Newspaper Page Text
gocal platters.
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, Jolt 19,1879.
A revival meeting has been in progress at Trin
ity church during the past week.
Hon. A. H. Stephans will visit Atlanta next
veek. The Commoner will be heartily welcomed.
A large party of excursionists reached the city on
Saturday last from Columbus and returned on
Monday.
Does Atlanta need a market ? The figures in the
Constitution of the 15th proves that Atlanta does
need a market.
Mr. W. D. Ellis received the appointment of City
Solicitor on the i4tli, vice Mr. Howard Van Ejps,
whose term of office had expired.
Hon. Mr. Shannon, of Franklin Co., has intro
duced in the Legislature a bill which provides for
the erection of a new- State capitol.
Mr. Cbas. Heidt, brother of Rev. Mr. Heidt, pas
tor of Trinity church in this city, died suddenly
Sunday n orning last on his farm near Savannah.
Some of the Atlanta politicians have put the po
litical ball in motion already for the campaign of
1880. A convention of the Independents has been
call ed to convene at'the State capitol on the 24th
inst.
The corner stone of the new and only Methodist
Protestant church was laid at the corner of Garnett
and Forsyth streets, on Tuesday morning last, with
appropriate ceremonies, conducted by Rev. F. M #
Henderson.
SAM. HILL.
JOHN R. SIMMONS.
MRS. SAM. HILL.
Mothers, do not leave your children alone in bath
tubs, or allow them to use Saratoga trunks for play
houses. One mother in the city recently came very
near having her child drowned in a bath tub, and
another rescued two from a large trunk just in
time to keep them from suffocating.
J. W. Phillips & Co., the cheapest stove and tin
house in Atlanta.
209-31.
Mayor Calhoun has accepted the tender of Gen
Hunt to allow the magnificent band of the Fifth
Artillery to visit the city and play once a week. A
music stand will be immediately erected in City
Hall Park and the lovers of band music will have
an opportunity of hearing these splendid perform
ers without going out to the camp.
Merchants would do well to get prices from
J. W. Phillips & Co. before buying their stoves and
tin ware.
209- 31.
The annual meeting of the stockholders of the At
lanta Cotton Factory was held on the l(!tb. The
old board of Directors were re-elected and they re
elected Mr. Kimball President, ex-Gov. Bullock
Treasurer; and S. M. Stocking Secretary. ‘On
motion of Major Smyth seconded by Judge Brown,
the following resolution was unanimously adopted:
That the thanks of the stockholders be tendered to
the board of directors for the manner in which
they have conducted the business of the company
for the past year, and especially for the brilliant
results obtained under the most discouraging cir
cumstances, as shown in the magnificent Machin
ery which is now in full operation, and which ren
ders the factory a complete and assured^®
J. W. Phillips A Co. can be fouivl at . /jl
»treet with the largest stock of stiwes aiJ**
ever brought to Atlanta. Bend for pric
009-3*.
Gen. Toombs, in his railroad speech at the capitol
on Tuesday night, was as eloquent at times, as he
ever was in his palmiest days. In eulogizing our
present State Constitution he said: ‘‘It allows you
all the rights you want. It gives the last cent to
the public good, even to the soap-gourd of the nig
ger. [Laughter.] It is destined to stand
“Till wrapt in flames the realms of ether glow,
And heaven’s last thunder shake the world below.”
It is founded on the beautiful principle of public
justice and the attacks against it are like the at
tacks of newspapers on my reputation—the gnaw
ing of a rat on granite. This constitution gives
you the right to tax and to fix right between man
and man. If your legislator is too big a fool to see
this then turn him out and put in a nigger
[Laughter]. Our constitution of Georgia provides
for all the good we want and the gates of hell shall
not prevail against it.”
