Newspaper Page Text
THE SUNNY SOUTH.
/
JOHN H. 8EAUI, Editor dr Proprietor.
Wo. B. BEAU, Proper and Cor. Editor.
■AST E. BET AN, (*) Associate Editor.
ATLANTA, GA., MARCH 13, 1880.
SPECIAL NOTICE.
Those Red asd Yellow Slips.
We feel very gtateful for the kindly man
ner in which these little reminders which
went out in our last paper have been received
by our friends, and the promptness with
which many have responded to them.
But some are mistaking the figure 5 for
the figure 1, and when we come to examine
it we find that the mistake might easily be
made. But our book-keeper meant it for a
3. The subscription price is #4.30 a year.
A new and sparkling story will be begun
next week and Dr. Stainback Wilson will re
sume his instructive Health Articles. The
Doctor is not only learned iu Medical science
but is a progressive and conscientious stu
dent of natural hygeine. His suggestions
about how to retain and restore health are es
pecially valuable. *
Han the Last Word.—Lord Palmer
ston said in his most vigorous days: “I never
dare contradict a journal, no matter how
personal its statements, nor how far removed
from truth. I know they have three hundred
more days in which to print the same thing
over again.”
How the Czar lirals With a
Gossip.->A St. Petersburg correspondent
says that the Countess Hendrikof, wife of
one of the masters of ceremonies at the Im
perial Court, has recently been banished from
the Empire for saying that if the Empress
should die the Emperor would probably
marry the Princess Delgoruki.
Giving: and lending.- Dumas
says: “Give money, but never lend it. Giv
ing it only makes a man ungrateful, lending
it makes him an enemy. If men would spend
in doing good for others a quarter of the
money they spend in doing harm to them
selves, misery would vanish from the earth.
Man was created to utilize everything—even
sorrow. The only thing I am astonished at
is that people are astonished at anything.
^ er J True.—Ruskin has a good thing
about war. He says: “You fancy you are
sorry for the pain of others. Now, I tell you
just this, that if the usual course of war,
instead of unroofing peasants’ houses,
and ravaging peasantss’ fields, merely
broke the china upon your own drawing
room tables, no war in civilized countries
would last a week.”
Davis for President.—A Chicago
correspondent says: “Chicago Democrats
feel very sore over the Democratic national
convention going to Cincinnati. They say
that if it was held here the nomination of
David Davis to the presidency would be as
sured. However, Illinois will send forty-two
delegates to Cincinnati to work for the gent
leman named, and the impression is that he
will not remain a dark horse very long, \
either.”
Railroad Ncn-M r hat is firing’
llonr in Their Behall*.—While the
newspapers and the telegraph trumpet abroad
the burglaries, robberies, murders and other
evil deeds that are being committed, there is.
on the other hand, much good being done of
which very few people hear; it is done so qui
etly : it works its blessing as noislessly as does
the dew and the rain. Many charitable
movements are of this nature and so are
many of the actions of that philanthropic so
ciety, the Young Men’s Christian Associ
ation. Lately these have undertaken a very
important work, the aim of which is to pro
vide social, literary and religious entertain
ment for railroad men. These men are com.
pelled by their business to pass most of their
time from home. Being in working dress they
do not care to go to church, which custom has
made a full-dress occasion, nor to the ordi
nary reading rooms, libraries, etc., and for
lack of some better place they often frequent
liquor saloons and billliard rooms. The aim
of tne Association is to supply this want of
pleasant and wholesome entertainment, and
to this end they propose to organise Christian
railroad men at the principal railroad centres,
to open special places of worship and reading
rooms, which are to be placed under the
charge of competent men called railroad sec
retaries.
This movement was inaugurated at a recent
meeting of the International (United States
and Canada) Young Men’s Christian Associa
tion at Altoona, Pennsylvania. In a report
of that meeting occurs the statement that
“there are in use in this country about seven
teen thousand locomotive enginee, and more
than that number of engineers, and probably
not less than one hundred thousand men al
together on the trains and engines, and seve
ral times that number on tracks and in shops.
Probably 4 hey and the families they repre
sent form one-twelfth part of our whole popu
lation, or more than three million people.
The public has a deep interest in the railroads
and those employed upon them. The better
the men, the safer is transportation upon the
roads.”
