Newspaper Page Text
THE SUNT SOUTH.
J©IM H. NEAM, Editor St Proprietor.
SBALS, Prop*rand C’or. Editor.
**ABY E. BRYAS, (*) Assoclnte Editor.
ATLANTA, GA., FEBRUARY 28, t8So.
Sj 5$ 5' 5 1 %
Hpeeial ! Kprcial ! !
See the little red paper in this issue, and
don’t fail to give it immediate attention.
ThcOutraged Month.—Don’t fail
to read the strong article on the 8th page un
der this head.
The Aext Democratic Conven
tion.—The national Democratic committee
assembled in Willard's hotel in Washington
city on the 23d inst., to select the place and
appoint the time for holding the National
Democratic Convention. After some di:
cussion, it was resolved to hold the conven
tion on Tuesday, June 22. Delegates from
Chicago, Cincinnati, St. Louis and other
cities, then presented the claims of their sev
era! localities as suitable places for holding
the convention. On the first formal ballot
Cincinnati was selected by a vote of 24:
Chicago having 8 votes, St. Louis 4; Wash
ington 1, and blank 1.
The Mailor% Yli**ion.—! ieneral
Francis Cowan of New Orleans has estab
lished a work in Rio Janeiro that was needed
and will lie productive of good. It is the
Sailors’ Mission. Sermons are preached in a
hall rented for the purpose anil ships visited
and Testaments and tracts distributed among
the sailors; and a movement is on foot to
open a Sailors’ Home. Other large commer
cial ports would do well to follow the exam
ple of Rio Janeiro. Sailors are a class pecul
iarly open to temptations, and much crime
might lie prevented, and much hard-earned
money turned from evil into good channels
by such Sailor’s Missions. *
Rennell’s Record The lucky and
enterprising proprietor of the Herald has
suffered in the minds of the public by com
parison with his father. The labor of the
shrewd, hard-working, clear-headed senior
Bennett, who built up the Herald from an in
significant foundation, was supposed at one
time to have been in vain, since his son would
let the father's enterprise go to pieces in his
frivolous and spendthrift hands. Many have
heard of him chiefly as the son of his father,
the fellow who fought a dubious duel with
Fred May, and who s{iends one-half his time
in roving over the seas in a costly yacht, and
the other half in playing at polo and flirta
tions. But the age is now beginning to know
him for what he is—as one of the finest rep
resentatives of the American character—its
spetYTiT.. g *ihv,iteo*' u #*YAwdsria«;_jj. ?
and its large-handed liberality. It hits lieen
said of him that “the man who found the
man to find Livingston, who organized the
arctic expedition, who explored Cuba by
proxy during the bitterest times of the raging
reliellion, has certainly no lack of brains, and
though he could not perhaps have founded
the Herald it may well lie doubted if his
father could have conducted it better along
the peculiar course it has followed.” His
princely alms of a hundred thousand dollars
to suffering Ireland will endear him to every
humane heart the world over. Nor is this
the first time that his money has been
promptly given to still the cry of suffering.
When the panic broke out in 1878, he met
the situation and we read that he "headed a
subscription list with $30,900, and started his
reporters all over the city to report on desti
tution generally, and particularly with the
desired effect of stirring up the lienevolent to
practical methods of relief.” *
TTlicre Can lie no Kqauility.—As
men are not born equal—that is with equal
powers and innate possibilities, so it follows
that their lots can never lie equal in this
life. Establish communism, empound your
section of humanity in a Fourrieristic phal
anstery, but as soon as the pressure of some
strong willed controller is removed, nature
will right itself, as does a weathercock that
is released after lieing forcibly held against
the wind. Inequality seems to lie the divine
order that has existed from the foundation of
society. A writer in the Atlantic Monthly
says, however, “There is an equality, but it
is not of outward show; it is independent of
condition: it does not destroy property, nor
ignore the difference of sex, nor obliterate
race traits. It is the equality of men liefore
God, of men liefore the law; it is the equal
honor of all honorable labor. No more per
nicious notion ever obtained lodgement in
society than that to “rase the world’’ is neces
sary to change the “condition.” Let there
lie content with condition: discontent with
individual ignorance and inqierfection. “We
want,” says Emerson, “not farines, but a
man on a farm.” What a mischievous idea
is that which has grown, even in the United
States that manual lalior is discreditable!
There is surely some defect in the theory of
equality in our society, which makes domes
tic service to be shunned as if it were a dis
grace.” *
TlieIsthmus ol'Dannnia—■•res
ident Hayes’ Ac* ion—Those who
have accused the President of a lack of force
of character must admit that he shows some
statesman-like foresight and firmness in his
views nliout the Canal that the French gov.
emment are about to construct across the
isthmus of Panama. Mr. Hayes, the Tribuue
says, is decided in his opinion that to allow
M. De Lessups to go on would be in direct
violation of both of the principles laid down
by President Monroe in his message of I823
These principles were strong not only against
“interposition for the purpose of oppressing
American States, but for the purpose of con
trolling in any manner the destiny of those
states.” And Mr. Hayes believes that allow
ing a French company to construct a canal
across the isthmus would inevitably result in
that government controlling the destiny of
the canal and of the highly important com
merce of which the canal would be the key.
