Newspaper Page Text
HA 1 J F ir\i C Willmms i a
PUBLISHED SEMI-WEEKLY.
VOL. XIV. JOSEPH L.DENNIS, HAMILTON, GA„ MARCH I!). 1880. ONE DOLLAR A YEAR, NO. 22
PROPRIETOR. STRICTLY iN ADVANCE.
EDITORIAL NOTES.
The fall campaign has fairly open
ed but the Journal continues its
visits twice a week for a dollar a year
if paid strictly in advance.
__♦____
winter’s last legacy—a bad cold—we
cVnH anostrnnhise 1 beautiful spring.
-\nd we hope 1 she is here to stay and
hear it.
We still think Atlanta will be the
northern terminus of the Georgia
Midland Atlanta is much too big
for little Griffin to beat in a contest
of this kind.
A New York dispatch says that
it is doubted seriously if tne ocean
steamship Oregon collided with any
schoonei as reported. No sign of
such schooner was left or has been
seen since, and it is possible that the
vessel was wrecked by a torpedo or
an infernal machine.
--—<-
If brother Revill is counting on
his delinquent subscribers for help to
boom his gubernatorial aspirations,
his hopes are resting upon a founda
tion of quicksand. Friends who have
so unfortunate a way of exhibiting
their friendship, don’t boost us much
when we run for office.
____
The Georgia Midland construction
company will jse double teams of
hands it is said and will work night
and day until the road is finished. Six
months it is thought will see the road
in complete operation, Electric
lights will be used for the night work.
So an enthusiast in Co'umbusinforms
us.
Brown made .
Senator a common
sense speech yesterday in t .e sen a
on the presidential prerogative con
troversy, that is the best we ia\ e yet
seen. He defenoed the presicents
position, while at the same time lie
gave him some wholesome advice.
The speech of senator Brown will
add to his reputation.
The Blair educational bill is not
unconstitutional and therefore, if we
un ejerstand democracy aright, it can
not be undemocratic. This point
established, no southern representa
tive can oppose it, for only a fear
that it is an undemocratic measure
keeps it from being universally popu¬
lar with good people thioughout this
sectioa.
Governor Smith spoke yesterday
at Talbotton. The correspondent of
the Columbus Enquirer construes the
speech as an effort to array labor
against capital. His late agricultural inter
speech at Columbus has been
preted as an attempt to array capital
against labor. Governor Smith is a
very able man and we shall regret, f
this trouble is to continue, that he is
not a candidate.
.
The management of the Georgia
Midland refuses to make Atlanta a
proposition. As we have said before,
if Atlanta wants the trade of this sec
tion—a trade that handles twenty
odd thousand bales of cotton annual
lv_and at the same time desires
closer connection with Columbus, an
exten.-ion of the Columbus & Rome
radr oad fr ?m Greenville to Puckette’s
, .
station—sixteen miles—will secure
,f se ? n Her eighty,thousand of
subscriptions . will build the road.
____
timon y comes to piove a return of
better timcs - The cotton mills are
runnin S on full time and selling their
products at a profit. The strikes all
the way from Maine to Texas are a
S 00(1 illd « themselves Laborers
are not P rone to strlke vvhen lhere ls
little doin S- ° nl V when there is
plenty of work in sight, do they usu
ally demand an increase of wages,
Farmers too are asking less help than
was expected and all the signs point
t0 a re t urn 0 f p r0 sp Cr0US times.
-------—»»-^i —--------
TO TALBOT AND BACK,.
I have met many talkative people,
hut m y friend Gilreath, formerly a
c jtj z en of Talbotton, was certainly
the most inveterate talker of them all.
If I were to make a talking machine
it would be modelled after him. It
was in 1870 or about that time that
he moved to Talbotton and I can
never forget my father’s experience
with the old gentleman. My father
had met him casually on the streets
and felt disposed to be friendly to
him as a new comer and to do all in
his power to make him feel at home,
So one Sunday afternoon, it was in
the early spring time when a seat on
the shady side of the house was com
fortable, my father was on the front
colionnade when our talkative friend
was in the act of passing. Father
spoke to him and he replied and one
word led on to another until an op
portunity was presented of asking the
old gentleman in. He accepted the
invitation and seats were provided
an(J the talk began j n earnest. The
gentleman had enjoyed a long and
yar j e( j eX p er ; ence , he knew many
■ . an( j their whole family histo
r{es go he t^ed and he talked.
Members of our family came out, sat
for a while and left, making room for
others, but my father was cornered
and patiently he sat and listened,
The clock struck two, and three, and
four, and five, but on wagged the
un tired tongue of the good old man.
From the rivers of Carolina to the
creeks of Baker county and back
again. The mention of a new name,
or person, or creek, or place, called
always for a discursive history lateral
to the main story. Such things as
intermission in the discourse there was
not. Members of our large family—
children and nieces and cousins-^
cam2 0 ut singly, in pairs or trios, saw
the new roan, took in tire situation
and silently sat or retreated at pleas
ure. But father sat dun., amazed,
confounded, while the serene old man
talked on and on. The sun went
behind the western hills, as is its dai
ly wont, and the old man’s tongue
never rested. 1 he stars came out
an d still the old man was unmov
ed. At last something was done, I
don’t remember what, tnat roused
the speaker to a sense of the lateness
of the hour and he departed. A
week sped by and the Sunday (.inner
had been concluded, m father had
lighted his pipe and wa movin o t his
chair to the front coilonaje to 4> njoy
his after dinner smoke, when who
should he meet at the front door but
our late Sunday guest, brother Gil
reath. Sore as had been the late
penence, the old gentleman was in
vited to sij down, and when seated
j opened wit la “Well, as I was going
on to say last
I have understood that the old
gentleman's wife was a more inces
sant talker than he was and that
when they were out together he nev
er managed to get in a word edge
ways, except when he could corner a
part from her audience, 1 hen to
the midd,e man there was a Label of
voices. I have always entertained
the highest regards for brilliant
conversationalists. The world has
too few of them.
