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178
SDllfcceUcuteou# ScXcefci&ttfc.
POW ER OF Ml sir,
One stormy night ft few weeks since, we were
wending our way homeward about midnight. Ihe
storm raged violently, and the streets were almost
deserted. Occupied with our thoughts we plodded
on, when the sound of music from a brilliantly illu
minated mansion, for a moment arrested our foot
steps. A voice of surpassing sweetness and brill
iancy commenced a well known air. We listened to
a few strains and were turning away when a roughly
dressed, miserable-looking man brushed rudely past
us. But as the music reached his ears, he stopped
and listened intently, as if drinking in the melody,
and as the last sound died away, burst into toars.
We inquired the cause of his grief.
For ft moment, emotion forbade utterance, when he
said:
“Thirty years ago, my mother sang me to sleep
with that song; she has long been dead, and I, once
innocent and happy, am an outcast—drunkard— ’’
“I know it is unmanly,” he continued, after a pause,
in which he endeavored to wipe with his sleeve the
fasti} gathering tears.—“l know it is unmanly to give
wav, but that sweet tune brought back vividly the
thought of childhood. Her form seemed once
more before ine—l -I—can’t stand it—l. ”
And before we could stop, he rushed on, and en.
tend a tavern near by, to drown remembrance of
the past in the intoxicating bowl.
While filled with sorrow for the unfortunate man,
we could not help reflecting upon the wonderful
power of music. That simple strain, perchance from
some gay, thoughtless girl, and sung to others equal
ly as thoughtless, still had its gentle mission, for it
stirred up deep feelings in an outcast's heart, bring
ing back happy hours long gone by.— Albany Knick
erbocker.
BELLES AMI BEAUX HIT HARD.
One of the best minds of our time is Hr. Osgood,
and bis occasional speeches, out of the pulpit, may
be looked to, always, for valuable suggestions, ('ail
ed upon at the Publishers’ Festival, the other day,
to reply to a toast offered to the “Fine Arts,” he said:
“Whilst speaking of our American Art, we must
not forget that we have something to do with fur
nishing subjects ; and whilst Scenery is comparative
ly little within our control, the human figure is very
much what we make it, and is monstrously abused.
We are naturally a remarkably good-looking people;
but we have done a great deal to sfioilour looks, and
it would he a very good tiling fur our Academy of
Design to apply to the Supremo Court for a w rit of
habeas corpus to rescue the human body from im
prisonment and abuse at the hands of our false fash
ions and monstrous dietetics—from the fetters of
buckram and ichaltbonc ; from rum and tobacco,
which defile and deface so many of our men; from
the slops and confectioner’s trash which give dyspep
sia and the vapors to so many of our women. Let
us have a free and fair physical development , as the
basis of a noble, intellectual, and social life ; let us
also he willing to he true to humanity in our own
way, without aping every European folly, and who
w ill doubt that anew day of beautiful taste and ar
tistic genius will dawn upon us?”
PUT THIS IK YOUR POCKET BOOKS.
Young men who, to dress well, eat well, drink
well, and ride well, run in debt for those enjoyments,
can apply this to themselves. Richelieu was a great
Cardinal, and Hulwer occasionally speaks the truth:
“You have outrun your fortune;
I blame you not, that you would be a beggar—
Each to his taste ! Rut Ido charge you sir,
That, being beggar'd, you would coin false moneys
Out of tho crucible called debt To live
On means not yours—be brave in silks and laces—
Gallant in steeds —splendid in banquets—all
Not yours—ungiven—unherited—unpaid for.
This is to boa trickster, and to filch
Men’s art and labor, which to them is wealth,
Life, daily bread—quitting all scores with ‘Friend
You’re troublesome I’ Why this—forgive me—
Is what—when done with a less dainty grace—
Plain folks call—theft 1”
Few readers can be aware, until they have
had occasion to test the fact, how much labor of re
search is often saved by such a table as the following
—the work of one now in his grave. If “History is
Poetry,” as one who is a true poet himself forcibly
remarks, then here is “Poetry Personified.” //or
per.
1(107 Virginia first settled by the English.