The officers of the Air Line Railroad, who
are good men and true, are taking measures
to co-operate in this work of which they see
the wisdom and importance. They propose
to establish reading rooms for Railroad men
at Atlanta, Central and Charlotte, and to
have sermons, lectures, etc., delivered for
their benefit. We have just seen a letter from
an eminent divine offering his assistance in
this Christian work. We trust that Colonel
Foreacre and Captain Houston will be suc
cessful in carrying out their philanthropic
intentions and that other railroad officers
will co-operate with them
What Takes si Nan ■*<>]> u 1 it r’/—
It is quite certain that the number of men
who are popular is much smaller than the
number of those who desire to be so. Indeed
there are few men who have a large follow
ing. The great mass will be found upon trial'
to have almost as many secret or avowed op
ponents as they have friends. Now and
then however, we find one whom all agree in
liking. Without seeking, or at least without
appearing to seek positions he has them
thrust upon him, and what others vainly
struggle for he attains without seeming ef
fort. It is not always easy to explain this.
Sometimes this popular man has ability of a
high order, and exhibits traits of character
of unmistakable fpositiveness. In such case
his popularity is contrary to the assertion
sometimes made that if he has positive ele
ments in him he is sure to have enemies*
Again, you find a man very popular of whom
nothing can be alleged with certainty. He
never asserts himself, nor insists upon an
opinion, and it Is thence claimed that the
way to be popular is never to urge your pre
tensions upon people. The truth of the mat
ter seems to be that popularity is almost en
tirely a matter of tact. If he possess this, a
man may be popular with brains or without
them, with good principles or bad habits.
The ready recognition, the pleasant smile, the
hearty shake of the hand, the word or two of
delicate flattery are all potent rneg.is 6t wins
ning favor. There are good men who do
these things clumsily, and as a consequence
fail to make a good impression. On the con
trary there are men of very little truth or
sincerity, who like Charles the Second can
sweep away a long accumulation of discon
tent by a gracious smile and a well'turned
compliment. It is indeed an evidence of lack
of merit if one be generally '■sliked. But it
is not of itself a proof of superior merit that
one enjoys in a large degree the favor of the
masses, The multitudes have thrown up
their caps and made the welkin ring behind
the chariot of many a man who was bad of
heart and of life. In their judgment of in
dividuals as in their estimation of facts do
we deny that “the voice of the jieople is the
voice of God.” Leaders often control large
masses and by dint of magnetism make them
subject to their will, despite the proof which
they allow to appear of an utter want of
moral principle, * *
■le:iHtil'ii I Scenery Along the
Air-I .ine.—One need not go abroad to
seek beautiful scenery. It is to be fonud
among our own wild glens, streams and
mountains. Along and adjacent to the Pied
mont Air-Line Railway, which cleaves its
arrow-like course through the mountain re
gions of Georgia,the Carolina* and Virginia,
can be found scenery of the wildest, most
romantic and beautiful description. Cullisaja
Falls in Macon county, near the summer re
sort of “Highlands,” is a cascade of surpassing
beauty. Mill Shoals Falls is another lovely
water effect. There are crystal laxelets and
streams foaming at the bottom of deep ra
vines, while the element of grandeur is sup
plied by the rugged slopes and bald heights
of Black Rock, Stuly, Whiteside, Rich and
other mountains. Why are they not known
by musical, wild-flavored Indian names i
The Air Line Company have had stereo
scopic views taken of the most picturesque
scenery along and near this route, and for
the last hour we have been peering longingly
through a good steroscope at a package of
these pictures, kindly sent by Captain Hous-
ton-the Superintendant of the Air Line, whom
everybody honors for his integrity and loves
for his gentle and thoughtful courtesy. The
vivid glimpses of wild gorges, bald heights,
rock-fretted streams and dashing waterfalls
make brick wails seem intolerable and stir
all the gypsy blood within us.
For the’ last week or more our Senior has
been away rusticating, “wasting in wood-
paths the delirious hours,” unless he is
drowned out by Pluvius; when it comes our
turn to recreate we will take the wings of a
dove— or of the Air Line train,
’which is swifter and more comfortable
and; search out for ourselves these lovely
spots that look so tempting through a stereo
scope. We will fold our wings in that pretty
cottage there by the placid little loch, or in
that tiny dwelling nestling in a green niche
of the mountains, within hearing of the brook
that brawls over the rocks. *
Time Wasted in Spelling.—Pro
fessor March, the distinguished American
phylologist and scholar, says: Count the hours
which each man wastes at school in learning
our absurd orthografy; the hours spent
through life in keeping up and perfecting his
knowledge of spelling; in consulting diction
aries, a work that never ends—the hours that
we spend in writing silent letters, and multi
ply this by the number of English speaking
people, and we shall have a total of thousands
of years wasted by each generation. The
eost of printing the silent letters of the Eng
lish language is to be counted by millions of
dollars for each generation.
