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THE SUNNY SOUTH.
• THE . ... .
Sunny South.
PUBLISHED BY
M2 SUNNY SOUTH PUBLISHING COMPANY.
Business Office:
Constitution Building., Atlanta, Ga.
JAMES R. HOLLIDAY,
JOHN H. SEALS,
| EDITORS.
Press of The Fooie & Davies Co., Atlanta.
subscription terms:
One year .... $2.00 Six Months .... $1.00
TO CONTRIBUTORS.
Unless pay is demanded, mar u cripts will he treated
as gratuitous contributions. We do not undertake to
return short manuscripts—pcems, sketches, articles.
Keep copies. Prepay postage to insure safe return of
such as we agree to return. Do not roll any manuscripts.
Short ones maybe folded for long or short envelopes
Inclose letters about manuscripts in packages contain
ing manuscripts—not leparately announcing that they
are forwarded. Do not expect the acceptance of writ
ings, unless they are mbmitted in good literary f *rm.
ATLANTA, QA.. Saturday, May 30, 1896.
Corrections.
In our last issue appeared a sweet little
poem headed “My Wish,” written by W. D.
Burt, but the printer made the name “Bush.”
Proper names should always be written with
special care as there is nothing to guide us
in making them out, when the letters are not
plainly constructed. W. P. Burt is a promi
nent citizen and a popular dentist of Ameri-
cus, Ga.
In this connection we beg, also, to say that
a little poem which appeared in our issue of
April 18th, by Madeline Reese, should have
been credited to “The Editor”, which is the
title of a sprightly and valued journal of in
formation for writers and published at Frank
lin, Ohio.
First Subscribers to the Sunny South.
It has been suggested that we call for the
names of all among our present subscribers
who have been taking it from the first. Our
travelling agents find a good many who tell
them that they have been taking the paper
from the first issue twenty-two years ago, and
it would make a most interesting list of vete
rans in the cause of Southern literature if we
could marshal them all in one column. We
would like to publish such a list and would
be glad to have the names of all such patrons.
“Only a Tie”—A Beautiful Story.
Don’t fail to read Mrs. Frankie Parker
Davis’ beautiful story an interesting install
ment of which appeared on our frontpage last
week. It is completed in this issue and will
repay any one for reading it. Mrs. Davis is
a brilliant writer and everything from her pen
is worth reading.
During the months of April five jolly old
girls in New Jersey and various parts of New
England celebrated birthdays ranging respec
tively from the one hundredth to the one
hundred and eighth. April seems a good
month to be born in if one wants to live long.
Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt, Mrs. Brokaw
and Mrs. O. H. P. Belmont are all owners
of the most beautiful bedsteads which have
belonged to dead and gone royalty, and which
are most wondrous pieces of furniture, head-
board, foot-board, side pieces, inside and out,
bearing evidences of rare artistic worth.
Some light witted folks have again sprung
that silly question as to whether the nineteenth
century ends with the year 1899 or with the
end of 1900. Does 99 make 100 ever ? Well,
no. Just the same, then, 1899 does not make
1900. The nineteenth century began with the
year 1801. It ends the 31st day of December,
1900.
No Wonder he Failed I
It was with regret that the public learned
of the assignment of Ferdinand Shumaker,
the millionaire oatmeal cold water king, of
Akron, O. But how could a man who was
president of a cereal company, a gymnasium
company, a water power company, a paper
company and two land companies do anything
else than fail? Perhaps when the Ohio
Prohibitionist unloads a few of these he will
be able to straighten up and go on again.
Creelman to Batcher Weyler.
“I have told the truth, and you know it,”
writes Creelman, the expelled New York
World correspondent, in a parting letter to
Butcher Weyler. “A hundred corpses with
bound arms lie within eight miles of your
palace. I have given you the names, ages and
occupations of most of them. Your own
records show that the slaying of these poor non-
combatants was reported by your officers as the
result of honorable battle. The neighbors of
the victims are there to tell you how they
were dragged from their homes -or their
fields by your soldiers and shot on the road
side without trial or accusation.”
The Roar of Niagara.
Not the least interesting part of the big
electrical show in New York City is that in
which the roar of Niagara Falls is plainly
heard in the exposition building. The princi
ple of the transmission of sound by tele
phone is applied. A huge transmitter is ar
ranged near the Falls at Niagara. This is con
nected by a long distance telephone wire with
receivers in the Grand Central Palace, where
the exposition is in progress. The visitor
applies the receiver to his ear, just as when
he gets a telephone message, and hears the
tremendous roar of the great cataract as dis
tinctly as if he were looking at it on the spot,
though it is 507 miles away.