‘The money lost by Lieutenant McCawley at the
Big Bonanza was one huudred dollars. Tuesday last
the money was enclosed in an envelope and sent to
the widow of the unfortunate mpn. The return of
the money was doubtless a big bonanza to Mrs - Mc
Cawley.’ There is a singular inconsistency inhu
man nature and particularly so in the nature of
gamblers. While they will fleece you at their
game and not hesitate to take advantage of an un
suspecting victim, no class have a higher apprecia-
t ion of honor, and none are more easily touched
with a feeling of sympathy for another’s woes. The
returning of the money to Lieut. McCawley’s wid
ow as stated in the paragraph above was a charac
teristic act. McCawley lost his money at one of
their tables and killed himself, leaving his wife pen
niless and among strangers. The gambler’s heart
was touched and the money was returned. If we
wanted a contribution to any worthy object there
are no people to whom we would go with more cer
tainty of getting it than to the gamblers. If not
dead broke, as they frequently are, they would
contribute everytime.
Gen. Andersen, Chief of Police, in his monthly
report to the Police Commissioners on Monday
night embodied the following paragraph in refer
ence to the health and growth of the city : “The con
dition of the city for cleanliness is better than it
has been for years. We are still using our best ef
forts to improve upon the present condition of the
streets with gratifying results, and the number of
cases brought before the recorder for nuisances is
materially decreasing. As an evidence of the
growth and prosperity of the city, I submit the
following statement made from actual count by
Captains Aldridge and Connolly, at my request, of
the number of houses built and in process of erec
tion since the first day of April 1879: In the first
ward, 76; in the second ward, 65; in the third
ward, 41; in the fouith ward, 81 ; and in the fifth
ward, 36, making a total of 299 houses for three
months. At least I50 houses in various portions of
the city have been entirely changed and rebuilt, so
as to make them entirely new. This is certainly a
gratifying exhibit, and I am satisfied that we may
safely claim a population of 45,000, “and still they
come.”
Asthma and Hay Fever can be cured.— The
undersigned treats Asthma and Hay Fever as
a specials. Can be consulted in person or
by Letter at No. 26, Wbitehr II S!r< et. Atlanta,
Ga. P. R. Holt, M.D.
210- tf
The supply of the last issue of the Sunny South containing the above pictures was so far short of the demand, we have been compelled to reproduce them.
The Hill Casejis a Study.
Why it Excites Such Interest.
(See Engraving.s)
The intense and wide-spread interest which
the public has taken in the trial of Samuel Hill
for the killing of John Simmons—the alleged
betrayer of his wife—is not due only to the
morbid fascination which a crime seems to have
for imagination, but is justified by the peculiar
circumstances of the case—circumstances which
invest it with the dignity and pathos of a tragic
drama. Then, there is a feeling that the case
was made a test case before the court and that
the verdict of guilty and the sentence impris
onment for life had a general future significance
and marked a final departure from the estab
lished adjudication in such cases, and a change
in the currents of Southern opinion. Seldom
before had a man been convicted for the killing
of one who had betrayed a wife, sister or
daughter.
Popular sentiment, strengthened by long tra
dition and born in the hot blood of Southerners
had decreed that the man who should kill anoth
er under such circumstances did his duty mere
ly, and pursued the only course that was open
to him as a man of honor. Blood was held as
the only reparation for such a wrong, and the
idea of “damages" was spurned with soorn by
men, whose proud ancestors had never taught
them that
“The jingling of the guinea helps the hurt that honor
feels.’ ,
Such was" popular sentiment upon the subject
and it was so strong that it Bwayed the arm of
law, sometmAm no doubt, /unwisely, for there
could not always be discrimination where feel
ing and not reason held the scale. It was per
haps high time that the law should step for
ward and draw a discriminating line and pre
scribe a limit to the seBtiment that pardoned a
man who killed the invader of hiB home—the
betrayer of his wife or daughter. This limit,
as it appeared from the judicial acti:>n in Hill’s
case, is that the home thus invaded should be a
pure one—the woman thus tempted to her down
fall should have been previously true and loyal,
not willfully tempting as well as tempted. And
this alas! could not be established for the young
wife of Sam Hill. Handsome, fond of admira
tion, girlishly giddy, (she was still in her teens)
and left too much to her own wayward will, it
was in testimony that she overstepped the
bounds of womanly propriety so flagrantly that
her husband could not be justified in killing a
man who had only plucked a flower that had
thrust its beauty outside the hedge of sacred do
mestic privacy and seemed to offer itself to his
despoiling hand. This testimony, whether true,
or untrue, proved the barrier to Hill’s acquittal
and caused the sentence of imprisonment for
life to be pronounced by dispassionate men, a
stern but yet a just one in law. And this in
spite of the noble and eloquent appeal of the
prisoner himBelf, who held the crowded court
spell-bound for an hour by a statement of his
own case, so earnest, so fervid in its vindication
of his wife and of his right to act as he had
done, that all felt it to be either a piece of un
paralleled acting, or else the utterance of a man
convinced of what he spoke, and clear, in his
own conscience, of blood-guiltiness for having
punished the despoiler of his home.