Not only is the President in favor of acting
upon the broadest interpretation of the Mon
roe doctrine, but if its language prove not
broad enough to cover the Isthmus case, then
the President, as we are informed by the
Tribune, is in favor of a new enuuciation of
this doctrine which shall be made officially
public as early as possible. Meantime the
•Secretary of State is not in sympathy with
this opinion of the President. Mr. Evarts
delays action in the matter an d seems to be
at a loos what to do. *
Darker Side of Die l»e«M.—-Put
ting then, the recently published Dickens’s
Letters to the only use to which they can be
put, let us consider w hat new impression can
lie derived from them concerning the traits
of Dickens’s character, the quality and ex
tent of his mental powers. Few persons,
probably, will find their previous notions
undergoing much change. There is all that
real and substantial kindliness, genial hearti
ness, overflowing mirth, illimitable fun and
frolic, animal spirits such as never liefore
were given to man, intensity of conviction,
honesty of purpose, narrowness of intellect,
utter incapacity for thought, lack of scholar
ship or cultivation of any kind, and immense
though amusing and unconscious vanity,—a
most strange farrago of qualities, a jumble
of traits as queer and unsystematic as the
I-arti-colored mingling of glass bits in the
kaleidosco{ie. It is very noticeable that
Dickens seemed incapable of intellectual
growth. The greatest expansion to which
he ever attained he arrived at very early.
Thereafter history, literature, even con
temporaneous events, added littie to his store
of thought and knowledge.
His mission was to laugh and to make oth
ers laugh; and no mission was ever more
thoroughly fulfilled,—so thoroughly, indeed,
that the capacity for laughter seems to have
been quite wasted upon previous generations.
In the absence of Pickwick, Mrs. Gamp, Mrs. •
Nickleliy, Micawber, what possible occasion
could our forefathers have had for the laugh
ing faculty ?
It was to the element of exagerntion that
Dickens owed nearly all which made him
great. His wit lay in an inimitable power
of caricature, animated by the most exuber
antly droll and merry nature which the
world has ever seen. The gallery of his
characters is a collection of ijrotesqueries,
just about as accurately reproducing real
traits of men and women as the big-headed,
shrunken-legged oddities of the illustrated
comic papers of Paris reproduce the limits
and features of the living Parisian. The
funniest overdrawing is his forte. Not that
all of his wit Is of this character; but all the
best, most amusing, and most distinctive dis
plays of it 1 re of this kind. Eliminate this,
ami the individuality of the man will lie
gone, and he will mingle on terms of equality
with a throng of witty writers who are
laughed at by a passing generation ami quick
ly afterward forgotten. He was not a hu
morist, nor was he capable of this liigher
>rder of the novelist’s art. A well-sustained
narrative, unfolding the subtile mysteries of
human character, showing the reflex action
of many conflicting motives and impulses in
their slow influence and gradual unfolding,
was beyond his power. He dealt with sim
ple developments, and gave us a series of
scenes without much more of sequence or
advancement than could be furnished by
mere chronology It was thus that every
thing struck him; his quick eye caught the
passing fragment of fun: he played with it
for a moment, making it twenty' times fun
nier than it had any real right to be, then
tossed it aside as another scrap claimed its
turn.
Most men of the literary profession,insensibly
imbilie much literary knowledge; but Dick-
ns never did. For aught that appears in liis
writings, there might never have been any
other books save his own written in the
world. He never charms by a happy allu
sion; he knows not the freemasonry of his
own guild. The same utter absence of inter
est in books and literary cultivation of every
kind is oliservnblo in his correspondence.
There is scarcely a reference to any thing
which would indicate that he had any more
extensive reading or ideas than were to lie
obtained from the daily newspapers and or
dinary conversation. His English was care
less, slovenly, at times almost illiterate; nor
did advancing years and increased experience
bring any materiul improvement in his im
perfect mastery over the language. His
style was habitually ungraceful, to use no
stronger adjective, to the end; how striking-
whicli Thackeray was at the same time dis
playing, making the defects of his popular
rival all the more glaring by the strong con
trast! Yet Dickens was ajiparently quite un-
couscious of this blemish, and often spoke of
the great pains which he took with his writ
ing. When he became the editor of '"House
hold Words,” as well as upon some other iso
lated occasions, he was an unsparing critic
of the production of others. Certainly noth
ing could show more indisputably what an
immense and overshading reputation he had
achieved than did the meek reception of crit
icism so sweeping as he sometimes dealt
out: nor perhaps is that self-appreciation less
striking which could induce him to exercise
in so masterful a fashion a function so deli
cate.