1014 New York first settled by the Dutch.
1020 Massachusetts settled by Puritans.
1623 New Hampshire settled by Puritans.
1024 New Jersey settled by the Dutch.
1627 Delaware settled by Swedes and Fins.
1635 Maryland settled by Irish Catholics.
1t,.'15 Connecticut settled by Puritans.
1686 Rhode Island settled by Roger Williams.
1650 North Carolina settled by English.
1670 South Carolina settled by llugenots.
1682 Pennsylvania settled by Wm. Penn.
1733 Georgia settled by Gen. Oglethorpe.
1791 Vermont admitted into the Union.
1792 Kentucky admitted into the Union.
1790 Tennessee admitted into the Union.
1802 Ohio admitted into the Union,
1811 Louisiana admitted into the Union.
1816 Indiana admitted into the Union.
1817 Mississippi admitted into the Union.
1818 Illinois admitted into the Union.
1810 Alabama admitted into the Union.
1820 Maine admitted into the Union.
1821 Missouri admitted into the Union.
18:,tl Michigan admitted into the Union.
lK! ° Arkansas admitted into the Union.
We. Florida admitted into the Union.
twin uct,uUU ‘ <l into the Union.
the Uni. a.
‘" U) the Union.
mt the Cnkm.
Wm™
w„, m u \-V vno r *^ r " ,M “ uU ' and for
“* u K ' 4 peixvT, „ t was any
*** <o „p>. not at allv’ 1
VU,
<S)lus*
THE INFLUENCE OF A MOTHER'S TEARS.
Wc clip from an “Address delivered before the
Ladies’ Mount Vernon Association, July 4th, 1835,
by Beverly R. Wellford, Jr.,’’ which we find in the
Southern Literary Messenger, the following striking
passage:
“History records no more suggestive incident than
(he memorable termination of the siege of Rome by
Coriolnnus. No child ever perused the narrative
without extraordinary emotion. There is something
in it which appeals with an effect that may not he
resisted to the heart and the consciousness of all. —
Who has not in imagination dwelt upon the scene?
A stout and sturdy warrior, steeled by years of ac
tive military service against the pitiful appeals of suf
fering humanity—the victim of tierce and ungovern
able passions—smarting under a keen sense of accu
mulated wrong—consecrates the energies of his life
to the avenging of his injury, and exiled from the
city whose annals his military prowess had adorned,
sallies forth the infuriated minister of wrath. Saeri
ficing all higher and more ennobling aspirations -
sullying forever the hard-earned laurels of the victor
of Corioli —he seeks, even at the price of a traitor’s
fame, to purchase a satisfying vengeance. Rallying
around him an army of the enemy he had prostrated
for her, he throws hirnself with an exulting legion
upon the offending city, and thunders at her gates.
Appalled and prostrate at the realization of her seem
ingly inevitable doom, Rome trembles before him.—
With humbled pride her haughty senators, in solemn
procession, come to sue for mercy. Disdainfully re
pulsed, they dispatch the ministers of their religion
to woo with the hopes of future Mis and intimidate
with the prospect of a coming retribution. But all
in vain. Unrelenting and unmoved by every appeal,
the stern veteran relaxes not his purpose. Then
come the mother's tears. Bending under the weight
of years—sustained only by a holy hope, the aged
matron sallies forth. Who can paint the scene?—
Who may realize the meeting? In the most insen
sate soul, there are treasured associations and memo
ries, w hich, forgotten amid the wild tumult of angry
passion, awaken at the whisper of a mother’s name,
to heat in every pulsation of the heart, and thrill
through every fibre of the frame. There is a senti
ment of holy veneration in the soul of the child to
its mother, which lie must sound the lowest depths
of infamy who may forget or disregard. With
streaming eyes and anguished heart, the Roman
mother kneels to plead with her traitor son. Ap
pealing to him by all the hallowed memories of his
uncorrupted boyhood, and chiding with the affection
ate rebuke and tenderness that, well up from a moth
er’s soul towards an erring child, she conjures him
to relinquish his cherished purpose. The warrior is
unmanned. ‘Talk not of grief ’till thou hast seen
the tears of warlike men.’ Fearful, but of brief du
ration, is the struggle of contending emotions. In
stinct triumphs—the cup of vengeance is dashed un
tested from the lips. Rome is safe again. A moth
er’s tears have changed the destiny of the world.”
