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ly help the cane in the dry spots. The cane crop in general continues to hold out most encouraging prospects, and the rapid approach of the grinding season finds our planters generally op timistic.-’—New Orleans Picayune. SHALL EX PARTE EVIDENCE NULLIFY STATE LAWS? The conflict of authority between the State and federal courts in three Southern States, and particularly in Alabama, has directed public atten tion to the grave questions involved with a deeper interest than they per haps have ever possessed before. It is not necessary to go into the merits of the issue which has been raised in order to make the point, which is most striking and most worthy of attention. The railroad commissions of the several states are invested with at least quasi-judicial powers. Before handing down a de cision they make a thorough and painstaking investigation. They hear evidence from the railroads and the people, and make their utmost en deavor to arrive at the truth. Their final rulings are in the nature of a judicial interpretation. As such they are entitled to the obedience of the railroads and the re spect of the federal cours. It is manifestly unfair, it is obviously un just according to every principle of reason and equity for a federal court to obstruct -these orderly processes of the commissions—these decisions which are at least quasi-judicial— simply on the ex parte evidence of a corporation lawyer. It needs no technical knowledge of the law to see that this is true; we need not enter ints the merits of any individual case to <each this conclu sion. It carries corfhction on its very face. A sovereign state, empowered to regulate its own affairs, adopts a law under which the railroad commis sion, exercising judicial functions, af ter evidence duly heard and consid ered from both sides, hands down a decision in the form of an order. It is a result arrived al after conscien tious deliberation, in which al the evidence is threshed out. Aside from all mystifying technicalities, as a plain matter of common sense, such a decision on the part of a railroad commission is entitled to the highest refcpect and consideration. It has the very ear-marks of fairness and justice. And what is the method of proced ure adopted by the federal courts? • Appealed to by the railroads on the ground that their property is about to be 11 confiscated’’ —an appeal so hackneyed and unfounded that it has become a standing joke—the federal courts grant a hearing—to whom? To the corporation lawyers, who introduce their unsupported ex parte evidence. On this partisan bearing the famil iar injunction is issued which para lyzes the functions of the state gov ernment. The rulings of its railroad commission, sitting in a judicial ca pacity, are ruthlessly set aside and the laws of the state are made a very mockery. The routine has become so habitual and inevitable —the order of the com mission, the plea of confiscation and then the injunction-—that we need not wonder if the people occasionally become exasperated. No wonder that there is a growing disposition to re gard the machinery of the federal courts as the enemy of the people and the stanch supporter of corpo rate oppression. Again stripped of its technicalities, the situation resolves itself into this: that the federal courts are aiding and abetting the railroads in suits against the state, in violation of the federal constitution and the organic law of every other civilized govern ment. These are facts, set forth, not in passionate remonstrance, not in grounded hostility to the judicial branch of the federal government, but in conformity with the teachings of reason, equity and common sense. 'Phus presented, they are entitled to consideration, and the people of Georgia, in common with the people of Alabama and North Carolina and Virginia, feel that the facts should receive such consideration. The ju dicial decisions of a state, rendered after a full hearing, should not be nullified on the ex parte evidence of corporation lawyers, appealing to the federal courts on the trite subterfuge of “confiscation,” and the settle ment of the questions involved should be on this basis of justice and fair ness. The people of Georgia have a spe cial interest in the matter, and are watching the outcome with keen anx ietv. —Atlanta Journal. PARCELS POST PLANS AGAIN. John Wanamaker, as postmaster general, tried to arrange for the par cels post in America. Mr. Cortelyou, in the same office, moved indirectly to the same end, proposing to consoli date the third and fourth classes of mail matter and provide for a grad ual increase of the weight limit with reduction of the rates of postage. The public desires a parcels post system of course. The express com panies do not desire such a system, and up to the moment they have been too strong for both the people and the administrations. Postmaster-Gen eral Meyer’s announcement of his plans for an early extension of the parcels mail service is to be regarded with interest and hope. Four pounds is the present mail limit of weight in the United States. Mr. Meyer suggests an increase to eight or ten pounds. This is progress in moderation. The limit in Great Britain is eleven pounds, being held down by raliway influence in Parlia ment. France carries parcels up to twenty-two pounds and Germany stops at 110 pounds, packages to that weight being transportable between the home country, Austria and Switz erland. When it comes to the question of rates liberality also balances for the Old World. To carry a four-pound package anywhere within its limits the United States charges 64 cents. Great Britain will carry a parcel to Shanghai byway of Egypt, the Suez Canal, India and Hongkong for 12 cents a pound. And anywhere in th? United Kingdom parcels travel at rates from 1 1-2 cents for I pound to 25 cents for 11 pounds. #ln Germany. Switzerland, France, England, all about Europe, the tourist may send and receive promptly by post his laundry and small luggage; the people may effect their minor transfers of commodities