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'' v w * ■* M r * * 1 u .St m ■ ■ =? * ? j 7 <p r YSyW j^ *• T 'IX w ;1 I L-/ \ jpy > m q i -s 4 V r I K r VOL. XV. EDITORIAL NOTES. The legislature chartered the Ma¬ con and Opelika raihoad, which the Macon Telegraph says is backed by istrong business men who will push the enterprise. It will pass through Harris county if built. The State Fair is pronounced the most successful ever held. President Northern took hold when defeat was imminent and by a single master stroke assured its success. He de¬ serves great credit for his manage¬ ment. The Leary Courier reached us this week in a new dress, which very greatly improves its appearance. It is one of the best and sprightliest of our weekly exchanges, and it affords us pleasure to note this evidence of its prosperity. The editor of the Hamilton Jour¬ nal expresses himself prettily as well as loyally when he says that he propo¬ ses to accompany “the first lady of the land to the Piedmont Exposition.” (n these days when we hear so much twaddle about “the first lady of the land,” the above is really refreshing. Of course every man’s wife ought to be “the first lady in the land” with him.—Carrollton Free Press. c Mr. H. C. Hanson, formerly bus «iess manager of the Macon Tele ;^raph, has purchased an interest Aas in the Columbus Enquirer an been elected editor and manager of that paper. He is a gentleman of fine executive ability, of liberal yet * Servative views, and has shown ^ self posiessed of superior skill as newspaper manager. He will a valuable acquisition to as well as to the Enquirer. The Piedmont "Exposition was monetary success, but some of business methods would have put blush an unprincipled director of traveling circus. The exhibition was advertised at an expense of less than $400, through the generosity the press, yet the complimentary pass was surrounded by such a red tap JOSEPH L.DENNIS, PROPRIETOR. process that scores of editors paid their way into the grounds in com mon with hundreds of other invited guests. There were a great many jugs shipped from Griffin 10 Atlanta last week. One of our informants saw upwards of 200 at the station await¬ ing shipment. Griffin is the nearest source of supply to Atlanta and the principal one. It probably supplies « a third of the whiskey used in Atlan¬ ta, and if the third did not exceed 200 gallons a day during the biggest days of the exposition, it cannot be claimed longer that prohibition does not greatly diminish the consumption of the vile stuff. Hamilton has one inhabitant for every one hundred that Atlanta has, and yet we have seen 200 gallons and more of whiskey delivered here in a single day. The prohibition fight has opened in dead earnest in Atlanta. There are prohi and anti organizations and the fight, although short, will be a lively one. It was proposed to com¬ promise on high license, but your genuine prohibitionist thinks that the more style a saloon puts on, the more evil it does. High license is a semi-protection to the poor. It is a greater temptation to the well to do. It brings down less game, but it gets the better sort. It took hard work to win the fight two years ago and it will take hard work to do it again, but we have much faith in the good people ot Atlanta and more in the prayers of good people everywhere. The contest is viewed with universal interest. A consultation last week between the officers in charge of the several railroads chartered to run from Bir mingham, through Macon to the At lantic, held in Atlanta, resulted in a partial consolidation and^ union of the several interests. The agreement has not been made public, but it said to be such as insures a common roadbed for seventy miles out from Birmingham, with branches there; one by LaGrange aod Macon to Sa vannah; the other by West Point to Brunswick. This latter will go HAMILTON, GA., OCTOTBER 28,1887. tirely through Harris county and will give us railroad facilities second to county in Georgia, The consolida¬ ted systems include the Dublin & Western road, work upon which is now actively progressing It has already seventy miles graded ou* from Savannah, has 700 hands now; at work and expects to be running trains through to Macon early in January. ; We are glad to see the papers tak ing hold of the cotton tax question again. The farmers of Harris county paid taxes in 1865, ’66 and ’67 on nearly 40,000 bales of cotton, at $2.50 per bale. The Supreme ot the United States decided ago that tnis tax was unconstitution¬ al. For twenty years and more this money, obtained illegally from an impoverished people, at the very point of the bayonet, has lain idle in a now overflowing treasury, of the farmers of Harris county who contributed to the $100,000 which the county paid, are now alive and not too old to enjoy their ow.i, which should be returned to them with in¬ terest. Any part of the tax that it is now impossible to restore to the parties from whom it was collected, or their heirs, might be appropriated to educational purposes in the state from which it was collected, but the major portion can easily be restored to the proper persons. THE COTTON BELT. Southwest Georgia is often refefred to as the cotton belt of the Stale. 1 his is a popular error. The ,be*t short staple cotton is grown*, mi the county of Harris andjjhe' ‘Cduftt'feJ contiguous to it, and these coqqties i are he largest producer*. A bui« ( of j Talbot county cotton, grown wit ftp a mile of the Harris county line, wafc awarded $500 at Louisville, $Cy 7 ' a few years ago, and at a number^f j State fairs Talbot has carrieu off the blue ribbon, Harris never having on- 1 tered the contest. Spinners recog¬ nize the superiority of our cfottOh and it always commands the top the market. ' 1 Georgia, in 1880, according to the census, produced 814,441 bales. Of ONE DOLLAR A YEAR STRICTLY IN ADVANCE. this amount Harris county is credited with 12,677 bales; Talbot 10, 2^; Meriwether 15,tjjj ; Troop t 8,0 " ; and Coweta with 16,282. 'The five counties, produce 73,093 ba’es, or one-eleventh part of the crop of the state; while the area of improved lands in them is but one nineteenth of the ar^a of the slate. Conjmeicial fertilizers have ma le middle west Georgia the cotton cen ter of the state. » «► FCr tbfe-Hamilton J ouknai . CURRENT EVENTS. 'The gieat topic of conversation last week and this is the exposition Atlanta and the tair at Macon. It is amusin g how various are the state ments of the two occasions, but all a 8 ree ^ al eac * 1 was a 8 raru * success aiK ^ a( ids anothei diamond to the coronet of Gecrgia. But one fc.u ure of both ought.to be left out, that horse racing and the gambling that follows it. * * * Another sensation is Miss Abbott 1 ; interruption of the services in Me Kendree Methodist chinch in Nash ville. it is surely surprising that a minister of the gospel cannot preach against theaters without interruption and a speech from a madonna. S ric was there by accident, as she herseli said, and perhaps mistook the occa sion and place. ♦ * * There seems to be quiet in railroad circles and no railroad of importance has been “gobbled up.” Still a v.i riety of railroad enterprises are con¬ templated and same wilf be built, but which one deponent saith not. * * * President and Mrs. Cleveland and party have returned ’ to Washington. The President’s tour has been a grand ovation everywhere aruP with¬ out casualty except at Memphis. Judge Ellett, after delivering a most eleganrt and scboitrly*address of wel¬ come and after the Presidential party hacHetired, died on the platform. Such*te life. • * ■* * * * R.fehJ)un& Co.’s Review of Trade for the week reports a decline, -n prices in almost every branch « r trade, not from scarcity of money,but NO. 72.