“But, as I was going on to say last
Tuesday,” your Talbotton lawyer
works his field well. 1 he bar o f that
little city is unequaled in intelligence
and high standing of its members by
any city of its size in the state. Gen.
Bethune, the patriarch of the body,
is an ex-Congressman and for many
years, in his younger days, served the
county as Ordinary and Clerk of the
Court. Judge Matthews, Capt. YVil
lis, and Hon. J. II. Martin have
served the county repeatedly in the
general assembly of the state. Hon.
Henry Persons, a new member of the
bar but an old citizen, is an ex-Con
gressman and the most popular man
in his county. Any office within the
gift of the people of Talbot they
would most cheerfully accord him.
Capt. Bull and Capt. Worrill are just
ly popular, are rising young members
of the bar and will have a name high
in the annals of Georgia jurispm
prudence. Messrs Mumford and Ilall,
while members of the bar, have a
penchant for journalism househould that words has
made their names
with the citizens of their county.
Judge Iter Willis, himself, is an ex-mem
of the Talbotton bar, as is Capt.
W. A. Little, speaker of the house of
representatives, and also Col. Cary J.
Thornton, of the Columbus bar.
It was at Talbotton that the first
session of the Supreme Court of
Georgia was held and ever since then
the bar of that town hag had members
with state reputation if not national
fame. It has furnished the state
with one Governor, several Congress
men, several Superior Court Judges,
one foreign Minister and many dis
tinguished rnen. -j
It was in Talba _> court, some ten
or twelve years a to o, where a lady
brought suit on the civil docket
against a party for damages in the
killing of her husband, and for the
first time the Supreme bench was
called upon to settle the question
whether the acquittal of tne defendant
«criminal guilt did not relieve him
oflrabr lity of damages lire court
decided that as the rules governing
criminal and civil cases differed mate
nally, a suit for damages could be
brought as though there had been no
trial A and farr for the ]icly benefit got a ver of the *«• bout .
ern Rifles was m progress. Many
liberal contributions had been maJe
by friends of the town
_ r a
company anc le p atwould
cess a ou
put J su hstan
tiji. asrS mu .. mention
5 always
carries my * thnnaht* b hark to the davs
before the war, when . a . bare r foot t l boy
l would join a crowd of urchins be
fore the door of the company’s anno
ry, at the sound of the drum and
await anxiously the advent of the
company under Captain Curley,
lheir uniform then was to me the
of perfection in human attire,
the music of the fife and drums the
! soul of harmony, and the martial
tread of the company and it evolu
tions in arms the poetry of motion.
Every movement of the body was
followed and every maneuvre watch*
ed with the keenest interest. Fade
less too are the impressions of the
day I, still a barefoot street gamin,
with a proud step and anxious hears
that beat high within a bosom orna
merited with a red hot secession coek
ade, watched the company as it left
for Virginia, destined to leave the
bodies of many of its members dead
upon boyish well fought battlefields. How
my prayers ascended to heav
en that the war might not end until
1 might be ol l enough to illustrate
my patriotism on the battle - field f
Stormy times were those and full of
boyish sentiment were my fancies,
but schools they were that taught a
noble patriotism. May heaven bless
the efforts to keep alive the name
and fame of the noble Southern Ra¬
lies,
Jn connection with this fairoccurr
ed one of the most ludicrous typo
graphical blunder's l have ever seen
and as a printer and proofreader of
nearly seventeen years experience,
largely with beginners, I have seen
circulated many. A circular was printed and
asking aid for the fail. history A
paragraph was devoted to the
of the company reciting the fact that
it was one of the first musterred into
the Confederate service, that for four
years its ranas were decimated, until
a returned remnant home jof “battle-scarred” hostilities veterans
when ceas
e d. 'The :opy given the printer read
“scared” not “scarred,” the composi*
toi failed to note die error, the
proof-reader overlooked it, and so it
went to the world. Captain Curley,
one of the said veterans, says the cir
cu Iar accidentally gat it right, for to
the Lest of his knowledge the return
veterans were much more scared
than scarred.
Hut like my friend r •* ilreath, the
more f tell about my trip To Talbot
and Back the more I have to tell,
The space at my command is full,
however, aad so I must defer for the
present a continuation of our story
until our next,
* ♦
The state capitol is nearing the
third story. The progress has been
satisfactory to the commissioners.
, ... . -
espundent o the e Allan^a Atlanta 8 Caoitol Capitoh
^3 ’^L t Tk e fourth Lr o.,t her'
rt Hams bach lor ano anotner term term. . or
* few of his friends will seem to be
f , he same op i nioo this f a ||. The
promises * l0 be lively in the
ussy ounn.
Potter recently read ail inno
cent P oem at a Washington recep
fion, and Washington high society in
^° ,v neck dress blushed. Now she is
tne most P°l )ula r newspaper subject
* n America, and that blush has
brought her fame.