The sunny South. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1875-1907, November 23, 1878, Image 5

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THE VIVISECTOR. A Vi visector soundly slept, / 1 ' I1 c ‘ from his mind had well nisfli swept Kecords, which conscience still had kept, Of savage deeds. Sleeper, thy ‘buried si ns' ari so, svnd mangled victims meet your eyes, iou shrink aghast in wildsurprise Aud thrilling tear. And now they hover round and round, ith open knivesand hissing sounds, Exulting o'erlAeiV victims found— Their vengeance sure. In speechless terror there you lie Alone, no friend, no rescue nigh; At length you raise a piteous cry— ’Tis laughed to scorn, Their flashing knives draw closer still, ^ ou’re at the mercy of their will, While conscience cries, with icy thrill, ‘Yourdoomis sealed-’. The morning dawns. What ails his arm? ’Tispalsied. It will never harm God's creatures more. Is there no balm? None—save In penitence and prayer! Sketches of Travel in Florida, By Nettie Loveless Kiemlff. Lake City is situated on the direct B. B. ronte from Tallahassee to Jacksonville, one hundred and six miles from the former and sixty miles from the latter. It takes its name from the num ber of lakes in and around the place. Leaving Tallahassee for Lake City, a few minutes ran on the cars brings you to Lake LaFajette which extends along the track for seven miles, and as the sunlight falls on its danciDg wavelets, it seems a perfect ocean in miniatnre. The country along this ronte does not impress travellers very favorably, although many lovely scenes meet the eye. It is chiefly a wilderness —a long stretch of pine woods broken very rare ly by humble habitations and poorly tended farms. Oranges and other tropical fruits are not much cultivated \n this portion of the state, although it is conceded that they mature better than in the more southern regions. Tne farmers do not fully appreciate the wonderful capacities and advantages of their soil and climate; they depend too much ou the old time plan of raising corn and cotton—and the ‘nigger s,’ scorning work, I depend for substance, mainly, on wild fruit, fish and game. Lake City has 1G00 inhabitants; is rather a neat-looking town. The streets are very level, but that fine, white sand, so peculiar to Florida, is fearfully deep. We were greatly annoyed while at this place, by the sandflies, gnats and mosquitoes. The climate inclines one to ease and quiet, but there was plenty of energy displayed in resenting the attacks of those murderous little enemies. We went out a short distance into the country to visit an acquaintance and arriving at his resi dence about five o’clock in the afternoon, I was struck by the group on the piazza, who seemed engaged in some animated game of amusement, though I heard no laughter. Some were throw ing their arms wildly about, some were slapping their heads and faces with their hands, some were stamping on the floor and performing all manner of quick and unexpected feats of calis thenics. On entering, we inquired what game they were playing, and our little foreign friend replied: ‘What we were playing? By the Blessed Vir gin, there are a fine crop of mosquitoes that are j ust gude ripe,and if you sit here with us you'll be very apt to join in our game of aelf-defenoe. INDIAN MOUNDS. During our stay at Capt. Sheppard’s,two miles east of Lake City, our attention was called to what is termed Indian niGunds. We Lave read and heard much of the Mound Builders, a race supposed to have existed here anterior to the North American Indians; but we were assured by some aged Floridians that these mounds contain Indian dead—buried on the field after a battle between hostile tribes. The mound we excavated is in the edge of a hammock, surrounded by tall trees, clinging vines and the star-like palmetto. It is on a hill side and a number of lesser mounds ar > scatter ed below it. A few yards away, a spring of clear, cold water bursts from the ground and murmurs musically down the deep descent. No doubt in ages long gone by Indian wigwams clustered near this spring, and the fleet-footed warrior chased their game through this same cool and shaded hammock. But the blue smoke ciroles are here no more above their humble abode and the swift sportsman have found other hunting grounds. About six feet below the surface of the mound we found the skeletons of seven different bodies, some large, some small, but all evidently of the same race. Tne teeth were in a state of perfect preservation, were large and set firmly in the massive jaw bones. We were all struck with the surprising width of the months, that is, from one set of molars to those over on the other side. Some of the bones were well preserved—the jaw bones and the largest bones, but the others were so decayed they would crumble to dust in the hand. There were several flints of various shapes, a few arrow heads, whetstones or thunderbolts, and old piecies of broken pottery found above the skeletons—the hoarded treasuers no doubt, of the dear departed, who have rested so long and so quietly beneath that hillock of silver- white sand. INDIAN LETTERS, In 1S7G, several