An Estimate of the American Man.
The Memphis Commercial says the Ameri
can man is a sincere, unaffected, rugged gen
tleman. He despises shams of sentiment or
shams of appearance. He refuses to become
enthused at bombast, and sneers at all super
ficial polish which hides unworthiness. He
uses slang when slang is the shortest road to
expression and despises elegance of diction
which veils or distorts meaning. He is abov^
all things truthful in the true sense of truth,
which means that he will tell a political or
business lie without a qualm of conscience,
but will want to knock down the man who
poses as a practitioner of invariable truthful
ness.
The good, strong American ring in
Waldorf Astor’s London paper, The Pall
Mall Gazette, is gratifying. It recalls editori
ally the Virginius affair in 1875, when the
Spanish military authorities at Havana were
shooting the Virginius passengers down in
cold blood. An English man-of-war arrived
at Havana before the massacre was finished.
The British captain heard of the shooting,
cleared his decks for action, and sent word to
the Spanish that if another man was shot he
would open fire on the town. And not an
other passenger was shot. America and Eng
land approved of that captain’s conduct.
Spain will behave herself in a civilized man
ner when she is forced to do so, not before.
A Touching Scene.
One of the most painful scenes ever enacted
in the Methodist general conference was that
in which Bishops Bowman ani Foster were
reported before their faces as “noneffective”
and the recommendation was made that they
be retired and others elected to fill their
places. It seems as though some way ought to
have been found in the spirit of Christian
kindliness to soften the blow which fell like
a thunderclap upon these two aged and worthv
men. At least they should have received a
hint of what was coming, so that they might
have absented themselves during the reading
of the report which pronounced them of no
further value to the church in spite of their
many decades of noble work. Pathetic be
yond description it was when the venerable
Bishop Bowman raised his arms and told the
conference that for the first time in his life
he had heard he was * ‘noneffective.”
Shall we Have any More Rain ?
There is a new artesian well in Chamber-
lain, South Dakota, which throws a solid,
eight-inch stream twelve feet high. Over
four thousand gallons a minute, or nearly
seven million gallons a day flow from the
well. Think of the enormous power of a
column of water as big as a man’s head
thrown twelve feet into the air! Think, too,
of what a waste of God’s best gift to man,
and in a country where droughts have parched
up the lands and crops for years past. No
wonder that the people of the Northwest
are having so much to say about gathering
the waters together from all sources and
irrigating the lands. If, as it is claimed, the
annual rainfall is diminishing then it were
wise to agitate this question and not allow it
to rest. It may become a matter of vital im
portance to our entire hemisphere, for just
now and for months past scorching droughts
have prevailed over the largest portions of it.
The cry everywhere is for rain, rain !
Who Will be our Next President.
Joseph M. Rogers, in the North American
Review for May thinks the contest for the
Presidency will be unusually interesting this
year at the nominating conventions as well
as at the polls. For twenty years past until
now, Blaine has been a candidate at every
Republican National Convention with or
without ’his consent. John Sherman has also
been a leading candidate several times. This
year the Republiican candidates are practical
ly new men. Though votes have been cast for
Allison and McKinley neither has previously
been an important factor in the situation. In
the last five Republican Conventions the
field has beaten the favorite every time, ex
cept in 1892.
The Democratic candidate is more uncer
tain than the Republican. While the Repub
lican party has by odds the best of the situa
tion, so many elements enter into the problem
that Democratic hopes are not without a basis.
So many surprises have taken place at
political conventions and at the polls that
he is a rash man who dares predict who will
be the next President.
Will New York be the Largest City in the
World ?
Destiny set off the point at the junction of
Hudson river and Long Island sound for a
mighty city, which in time will be, except
Chicago, the largest city of the world. It will
take Chicago a long time to catch up with
New York, however, now that New York,
Brooklyn, and Staten Island have been united
into one city.
The law which has changed a city of i,6oo,-
000 inhabitants into one of 3,000,000 is very
simple. It merely provides that a commission
of nine citizens shall submit by the first day
of next February a plan for the municipal
government of greater New York as one and
the same city, and that the formal consolida
tion shall take place Jan. 1, 1898. Whether
regarded in its political, commercial or social
aspect, this consolidation of the two vast
cities by the sea into one is the most impor
tant step taken in the United States the pres
ent year. Americans the country over con
gratulate New York on rising above local
jealousies. The combination gives us all a
city to be proud of and to glory in. Ameri
cans feel that they all have a share in its
greatness and glory.