Newspaper Versus Wife.—The
most remarkable ground for a divorce known,
perhaps, in the history of divorce suits in this
country, is that set forth in a complaint re
cently filed in in the clerk's office in Lafay
ette, Indiana. The complainant is a well-to-
do farmer who has been married about
twenty years. He lives in a neighborhood
which is strongly Republican in politics, and
he wants to be separated from his wife be
cause she would not allow him to bring Dem
ocratic newspapers in the house. The com
plainant is a Democrat and thinks more of
his politics than he does of his religion. For
five years, he says, he has stood his wife’s
tyranny relative to his newspapers, and he
declares that he will stand it no longer. He
prefers Democratic newspapers to his wife.
Does the World Nlss Any One!*
Not long. The best and most useful of us
will soon be forgotten. Those who to-day
are filling a large place in the world’s regard
will pass away from the remembrance of men
in a few months, or at farthest in a few
years after the grave has closed upon their
remains. We are shedding tears above a
new made grave" and wildly crying out in
our grief that our loss is irreparable. Yet in
a short time, the tendrils of love have en
twined around other supports, and we no
longer miss the one who has gone. So passes
the world. But there are those to whom a
loss is beyond repair. There are men from
whose memories no woman’s smile can chase
recollections of the sweet face that has given
up all its beauty at Death’s icy touch. There
are women whose plighted faith extends be
yond the grave, and drives away as profane
those who would entice them from a wor
ship of their buried loves. Such loyalty how
ever is hidden away from the public gaze.
The world sweeps on beside and around
them and cares not to look in upon this un
obtruding grief. It carves a line and rears a
stone over the dead and hastens away to offer
homage to the living. It cries out weeping-
ly “Le Roy est mart-”—but with the next
breath exclaims joyously, “Fire te Roy.”
The Leading; Hen of Vew York
•■What they did when Boys. -In the
early autumn of last year the Rev. Washing
ton Gladden, of Springfield, Mass., sent the
following note to one hundred of the repre
sentative business and professional men of
New York: “I desire to find oat, for the
benefit of the boys, how the leading men of
this city spent their boyhood. Will you be
kind enough to tell me: 1. Whether the first
fifteen years of your life was on a farm, in a
village, or in a city; and A whether you were
accustomed, during any part of that period,
to engage in any kind of work when not in
school ?” r
Out of one hundred persons who received
the notes, eighty-eight answered the ques
tions, and Mr. Gladden was so much pleased
with his success that he embodied their re
ports in a lecture, which he delivered before
a large audience in one of tbe city churches.
It appears that of the eighty-eight, sixty-four
were brought up on farms and were farmers’
sons, twelve in villages and towns and twelve
in cities. Of the twelve who lived in vil
lages and towns, one-quarter were accus
tomed to do farm work. It is proper to say,
therefore, that of these eighty-eight of the
wealthiest and most influential citizens of
New York, seventy were trained in their
youth upon farms. Of the eighteen boys
who lived in cities and villages, five of them
report thut they had no work to do, while
the rest were the sons of people in rather poor
circumstances, and were accustomed to do all
sorts of work up to the time they left the pa
ternal roof. To sum up: Of eighty-eight solid
men of New York, eighty-three were hard
workers in their younger days, while only
five had “nothing in particular to do.”
Lo in a New Light,—And now a
correspondent of the Chicago Tribune comes
back from a year’s camping out with the
Sioux Indians, and tells us that the camp of
Sitting Bull is the dwelling place of domestic
and high-toned virtues. He discovered
among what we have always supposed the
most cruel and crafty of savage tribes “an
enthusiastic fidelity to the rules of hospital
ity : an Indian’s lodge is the property of his
guest. He feeds that guest and goes hun-
gory himself. They are, he says, cheerful*
and given to fun rather than fighting, and
they show “a rosy disposition to look upon
the bright side of existence, and a Bohemian
like inclination to regard disaster as a joke.”