hundred Indians were carried to St. Augustine, Florida, to be civilized and ed ucated as teachers and missionaries for their tribes. They made rapid progress in their stu dies, and learned to wear their modern costumes with a right royal graces Mrs. A., of the Lake City House, visited them during their stay at St. Augustine, and they were so delighted with her capacity of speaking with them in their own language, that they cor responded with her after her return to Lake City, knowing that 6he took a friendly interest in their advancement. I read their letters and was so pleased with the crnde bat good and earnest thoughts expressed, that with Mrs. A’s permission, I copied several of them verbatim. ‘St Augustine, March 15ih, 1878. Dear friend; Miss Minnie A— My English, I give yon, it is no good. I am very well. When at the Fort, me was glad to see you very much. My good friend, I will remember you. Now me White Man no Indian, all my Indian clothes are thrown away. I want them no more, I dress in White Man’s clothes and want .to do like good man; learn good ways, so when I go home I can know how to teach my friends to walk in God’s road. I love to read about God. I love to look up and talk to Jesus, be hears me,he hears me,he knows my heart Now me White Man just the same and think of you. By and by, when I go to my far away home, I will sit down and write you. Your friend, Bears Heart. 'St. Augustine, Fla., March 14th, 1878. Miss Minnie A—My good friend: ‘I think of you and you go home. I am sor ry I was away. I will write you letter and you no more see. When you write to me sometimes I will you write. On Sunday I will go to chnrch. Long time all my good friend, White mans, I love Jesus, and I now look up to Jesus who has been so good to me. God’s good book has told me what was wrong. I love to sing good j faymns. l Write to me soon, your friend, j ' JLittlh Medicine. ! The Queen of the Demi-Monde —Diamonds and Spades. Of all the beautiful, bad women who have shed the lurid glare of gilded sin on that tempting half-society of Paris the Countess Talexis, re cently dead, was the most remarkable. Princes, dukes and earls had lost their fortunes and lives for her. Her wealth would have ma le an empe ror’s ransom; her jewels we^efit for aqueen, and she died at last in a squalid cellar on a bed of rags, leaving only a copper medal attached to her neck by a leather string—a relic of child hood, strangely kopt through all the gorgeous years of crime and splendor. The inscription was brief. ‘Louise Talexis. born 15'h Miy, 1830. God defend her from evil and guide her to a happy end.’ From the town of Jouarre a tattered but strangely beautiful girl of fifteen tramped to Paris, and, as she sought a doubtful pittance in the Qaartier Latin, a poor young artist, struck with her beauty, took her up six flights of steps, and paid her as many sous, to sit to him as a model. In three weeks she was his quasi wife, taken as grisettes are in the adventurous realm of Bohemia. Her friend was a genius who lacked opportunity and inspiration. She gave him one with her beauty, aud the notoriety served for the other; for in two months Paris went mad over a picture of Venus rising from the waves, which was only au exact portrait of Louise in the costume in which the Goddess of Love might have taken a sea bath before Long Branch started blue flannel. The Count de Nolongue at once offered the lovely model his ‘protection,’ which the new beauty accepted, because in the Count’s own chateau her mother had been ruined, and there fore oar heroine had revenge as her send-off in the demi-monde. The Count was one of the proudest nobles in France, and fought hard against the malign fas cination of the beautiful devil; and it took Louise five years to bring her game to the proper cli max. He blew bis brains ont while the bum bailiffs were waiting down stairs to carry him to a debtor's prison, and Louise quietly got in her carriage and went to the opera, where she met and accepted the ‘protection’ of the Due de C., a swell with title and millions, who fought three duels about his gorgeous mistress in that many weeks. Abandoned, voluptuous, heartless and un principled, she reigned in a palace of oriental splendor that a sultan might envy. Her love was intoxicating and maddening, but blighting. She traversed Europe like an empress with a court of princes and nobles following her in the hope of being in turn her favorites and victims. When beggars came she smiled at the poor wretches with the cruelty which only such a wo man can feel. For women, when once started, are more wicked than men, because the first step isolates them from the sympathy which to some extent holds the worst men with at least some slender cord of friendship to humanity. Damas wrote of her; ‘She has but two uses for men -to gratify her depravity, or greed for gold.’ in 1858 she found herself thirty years old and the mistress of a Bussian prince, through whom she lavished millions of roubles out of the i m- perial treasury. The Prince was sent to Liberia to cool his love, while the Countess Talexis, as she then styled herself, was escorted over the frontier by a