Many people incline to the latter opinion and
believe in the sincerity of this strange man,
whose utter, unshakable devotion to his wife is
as rare as it is pathetic. He seemed to care less
for the saving of his own life than for the vindi
cation of the woman by whom he had suffered
so greatly.
•I call her my darling and she is my darling,’
he said proudly, in the course of his statement
before the court, defiant of the sneers upon the
faces of many who heard him, and unmindful of
the fact that he was injuring his own oause by
this irritating persistence in claiming the inno
cence of a woman who, if the testimony was
true, was nnworthy of his confidence. Had he
admitted her guilt, and his own brooding mis
ery, cnlminating in temporary frenzy because
of it, he wonld have been more sure of the jury’s
sympathy and his sentence might have been a
lighter one than that dreary “for life."
It is the fanatical devotion of Hill for his wife,
that furnishes the uniqLe feature of the case.
The woman herself, with all her prettiness
seems merely commonplace—a kind of Hetty
Foyser, with whom coquetry is the strongest
instinct And, by the way, George Eliot proves
her deep insight into human nature by showing
us how a strong nature like Adam Bede’s will
bow itself down to a weak one like Hetty’s—
will lavish a wealth of love, and loyal service
and deep-hearted sympathy upon such a mere
kitten of a woman. It is such women that unac
countably take hold of such men, and so drag
them down trom the heights of principle aid
honor. It is such women that cause muoh of
the misery and madness of this world.
Bnt it is rare that such a faithful, unreason
ing devotion as that of Hill foi his wife, is
shown by a man for a woman. Usually, it is
the woman’s heart that is the shrine of such
staunch loyalty. It is no uncommnon thing for
a woman to cling to an unworthy man to her
own detriment. It was a woman who said
through the Irish poet,
I know not, I ask not. If guilt’s In thy heart,
I but know that I love thee whatever thou art.
It was a woman who stretched arms of saving
affection to a sin-stained and faithless husband
with the ory:
Sorrowful, sinful and lonely,
Poor and despised though you be,
This shall be nothing, if only
You turn from the tempter to me."
There is a spark of the heroio fire of self
immolation in a love that can thus throne itself
on the ashes of domestic happiness. It neces-
sarially touches the heart with pitying admira
tion; and so it happens, that, while Judge Hill-
yer’s sentence is generally held to be as just in
law as it was courageous in utterance in the face
of tradition and of popular feeling; yet a wide
spread sympathy exists tor the sentenced—for
the man, who, in the narrow, sweltering cell of
the city jail, sits on the edge of Srs poor pallet
reading over and over the letters of his wife,
finding his only gleam of happiness in her vis
its to the cell, and, in her absence, betraying
with what wonderful, morbid constancy he
dwells upon her image, by sketching on the
walls of his cell rough allegories, representing
her as a prayerful saint to whose petitions for
redress the angels come to listen, while He who
said “neither do I accuse you" bends a compas
sionate ear.
That there is monomania in such absorbing
feeling suggests itself to the thoughtful, and
brings the hope that this man of good family,
fine intellect and noble instincts (for no man
capable of such devotion can be depraved) may
not be condemned to drag out a miserable exist-
ance within a prison’s wails, fulfilling that hope-
crushing sentence “for life." Mart E. Bryan
THE QUEEN OF ARCHERY IN THE SOUTH.
‘THE WITCHERY OF ARCHERY.’
Historical and Suggestive.