SHE IS DYING,
The following is sublimely beautiful and pathetic,
and could only have been dictated by a heart tint
has experienced all tho bitterness that is therein ex
pressed. Who the author is wo know not, hut sus
pect it is an extract from some hook. If anybody
can read it without moisture in the eyes and stones
in the throat, they are worthy of marble:
“Hush! she is dying! The, sun light streams
through tho plate glass windows—the room is fra
grant with the sweet breath of the Southern Mowers
—largo milk-white African lilies—roses a nightingale
would stoop to worship; Capo jessamines and enme
lins with their large glossy leaves.
Through the open casement steals the faint, musi
cal tinkle of playing fountains; and the light, tem
pered pleasantly by rose curtains of embroidered sat
in, kindles up gorgeous old paintings with a halo
bright as a rainbow. It is ns if fresher sunshine
were falling earthward on tho bower ofbeauty.
The canary sings in his gilded cage—her canary;
and the mocking-bird raises his clear notes higher
ntid higher on tho perfumed air.
Why do you clench your hands until tho nails draw
the rich, rosy blood through the thin quivering skin?
Why do you grind your teeth together, and hiss be
tween, that one word, hush? It’s a beautiful home,
I am sure, and that lady with her hand upon her bo
som, is fair as any dream vision of the painter.
Surely nothing could be purer than that broad,
high brow ; nothing brighter than these golden curls.
And she loves you, too! Ah! yes, any one can
read that in the deep violet eyes, raised so tenderly
to your own. Ah ! that is it : your young wife loves
you.
She linked to vours the existence of an angel, when
she knelt beside you at the marriage altar and placed
her hand in yours.
For twelve long golden sunny months an angel has
walked or sat by your side, or slept in your bosom.
You know it. No mortal woman ever made your
heart bow before a purity so divine!
No earthly embrace ever filled your soul with the
glory beyond the stars ; no earthly smile ever shone
so unchsnging’v above all noisome things as you
earth-worms call care and trouble. She is an angel,
and other angels have been singing to her in the long
days of this pleasant June time.
“Hush,” you say, hut you can’t shut the anthem
notes of heaven from those unsealed ears!—Louder
lighter, swell the hymns of the seraphs; brighter
grows the smile on your young wife’s lips.
She whispers, “Dearest, I’m almost home, and
you will eome by and by, and I am going to ask < iod
to bless you!” Rut you cannot hear it—you turn
away, and the big tears gather in the violet eyes.
You had held her there on your bosom all day—all
night; are you tired ? But you can’t answer.—
Closer —closer you clasp the slight, fair figure ; pain
fully you press your lips to the cold brow—Carrie is
dead!
Y> hat is it to you that the sunshine is bright; what
that its cheerful rays fall on the broad lands—our
lands? What is it—now that she can walk on them
no more? And what is death—her death ? Few
people knew her : no vice-president must bo chosen
to till tier place: no nation will raise a monument to’
mm ry but she was yours; great God of ours
i your all;
THE TEMPERANCE BANNER.
No—yours and God’s : and your year of joy is j
over, and she rests on His bosom now in heaven.
They have dug a grave for her. Spring flowers
brighten over it, and the green grass smiles with dai
sies and violets. You go there, and sigh and pray,
and ask God if you, too, may come home ! and when
no answer coines, your proud heart rises up in bit
terness, and w ith the bold, wicked words upon your
tongue, you pause, for your guardian angel looks
down from heaven, and whispers—“ Hush!”
C|e Ccntpcnmcc Banner.
PENFIELD, GEORGIA.
Saturday Morning, November 10,1855.
AUTUMN.
The beautiful Summer is dead! The flowers
which loaded the air with halm and flecked the earth
with beauty, no longer nurtured by her smile, have
faded and died. The bright plurnaged birds that she
had tam<*d and lured to her green, leafy bowers have
sung their last sad requiem over their dead mistress,
and have departed to a more genial clime. Nature
is mourning in a robe of “yellow melancholy,” and
the “charmed eddies of the autumnal*winds,” heap
above the grave of the dead summer, a “mouldering
monument” of withered leaves!