guard of police; but the police, though they found the woman, didn t get the stolen money, and the Countess proceeded to Germany, bankrupted two of the petty princes, causing one to cut his own throat, and the other to do the same for a rival, and at last halted in her conquering way in the Netherlanis. Baron Von Gelden, the richest man in all the low countries, succumbed at onoe. He sold his immerse estate in Batavia aud Paramaribo, and begun ^o mortgage his European possessions. A rival wounded him in a duel, and he ended a poor lunatic in a mad-house, just as the Coun tess had appointed his successor in the person of a rich banker. The countess liked duels to serve her amours with the flavor of blood, so she caused the banker to challenge a prince on whom she lavished a smile for that purpose. The prince declined to cross swords with a banker, and was beaten by two midnight bravos hired by the j salons financier, who was caught and put in prison, where he died. The Dutch prince had to be sent on a diplomatic mission to care him of the Countess; but he forsook his post, was disgraced, aud actually forced his way into the terrible beauty’s house while she was giving a banquet, shot himself and fell at her feet, be sprinkling her gorgeous robe with his blood. She sent the body to the coart-yard and contin ued her symposium. The last crime of the Countess, which was the turning point in her career, was causing a dia bolical rivalry between a father and son. At that time there were two men noted in Paris as leaders in society, handsome, rich, and distin guished as soldiers. Tbey were always together on the most loving terms, and might have been taken for brothers if they had not been known to be father and son. The younger de Lincey became fascinated with Talexis, and the elder one remonstrated, but in vain, and in three months the young man was ruined. He appdied to his father for money, and was surprised, as he had not seen him for a month, to behold a worn and haggard man. He rushed the next morning to the house of his now faithless queen to upbraid her, aud there found his father. The scene, too terrible to describe,ended in pitricide, and the frantic wretch threw himself out of the window, dragging after him the cause of hi3 crime. The passers-by picked up the corpse of the man and the disfigured remnant of the queen of the demi monde. She recovered perfectly from every injury, except a scar across the face, which not only marred her beauty, but set the sinister impress of her real character there with a strange, zig-zag line. From that moment her fortane changed, her millions melted and she became poor. A thief stole her jewels, and the last crowning misfor tune, the woman who had never loved became desperately enamored of a Bohemian in the Lat in Qaartier, who maltreated her. She had trav eled in a circle, and came back to the starting point She became a box opener at a low theatre, a waiter in a caveau, then had a fall, and had to go on cratches, until one day ‘La Boiteuae,’ as she was called, started to tramp back to her native village, bat fell on the way. . She recovered strength enough to stagger back into the streets, where a chiffonier gave her the bed of rags on which she died. Aad this was onoe the gor geous queen of the demi-monde. A Murderer’s Suicide.—At Vincennes, Ind.,— last Wednesday, a French family named Vace- lot, consisting of fonr persons, was found mur dered. A Coroner’s jury fixed the crime on Pierre Provost, a hired man, who was according ly arrested and lodged in jaiL This coupled with apprehension of lynching, Beemiagly proved too much for Provost, for upon opening the jail Sunday morning he was found dead, having hanged himself during the night This act seemed the more remarkable as he has re mained stolid and immovable in his claim of in nocence, and the overwhelming circumstantial evidence produced no visible change in his de meanor. Oae of the hardest sort of people was asked to subscribe to some object ‘I can't’ he replied; 'I must be just before I am generous.’ ‘Well,’ said the one who made the request, 'let me know just before you are generous, and I'll try you again.’ RECOVERING A WAIF. DY EMILY R. STEINESTEL. The desolation brought upon communities by the yellow demon of the South is not to be com puted; individual histories, however, preseut pictures from which we can draw au idea of the misery resulting from it -the making of orphans and widows, the breaking up of families, the sudden slaying of protectors, the ruthless sev ering of dearest ties. A person might draw soul-harrowing pictures if every humane being did not give, voluntarily, the sympathy due suffiriog. Nearly every reader will recall the time, six years ago, when this horrible fever raged nearly as fearfully as it has this year. At that time there lived, in a pretty place in tli9 vi cinity of Bed river,a family of five persons—hus band, wif6, child and two servants, a colored man and his wife. The gentleman, when the scourge first broke out. suggested taking his family North: but, on deliberating with his wife, who was in delicate health ai the time and disliked leaving her home, concluded, as