FIRST PAPER.
In noticing Maurice Thompson’s little work, “The
Witchery of Archery,” written in Lippincott’s mag
azine says of the bow:
“This ancient weapon of war and the chase,
which has won many battles and conquered many
kingdoms, has since the introduction or gun powder
been too readily allowed to sink into a plaything
for boys.”
In the Elizabethian age, one Roger Ascham, who
was the great enthusiast and acknowledged author
ity on archery in that early period, declared “ic a
great pity to suffer this excellen ie exercise to de
cay.” This quaintly and long ago expressed senti
ment finds many an echoing response to-day among
the people—a response not only in words but in
successful efforts towards reviving this “excellentie
exercise.”
Ascham, who was Qbeen Elizabeth’s tutor, also
said of archery: “It is an exercise most holsome
for the bodye and a pastyme moste honeste for the
minde; of all others the best, not only because it in-
creaseth the strength and preserveth health most,
but because it is not vehement, but moderate, not
overlaying one part with wearinesse, but •oftly ex-
ercisinge everie part wit-hequalnesse.”
Dr. Mulcaster, a contemporary of Ascham, thus
eulogizes archery: “To say enough of this exercise
in a few words, which no words can praise enough
for the commodities which it bringeth to the health
of the body, it consisteth of the best exercises and
the best effects of the best exercise.’
Sir Wm. Wood, Marshall of the old Society of
Finsbury Aichus, thus sings its praise in his “Bow
man's Glory:”
“It is an exercise (by proof) we see,
Whose practice doth with nature best agree;
Obstructions of the liver it prevents,
Stretching the nervesand arteries; gives extent
To the spleen’s oppilation; clears the breast
And springy lungs; it is a foe frofest
To all consumption.”
That ought to be “confirmation strong” enough
for the conviction of any one, however apathetical
ly disposed towards the game or pastime. The lit®
erature of all ages contains allusions to this highly
esteemed exercise, and at distant. periods it, no
doubt, occupied an exhalted position. Indeed the
bow and arrow formed the prominent and chief
arm in battle.
In the Greek mythology and in the ancient Gre
cian and Egyptian sculptures are various allusions
to and delineations of the bow and bowmen. Rec
ords of archery have also been traced in many per-
sepolitan, Macedonian and Parthian antiquities.
The Chinese had this weapon. One of their
proverbs reads: “When a boy is boro in the fami
ly, bang the bow and quiver up at toe gate. ” Their
great sage, Confucius, wrote a treatise on archery.
As to the invention or first introduction of the
bow, there is no reliable or authentic record or tra
dition. The first mention of it is found in Genesis
xxvii, 3, 1760 B. C., when Isaac bids Esau take the
how and quiver and go in search of venison. . Ish-
raael, in the same book 22d chapter, is mentioned
as having “becomean archer.”
Homer mentions the bow several times. In the
Iliad, book ix, line 152, Pandarus is thus described
aiming an arrow at Menelaus:
“Now with full force the yielding horn he bends,
Drawn to an arch and joins the doubling ends;
Close to his breast he strains the nerve below
Till the barbed point approach the circling bow;
Th’ impatient weapon whizzes on the wing _
Sounds the tough horn and twangs the quivering
strings.”
He mentions the Locrians as being ‘skilled from
far the flying shaft to wing.’
In the Odyssey the suitors of Penelope are des
cribed as vainly trying to bend the bow which
Ulysses had left at home; when the hero himself,
disguised as a ‘tramp,’ having obtained permission
to compete with them, thus proves his skill:
‘On hand aloft displayed
The bending horns, and on the string essayed.
From his essaying ha ml the srring Jet fly.
Twangs sharp and short like the shrill swallow’s
cry.’
Eneas, too, is alluded to as an archer, and indulg
ed in the rather questionable task of introducing
archery at the celebration of his father’s death.
Plato was a great advocate of archery and de
sirous that qualified persons should be appointed by
the government to teach the youth of Athens this
art; the standing guard of the city contained among
its other forces about one thousand archers.
Livy makes mention of the skill and prowess of
the Cretan archers.