Indians, he says, are popular with their tribe
not because they are brave, but l>ecause they
are witty, and he leaves us to ipfer that, per
haps the crimson feathers, hitherto regarded
as the tally of scalps, are merely so many
badges of unusually good jokes perpetrated.
Jollity in camp is commoner than gravity.
“In domestic life the Teton is a model. He
will provide food when he can, and when he
can’t will set a brilliant example of cheerful
abstinence. There are no kinder husbands in
the world, and none more delicate and court
eous in their treatment of their wives.
The Wonderful Game of Fif*
teen.—“What is the Game of Fifteen < we
see allusions to it in every Northern paper i”
asks two of our correspondents. Another in
quires: “Who invented’the Game of Fifteen
that the North seeuis crazy over i
The game of fifteen which absorbs the
Northern mind to the exclusion even of poli
tics and of criticisms on the 3outh—a puz
zle—so very simple in seeming that it tempts
everybody to solve it, but so intricate that
the most astute brains are perplexed to find
its solution. It looks like a checker-board 011
a small scale at first sight, but the squares
are soon seen to be movable blocks each num
bered—the numbers running from oae to
fifteen, The simple arrangement which
seems a mere child’s toy, is, we are assured,
a mathematical study of a gigantic nature,
and its solution is a science. But this does
not prevent the masses from manipulating
the little blocks in the effort to arran 1 ’ in them
—after their having been shaken
order required by the solution. Tliex Weston’
Pont says: “Go wherever you will' in this
city, to-day, you cannot fail of bearing the
game “fifteen” talked about, and the anxious
inquiry, “Can you do it i” Many Solons of
the rural district have at first fought shy of
the blocks, thinking the puzzle nothing more
nor less than one of the little games gotten
up for their especial lienefit, and for the de
pletion of their wallets. They too have now
taken an interest in the “little trick,” inas
much as they have found all the leading phi
losophers, scientists and preachers ('.) engaged
in its solution, and, in turn, have even got
the most sanctimonious of the church dea
cons at work upon it, and to-day the game i
to be found in every hotel, bank and publi< *
place in the city, It is to be found even in our
legislative balls, where it is said to receive
more consideration than the many new
schemes for creating a bonanza iu telephone
or other stock. It is in the nursery and has
become the chief study of the public schools,
inasmuch that the teachers have already de
clared it a nuisance.” A politician, a college
professor and a newspaper 1 x ihemian have
,1. . .. s. *■*.
laid claim to inventing the game of iifteen,
but the credit of its invention is said to be
long to a deaf mute in Hartford.
Goins’ <o the North Pole In a
■talloon.—When it was first announced
that Commander John Cheyne, of the Roy;il
(English) Navy proposed to reach the North
Pole by means of steam sledges and balloons,
it was laughed at as a joke. But Commander
Cheyne was in cool earnest, and his scheme
has ripened into a delil>erateiy planned un
dertaking, which has the sanction and sup
port of Lord Derby and a number of influ
ential M. P’s. The sledges will start about
March 30, 18S1; and when these are liaffied
by obstacles, recourse will be had to the bal
loons, which are to he “ inflated at starting
by passing steam through iron fillings, and
will afterwards be manipulated by means of
a supply of pure condensed hydrogen. The
balloons will start about June next year,
when the sun is shining continuously. Three
balloons will lie employed, each having a
lifting power of one ton to one and a half
tons. The l>alloon party will consist of seven
persons, with water and provisions for fifty-
one days; but it is expected that they will
reach the North Pole in from thirty to forty
hours after leaving the sledges. The explor
ing party will remain at the North Pole aliout
a week for scientific observation, and will
despatch a balloon to Russia for the purpose
of telegraphing tho hawk to England. The
intelligencei; it is thought, can lie conveyed
from the North Pole by way of St. Peters
burg to London within three days. The
Arctic regions will be photographed from
the balloon every hour, the distance to be
traversed by the balloon being estimated at
five hundred miles.” *
Prof. Cook says that potato beetles are be
ing reduced in numlters by the parasites that
are preying upon them. There is hope that
the politician, like the potato bug, may yet
be destroyed by parasites.
Paml Hoy ■ ton in Savannah.—
This great swimmer delighted Savannah the
other day by putting in an appearance in the
river in his water-proef suit, with his sails
unfurled and his tiny craft, “Baby Mine,”
in tow. All the balconies fronting River
street were filled with spectators and the
wharves were thronged with people looking
with admiring curiosity at the live sail boat
with jib and mainsail hoisted, the light masts
being attached to some portion of the suit,
and he at the same time using paddles with
both hands, and thus acquiring rapid motion.