But, then, all the world knows that the
egotism of Dickens was as intense as were
most of the elements of his overwrought na
ture. “I shouldn't write at all if I were not
the vainest man in the world,” he wrote to
M. Cerjat, thereby telling a truth about him
self which certainly he did not really in the
least believe, and which he would have lieen
greatly incensed to have found any one else
lielieving. Yet he was the only man who
knew any thing whatsoever about Charles
Dickens who did not know this most undeni
able of his traits. There was vanity in every
thing which he said, did, and wrote all his
lifelong, and it kept growing to the very
end. These volumes of his correspondence
are so full of it, that if it were commodity
having bulk the Bodleian Library and the
British Museum would lie able to contain so
much of it. It was the most enormous, om
nipresent, allqiervading, many-sided, irre
pressible, unsuspecting vanity which has ever
been exhibited to the gaze of astonished hu
manity,—a quality which in its greatness
and various perfection resembled the qualities
of gods rather than of men; a vanity worthy
of the Olympian Jove himself. It was a
vanity of wonderful range, embracing the
pettiest things no le6s than the greatest; so
that one is at a loss to know whether he was
more gratified at the astonishment created
by the marvelous waistcoats which his rather
uncivilized taste in dress led him to select, or
at the “prodigious success” which he never
failed to chronicle in glowing language as at
tendant upon the publication of his various
books. Yet it must be acknowledged that
this trait was not only an inalienable but an
altogether essential part of Dickens’s nature.
It was the offspring of his intensity and vi
vacity. It would lie as reasonable to ex
pect a blind man to paint as to expect
a self-mistrustful man to write and read
as Dickens wrote and read. There is a little
real pathos and a great deal of brummagem
emotionalism in his books; but there is noue
of either in his letters. We can only catch
glimpses of the sentimental element, whence
he was able to extract such material when
be desired it. He seems to have had a habit
of weeping freely at theatres, and selected
rather surprising occasions for such displays;
thus, at the classic opera of Orphee he actu
ally became “disfigured with crying” when
lie beheld Mme. Viardot at the tomb of Eury-
dice; and the opera of Faust affected him so
that he “couldn’t bear it, and gave in com
pletely.” He used to get quite heart-broken
over his own compositions, and unquestiona
bly fully believed in the genuineness and per
fection of his pathetic scenes.—John T. Morse
in International Heview.
HE.1KV GREGG Wlt|.
■e
■tent Georgia J<
lourna
Augusta News. Fell. 2:1.
After an illness of some weeks, i G.
Wright died last evening of congeif the
brain, at the residence of his u» (,v -
Herschel V. Johnson, in Jeffers<j|ity.
Mr. Wright was the second son of Q. R-
Wright, and was tweuty-nine y«d at
the time of his death. He began f life
as a member of the Augusta Bar, I; en
tered the profession with brilliant acts,
and under the fine legal training « dis
tinguished father. His peculiar talpow-
ever, tended towards journalism, aicon-
nected himself, when quite a yapian,
with the Chronicle and Sentinel apooal
editor. He filled this place with grpedit,
and upon the death of his father, was
then editor-in-chief of the Chrn* and
when Mr. Henry Moore decided I, be,
together witli Hon. Patrick Wnl-Jught
the paper and took his father’s placcditor
in chief. He, though a very youftn to
fill so resjionsihle a position, at ogave
evidence, not only of his ability as "iter,
but as a political writer of great ? and
sagacity. He continued to exerticoin-
manding influence in the council* ofl 1cm-
ocratio party, and made his papelunst
{intent instrument for the advancenof its
interests.
In IS77 he was elected a menfjf the
Lower House of the General AssentR-. ith-
out opposition, and at once took hidjee
a strong and conservative legislator! was,
if we rememlier, a member of the (JQtittce
on Rules, and chairman of the Conjee on
Railroads, which had much to do lithe
present statutes of the State on ruiB sub
jects.
Mr. Wright was a trenchant, vigos and
independent writer, and his place inure 1 a
journalism will be hard to till. As editor
his influence was great, and his luaaicnris
and admirers through the State will jjeeply
touched when they learn that one’gifte'
and so promising is cut off in the for of
young manhood.
Mr. Wright married a daughter. Hor,
Henry F. Russell, of Augusta, and ves ;i
devoted wife anil children to mourissad
death.
The remains arrived in this city tfcnorn
ing, and are now at the residence of 1 Rus
sell, on Walker street. They will b«erre
alongside his father, in the AugusM'enie-
tary, and the funeral will take plmSuoon
to-morrow.
“DO MET LIKE WOMEN !’’