Plutarch signalizes the defeat of the Romans by
the Parthians and ascribes it to the manner in
which the latter galled the enemy with their ar
rows.
The Romans as a people were not skilled in the
use of the bow, although many of the Romans em
perors practiced it as an amusement. Herodian
speaks of the feats and the‘unerring hand’of the
Emperor Comniodus, who exhibited his skill on the
wild beasts in the ampitheitre. The date of intro
ducing the long bow into England is not definitely
known.
Until the time of Edward II •, many writers claim
that the arbalest, or crossbow, only, was used,
others as stoutly maintain that it was the long bow,
and no other. There is no doubt at any rate about
one thing, that that old hero of ballad romance,
Robin Hood—who could
‘Hit a mark a hundred rod
And cause a hart to die !’
Would be robbed of the wild glamour which sur
rounds his name if we took from him the graceful
long bow, and feathery arrows; therefore, if not
from stronger codvictions we side with the last
opinion that at least in the rnerrie greenwood the
long bow was the favorite.
v Dramatic Notes.
Aimee is said to be devoted to canine pets.
Mr. F. C. Bangs and Harry G. Richmond are in
Philadelphia.
Lester Wallack created a decided sensation in San
Francisco.
Edwin Booth has resolved to rest the entire sum
mer at Saratoga.
Rice’s Surprise Party opened at the Park Theatre,
Boston, July 7th.
Sothern’s opening piece at the Park Theatre, New
York, will be “Crutch and Tooth-pick.”
The Oates matrimonial crop has been prolific:
she has been harvested by no less than four hus
bands.
Mr.&Mrs. Florence will rely upon the “Almighty
Dollar” next season as they did during the past.
Sothern is reported to have caught two salmon
last week ; his luck so far, this week, is not report
ed.
The only places now open on the west side of
New York are Haverly’s Lyceum, Union Square
and Tony Pastor’6 Theatre.
“Pinafore” was played at the Boston Theatre for
six weeks, and drew an average of one thousand
dollars a performance.
Mary Anderson declares that her pretty steed,
recently presented by the young men of Louisville
is not for stage purposes.
Miss Linda Dietz will be married while ic Loudon
to Mr. W. R. O’Donovan, the sculptor, who is en
gaged in writing a novel.
Minnie Wallace is no longer connected with the
Wallace Sisters, but will travel the coming season
with her sister, Agnes Wallace, after a separation
of seven years.
Miss Fanny Davenport is studying for “The Child
Stealer,” the late Lucile Western’s favorite play,
which Miss D. has purchased from Mrs. W. C. Eng
lish, mother of Lucille-
Count Leopold Lazansky, of Bohemia,, has start
ed an opera house of his own. He feeds, clothes and
pays his artists, and like the king of Bavaria, enjoys
their performances in solitude.
George Wood, the well-known theatrical mana
ger, is keeping a private hotel at Astoria, and M. C.
Daly, equally well-known as a comedian, is keeping
“Daly’s Cottage by the Sea,’’ at Rockaway Beech.
Mr. J. Sleeper Clarke is now thought to be the
wealthiest theatrical mauager in the world. He is
still in his prime, and will visit this country in the
autumn, and play several of his favorite roles in a .
the prominent cities.
The unexpected death of Charles Calvert suspen
ded negotiations which were pending for the ap
pearance of Bessie Darling in London as Lady Mac
beth, and she has made a brief visit to America to
negotiate for the production of her new play.
Adelaide Neilson is said to look more fascinating
than ever, and now boldly disputes the palm with
the pretty Mrs. Langtry. Adelaide will visit the
United States in the early autumn, and proposes to
commence an engagement at the Walnut, Phila
delphia, October 27th.
Miss Emma Vaders, of the Jane Coombs Compa
ny, has sued the Polytechnic Society of Louisville
for S2U.00U, for damages sustained in the Louisville
Opera House, the property of the Polytechnic, in
May last. The actress fell into a pit behind the
scenes and was injured so severely that she will
have to go on crutches for a long while.
Answers to Cojrespondents.
Many letters for this department are in hand hut t
have been unavoidably crowded out of this issue.