Greater New York has, all told, $2,583,-
324,329 worth of taxable property. It con
tains 1,100 churches, 90 postoffices, 1,120
hotels and probably not less than 6,000 beer
saloons, liquor stores and drinking places.
The enlarged city will include three whole
counties and part of a fourth. The election of
the first mayor of greater New York will take
place in November, 1897.
Death of American Authors.
Within the past few months four popular
and talented American authors have died. We
have not so many really gifted authors in this
country at present, and the loss of those who
left us is profoundly felt. One was the gentle,
sunny hearted Bill Nye, a humorist of high
rank. Another was Eugene Field, both poet
and humorist A third is Henry Cuyler
Bunner, Puck’s lamented editor, known to his
intimates as “Hal Bunner.» Another name
might be added, that of H. H. Boyesen, to
all intents and purposes an American, though
born in Norway. Three of these were humor
ists, more or less. It has been charged that
Americans have little sense of humor, but
the fact is that in their own way they have
a keener sense of humor than other nations.
Some of our most popular authors have been
humorists, from Davy Crockett down to M.
Quad, Nye and Mark Twain.
The death of the men named naturally give
rise to the question who will take their
places. These four have left a .vide gap in
American contemporary literature. If there
are any coming on who will fill their places
or make equally good places for themselves,
it is not yet plain. We have two or three
novelists of the second rank, three or four of
the third, and certainly one historian of
the first rank, and one or two fair play
wrights. We have still fortunately Mark
Twain, ours and the world’s humorist, though
he has too serious business on hand for much
humor just now. But where are the new
authors ?
Give Them Manly and Womanly Example.
Minah Savage says, “No boy, no girl, can ev
er come to be utterly bad who remembers only
love and tenderness and unselfishness and
sweetness as associated with father and mother
in the old-time home. Give them manly
and womanly example, give them training,
give them the inspiration of devoted lives,
give them these higher, deeper things. Do
not care so much as to whether you are ac
cumulating money, so that you can leave
them a fortune. I really believe that the
chances are against that’s heing a blessing
for a boy. But leave them an accumulated
fortune of memories and inspirations and ex
amples and hopes, so that they are rich in
brain and heart and soul and service. Then,
if you happen to leave them the fortune be
sides, if they have all these, the fortune will
be shorn of its possibilities of evil, and will
become an instrument of higher and nobler
good.”
A Wisconsin woman has fallen heir to a
fortune of $8,000,000. However, this falRirg
heir nowadays often means only heirship to
assessments without number.
&£ew Books and Magazines.
A novel dealing with New York social
life and the hunting life on Long Island is to
be published shortly by D. Appeton & Co.
The title is “Green Gates,” and the author is
Mrs. K. M. C. Meredith.
Secretaries Olney and Carlisle recently
consented, for the first time since they held
office, to be photographed seated at their
desks. The pictures were taken at the request
of The Ladies’ Home Journal, and will be
used to illustrate ex-President Harrison’s arti
cle describing the workings of the State
Department in the July number of that maga
zine.
**A Bride From the Desert,” by Grant
Allen, author of “What’s Bred in the Bone,”
“The Woman Who Did,” etc., is one of the
new novels of interest. It presents quite an
attracted appearance in a dainty binding of
white and green. Price 50 cts. R. F. Fenno
& Co., 112 Fifth Ave., New York, Publishers.
A very important article in the forthcom
ing (June) number of the Bookman, is en
titled “Mrs. Gaskell and Charlotte Bronte,”
by Clement K. Shorter. Mr. Shorter,
the well-known editor of the Illustrated
London News, etc., is to publish
shortly a book on the Brontes, which has
long been looked forward to in literary cir
cles. The article in The Bookman will be
read with universal interest. It contains many
hitherto unpublished letters from Charlotte
Bronte to Mrs. Gaskell, Miss Nussey, and
others. Fresh light is thrown on the Brontes’
life in Brussels. The article is illustrated
with portraits of Mrs. Gaskell; Charlotte
Bronte’s husband, the Rev. A. B. Nicholls,
whom Mr. Shorter has visited many times
in his Irish home; of the three sisters, Char
lotte, Emily, and Anne, and of their father,
Patrick Bronte. There are also reproductions
of the Bronte group from a chalk-drawing by
Bromwell Bronte, of a drawing by Charlotte,
and a picture of the Rue d’Isabelle, Brussels,
showing the Pensionnat, where Charlotte
studied. Some of these illustrations are now
published for the first time. All the papers in
Mr. Nicholls’ possession have been placed
in Mr. Shorter’s hands. Mr. Nicholls and
Miss Nussey have both expressed their ap
proval of Mr. Shorter’s artice.