A Qneslion to Which Tlierc I an
be Only One Answer.
Editor N. V. Times:
Sometime ago an article appeared in one
of the papers entitled “Social Affinities. It
was received wit.lt much unthinking approba
tion, and the great question, “Does man like
woman 3” seemed triumphantly settled in the
negative. Again, in the Times of January
880, it presents its wai"]ied and one sided
views upon a question of more importance
than at first sight appears, for a suspicion
once ilisseminated that the sexes really are
antagonistic will engender the very evil im
agined.
The average American is too apt to accept
what is printed in his favorite journal as law
and gospel, not beeau.se he lacks judgment,
but from habit or indolence. Never having
lived among the savages, I am obliged to
confine my observations to the civilizes 1 por
tions of mankind; and, from having broth
ers, cousins and friends, feel fully callable of
dealing with the subject, and am prepared to
affirm “that, so far from hating the opposite
sex, she is never—I repeat it, never—entirely*
out of his thoughts. Gain the confidence or
any man, young or old, and a woman is at
the bottom of it. She is the aim and end of
his existence. She is liis wholedream of hap
piness and pleasure. Woman is not more the
heaven of the Mussulman than of the Chris
tian—What “she said” and what “she did is
the burden of club conversation, and the only
sul iject which never palls <m their taste. 1 be
most popular gentleman in one of our best
chilis is the one who talks “woman exclus
ively. When he enters drooping spirits re
vive, ennui takes its flight, a circle is formed,
expectation is on tip-toe—for what ! Atblet
A I'alamity.—A distinguished gentle'
man of Knoxville, Tennessee, who has a large
and interesting family thus bewails the non-
appearance of his paper. We shall endeavor
to prevent such calamitous calamities in fu
ture.
Knoxville, Feb. 19, 1880.
My Dear Sir:—The “Sunny South”
ceases to come! At this calamity, my house
hold—the whole loveljr group of women and
children are plunged into misery. “Why is
this thus!” I have seen too much of this
family suffering twioe or thrice since last
Christmas. Remember that “starving Ire
land” is not the only place where destitution
brings distress. I trust the “Sunny” is in
no wise crippled, but that she steps forth in
all the glory of her beauty and her might on
the appointed days of publication. I remem
ber how much effort was required last year
to get the new books rectified. With always
good wishes. Yours truly, * * * *
ll hat a Yankee May* «f eor>
gians.—A letter-writer to 11 Rustfepuper
in his comments on Augusta, Gn., qj|pif the
very best and handsomest cities in twjiitli,
concludes as follows: “The busineSouses
of Augusta are large, and the exclfco of
money last year amounted to some k.ooo,-
000. The dry goods stores, howevaas in
the other Southern cities, do not kp the
costliest wares. The ladies of the Sop who
can afford elegant purchases, tm.laiiiect
with New York. So it is with tli*>tlier
stores. It indicates the peculiar taste, i inv
ert}*, perhaps, of the people that a NBbern
gentleman can go into these large, imp-ores,
tilled to overflowing with goods, and uU<irm
ly fail to find the article of personal £mve-
nience or necessity he desires, althoug eve
ry country store in the North may kealwhat
he names. You will find hundreds aiathou-
sands of boots in the boot and
but you don't find what you want are
accustomed to wear. The same of ai/^at,
a shirt, al trnvelincr l"“- T
largest cities. I carried two present ions,
written by a Boston doctor, into thro largo
drug stores in Savannah and five in A gusta.
Some of them were wholesale, and! chose
only the ones that were finely equippd, but
none of them could put either of njr pre
scriptions up. Two druggists couldnt read
them. They have lieen frequently put up
in the country at home. You don’t se much
of the well dressed gentleman in (eorgia.
He is so “seldom,” in comparison rith the
tail, long-legged, lanky, jeans-clad, rd-wliis-
kered cracker, or the partly dressd, com-
moin.lace, middle class man, whom yiu meet
everywhere as you do stones, who, ii Geor
gia, is probably a cotton grower, cu horse
or mule dealer, or the owner of n village
store—I say that the
ORDINARY, UN MIST AREA RLE GENT KM AN
is so rare that you cannot help settng him
down when you meet liiin as the jm’ije of the
circuit, or otherwise account for his .ccidont-
«1 presence in the country. The average
Georgian of the country will b readily
recognized in the following type: ’iill, long
legged, with a long,reddish beard am tangled
hair, and a broad leaf black hat, vith the
front knocked straight up. Tile tabled hair
and long beard give them a uniformty which
makes them perfect as a type, "here are
more “made” houses in Georgia thn I have
seen in the other Southern States Frame
houses, except in the numerous cases of
squatters, are the rule, and in te totvns
along the railroad there are may quite
handsome residences, finished in the best
style, painted and ornumented wih veran
dahs and pillars and mouldings. They are
not a common sight in the country.and they
are so few in this instance, in comar iso 11 to
the unpainted, mdely constructs houses,
that the smallest painted house ha a distin
guished air. The chimneys, howe'er, of the
finest 0/ these mansions and housd are built
outside, and you are regaled with he sight of
an elegant residence with a brfP chimney
plastered up either end wall. Thelrequency
with which these improved proprties are
met tells the tale of the difference bt ween the
industrial and financial con ditionJf Georgia
and that of her immediate neighbrs.
