral.
Dosia will be a relieving contrast to dramatic
sensations, and complicated wonders and extrava
gances of too many romances nowadays.
The Louisville Industrial Exposi
tion.—The Sixth Annual Exposition of Louis
ville, Ky., will open on the 3rd of September and
continue till the 10th of October. The attrac
tions and pleasures promise to exceed in variety
and excellence those of any former exhibition
in that famous city.
Many thanks to the efficient Secretary, E. A.
Maginnis, for a ticket.
A Former Toast of London Soci
ety,—The extravagant admiration that London
flings at the feet of its present feminine idol—
Mrs. Langtry—the ‘peerless Jersey Lily,’ as she
is called—reminds one of the admiration be
stowed on another, who was the rage in a past
generation, bewitching, gifted and unfortunate
Caroline Lamb. She, like Mrs• Langtry, shortly
after her marriage, came to London, had her
beauty and eccentricities brought into notice by
some quill-driver, or some masculine court ora
cle, and at once became the fashion, and, as Hep-
worth Dixon tells us, ‘the belle of her season,
the toast of her set, the star of her firmament,’
with the Prince of Wales to stand sponsor to
her baby and beg as a favor that it should be
named after him.
Caroline Lamb had far better claims to dis
tinction than those possessed by the tall, rather
inane woman whose dresses and poses are imita
ted by women and chronicled by reporters.
Lady Caroline was original, brilliant, full of va
riety and with an electric charm of look and
manner. She is described as slender and grace
ful in figure, with small regular features, a pale
complexion, dark expressive eyes in striking
contrast with short thick golden hair, a grave
look which emphasized her odd sparkling talk,
and a voice whose low tones had such unusual
sweetness that they captivated the indifferent
and ‘disarmed even her enemies.’
‘She was fond of saying startling things, to
which a slight lisp gave additional piquancy.
William Harness was dancing with her at a great
ball, when she confounded him by demanding;
‘Gueth how many pairth of thilk stockingth I
have on?’ His wit not being equal to the divi
nation, she raised her skirts above a pretty an
kle, and pointing to a little foot, said, ‘Thix.’
When old enough to disregard the doctor’s em
bargo on study, Lady Caroline had learnt with
avidity, though without system. She soon ac
quired French and Italian, music and painting,
could write an ode of Sappho, or dash off a spir
ited caricature. She rode and wrote as fearless
ly as she talked. No wonder William Lamb,
once attracted by a girl so bewitching and orig
inal, found all others commonplace.
‘The young lawyer had loved her for years. So
soon as he had become heir to the Melbourne
title and estates, he had hastened to lay his
brighter fortunes at Lady Caroline’s feet. To
his amazement she refused him, alleging that
she feared her violent temper would wreck their
happiness. But to his still greater amazement
she added a wish to accompany him in boy’s
clothes and act as his secretary.
‘He again proposed, and unhappily, he was
not again refused—‘because,’ she says, ‘I adored
him.’ The bridegroom soon had cause to ad
mit how reasonable were the grounds on which
his first offer had been rejected. Although mar
riage was her absolutely free choice, the bride,
according to her own account, was seized during
the ceremony with one of her ungovernable fits
of passion. ‘I stormed at the bishop,’ she says,
‘tore my valuable dress to pieces, and was car
ried nearly insensible to the carriage which was
to convey me forever from my home.’
This storm apparently cleared the atmosphefe.
The honeymoon passed peacefully. The young
couple rode and read together, and she used to
refer to that quiet time, when ‘William taught
me all I knew,’ as the happiest of her life. On
their return to London, Lady Caroline at once
became the ‘rage.’ The flattery she received
was enough to turn a steadier brain, but love
and admiration for her husband kept her safe.
They sympathised in literary tastes—till Lady
Caroline fell under the evil influence of the ‘Sa
tanic School,’ whose manufactured melancholy
her husband ridiculed—and in seeking the so
ciety of literary people.
‘While she was still ‘the cynosure of neighbor
ing eyes,’ Byron—called by Hepworth Dixon
‘beautiful and deadly as nightshade’—returned
from Italy. Tbe manuscript of ‘Childe Harold’
wa3 lent to Lady Caroline by Rogers, and she
became crazy to see the poet. ‘He has a club
foot, and bites his nails,’ said Rogers. ‘If he is
ugly as lEsop, I must know him,’ she answered.
Lady Westmoreland offered to introduce them
at a ball, but with an impulse of aversion Lady
Caroline turned away, noting him in her diary
as ‘mad, bad, and dangerous to know.’ She
changed her opinion when, on Byron’s first call
at Melbourne House, he held her sleeping child
on his knee for more than an hour, lest by mov
ing he should wake him. For nearly a year his
visits were incessant. He had a real regard for
Lady Melbourne, whom he called ‘ the best
friend he ever had—a second mother’—yet
played at being in love with her daughter-in-
law. On Lady Caroline’s part it was not play,
but lamentable earnest. There was much grat
ified vanity at first on both sides. Rank and
Ion had an irresistible charm for Byron. To win
the unconcealed devotion of a woman brilliant
and beloved, whose wildest follies had never
compromised her before, was a triumph even for
the fashionable Apollo whom ‘the women suffo
cated.’
‘But it was a triumph of which he speedily
tired. ‘These violent delights have violent
ends.’ Real thunder and lightning soon issued
from the atmosphere of artificial gloom both rev
elled in.
‘The misery brought by this extravagance on
her husband and herself was only too genuine.
Byron, with his mock-madness and callous
heart, could pass unscathed through many such
entanglements; at the root of Lady Caroline’s
follies lay the germ of real insanity and the mis
guided fervor of a loving nature. Byron, in af
ter-years, with his customary cynicism, deliber
ately misstated facts in order somewhat to ex
onerate his own conduct.’ *
The Fever.'-in Grenada, Paducah, Fort
Eads and other up river towns seems to be
of a far more malignant tvpe.than that prevail
ing in New Orleans. A letter from Grenada
says it resembles in every particular that deadly
plague which scourged Shreveport five years
ago. We are of the opinion that the greater or
less malignance of the fever depends upon the
sanitary condition of the location on which it
fastens. In smaller towns there is apt to be
gross neglect of s anitary measures, especially of
draining and the removal of garbage, the latter
being usually dumped down at some little dis
tance from the town, often in a pond or wet
place where it lies festering and generating
disease. In Grenada the fever is said to have
origanated from opening an old sewer and a
traveler writes ‘All along the railroad are cess
pools of stagnant water from which rise a hori-
ble deadly stench and every out house we visit
ed was filthy beyond description.' *
• ^T 3 ,' Maf y A‘ Livermore is having a very
joyable vacation in Europe. She has visi
Itaiy, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, Holla
and France, and is, at last advices, in Engla
where she has been lecturing.