Newspaper Page Text
ON JOURNA
SUBSCRIPTION Si-00 A YEAR.
j. L. Dennis,.... ....Proprietor.
HAMILTON, GEORGIA,
November 4,.................... 1887.
EDITORIAL NOTES.
The Atlanta prohibition fight grows
in interest. It will hardly be as bit¬
ter as the fight two years ago, for
that was as bitter as it could be.
Elsewhere we publish a very inter¬
esting reminiscence of ex Governor
Towns, a former resident of Talbot
county. Many of our older readers
will read the article with peculiar
pleasure, as they were well acquaint¬
ed with the subject of the sketch.
T his is the age of steam truly. A
Cincinnati firm advertises a $7 00
steam pump. 'The steam is generat
ed by the fire that cooks the break
fast and while that meal is cooking
water enough is pumped from the
well to last all day. Now what next?
THE REVISED PHONOGRAPH.
'The Scientific American has a very
interesting article this week based
upon an interview with James A. Ed
ison, the wizard of Menlo Park, as he
is aptly called. He has perfected
his phonograph ar.d has entered upon
the wholesale manufacture of them
for popular use in business and social
circles. For ten years he has devot¬
ed much of his time to the electric
light, but having perfected that to his
own satisfaction, he has for eight
months given his attention to the
phonograph which he invented along
time since. He has now two phono¬
graphs that are so simple that
anybody can operate them and yet
so perfect that they will record the
speech of twenty different persons
and give it out so accurately that the
tones of every speaker can be distin
guished easily.
He will have live hundred of these
phonographs realy by the middle
January and his factory will turn
them out rapidly after that date.
lie will issue with the phonograph
different size “phonogram” plates
that will hold i.ooo, 2,000 or 6, ; ooo
wor.s. A merchant'using the pho
nograph wiU set it in motion, insert
the phonogram pLte and proceed to
dictate his message in his usual tone,
about as it he vveie talking to a tel
iuw at the other end of a telephone
line .M hen the message is finished.the
•phonogram' is mailed to his corres
nc ndent wiio starts his phonograph to
work, inserts “phonogram” and it
gives him the message, emphasizing
~-«*r
the several parts just as the dictator
did. If a first rendering is not clear
enough, then the message or any part
of it may be repeated at will. It is
arranged so that it will repeat the
phonograh four or five words at a
time so that a compositor may set
the matter as it is given out. All
sounds are repeated by great accura¬
cy and musical sounds especially so.
'Thus when a great opera is given in
New York, or a popular song sung,
the whole country may listen to it
within a week.
A thousand and one uses to which
it may be put will suggest themselves
to the minds of our readers and Mr.
Edison is truly a wizard if he has ac¬
complished in his revised phonograph
the half of what he claims for it.
BRER FOX OF ATLANTA.
There were fpur in the party—two
ladies and two gentlemen—and they
were going to the Atlanta Exposition
from down in Alabama. As the
Georgia Midland train nulled out of
the depot at Columbus at twelve
o’clock Monday, the 17th, every seat
was occupied in the several coaches
and several were standing in the
aislei. Our friends had seats oppo
site and were feeling comfortable, but
the full cars 100 miles from the Gate
City suggested the thought of scant
I accommodations in that city, so a few
miles out the pater familias fished out
, , • , ,, , r
ot his luggage a well read copy ot the .
Weekly Constitution anil turning to
the tloubte leaded leader on
modations and How to Get Them -
proceeded to read it aloud to his in
terested listeners.
'The reading allayed all apprehen¬
sion and conversation ran on pleas¬
antly until the aisle began to fill in
the cai tiom additions at Ellerslie,
Waveriy Hall, Shiloh and Warm
Spungs. 1 hen the elder fished out
Meekly and in a monotone
: conned the sa.ient points of that
; leader again. He dwelt over it until
J M oodbury was passed, when the pa
! per was folded and laid away care
fully foi iuture leterence. -
1 At Concord an acquaintance of
p& r ty boarded the train and one
of his first questions was, “Have you
got a place to stop.”
The elder answered no, but they
| apprehended no trouble in getting a
place, as the Constitution said there
were ample arrangements for all who
would come. Then the Weekly was
opened again and the leader read
aloud. At Griffin we waited two
hours lor a train delayed because it
was overloaded with Atlanta bound
folks. As we waited our friend op
posite read to his party the lodgings
article by sections and they discussed
it. A train with twenty empty coach
es down from Atlanta passed us and
the reading began anew. At Hamp¬
ton, as we waited, four empty trains
/
passed us all having gone up the road
duringthe dayloadsd so that theWeek
ly Constitution’s on“Accommodations
and How to Get Them” again became
a matter of deep concern. But here
the aisle became so jammed and the
light so poor that we lost sight ot our
acquaintances and we saw no more
of them that night.