Carey.
Bright Eyes-As She looks in
Washiuglon.-The Capital says: The
word “bright” indicates 'the whi« nature of
this graceful Indian girl, who nesses the
claims of her people upon Congres so earnest,
iy. so eloquently and yet so modatly. Her
panegyrist goes on to say “Brigt eyes is of
the pure Indian extraction, her feiRires some
what toned down—which comes d fair study
and good breeding—and is the Ittle “lady”
(whatever that means) in every particular.
She speaks, pure, forcible Englm (she has
been a reader of Shakspeare) fitbout the
slightest peculiar accent. Her perceptive
powers are quick and accurate, uid her an
swers to questions were terse ad pointed.
Altogether her appearance was ^easing, and
her attire tasteful, neat and plaii Her dress
was of black merino, made {fcinly. She
wore an English style cloth top oat, double-
breasted, with rolling collar, all *ade of dark
brown, almost invisible plaid gods, with
large gutta-percha buttons. He white linen
standing collar, with turned diffn corners,
was surrounded by a small criiBon necker
chief of silk, held together in frNt by a gold
scarf-ring. Her glossy black ha.* was drawn
back gracefully, plaited and lodtd up at the
back with narrow crimson ribbo. and on her
head she wore a small black roud-top Derby
hat, trimmed with a broad bam of dark rib
bon and a tri-colored bird at thefeft front
Gov. Miller, of Arkansas, cla&s that that
State is in better condition n*" than for
twenty-five years past., —
oar. For the latest election tidings ? They
are too indifferent to vote or do their duty.
News of t he winnings of la.-t night, or the
races ! No, my good friends; lie is simply
relating a “good thing” of one of the queens
of the stage, to lie followed by a recital ot
one o f liis own bonnes aventnrei.'
Women, as a rule, do not make love-
deed, 1 have met many women who have
never loved at ail: but never a man. He
iuav not like the society of liis wife or sister,
but that does not prove that he will not sue
for the privilege of tying the shoe strings «
a pretty woman. Constancy is not one <
his virtues I admit, but he loves the sex.
When a noted lawver retired from bis pro
fession, I asked him' what lie intended doing
with himseif. He replied: “Spend the rest
of my life among the women of rains and
Vienna. ” Was liis an exceptional resolve
A distinguished diplomat had ueen almost
driven to the verge of suicide at the t.iouglit
of never more being able to enjoy the society
of females. Whole households are being
broken up daily by the infatuation of middle-
aged men for a pretty feminine face. o-
men are the cause of two-thirds of the duels
fought. In all ages woman lias been the in
centive of the noblest actions, the grandest
poems, as well as the most devilish plots and
fiendish tortures ever perpetrated by man.
Tlie old Russian Czar was so convinced of the
attrac 1 ion of the sex that he Leavilv lined,
and in some instances imprisoned, such of his
courtiers as fade I to bring their wives and
daughters with them to his levees. Solomon
the Wise surrounded himself with three hun
dred feminines. Have we no Solomons
among us! King David, the greatest of po
ets, defied God for a woman; and I suppose 1
need hardly remind you that Adam lost lai -
adise and lias given us a world of trouble tor
the sake of ""Woman.
If any one doubts a boy s attraction to
wards ii girl, just let him reside in a town
where boardin'?" schools of the opposite sex
reprtfidusiV “■?.i into mat refi.a.e w..n-
inary would astonish a postman. The pun
ishment in rural schools of placing a boy
among the girls consists m lowering him in
their estimation, and not, as my learned con
temporary implies, of a hatred of the sex.
I have known boys to steal their dead sis
ters' treasures to present to their little sweet
hearts.
I do not write exceptions but examples of
what is passing daily, hourly, in out- midst.
I have been careful not to exaggerate, as any
truthful man will acknowledge. Man does
like we man, collectively or individually, and
for a woman's approbation will peril life and
soul. Unhappy marriages do not arise from
antagonism of the sexes. Bind two men as
firmly together, and let society frown at the
least independent move in either, and the fate
of the Kilkenny cats will be the result, as
surely as enforced duty is irksome.