they lived somewhat out of town, that they would be safe in remaining, if they kept aloof all inter course with an infectious atmosphere. Vain hope! One morning the husband was nnable to rise from his bed: the wife, frightened by his hourly-increasing suffering, sent for aid; the physician immediately pronounced the case yellow fever, and advised her to leave, and save herself and child, and he would do all that a human being could do to save her now-delirious husband. Any woman can guess her answer. She could die with him, but not desert him. But her chill? Frantic with the necessity, she followed the doctor's advice and sent the nurse with her 3-year-old darling to a barge lying a mile away on Bed river, with such instructions and prayerful blessings as only a mother’s heart could utter. This barge was going freighted with fleeing human beings, who would find ref uge in S . Louis and nearer points of safety. The colored woman knew where the chili would fiad a kind reception from the friends of the af flicted mother, and, trusting to the hitherto- faithtul servaut, the sorely-tried wife turned her heart to the duties before her. By night she was alone with her husband’s corpse. The man ser vant had Aid—with his wife, probably. The next day the doctor fonnd her—not stricken with the fever, bat a wild maniac, hugging to her breast the dead man’s head. He had her re moved to an asylum, the estate taken care of as soon as the terror in the country bad somewhat abated,and then communicated with her friends and relatives in Mobile and St. Louis. None had heard of the nurse or child. Advertise ments were inserted in a dozen different papers for the recovery of little Edith D—, but for three years all trace of her was lost. In the mean time the poor, bereft widow was restored to reason, and with a little fatherless babe—born two months after her double loss—pressed to a determined heart, she traveled from city to town and town to city hunting for her other child. Every place where colored people congregated she haunted, every child she eagerly scanned in passing, and who shall portray that woman’s hopes and disappointment during nearly three weary years of vain seeking? Bat at last, at last! On a street in New York she saw that woman to whom she had intrusted her child. With the clutch of an insanely-delighted, almost-dying woman she held her arm. ‘My child, Bath, where is my child?' she cried with a face blue and eyes like a hunted animal, the negro fell on her knees, nnable to articulate a word. ‘Only tell me I shall see her again. I'll for give everything, ask nothing, nothing. Oh, Bath, for God's sake, is she well? Shall I see her once more?’ In ten minutes the poor mother held to her breast the lost one, larger.to be sure, but her darling, every featnre as if photographed from that loved husband’s face. The negress had been kind to her, bat the only explanation she coaid give was that they had, somenow been tempted to run away with the money given her to see the child safely at St. Lonis* And she ‘s’posed Jeff was ashamed ’cause he’d runned away, and ’sides we heard as how both you done died, anyway.’ The Sultan’s Seraglio. Tire Commander of the Faithful at the Mercy of His Women and Ministers. To estimate the difficulty of reforming Turkey one must get an idea of what the Sultan’s court is. The magnificent seraglio, whose buildings stretoh to the length of a mile and a half on the shore of the Bosphorus, contains more than two thousand inmates, and is a city in itself. Here the government is carried on chiefly by women and slaves. Tne viziers and ministers are but ser vants of these secluded creatnres; and although at times a statesman, supported by a palace clique, may wield real power, he seldom does so for long, nor is his power, very great. From the moment when he enters office he is secretly as sailed by a host of enemies whom ha does not see, and whom he cannot disarm or propitiate. All he knows is, that while these foes are intri guing against him, the women and slaves to whose infinence he owed his place are fighting for him, and that so long as they keep the up per hand be will be safe. The Saltan, as a rule, is as much at the mercy of the women as his ministers. A puppet in the hands of women, he never knows exactly who rules him, but is obliged, for peace’s sake, to do as his mother, sisters or favorites order. More than one sultan, weary to death of seraglio intri gues, would have been glad to make a clean sweep of his female court; but any step in this direction would have led to conspiracy and de position. In a country where the laws of suc cession to the throne are very confused, a sultan is obliged to act cautiously lest he should excite the curiosity of a pretender whose claims to the throne might prove quite ss good as his own. There are two seraglios. The new one where the reigning sultan resides, and the old one to which the favorites of the departed sultans are relegated, and they are a source of ruinous ex pense to the treasury. Not only are the allow ances of the sultanas and favorites large, but the ways of the palace are extravagant Each of the imperial ladies