But why mourn over the departed Summer, when
she has given place to the golden, gorgeous Au
tumn V True, the flowers are dead, the leaves are
“crisped and sere,” the song of many a bird that
gladdened the wood is heard no more, and the
zephyrs are no longer laden with halm; hut in
stead of flowers, Autumn brings fruit, for the green
leafy bowers, waving fields of grain; for the songs
of birds, the merry shouts of the happy harvest
er, and for the odor-scented zephyrs, the bracing,
health-giving breezes of October—which send the
bright blood leaping and tingling through the veins.
Autumn, the sad and solemn Autumn is beautiful and
pleasant to behold, as he conieth, clothed in his par
ti-colored robe of a thousand gorgeous hues, while
ever in his train are seen smiling Plenty and rosy
Health. The poor, whom Hunger pinches sorely,
rejoice at his approach, for he throws from his chari
ot the fruits of the earth, with a liberal hand. The
suffering sick, look up and smile with renewed hope
at the falling leaf, for well they know that the invisi
ble spirit of vapor, which nurtured in the darkness
of sultry summer nights, has become the fearful Pes
tilence that “wasteth at noontide,” will flee before
the silent footsteps of the frost-footed Autumn, and
that rosy Health will lean from the chariot to cheer
with her smiles the desolate homes of the sick.—
Thus Autumn becomes a welcome visitor.
Though welcome to some—though crowned with
fruits, and attended with Health and Plenty, Autumn
is still to us the “saddest season of the year.” With
the approach of Fall begins the work of Decay, and
its gnawing tooth is forever heard in every falling
leaf. The Frost strips the trees of their covering and
leaves them naked to battle with the howling blast.
The homeless, houseless winds commence their mis
erable pilgrimage around the earth, never still—ever
complaining—forever making piteous complaints,
that sound lik” the wails of the damned.” Thedead
and w.: bored leaves, fit emblems of our perished
hopes, are drifted in every direction over tho earth,
and tho cold, chilly blast still drives them onward.
Nature hears an aspect of dreary desolation—all
things seem engaged in preparation for the coming
winter.
How solemn and impressive the lesson which Au
tumn teaches us! Wc too are hastening to decay!
We, like the leaves, are drifting down the st’eam of
Time to be deposited on the shores of Eternity. We
too should he gathering that fruit which will nourish
and sustain us through the dark, cold winter of Death.
The winds that strip the forest of its foliage, expose
to view the ripe fruit, or hear on their wings the
seed, which desposited in some far distant land, will
spring up and beautify the earth. Happy will wc
be, if the Winter of Death finds our lives crowned
witli fruit—if the chilly winds that blow from the
frozen icebergs of Death, shall hear some little seed
of this life, which nurtured in the climate of Eterni
ty, shall flourish in unfading beauty. And still hap
pier will we be, if when tho \V inter of Death has
passed, we, like the birds and flowers, and streams in
Spring, awake to “newness of life,” and rejoice in a
resurrection from darkness and death, to an eternal
life of unfading brightness and glory !
GEORGIA LEGISLATURE,
Roth branches of the General Assembly con
vened at the Capitol on Monday last, at 10 o’clock,
A. M. David J. Bailey’, of Butts connty, was elected
President of the Senate; P. 11. Colquitt, of Musco
gee, was elected Secretary; Mr. AYilson, of DeKalb,
Messenger; and Mr. Alfred, of Pickens, Door-keeper.
Hon. Wm. H. Stiles, of Chatham, was elected Speak
er of the House; Mr. Oslin, of Cobh, Messenger; and
Mr. Morris, of Flovd, Door-keepor.
Both branches being organized, the Governor’s
Message was read, and the official vote counted.—
The Inauguration took place on Wednesday.
A STATE LECTURER.
We would call the attention of our readers to the
proposition of Joseph Grisham, which will be found
in this paper.
It is highly important that we should haven State
who would devote the whole of his time
to canvassing the State, delivering lectures, distribu-
I ting tracts, circulating papers and stirring up the
| people on the groat subject of Prohibition. This is
I what we want, and must have, if we expect to ac
complish anything for our noble cause. Who will
respond to the call of Mr. Grisham ?