He was lying flat on his back and seemed to
be perfectly at ease. Numbers of row-boats
filled with people followed, and almost sur
rounded him, preventing many on the
wharves from getting a good view.
At different points along the river Captain
Boyton stopped, transferred his sails to a
boat and then amused himself by shooting
off skyrockets, roman candles and colored
lights.
Disguised as n Han—A W<
man’s Remarkable History.
There is in France a town called Foucault
near Gennevillers the inhabitants of which
are all rag-pickers. It was named for
Madame Foucault—the woman who founded
the town and who was first a rag-picker.
She has a most romantic history. To l>egin
with she was the grand daughter of a Gener
al of the First Empire, and the daugl£?i-of
a Colonel. But at the outbreak of the Revo
lution in I848, her father was ruined and
afterwards died. Fora while the girl followed
the occupation of a rag-picker to support her
self and her two young sisters. When she
grew up, she tried to obtain more renumera-
tiveand decent work; but though she had
education and energy, she found that all
avenues of business were closed against her.
Believing that her sex was the chief olstacle
to success she disguised herself as a man and
gained a position as proof-corrector in the
printing-house of Paul Dupont. After two
years the brave young girl’s artifice was dis
covered and she was dismissed. Still attired
as a man she tried her fortune in various
ways, obtained work on some smaller journ
als, sang with Gaspari, was copyist for Alex
ander Dumas and others. After living a
long time in great jioverty she again succeed
ed in obtaining entrance te a printing-house,
and maintaining her position there. From
this time she had food enough, soon laid by
her savings, bought a piece of land at Cliehy,
built there a small house, attempted several
enterprises which were successful, and six
years later laid the foundations for the town
which bears her name, and whose inhabitants
were all rag-pickers. In order te increase
her property which was already of a consid
erable amount, Madame Foucault became a
jockey for one of the “turf” notorieties. It
is affirmed that she, 4 ‘the woman in pants,”
left a property exceeding two millions.
Sin always begins with pleasure and ends
with bitterness. It is like a colt, which tbe
little boy said was very tame in front, and
very wild behind.
1C ■ I roll <1 Haling House*.—Mr’
George Augustus Sala condescended to praise
heartily the speed and comfort of the Great
Jackson Railway which whirled him in a few
hours from the blooming orange groves and
ripe strawberries of New Orleans to the snow
drifts and frost-bordered lakes of Chicago:
but. he made up for his eulogy of the road by
his execration of the eating-houses along it.
These he pronounced worse than barbarous—
gloomy caves of Trophonious, after entering
which, a man smiles not again—except in
what a Western man would call the irriga
ting sense of the word. Worse than the black
beans of Mexico fried in oil, or the dried peas
and bacon of Spain, was the fare which, ac
cording to Mr. Sala, was served to him in
•‘the dreadful Southern dens,” as he calls
these wayside eating houses. He says:
“They fed or derisively pretended to feed
the unhappy passengers on the fleshless car
casses of fowls fried in grease, and lumps of
rancid i»ork fat and on moisels of what
seemed to be leather and which made believe
to be steak swimming in dirty grease. The
so-called butter was pallid in hue, and of a
suetty ^consistence. Whether it was “oleo
margarine,” or some other form of “hood
lum” substitute for butter, I do not know.
Tbe milk was bad, the sugar was coarse, and
gritty; ven the salt was unclean. The bread
was stingily dispensed; the coffee, served in
cups without handles, was black and ill-fla'
vored, and as for the tea, I only had it once
ne m’en parlez pas. i do not care to disguise
and never have disguised the fact that I am
very fond of the South and of the Southern
people. But my predilection for them does
not shut my eyes to the sluggish inertia, to
the apathetic listlessuess which mark the
management of the inns and refreshment
houses on a line of railway which in forty
hours can whisk the traveler from refined
New Orleans to super-civilized Chicago.
Were there no railway not one word of com
plaint should pass my lips; but there is an
admirable railway, every possible article of
consumption can be readily obtained, and
the Southern land itself is one flowing with
milk and honey.”