have a retinue of companions, male and female servants, and all these people scatter gold in profusion whenever they have a whim to satisfy. Under Abdnl Medjid the palace was rnled for years by a beautiful Circassian, who had been a washerwoman, and whose ohief adviser was a hewer of wood, who conld not read, bnt who had the power of dismissing viziers. A girl in the seraglio, even if she be a simple coffee bearer, becomes a guiezde from the mere fact of the sal tan making a complimentry remark on her. The word means a girl who has attracted the masters glance. ‘What a pretty girl that is who brought in the coffee’—and the damsel is at once and without farther parley promoted to the rank of guieuzie; which gives her a suit of apartments and a claim on the imperial exchequer for the remainder of her life, or until such a time as the saltan finds her a husband. As every woman who marries from the seraglio takes with her, her clothes, jewels, furniture, servants, car riages and a quantity of money, whioh often amonnts to many thousands of dollars, it may be imagined how the eivilist is mulcted where there are many guienzles. Of male members of the seraglio there, in addition to the neoessary staff of chamberlains, secretaries, eunuohs, scull ions and cooks, corps of two hundred pages and musioians^amd an army of barbers, shampooners, tasters of the sultan’s food, athletes, buff ions, cock-fighters, ram-fighters, astrologers and grooms. The buff ions nave always been numer ous, for ladies living in seclusion must be mad9 to laugh when time hangs heavily on their hands, and when the mnsic and jigging of the dancing girls begin to pall. Tnese dancing girls form a corps three hundred strong, and as they are splendidly dressed and richly fed, they cost more to keep than a cavalry regiment. One need not enumerate the staff of servants and officials required for the stables (which eontain five hundred hors as, J for the kitchen, the berths and gardens, nor yet the stall' or court priests— enough has been said to warrant the inference that the sultan’s court is at once the costliest and laziest in the world. TheLandofthe Olive. Its Colonization; an Ameri can’s Idea, etc. BY LIEUT. CLAUDE R. CONDER, R. E. Since the completion of the Survey of Palestine —which is on the same scale and which aims at giving the same amount of detail given for England by our Ordinance Survey—we may be said to pos sess more detail and accurate information regard ing the present condition of Palestine than exists in any other Asiastic or African country. The waste lands, forests, and deserts are distinguished on this great map from the cultivated districts. The olives, figs, vines, and enclosed vegetable gar dens are all shewn, the springs and streams have all been surveyed, and the memoir!* which accom pany the map give detailed accounts of the water supply and cultivation. We have, therefore, at the present time reliable data on the publicatiou*for a true estimate of the present condition of Palestine, and of its possible future value. The desolate condition cf the country has been over-estimated. It has been supposed that a great change in climate has occurred, and that there has been a great destruction of former forests. Both these statements are far beyond the true facts. The seasons of Palestine are identical with those described in the Mishnah (Tanith I.), and al though we have no ancient observations to com pare, and cannot therefore say with certainty that the rainfall is the same as in older times, still the springs and streams mentioned in the B.bleare all yet flowing with water, aud the annual rainfall of about twenty inches would be quite sufficient for the wants of the country if it were stored in the innumerable “broken cisterns,” which only re quire a coat of cement to make them serviceable. The climate is, no doubt, far more unhealthy than formerly, but this is due in a great measure to the destruction of the splendid old system of drainage and irrigation, and to the loss of trees raised by cultivat.on. Good drainage and tree planting would do much to restore the land to its former condition as regards climate. Palestine is by no means bare of trees, and its water supply is most abundant in the cultivated districts. A forest of oaks covers the hills west of Nazareth—a beatiful woodland extends westwards from the low hills into the plains of Sharon. On Carmel and in the Hebron hills the thick copse has spread former vineyards and orchards, and in lower Galilee many districts are clothed with a dense tangled bushwood, and with oaks and mastic trees. This luxuriant wild growth flourishes in spite of wholesale destruction by the fire-wood sellers, and unprotected by any forest laws, evi dencing the richness of the soil where it grows. Tiiis richness of the soil is also attested in the plains by the beautiful crops of barley and wheat, raised by merely scratching the ground with the light native plow ; and the oil from the long olive groves on the low hills (of which 1,800 tons was exported in 1871) is said to be the finest in the world. On the high Hebron hills, and on Hermon, the vine grows luxuriantly, and