SOIL OF THE SOUTH.
This excellent agricultural Monthly is ou our ta
ble, and, as we have repeatedly said, should be lib
erally patronized by Southern planters. It is pub
lished at Columbus, Ga., at $1 a year. Send and
get it.
PUBLIC DOCUMENT.
We tender our thanks to the lion. A. 11. Stephens
for a copy of the Exploration qf'the Amaaon, accom-
panitd with Maps, by Lieutenants Herndon & Gib- ‘
bon.
LETTER TO B. ti. OVERBY.
We take the following well-written and appropri
ate letter addressed to Hon. B. 11. Overby, from the
Southern Recorder. It is the exponent of the senti
ments that are entertained by thousands of the best
citizens of our State, towards the man who had the
moral heroism to offer himself a sacrifice in the cause
of Truth and Right: *
Dear Siu—The battle is over; victory imposes on
you no inaugural. Banners, and music, and guns at
midnight, proclaim another favorite with the people
of Georgia. The executive term has been renewed
with a potent expression of the popular w ill, to the
fortunate incumbent for two years longer. Faithful
or not, whether a wise selection or the contrary, he
is chosen, and no one more cheerfully submits than
yourself. In fact, the signs have never been very en
couraging to the cause of “Prohibition”either before
or since you became its nominee for Governor. Nor
did you take the field with the hope of success.—
Your aim was higher ; and you have gone through
the campaign, not with the laurel of triumph, it is
true, hut with conspicuous honor and credit, such as
upright men of all parties will ever respect.
I will not wound your sensibilities by any pretend
ed condolence on your defeat; for really your work,
your late mission of labor and love, is spreading its
influence to the breaking up of the old mass of gran
ite, the tippling shops, which had crushed so*many
tender hearts. Yon have proved a public benefactor.
The hundred and score addresses you made during
the canvass, in all quarters of the State, still echo in
the breast of thousands who listened to your manly
arguments and soul-touching appeals. You painted
humanity as it suffers —as it drags through the mire
of intoxication. Even now, your eloquent voice, its
deep pathos and imploring sweetness, tremulous with
emotion, lingers in my delighted memory. Rlessings
have been invoked on your head by many a parent,
by heart-broken wives and neglected children. —
Tears of gratitude have flowed at the mention of your
name, and bright hopes are cherished that the cause
of which you were the champion, will ultimately pre
vail. Be of good courage, soldier of moral progress ;
the dawn always succeeds the darkest period of the
night.
The vote you received is no indication of public
sentiment in relation to liquor shops, the festering
nuisance which you strove to abate. There was an
issue pending which absorbed many thousand minds
in another direction, depriving you of a large support,
to he rallied on a more conspicuous occasion, in fu
ture.
Personally, y r ou have nothing to regret in this mat
ter. The ceremonies of inauguration, the escort of
committees, the retinue of State officers and high ju
dicial functionaries, in presence of the two Houses of
Assembly convened for the pageant, all set off by the
splendors of a crowded gallery’, where angel woman
presides over the scene, could afford you no gratifi
cation, except for ttie welfare of others, were you the
centre of attraction. Believe me, sir, y r ou stand to
day on more enviable ground. No forced smile, or
reluctant civility is wrung from you by sycophantic
suitors for patronage. You are free, the equal of any
man in heroic virtues, and far in advance of a thou
sand politicians in Georgia who assume to direct pub
lic opinion from a principle, of which selfishness is
the soul. I extend the remark as much to one party
as to the other; they are both patriotic —both nn
scrupulovs, as the late contest has fully demonstra
ted. I gave my vote to you, with all due respect for
your competitors. One of them is exalted, and the
other is too wise to be cast down. Yon are on a rock
far above the storms of faction. T sit at the base,
and drink refreshing nectar from your example.