We occupied a precarious seat that
night on a rickety trunk four feet
above the floor of the car shed and
we rose early, \bout six o’clock as
we were on the eve of hunting better
quarters, the elder of our party en
tered the ladies waiting room and
was accosted by his Concord friend,
“Where did you lodge at?” asked
the Concord friend.'
“Well, the girls staid in here on
the baggage and I walked out on the
streets to get a breath of fresh air. I
come across a barbei shop that
lighted up and I gave the man a
quarter to let me sit in one of his
chairs ’til mornin’. Pretty soon Bill
come along an’ I let him set in the
chair an’ I laid down under it on my
shawl and slept until day. Do you
know where I can find Di. Tox?
For the Hanr lton Journal.
GOV. GEO. W. TOWNS.
What an empty bubble fame is
how brief and evanescent. It is the
. that disappers
morning 0 vapour ere
“ 1e SU " aSCe " dS l ° men f an he, g ht
lhlSthougbtlSSUg§ " Stedbyt ,efaCt
tbat ,n conver.atton a short time ago
with an intelligent gentleman of lal
bot county, he scarcely remembered
that such a man as George W Towns
ever lived in 'Talbot county. Gov.
Towns, in his day, filled as large a
space in the public eye as any man
j n Georgia, was gifted with talents of
a rare order and was essentially “sui
g en ifs,” very original, witty and a
^ ne conversationalist and genial and
en tertaining. Gov. Towns was never
a stu(lent> never fead much lavv , but
seeme( j [ 0 know law by intuition. A
rem arkable memory enabled him to
en j Q y t j ie f ru i[ S of other men’s labor,
and he always appeared to advantage
in the court house. He was a fine
advocate, always ready and usually
successful.
In the superior court of S-
county a suit was pending between
twin brothers who wonderfully resem¬
bled each other— so much so that
few could tell them apart. Thsy had
lived together and had all things in
common. Cupid passed that way
an( ] one G f ihe brothers married, to
which the other was violently oppos
ec j an( j j n division of the property
a w jq e difference occurred and a big
lawsuit. Gov. Towns was called to
p iie ca se at a late hour. He repre
sented the married brother and mis-
took his client and uttered a wither
ing tirade against the unfeeling broth
er who had brought this useless lit!
gation into court and sharply rebuld
ed the avarice of the brother. H
the midst of his eloquent denuncil
lion his client pulled him down anc
whispered the mistake he was mak
ing. Quick as thought and not at all
disconcerted said, “Now, gentlemen,
I have presented the defendent’s side
j of this case, and as my honorable
j friend, Judge T will undertake
j to pursuade you, but you are too sen
sible to be misled by it.” r l hen with
a rare burst of eloquence he portray
ed the noble character and good heait
of his client who had obeyed the di
vine command, “took to himself a
help-mate and he is to be abused be
cause he obeyed the further law of
providing for the wife he had taken.
Who forced this litigation ? 1 hat
sour old baehellor.” He then por
trayed in glowing colors the worth
Icssness of old bacbellors generally
and this one in particular, and ere
he concluded all forgot his
or believed he designed it in his plan
of argument. Judge replied, but
his ammunition had been exploded
and Gov. Towns gained the case.
| The Gov. had a very refined and
inoffensive wit. On one occasion
Col. J. was telling some wonderful
stories about the size of chestnut
trees in north Georgia. Gov. Towns
was sitting quietly by and said: “Col.
J., if you had not seen those big
chestnut trees would you have be
lieved it?” “No,” says the Col.
; “Then please excuse me,” said the
; Governor. Memento.
For the Hamilton Journal.
GRAIN.
It may be thought that it is an act
of superfluity to remind farmers that
this is the time to sow grain. The
good book says “line upon line and
precept upon precept,” £nd if
is any class in the . community
needs this wholesome
that class is the farmers. 'They
so wedded to the one idea of cot ton
that although they admit the impor
tance and the value of a good grain
crop they fail to sow in season.
ante-bellum days Harris county made
her supply of wheat, but now a wheat
fielu is a rare sight, and they excuse
themselues by replying that wheat u
an uncertain crop. Well, is not anl
ton crop so? Yes, and much of t|l
uncertainty comes from the
careless way the wheat is sown. It ■
surely true that if the same care wV
taken in putting in wheat as is us
in putting in cotton that wheat w ? o
be the most certain crop of the tvi
Well, if wheat is uncertain, rye, crjj oj
and barley are not and a large
of these cereals ought to be plant
There can be no real prosperity u