Mag Pie.
ltnncomlt Day in Congress—A
Washington correspondent says: It is a curi
ous, and to the outside observer, a somewhat
farcical custom in Congress, to have days de
voted to promiscuous speech-making. Mem
bers are allowed to deliver speeches on any
bill or subject they desire. The only limita
tion is one of time. One man is not allowed
to consume the whole session. Generally the
time allowed to a speaker is about twenty
minutes, and he talks that long and then gets
leave to print the balance of his speech. Such
days are a sort of gas-valve for the members.
Saturday was such a day. I had some curi
osity to see the session, and attended. Very-
few members are present except the gentle-
111011 who desire to fire off their oratory. A
few other members go to do some letter writ
ing. The result is an empty chamber and the
novel spectacle of elaborate speeches de
claimed to vacant seats. Nor does the ab
sence of hearers seem to be a drawback. The
oratorsjfume, gesticulate and work themselves
into frenzy as if the chamber was full, it is
funny beyond description. Of course the sena
tor is talking to liis constituents, who will not
know that the great speech of their repre
sentative was spouted to empty benches on a
grand gas field day, "devoted to buncombe
talk. The custom is one of the comical epi
sodes of congressional illusion,
Mr. J. C. Derby, the well known publisher
of New York city has lieen making a tour of
the Southern States for business and pleasure.
He visited Mr. Jefferson Davis at lieautiful
“Beauvoir” for the purpose of obtaining the
delayed MS of his autobiography, which the
firm of Appleton A Co., have arranged to
publish. In Mobile he was the honored guest
of Mrs Augusta Evans Wilson, of whose
earlier novels he "was the publisher, in
knowledgeinent of his cordial recognition of
her youthful talents and his valual de friend
ship, Mrs. Wilson dedicated to him her best
Inxik, “St. Elmo.” Mr. Derby s{ieiit a few
days in Atlanta at the Kimball House where
he was Jvisited by a number of the literary
Iieople of the Gate City. Mr. Derby is the
“right bower,” of the' Appleton’s. His ac
quaintance with the literary men and women
of America is so extensive, and his judgment
of the saleableness of literary wares is so ex-
lierienced, that in his hands are left tlie ar
rangements for and purchase of the publica
tions of the Appletons. He has induced au
thors to undertake works that have brought
them fame and fortune. While in* Atlanta
Mr. Derby was interviewed by a Constitu
tion reporter, who received from him the in
formation that Mr. Davis’ book will be issued
in the fall, and will be handsomely illustrat
ed.
Two thousand police in plain clothes, most
of whom were brought from the large pro
vincial towns, in addition to the regular
force, guarded the queen’s procession from
Buckingham palace to the house of lords, in
consequence of intimations received of meet
ings having been held of three foreign revo
lutionary societies who have their head
quarters in London.
RANDOMJ'ALKS. 1
by MARY E. BBYAN.
Friday morning last, a woman lay dead in
a squalid tenement house in New York. Her
body was stretched on a rickety table, cov
ered with a threadbare sheet, and one or two
women with faces sharpened and sallowed
by poverty sat around it, whisper.ng that
there was no telling when the funeral would
be as the busliand of the woman had no mon
ey to pay the burial expenses. The scene it
self was not at all extraordinary-such an
one may be witnessed any day among the
poor in a great city. But there were circum
stances that rendered this scene remarkable;
that made it a striking comment upon socie
ty. The woman was Jennie Tyler, niece of
the ex-president, and sister of a wealthy so
ciety lady, at that moment entertaining
company in the handsome drawing-room of
her four-story brown stone mansion m a fash
ionable part of the same city. A wealthy-
leading lawyer of that city was also a near
relative of the dead woman, and Senator
Stephenson of New York, was her first cou
sin. Yet there she lay dead amid squullor
and want, lacking the money to bury out of
sight what once had been so fair. I or, ten
years ago, Jennie Tyler was one of the reign
ing belles of Washington City-handsome,
stylish, and possessed of a comfortable for
tune. Poverty was the crime that caused her
in latter years to be forsaken by former
friends and relatives. Her first liusl land sc plun
dered her money; her second husband was
honest and kind, but he labored with his
hands, and his wife was cast off in conse
quence. Unable to get work regularly, aail
with the pressure of his wife's illness upon
him, the man found it impossible to give
the sick woman what she needed before her
death, or to bury her when her ill fated life
was ended. It makes the picture all the sad
der to know that Jennie Tyler Collins was a
Southern woman, born in Richmond, \ a., in
1848. Hardly more than thirty years old
when she died.