And now, on reviewing the struggle, I have this
consolation in your behalf: The fountain of iniquity
has been pierced by your valiant sword, and its bit
ter tide will tlow less and less, until finally exhaust
ed by legislative wisdom. In your happy retreat, or
in whatever situation the God you worship may call
you to labor, you will ever be remembered bv grate
ful multitudes, especially by the women and children
of Georgia, for whose benefit you girded on the ar
mor of “Prohibition.” Tho incense of their prayers
for your welfare will not be despised by Him who has
commended the widow and orphan to our sympa
thies. Servant of God, friend of man, rejoice at the
good you have accomplished, which, like bread cast
on the waters, will be gathered many days hence,
when the grave shall be your mansion.
I have chosen to submit this letter to the public,
before it reaches your eye, nor shall I apologise for
the liberty. I am, dear sir, graefully, your
FELLOW-CITIZEN.
October, 1855.
—-
LAZY MAN’S BEDSTEAD.
They have on exhibition at the Crystal Palace,
in New Y’ork, a newly invented article of furni
ture with the above name. At the head of the bed
is attached a small alarm clock, so connected with
the bed, that, at a given moment, the alarm bell will
ring, and in five minutes after, if the sleeper does not
rise, the mattress upsets, and straightway, and with
out any ceremony, lie is tumbled out of bed. Sun
dry lads are constantly being shown the effects of
this article, and in more than one instance, says the
Express, they got more than they bargained for.—
The price ranges from $6 to SIOO.
It only remains to invent a machine to put a lazy
man to bed.
fy“Wc have been favored with a copy of the i
Pocket Formulary and Physician ’# Manual, hv Dr. •
Thomas S. Powell, of Sparta, Ca„ :ind having care
fully examined its contents, and learned the ends
and purposes it was designed to subserve, we think
it fully meritorious of thea'tention and patronage of
the entire medical Fraternity. In it we find a list of
the most approved medicines, important hints upon
diet, medical statistics, and the National and State
code of Medical Ethics, established by the American
Medical Association. It contains a vast amount of
knowledge in all the various departments of the heal
ing Art, compiled and arranged in a remarkably con- 1
venient form, ready at any time for immediate refer
ence. We commend this work to public favor as
worthy of patronage. Copies can be secured by ad
dressing the Author, Thos. S. Powell, M, D., Sparta,
Ga. Price $1.50.
DOIVNINGHILL NURSERY.
We have received a catalogue of fruit and orna
mental trees, roses, Ac., comprising a choice selec
tion of Southern Seedling varieties, j ropagated at the
above named Nursery, in Atlanta, W. Thurmond 1
Cos., proprietors. Let those interested take notice
“A SADDLEBAGS GROCERY.”
Among the presentments of the Grand Jury of
Cass county, Ga., tile first week, we notice the fob
lowing :
“The Grand Jury of the present week would a’<o
most respectfully represent it as their opinion that
something like a saddlebags grocerv has been’kert
by the Superior Court of this week, in the au-uil’t
personage of one of the constables, without license
wherefore we cannot safely conclude that the Tem
perance cause is highly esteemed, by that arm of tlu”
law, and while we exonerate the Court from a knowl
edge even of this newly established feature in the’
traffic, still we must set our faces against all saddle
bag groceries, and more especially when kept bv -i
constable in attendance upon the Court. The par
ticular constable we have concluded thus to cannon
ise, and hand his deeds of consummate effrontery and
shame down to future constables, as a well-marked
instance of wilful contempt far Court. We did not
-■ee the liquor, but wc did sec the saddlebags— and
it is the deliberate opinion of this Jury that no other
Jury ever saw a pair of saddlebags as much like a jug
of brandy before—for they smelt like the jug had
been broken. Now, a constable is quite a small ap
pendage to the Court any how, and when he grows
®” ben at if ally Cfin, as to become part and parcel of
Saddlebags, that smells just like a broken ju- of
brandy, he attains to a station so small in our eves
that wc think lie’s of no use at all.”
$15,000 PROMPTLY PAID!
In the second last drawing (Class 7) of the Fort
Gaines Academy Lottery, Augustus Cook, Esq., of
this city drew the capital prize of $15,000. We
learn to-day that Mr. Cook has returned from Atlan
ta and the full amount of his prize was promptly
paid. If a person be so fortunate as to draw a prize,
there seems to be no humbug in obtaining the mon
ey when due. So Mr. Cook has found it and so have
others of this city who have been favored with other
than blanks. Fifteen thousand dollars is no small
amount of money.— Chattanooga (Tenn.) Advertiser
Oct. 27.