good wine is even now manufactured in Lebanon. The fruits of the country are numerous and delicious, and cotton, tobacco, millet, aad sugar cane can be grown easily. The riches of the land are mainly agricultural. Mines have been found at Sidon and in Lebanon, copper, coal, and even tin have beon discovered, but the quality of the mineral does not appear to be very good in aDj case. It seems, however, that rock oil is to be expected in the neighborhood of the Dead Sea (where indications of its presence are said to have been noticed) and bitumen and salt are already obtained from the same vicinity. There is one particular in which a marked dif ference is observable. This is the amount of cul tivation as compared with that of former times. The ancient terraces so carefully built up or hewn in the hill-sides now pr.-Juce rich crops—but crops of weeds and thistles. For every inhabited village ten ruined towns are found. In the copses and on bare hill-sides the ancient wine presses are cut in rock. The site of the vineyard of Naboth at Jezreel is marked on the survey map by a col lection of these ancient presses on the hill above the city, where not a vine plant is now grown. Old orchard walls and watch-towers'of huge stones stand half ruined in the wild districts, and the same story is repeated throughout the length of the land—the cultivation has shrunk with a de creasing population. The population of Syria is stated in Consular reports not to exceed the incredibly low fiigure of 2> millions in 20,000 square miles. In the country the people are packed in villages, containing 100 to 500 inhabitants, and the grounds of a village will average about ten acres per soul. Two-thirds of the peasantry are Moslem. About 40,000 Jews are said to }ive in Syria, and in Palestine they are found chiefly in the four sacred cities, Jerusalem, Hebron, Tiberias and Safed, and in the coast towns. The greater number are poor, and many are supported by the Halukah, The richer class are merchants and traders. The majority of the Jews are Ashkenazim, from Germany, Poland and Russia. It is said that if fully cultivated,even after the na tive fashion, Palest ine is capable of supporting ten times its present population. The question which realy requires to be answered is : In what man ner can this cultivation be carried out ? It is pro posed to show, in the succeeding articles, the reasons why former attempts have failed, and the true principle to be adopted, whether on a small scale under the existing government, or on a large scale, under a more enlightened and juster ad ministration, It has been already proved that none are better fitted to carry out these improve ments, and to direct the present population in agriculture, that the descendants of the ancient conquerors who made hewers of wood and draw ers of water of the aboriginal population. The energy, industry and tact, which are so remarka ble in the Jewish character, are qualities invalu able in a country whose inhabitants have sunk into fatalistic indolence; and Palestine is still so cheap a country, and requires so moderate a cap ital for investment, that it may well attract the at tention of the middle class among its rightful owners. Of late years the Jewish population in Palestine, and Jerusalem especially, has increased in num bers. The community has also gained in power and importance. A building club has been estab lished, and houses have, by means of Jewish-co- operation, been built outside the city on the west. Many of the Jews are under British protection, and the total Jewish population of the Holy City is estimated as being from 8,000 to 10,000 souls ; the trade of the town is rapidly falling into their hands, and they are buying up all the available land in the vicinity. sociErr gossip.) Among us just now in Kentucky, fern picnics are the fashion. Since we must depend apon our parlor and window gardening fj.‘ flowers daring the long winter mouths, it behovas ns to collect as much material as possible to adorn the sitting-room and make up for the lack of summer greenery. Every year we develop more skid and cunning in thiprepira ion and prese vation ot autumn leaves and ferns, and conse quently every winter adds to the beauty of indi vidual collections. Daring the ‘brief, bright days of the ripe October,’ parties are formed who arm themselves with lunch-baskets^inpleas ant profnsion and go out several miles in the country, sometimes in a morning railroad train, frequently in Jersey wagons, and after spending a busy, happy day amongst the dried grass and leaves, the expedition, often resolviag into a nutting party, return to town laden with the spoils as the autumn dusk is closing in and the city lights are beginning to twinkle through the darkness. Mr. J. A. P. Simmons, of the Covington Enter prise, was married to Miss Mattie B. Snow, of Social Circle, by Bov, W. B Branham, at the residence of the bride's brother-in-law, on No vember 9hh. The Thomas County, Ga., Fair is being held this week. As Thomas is the banner county in the way of good farms, fine frait and products of home industry, there is sure to be a fine dis play iu these lines. The social