safely and quickly and cheaply by mail. In a long list of world-powers the United WATSON’S WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN. States alone, greatest and richest of all, suffers its public to pay in an noyances of uncertain service and ex cessive rates for the maintenance of private monopolies in the parcels traf- Pages From Fly Scrap "Book, MOHAMMED’S PORTRAIT. Mohammed was of middle height, rather thin, but broad of shoulders, wide of chest, strong of bone and muscle. His head was massive, strongly developed. Dark hair — slightly curled —flowed in a dense mass down almost to his shoulders. Even in advance age, it was sprink led by only about tweniy gray hairs— produced by the agonies of his “Rev elations.” His face was oval-shaped, slightly tawny of color. Fine, long, arched eyebrows were divided by a vein which throbbed visibly in mo ments of passion. Great, black, rest less eyes shone out from under long heavy eyelashes. His nose was large, slightly aquiline. His teeth, upon which he bestowed great care, were well set, dazling white. A full beard framed his manly face His skin was clear and soft, his complexion “red and white,’’ his hands were as “silk and satin” —even as those of a wo man. His step was quick and. elas tic, yet firm, and as that of one “who steps from a high to a low place.’* In turning his face he would also turn his full body. His whole gait and presence were dignified and im posing. His countenance was mild and pensive. His laugh was rarely more than a smile “Oh. my little son!” reads one tradition, “hadst thou seen him thou wouldst have said thou hadst seen a sun rising.” “I,” says another witness, “saw him in a moonlight night, and sometimes I looked at his beauty and sometimes looked at the moon, and his dress was striped with red, and he was brighter and more beautiful to me than the moon.” In his habits he was extremely simple, though he bestowed great care on his person. His eating and drink ing away all “superfluities.” The tained, even when he had reached the fullness of power, their almost primi tive nature. He made a point of giv ing away all “superfluities.” The • only luxuries he indulged in were, be sides arms, which he highly prized, certain yellow boots, a present from the Negus of Asbyssinia. His constitution was extremely deli cate. He was nervously afraid of bodily pain, and would sob and roar • under it. Eminently impractical in all common things of life, he was gifted with mighty powers of imagi nation, elevation of mind, delicacy and refinement of feeling. “He is more modest than a virgin behind her curtain,” it was said of him. He was most indulgent to his infe riors, and would never allow his awkward little page to he scolded, whatever he did. “Ten years,” said Anas, his servant, “was I about the prophet, and he never said as much as ‘Uff’ to me.” He was very af fectionate toward his family. One of his boys died on his breast in the smokv house of the nurse, a black smith’s wife. He was very fond of* children. He would stop them in the streets, and pat their little cheeks. He never struck any one in his life. The worst expression he ever piade use of in conversation was, “What fie. Success—and greater breadth—to the fresh reformatory ideas of Post master-General Meyer. Editorial from New York World. has come to him? May his forehead be darkened with mud!” When asked to curse some one he replied, * l l have not been sent to curse, but to be a mercy to mankind.” “He visited the sick, followed any bier he met, ac cepted the invitation of a slave to dinner, mended his own clothes, milked his goats, and waited upon himself,” relates summarily another tradition. He never first withdrew his hand out of another man’s palm, and turned not before the other had turned. His hand, we read elsewhere —and traditions like these give a good index of what the Arabs ex pected their prophet to be —was the most generous, his breast the most courageous, his tongue the most truth ful; he was the most faithful protec tor of those he protected, the sweet est and most agreeable ir. conversa tion; those who saw him were sud denly filled with reverence, those who came n'ear him loved him, they who described him would say, “I have never seen his like either before or after.” He was of great taciturnity, and when he spoke he spoke with emphasis and deliberation, and no one could ever forget what lie said. He was, however, very nervous and restless withal, often low-spirited, downcast as to heart and eyes. Yet he would at times suddenly break through those broodings, become gay, talkative, jocular, chiefly among his own. He would then delight in telling amusing little stories, fairy tales, and the like. He would romp with the children and play with their toys— as, after his first wife’s death, he was wont to play with the dolls his new baby-wife had brought into his house. TIME. “Time is the most indefinable yet paradoxical of things; the past is gone, the future is not come, and the present becomes the past, even while we attempt to define it, and like the flash of lightning, at once exists and expires. Time is the measurer of all things, but it itself immeasurable and the grand discloser of all things, but is itself undisclosed. Like space, it is incomprehensible, because it has no limits, and it would be still more so if it had. It is more obscure in its source than the Nile, and in its termination than the Niger, and advances like the slowest tide, but retreats like the swiftest torrent. It gives wings of lightning to pleasure, but feet of lead to pain, and lends expectation a curb, but enjoy ment a spur. It robs beauty of her charms, to bestow them on her pic ture, and builds a monument to merit, but denies it a house; it is the tran sient and deceitful flatterer of false hood, but the tried and final friend of truth. Wisdom walks before it, opportunity with it, and repentance behind it. He that has made it his friend, will have little to tear from his enemies, but he that has made it his enemy, will have little to hope from his friends.” • PAGE SEVEN