It reconciles one to living on the level, or
even on “poverty flats,” to read the cable
accounts of the life of some of the dwellers
on tlie heights of human greatness. One
doubts it the poorest tramp, who coils up for
the night next a wayside fodder-stack, would
change {daces with tlie Czar of Russia, li\ ing
in constant fear of assassination in his win
ter palace of St. Petersburg. Think of pass
ing week after week in such watchful dread,
such harrowing suspicion, surrounded day
anil night by a guard of soldiers and police
men, yet not knowing if these, too, are not se
cretly in league witli the assassins: daring to
partake of no food or drink that lias not first
been tested, lest it contain poison: receiving
daily an ominous black-bordered letter warn
ing him that his death and that of his family
was near; not knowing whence the danger
may come, but looking for it constantly*
thinking of it in the midst of music and bau-
quetting. when he takes the air with liis wife
and daughter in a carriage, triply lined with
iron, padded, and so surrounded by an armed
guard that it is impossible to breathe freely
view of skies and trees.
fulness, the unhappy sovereign feels may
be in vain. Danger may come in a least
suspected form, in the most unlooked for mo
ment. It came the other day in the shape of
a dynamite explosion that shattered the pal-
ance w indows and killed ton of the soldiers
and household retainers, wounding many
more. The royal family were just entering
the dining-room, had they been seated at tlie
table, as the assassins caleulated they
would l>e, they Would probably all have per
ished: but the dinner hour was later than
usu 1, and this circumstance saved the Czar
and bis family. As the intended virtim
snatched his young daughter back from the
room darkened and half wrecked by the ex
plosive force of the forty pounds of dynamite
that extinguished the gas and shook the pal
ace to its centre, he did not feel himself the
C’zar of the Russias, but a wretched, hunted-
down man, whose child might have been
torn to pieces before liis eyes but for a mo
ment’s delay, and whose life and reason were
in continual danger. Once more rumors are
that the C’zar will abdicate his throne; but
the likelihood is that he will redouble his
guard, increase his watchfulness and precau
tions, anil continue to wear the crown on his
uneasy head and to sit—a worse than priso
ner—in his palace, unless he is forced to leave
it for a private asylum for lunatics.
* + * * *
I have just been reading in the Science
Monthly of that unique region, Southern
Colorado; of its deep canons, its plateaus,
vast sterile areas, where the sage and the
pinon fail, and tlie wastes of sand stretch
away unrelieved except by bare rocks. In
this region there is scarcely any .water. Nu
merous streams start towards it from the
mountains standing in blue outline against the
northern horizon. They are large, clear,
lieautiful streams and they rush with glad
impetuosity towards the South. But thoj-
reach the sterile plateau, tlie water becomes
discolored, scanty, alkaline and in a few miles
disappears. The dry atmosphere and the
thirsty sands drink up the bright, abundant
streams of the mountain, and only the dry
canon remains to mock the I hirsty traveler.
So with human lives. They start out so fresh,
and abounding from the highlands of youth
ful hope, they promise such a triumphant
course, and they end by finding the sterile
dead level anil losing themselves in its bar
renness.
Only two rivers, the San Juan and the
Mancos, overcome the choking sands and
parching breath of the plains and flow
through the wastes, marking their course with
green, fertile belts. So, now and then some
deeper, stronger nature carries out its ea 'v
purpose and bears its current victoriously
through clogging cares and withering influ
ences of fate, or what constitutes fate, the
hot inherited passions, the greed, the idleness
or the self-indulgence that thwart and wither
men’s lives. Such natures fertilize whole
sections of the dead level, sterile life through
which they move.
**** * ***
But Colorado is interesting for other rea
sons than its canons and its deserts. Here
can be studied the outlines of the history of a
dead and forgotten people. Tradition even
is silent concerning these remote ancestors of
the aboriginal Americans, but here in South
ern Colorado one may trace a portion of their
history “written in diameters of stone” all
over thecountry, for the remains of the stone-
dwellings of these prehistoric people are scat
tered over the region south of thirty-eight de
grees of latitude.
These structures are of stone, set in the
strongly cohesive and durable adobe mortar.
On the rich bottom lands they are rectangu-
lai or circular in shape and are very large,
lieing evidently intended to be occupied by a
number of families, with a large, circular
room in the centre which was the council-
house or temple. Many of these dwellings,
especially in agricultural towns, are from
from one to two hundred feet in length; and
a few miles north of San .man at “Aztec
Spring,” there is a very large town, built in
one mass and covering over 483,000 feet. An
other large agricultural settlement on the
I.a Plata is composed of houses built together
in this way, the largest of which is one
hundred by one hundred ami fifty feet.
It is built, like many of the others, all around
the interior of a high wall that encloses a
rectangular space or courtyard on which the
rooms open. Many of the old houses in Spain
and Cuba are buiit something after this fash
ion. Tlie houses are divided into many rooms
for the accommodation, it would seem, of
several families. From which it would
appear that this prehistoric race was
communistic. The plan of its houses in the
agricultural districts reminds one of the idea
co-operative farm house that was described
not long since in some progressive journal,
perhaps in the Science Monthly itself.