Sii;’ Editorial life in California is thus described
by one of them! lie is referring to the daily rou
tine of an editor’s life there :
First—-Gets up in the morning at ten o’clock,
dresses himself, puts on his hat, in which are six or
seven bullet holes; and goes to a restaurant for
breakfast. After breakfast, starts to the office to
look over the papers, and discovers that he is called
a coward in one of them, a liar in another, and a
puppy in another; he smiles at the pleasant prospect
of having something to do; fills out and despatches
■ three blank challenges, a ream or two of which he
always keeps on hand, ready printed to save time;
, commences writing a leader, when as the clock strikes
eleven, a large man, with a cowhide in one hand, a
pistol in the other, and a bowie-knife in his belt,
walks in and asks if his name is ; he answers
by knocking the intruder down two pair of stairs
with a chair.
At twelve o’clock, finds that his challenges have
been accepted, and suddenly remembers that he has
a little affair of that nature to settle at the beach that
day at three o’clock ; goes out and kills his man, and
then comes in and dines on stewed grizzly ; starts
for the office, and while going there, gets mixed in
a street row, and has the heel of his hoot shot off by
accident; laughs to think how beautifully it was
done; arrives at his sanctum and finds an “infernal
machine” upon the table; knows what it is, and
merely pitches it out of the window ; writes an arti
cle on “moral reform,” and then starts for the thea
tre; is attacked on the corner of a dark alley by
three men ; kills two of them and takes the other to
the station house. Returning to the office at eleven
o’clock at night, kills a dog with a paving stone; gets
run over by a cab, and has the tail of his coat siitted
open by a thrust from a knife, and two bullet holes
put through his beaver as he steps within his own
door; smiles at his escape, writes until two o’clock,
and then turns in, with the happy consciousness of
having two duels to fight the next day.
For the Banner.
GATHERINGS BY THE WAY.
Messrs. Editors , —l left my home in a quiet rural
district, to mix with the busy scenes of active life on
our railroads and in our cities for a time. I visited
the camp-meeting in Elbert county, Ga., where a
good wrtrk was going on. Good order and quiet pre
vailed in and about the encampment, but just far
enough outside to be out of sight of most decent peo
ple, the usual amount of liquor selling and drinking,
gambling, and negro-demoralization, by lowflung
white men, was carried on. There is a certain per
sonage in Elbert county, whose influence for evil is
said to be almost unlimited. This influence always
operates detrimentally to the quietness and peace
desirable at the Elbert camp-ground—it never can
be got rid of while the leading spirit of that influence
fives, and she is likely long to be a trouble to this
world. Rev. .Mr. Tally, in some very plain remarks,
told the freemen of the county’ plainly of their con
sistency and independence, in having such an influ
ence as was exercised by the person in question pre
vail so extensively, to even the controlling of elec
tions in the county! YY’hat good will be done re
mains to he seen.
I next went to Lexington, where the Oglethorpe
Superior Court was in session—Judge Thomas YY r .
Thomas presiding. Judge Thomas has done him
self gnat credit for the ability and integrity with
which he has discharged the delicate duties of his
office, during his short term on the bench. He is
one of the ino-t able lawyers and jurists in Georgia,
and no man in the State is capable of making a more
universally popular and efficient Judge. Ilis giant
i intellect, profound legal acquirements, stern unbend
ing integrity,—his manly independence, his goodness
!of heart and agreeable manners, render him one of
the best fitted of men for the position he now occu
pies for a short time, by Executive appointment.—
Iroin every tongue all around the Northern Circuit,
but one voice is heard concerning Judge Thomas’
judicial character, and that is of unbounded applause,
lie is a candidate for the Supreme Bench —Judge
Starnes’ vacancy to be filled at the next legislature.
Better service could not he done the State by the
legislature than by electing Judge Thomas to fill that
place.
In Lexington I found drunkenness, rowdyism,
brawling and fighting, in the streets and around the
hotel door, both night and day. Loud oaths and
vulgarity grated harshly on my ears in tny r room at
the hotel. A filthy rum-shop is kept in one end of
November