There is a good deal of truth in the strie**
tures of G. A. S., and we are not sorry to
have him touch up our eating-house keep
ers and the public generally in the matter of
the food they eat and provide, and the un
appetizing and indigestible way in which it
is cooked. Greasy food is the reverse of
healthy in a Southern climate, and the stom
ach naturally revolts against it, unless habit
has destroyed its instinctive sensibility: as is
the case with many of us Southerners, who
have subsisted so long on greasy gutta-per
cha steak, fried pork and bacon and greens
interspersed with blue-mass and calomel by
way of antidote, — that do not believe
anything else is “solid food.” In a country
where fruits, grapes and vegetables, milk,
batter, honey and eggs can tie produced so
easily and abundantly and where the three
former of these delicious and fever-preventi-
tive articles of food can be canned and pre
served with such little trouble—is it not a
real shame that we do not have them in some
form always in our public or private bills of
fare, and that we should not be able to spread
the most delightful tables in the world! *
Am Old Nun Venerable.—In many
of the numerous sketches of “Liberty Hall"
which appear in the papers from time to
time, mem ion is made of an old gentleman,
by the name of O’Neal who has been a mem
ber of the great Statesman’s family for many
years. He is worthy of a more extended
notice than is usually accorded to him, for
he is no common man. Though now past
four score be still retains considerable bodily
vigor, and his mental powers are little if at
all impaired. Many years ago, his hearing
began to fail, and this infirmity has grown
upon him until his friends can communicate
with him only by lifting their voices to a
loud pitch. But his eyesight continues good,
and almost all of the time that he does not
give to gardening, he spends in reading.
The whole of this long life he haa spent near
where he now lives. He was one of the ear
liest citizens of the village wherein which he
resides, and has lived there almost uninter
ruptedly since. For more than a quarter of
a century he served his county as clerk of the
court, and in this cajiacity signed the license
of Mr. Stephens when he was admitted to
the bar. While he has never laid himself
out for popularity and has rather shunned
than courted public notice, few men have en
joyed in a larger degree the confidence and
esteem of his fellow men. His conduct both
private and official has been characterized
bv honesty of the highest stamp. Retiring
in his habits even to timidity, he has always
attended strictly to his own business without
meddling with others. In his early manhood,
his business capacity evinced him possessed
of a large measure of sound common sense.
While in office, his opinions on points of law
were as highly valued as if he had belonged
to that profession, and many a man has had
cause to thank him for the wise counsel
which enabled him to administer successfully
complicated estastes. Only his intimate
friends however suspected that beneath a
rather sloven exterior, there lay a rich vein
of humor which rendered him an agreeable
companion. Near a score of years ago be
yielded to the solicitations of his son-in-law,
relinquished his office, and went to make his
home with his only surviving daughter in
south west Georgia. But he pined away
from his old home. After a year or two he
returned, and has ever since remained a
valued but most unobtrusive member of Mr.
Stephens’ household. His old age is being
spent as calmly and happily as he could wish.
He occupies the room in the wing so long
tenanted by the statesman himself, and
though the body of the house is closed dur
ing the absence of his illustrious friend.
Harry and bis wife and daughters take care
that “the Parson” as he is affectionately
called, shall want no comfort. * *
Why They Rise tTnrefre*hed.—
People who sleep with their doors and win
dows tightly shut, wonder why they get up
in the morning reeling weary and unrefreshed,
as if they needed more sleep, or had sat up
late the night before. The explanation is
very simple. They have lieen breathing air
vitiated with the organic matter they throw-
off from th *ir lungs during their sleep, and
are to a certain extent poisoned.
The poor are very slow to believe this; they
think you will kill them with cold if you pro
pose to open a window. Teach them that
fresh air must never mean a draught; that
if the cold weather is too severe to have
their bedroom window open and the door
shut, then faute <lr meittjc they must open
the door: but the window, if possible, is al'
«’ays lietter, as rooms ventilated from the
bouse have in the air frequently a certain
amount of sewer g:is.
All great reforms have, in times past and
present, always run to extremes in their first
developments, and thus we see in sanitary
matters that the use of disinfectants has be
come almost an abuse. Many people who
notice an offensive drain odor in their houses
are quite satisfied that, having put down the
usual jxiwders and disinfecting fluids, they
have cured the evil. We can not too strong
ly and forcibly bring to the notice of all in
telligent persons that it is worse than useless
to use one disagreeable odor to cover up an
other, with tbe idea of curing it—you do not
cure the evil, you ignore it—and for all time
it should lie a proverb, applied morally, so
cially, politically, and last but not least,
physically, that no evil is ever cured by be
ing ignored.