But the ruins of the large, roomy dwellings
are confined to the arable level lands, and
mark an era of {ieace and prosperity in this
aboriginal race—a time when they cultivated
their fields of. maize and pastured their goats
on the sunny slopes, and wrought at their
potterv. of which the broken remains are
found 111 such immense quantities that we are
told one “may ride for miles with the con
stant acduupaniment of the ring of the borse s
hoofs again st these ancient relics. Many of
the fragments are glazed and display painted
figures upon their surfaces. Farther South
ward, among the mountains, and scarcely
accessible rocks and in the steep sides of tiie
canons are.found different kinds of structures.
These towns are evidently built later: the}
are much smaller and so situated as to lie
sheltered by projecting rocks from the ele
ments: and in some instances there is an
effort to conceal them, as in the case of one
in tlie canon Rio Mancos, of two stories high
which was covered with plaster in red and
yellow grevs to resemble the adjacent rock
as the birds cover the outside of their nests
with moss and twigs to make them resemble
the bough on which they are built and so es
cape detection. In the case of this aboi iginal
people there was need of concealment. They
had been driven from their homes and fields
in tlie fertile bottom lands and force., to tly
southward and to build their habitations
upon almost inaccessible heights in the steep,
stony sides of the canons and in caves and
crannies of the rocks. These structures are
in better prese rvation than the others, and
it is evident they were more lately built-
They tell the story of the misfortunes tha 1
had overtaken the once prosperous builders.
They are smaller than tlie others: the win
dows and doors are mere openings in the wall
of the precipice just wide enough for air and
egress, there are small watch towers perched
upon jutting rocks and larger circular towers
with double aud triple walls evidently for
protection, and defense. The circular council
room or temple is not always seen in the centre
of the town; it would appear as if in some in
stances there was no time to build this
adytum: and where it is found there is some
times a narrow tunnel walled with masonry
leading to it. One of the largest of the cliff
villagers, the Casa del Eco, situated in the
canon of San Juan ha? in the centre a council
house forty feet liy ten, and twelve feet high.
The mystery that hangs about the fate of
this ancient race makes these ruins peculiar
ly interesting. Nothing is known of them.
Their descendants—if indeed the present
tribes of Moquis and Pueblos Indians are de
scended from them—have preserved no tra
ditions of their more civilized ancestors. In
the Old-World region of lands, and ruins and
lost gods, tlie stones have tongues, and sa
vants are learning each day lieiter to inter
pret tlie secrets of the old civilzation locked
up in hieroglyphs; but in our Egypt of the
West, which has also its sands, its ruins, its
list gods and its one bright, fertilizing river—
the stones are silent and the problem of the
origin and destiny of these who buiit them
into houses and temples will probably
never be answered. That they possessed
a degree of civilization and some knowl
edge of the arts is shown in their archi
tecture, the 1 minted outside and interior
walls of some of their houses and in their pot.
tery, some of which was glazed and painted.
It is claimed that this pottery is superior to
that made by the mound-builders, supposed
to be a different people; but when a child l
found in Florida near a mound that had nev.
er been excavated, an Indian vessel larger
and more symmetrical in shape than any I
have ever read of. It was in Gadsden coun
ty near the Ocklockonee river that this
mound, large and beautifully shaped and
covered with forest growth, rose from the
level bottom lands. Arrow heads and broken
bits of pottery were near tlie base, and, one
day, when the woods were" being fired and I
was busy bunting the terapins to rescue them
liefore tlie flames should reach them, I found
in the tall grass near one of the sudden,
deep "‘sinks that are common here, my In
dian {x*t. It was perfectly well preserved
and nearly a foot and a half across its mouth,
and this was not its widest part, for it was
oval-shaped like the egg of a wild turkey, ta
pering off at the bottom, but not quite to a
point. 1 prized it for its beauty, not know
ing then how valuable it was. One day a
house painter, thinking to please me, gave
my treasure a coat of bright red paint, ell
but the rim, which he colored green. Its an
tique look was spoiled and I let iny mother
have it to hold her choicest geranium. Its
exquisite sluqie still remained, and, set in a
little wicker frame and filled with the cool
thick leaves and red blossoms of the plant, it
was an object of attraction to every visitor.
One day an end of its glory came. Some-
Ixxly fitted it out ot its frame by the rim-
the main body of the pot, heavy with damp
earth, broke off and fell to the floor in fra**-
ments leaving the green circle in the hands
of the discomfited author of the mischief.
A plucky little boarding-house woman in
Indiana{iolis the other day was insulted by
one of ber boarders making some remarks
about the weakness of her coffee. She stood
it bravely but when the fellow attacked the
strength of her butter and was going for her
beefsteaks she opened on him and emptiest
six chambers of her revolver, loaded up
again and was only prevented from killing
bl^L | b L, h e , l,a . lls )1 K , an c > n g from a loaf of
bread which he held up as a shield.