features are not neglected. The young gentlemen of the city will give a grand hop, having engaged the Macon band (Kessler’s) for the occasion. Dr. Lipscomb, LLT)., gave his opening lecture on ‘Shakspeare Subjects in Macon on Friday, 4he 8:h inst. He subjected the charaoter of Mac beth to exhaustive analysis. A large audience, composed of the most intelligent and appreci ative ladies and gentlemen of Macon listened to his lecture. The girls' waists are to be encircled this sea son with a new-fashioned belt with a very large bnckle. . It will not be a3 satisfactory as a coat- sleeve with a good nervey arm in it, though. The newest ear-rings are a web of fine gold with a fly in green enamel caught in the toils. As the spider is not to be seen, we conclnde that the girl who wears them is to represent that busy insect. New dresses lately received exhibit change only in the manner of draping. Polonaises vie with basques and overskirts in popularity, but the latter are rather in the ascendancy—indeed, it is difficult at a casual glance to tell what the exact style of many costumes is, as the polouaise is often combined with a basque and overskirt back. Oae cunningly-devised combination is composed of basque, overskirt and scarf, which can be worn in the ordinary style, or the back of the jaunty basque, which is slashed, can be smoothly folded over the form, aad a perfect polonaise effect produced by tying the scarf around the figure just above the edge of tne basque; again, the polonaise front may be pre served and a basque back added by slipping the scarf beneath the slashed seams behind- Oa all the dresses, both street and house, two, and fre quently three materials are employed on one suit. The plain fabrics serve as the founda tion and effectively show the contrast of the gay material, which is used on the waist as vast, col lar, centre piece of the back, facing for the ra vers on the basque-skirt, cuffs, etc,, on the skirt as panels, re vers, retrousse band and folds are used to show the qnght trimmings. In the fall a silent sadness to the drooping flowers cleave, In the fall the woodland’s draamy with the ffrw-frou of the leaves — And the wnir of the partridges, etc. In the fall the hazy gloaming with a purple glory burns, In the fall Miss Goorgiana in the Bible places ferns—3 If she has a young man to help her gather them. In the fall above the valley snowy cloudlets stretch for miles; In the fall the city windows are profasa w'th Paris styles — Much to the j oy of the ladies, ba it said. In the fall the marry songster leaves his pretty summer lea’s, In the fall the politician is divorced from rolls of V’s— For reasons which require no explanation. In the fall all breasts with reverie are buoy ant aad elate, In the fall a man will foadly kiss his pretty ccusin Kate— Or Mary Anne, as the case may b9. In the fall the soul of beauty dwells within the garden sere, In the fall we all are positive that winter's drawing near— The other fall happenings are too numerou3jto mention. The life that the lady artists lead in New York and Philadelphia is most picturesque and fascinating. Studies of all kinds— reminiscen ces of their summer wanderings by mountain or sea; grasses, barks, flowers, artistic draperies and above all their own pictures make their stu dios charming winter gardens. Their friends and brother and sister artists come in daring leisure hours aud delightful social relaxation and improving interchange of art ideas ensue. Miss Francis aud Miss Phelps are engaged in china decoration—the former is painting a set of desert plates and cups and saucers in designs, said by art critics to be exquisitely beautiful. “Some of the saucers have monograms in the centre. Some of the cups have swallows wing ing their way through the sky with the inscrip tion, ‘When the swallows homeward fly’; an other has • The cup that cheers but not inebri ates.’ The Thomas Co. Ga. Fair is being held this week. As Thomas is the banner county in the way of good farms, fine fruit, and products of home industry, there is sure to be a fine display in these lines. The social features are not neg lected. The young men of the city will give a grand hop, having engaged the Macon ban (Kessler’s) for the occasion. d Augusta Chronicle: Miss Carry Bobiuson, of Atlanta, has won quite a fame by her recent mu sical compositions. They are pronounced ex cellent by competent critics. t.Mrs. General T. B. B. Cobb, Miss Birdie Cobb and Mrs. A. Hall, of Athens, are visiting the family of Captain Harry Jackson, on Mitchell street. j$ The drapery at the back of walking dresses is now placed higher np, and a plaiting of stiff- corded mnslin is placed inside to give a bouffant effect ^ Novel cravats, quite like those worn by gentle men, will grace the feminine neck. These cra vats are tied in a neat bow, in a somewhat prim style Flannel underskirts are finished with laoe knit from Saxony yarn, or crocheted from red ice wool. Any of the pretty Smyrna patterns may be imitated. Blaok velvet hats are elaborately trimmed with feathers, fanoy velvets, orimson roses, round gilt cord, and odd ornaments in gold, sil-* ver, jet, steel or garnet. J