Therefore do not place carbolic powder
boxes, nor sprinkle chloride of lime, etc.,
where your drain ojienings exist, merely to
distract your nose’s attention from the sewer
gas which is issuing from some leaking pipe
or choked trap; by so doing you but ignore
nature’s warning, that, like the premonitory
smoke and rumblings of a volcano, advises
you of the eruption of the disease to come.
■lorn Not Had e.—The Eclectic and
the Living Age copy from an English Maga
zine—McMillan's we believe—a clever paper
almut “Literature as a Profession.” I he
author tells us there is a woful lack of prop
erly trained, practical knowledge of how to
write, among those who aspire to make liter
ature a business; and he holds that any in
telligent, decently educated person can, by a
course of training, develop himself into a
successful writer. The assertion is broader
than every day facts will cover, and we are
rather disposed to agr<<e with a writer on the
other side who believes that successful journ
alists and magazine writers are born not
made, and that to write acceptably requires
a natural aptitude. He says: Some fond
parents educate their sons with the special
view of making journalists of them, but it is
rare that we bear of these young men after
a few years. Meanwhile, some youth bom
among tbe hills, having nothing more than a
common-school education, and the knowledge
scraped up in a country printing office, will
advance to the front rank in his profession.
He has the journalistic knack, and forces
recognition because he has it. He gets into
a good position, not liecause he has wealthy
parents to influence the proprietors of lead
ing newspapers, but liecause he knows what
to write and how to write it. His articles go
in because they supply a demand, while per
haps the elaborate essays of a man educated
on two continents are cast in tbe waste
basket. *
Odorous !) Sipring in the t’oim-
try.
Sunny South Sanctum, March 8, 1880.
Dear L , Imagine how Robinson
Crusoe would have felt if some good fairy
had wafted him suddenly from his island
home to London! I have been taking long
breaths of satisfaction this morning, notwith
standing the fact that I am up in Mrs. Bry
an’s sanctum, and she is up to her eyes in
newspajiers and so cannot talk. I have a
view of the city clock, the spires of the new
custom-house, and one church-spire against a
murky sky. I hear the rattle of ail kinds of
vehicles, the noise of trains ami bells—and
yet I am very happy. Guess why? Last
Tuesday I went up to Marietta to see my
cousins and aunts anil uncles and sister. I
was blue and sick, and a rideout to “Powder
Springs’’ was suggested, that I might see some
more cousins and uncles and aunts, and also
drink some of the mineral water. It was a
warm, balmy afternoon and there were real
hawthorn hedges along the road, some of
them beginning to bloom. Between you and
me, however,we had to drive fast.liecause, as
we threw liack our buggy-top to catch the
cool breeze that scatters the rain-drops and
dimples the seas, strong, odorous^whiffs from
innumerable farmers’ wagons, overcame the
faint perfume of the hedges and blooming
orchards. I am very glad, my dear L ,
that I am not given to writing verses con
cerning spring. I will leave that to you. Sit
The A w I’n I Famine in Persia.—
Ireland and China are not the only countries
where human beings are perishing for food
and where pestffbnce stalks on the heels of
starvation. From beautiful Persia, whose
very name suggests images of luxury and
lieauty, gardens of roses and ropes of pearls,
there come accounts of the most harrowing
distress. Mrs. Cochran, an American Mis
sionary who has lived for thirty years in
Spain, writes to Rev. A. H. Plumb of Bos
ton, that the throngs of wasted and famish
ing beings that daily besiege the missionaries’
doors are appalling. No help is afforded by
the government. The starving go to
the slaughter-houses and catch and drink the
blood. Many have sold all they had for
bread, parting with valuables for a mere
sting. A bushel of coarse wheat meal sold
for #’io, January 7, while in the former fam
ine it never went above #S. Barefooted
multitudes tread the frozen streets, having
parted with all but a few rags, which offer
an apology for clothing. Parents are selling
their children for slaves; many men have
fled, no one knows whither,to avoid seeing the
death of those dear to them. Mrs. Cochran
says: “Would that I could take you out
among the haggard crowd that will come to
morrow, that come daily to receive a little
Oh! those sunken eves, those bony fingers!
Trembling, fainting women, little wild-eyed,
skinny children trampled under foot by
those whom hunger has made savage,old men
and women, and wasted babies in the arms
of mothers that can no longer give them
nourishment’” *
by a window full of twining vines and bloom
ing exotics in your lovely city home, and
imagine the violets in the emerald nooks of
rustic fence-corners. Dream of a live Spring
with “golden suns and silver rain," but do
not allow any of your admirers to drive with
you at this season far out into the country,
else you will lie sadly disapiaiinted. Fertil
izers are good things for cabbages and pita-
toes, but do not harmonize well with violets
and hawthorn hedges.
Finally, however, I reached “ Powder
Springs” and took a taste of its waters from
a silver cup in the hands of a blue-eyed na
tive who assured me that it was deliciousand
extremely beneficial to one’s health. Her
lovely complexion, she said, was caused by
drinking that water. I drank a cupful with
out any unpleasant sensation. However, I
liegan to have a headache and my auntie sent
me to lied. Wherefore I began to get well
though not in time to be carried to a grand
party given that night near by and to which
I had a pressing invitation. |
I silent one day and two nights at a delight
ful farm-house, and hail a pleasant ride out
to see the Georgia Western Railroad, that is
to be. I went to church twice, too, and
heard two fine sermons from a young Metho
dist preacher. There was a strange feeling
in listening to sermons while a boy chased
rabbits near by—on the Saturday—and the
birds twittered on Sunday about the win
dows, mingling their songs with the musical
murmurs of the wind-stirred pines. The
farmer’s family were charming too—from
the stately grand-mother down to the tiny
brown-eyed girl who adorned me with sweet
blue violets. But the rain came down ami
shut me in—away from my good friend, the
steam cars. “Golden wires may annoy us
as much as steel bars if they keep us behind
prison windows." Pearly rain drops are nice
to adorn a blooming rose—but decidedly out
of place when one longs to come back to
town. However, I have seen enough of
Spring face to face. I shall wait until fruit
1 logins to ripen before I venture into the
country again. Meantime sit by your cozy
fire and write us some verses concerning
Spring—drawing on your imagination for
sweet features. Adieu! Annie Loo an.
Too Grrex.—‘ Sally," said a fellow to a
girl who had red hair, ‘’keep away from
me, or you’ll set me on fire.” 4 -No dan
ger of that," replied tbe girl, “yon are
(00 green to bnrn.”
“Enquirer,” West Point. Ga., savs: Will
you (ilea.se state where Mother Shipton’s
home is, and what prophecies of hers have
been fulfilled and if her prophecies are gen
erally believed i This apropos of something
last week in one of the * editorials about the
Centennial taking place next year if Mother
Shipton’s prophecy was not fulfilled. * *
* What wassaid in thatarticle was of course
in jest, but Mother Shipton was a real his
torical personage and her numerous prophe
cies were fulfilled in a most remarkable
manner. She lived in England during the
reign of Henry VIII and foretold the death
of Cardinal Wolsey, of Lord Percy and many
other occurrences of that age, together with
a number of events and discoveries of the more
remote future—such as the discovery of tbe
steam engine and the telegraph, of railroad
and balloon traveling, which the most daring
imagination had never dreamed of in those
days. She strung together the most remark
able of these prophecies in a rhyme of which
we only remember the last two lines,
“The world to an end will come
In eighteen hundred and eighty-one;"
but no doubt there are a number of our sub
scribers who remember the whole prophecy
or have it pasted in their scrap liooks. We
have not much faith in foretelling—and yet
-“There are more things in heaven and
earth than are dreamed of in philosophy.”
• 1 i a • * ® fiiraay <USllt‘S tlieV
sprinkled with corn meal or rubbed off with
a small whisk broom kept for that imrpose
and dipped in a dish of corn meal, it wifi
leave the dish water much cleaner and nicer
f ‘Y\ " i * s ; h,n £ other dishes. The meal with
which they are rubbed is not wasted as it is
just as good for the pigs and chickens.
Equal parts hartshorn, sweet oil chloro
form spirits of ammonia; dip into this
ton cloth doubled the size of a dollar- lav it
on the spot where the pain is and hold an
other cloth event to confine the fumes TV,
rheumatism. 1 ^ 61 * **
A French paper points ont how the
paasion for gambling is shown in Eng
land. so that even in wedding notiees it
unnecessary to state that th.rf were “no
Feasible.—The Fortnigbtly Revieu has
an able artiole on -Water as a Beveraee ’
whereupon a country eontomoorary ^ys*
*lhe idea appears to be feasible.” *