Memoirs of Georgia; containing historical accounts of the state's civil, military, industrial and professional interests, and personal sketches of many of its people. Vol. II, Part 11

Author:
Publication date: 1859
Publisher: Atlanta, Ga., The Southern historicl association
Number of Pages: 1166

USA > Georgia > Memoirs of Georgia; containing historical accounts of the state's civil, military, industrial and professional interests, and personal sketches of many of its people. Vol. II > Part 11

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MEMOIRS OF GEORGIA.

counties. "The Gazette" is a solid, reliable newspaper, and has done great work for the town and county, and it is constantly adding to its usefulness as a factor in the growth and prosperity of its section. "The Middle Georgia Progress," pub- lished at Sandersville, in Washington county, is not one of the oldest papers in the state, but it is fair to state it is one of the best. Mr. C. B. Chapman, the editor- in-chief, is a gentleman whose energy and ability have brought the paper up to its present standing. He is a writer of considerable force, and his pen turns many bright paragraphs. Mr. John H. Hodges is editor and proprietor of the "Houston Home Journal," published at Perry. It is one of the leading weeklies of the state, and has a large circulation, both in and out of the county. Mr. Hodges is promi- nent in county affairs and as an editor ranks high with the fraternity and his paper is a valued exchange. The "Rockdale Banner," published at Conyers, is edited by Mr. T. D. O'Kelly, and enjoys a liberal patronage. "The Banner" circulates extensively in Rockdale county and also has a flattering outside support. It is an eight-page paper, with bright editorial and local columns. Its editor is what the press calls a "hustler," and makes the paper go with a rush, and he manages a pen that can say a sermon in a sentence. The "Lithania New Era," bright, newsy and eight pages, is one of the best paying enterprises in De Kalb county. Its editor, Mr. E. S. Steadman, is a popular member of the Georgia Weekly Press association. "The New Era" has long been identified with the interests of De Kalb county, and enjoys a large circulation. A. B. Fitts is editor of the "Carroll- ton Daily Times," and is distinguished among his fellow-editors for his courage in establishing a daily paper in a town the size of Carrollton. His venture, however, was a success from the first, and is making fame and money for its editor. In addition to the daily he gets out a weekly, which was established in 1872. It has a purely moral tone, and steadily strives to elevate public sentiment. Carroll- ton is the terminus of the Savannah, Griffin & North Alabama railroad, and the county is large and its prospects bright. Mr. Perry Lee is the editor and proprie- tor of the "Pike County Journal," published at Zebulon. Mr. Lee is a young man who has made his mark in weekly journalism, and at one time accomplished the difficult feat of running two papers at one time. At present all his energies are devoted to the advancement of the "Pike County Journal," and the paper shows that his efforts are appreciated by the people. "The Journal" is well edited and gets up a fine display of local news each week. Southwest Georgia has many first- class weekly newspapers, but the "Dawson News" takes a leading position among them. It is a handsome appearing eight-page paper. Mr. E. L. Rainey, the editor, was formerly connected with the "Dawson Journal," but since "The News" passed into his hands he has given the citizens of Dawson and Terrell county the very best paper they ever had. No Georgie weekly is more favorably known in the state than "The Hawkinsville Dispatch," of which Mr. J. R. Beverly is editor. "The Dispatch" is published by Beverly & Co. In its various departments it is complete as a weekly newspaper: its editorials are strong and timely, and its local columns cover the news of four counties. Mr. John T. Waterman, an accomplished journalist, and Speaker Crisp's private secretary, was recently a member of the firm, and his death in 1895 leaves a void in Georgia journalism. Perhaps there is not an older weekly newspaper in the state than the "Milledge- ville Union-Recorder." It was a flourishing, popular newspaper long before the war, and it is identified with the most interesting periods in the history of the state. Mr. R. B. Moore is at present its young and talented editor, and under his able management it still sustains the reputation of the past. "The Union-Recorder" is eight pages, and is one of the most solid and reliable weeklies. It is widely quoted and has a large circulation. "The Madisonian" is another representative

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Georgia newspaper, and is edited by Mr. C. M. Furlow, a young man who pushcs a bright pencil. This paper has long been identified with the interests of Madison and Morgan counties. It is an eight-page newspaper, with many interesting features. It covers a wide field of news and has a good circulation. In "The Richland Gazette," Stewart county boasts another bright weekly newspaper, which holds its own with the best of them. "The Gazette" is young in years, but wide in circulation and is making fame and money for its editor, Mr. A. J. Tison. Mr. Tison was formerly editor of the "Smithville Enterprise," and has been identified with Georgia journalism for a number of years. He is a progressive man with a love for his profession. The "Ellijay Courier," edited by Mr. Horace M. Ellington, is a sparkling Georgia weekly. In the belief that variety is the spice of weekly journalism, Mr. Ellington gives his readers much of it-from the first to the last column. Writing of him, one of his friends says: "He is young,. poetic, progressive." This gives the key to the "Courier's" success. It is very popular with all classes of readers. There is always a poem for the love-sick swain; a furrow for the farmer; a sermon for the preacher; an announcement for the politician; and so thie paper goes, and goes rapidly. It is the official paper of Fannin, Gilmer and Pickens counties. It has been a faithful advocate of our public school system.

HENRY WOODFIN GRADY.

The most conspicuous figure in Georgia journalism during recent years was Henry Woodfin Grady. Born in Athens, Ga., in 1851, his boyhood was passed in that quiet college town where he enjoyed the best educational advantages. He was placed under the best teachers of that generation in his native state, and his progress was very rapid. To casual observers the boy seemed to devote very little time to his books, but his preceptors found that he mastered his tasks and was always perfect in his recitations. He read and made a book his own in the time required by an ordinary boy to get through the first chapter. His memory was phenomenal. Facts, figures and quotations once lodged in his mind remained there ready for use when needed, and his mem- ory never failed him. As a boy the youngster was as original as he was brilliant, and the older citizens of Athens predicted a great future for him. The civil war broke out when he was barely ten years old, and his father raised the first Geor- gia regiment and went to the front as its colonel. He died on the battlefield, leaving a widow and three children, Henry, William and a daughter, Mattie, all of whom are now dead, with the exception of the mother. In his youthful days it was young Henry's desire to enter the legal profession, and at a very early age he matriculated in the state university at Athens. He was an industrious student in his peculiar way, taking a full course, and applying himself closely to such studies as suited the bent of his genius, and paying little attention to others which he thought might not be useful to him in after life. For history, the classics, Anglo-Saxon and belles-lettres he had a passion which lasted all through his life. Mathematics did not attract him, and yet in his mature years he was regarded as an authority in statistics and political economy. He cared very little for chem- istry and natural philosophy, but he liked logic, and rhetoric delighted him. He stood very higli in all his classes, and at an early age was a fluent speaker, with a wonderful command of good English. Even in his boyhood he was noted for the ease with which he placed on paper his ideas in terse and graphic lan- guage. In the literary societies of the university he was a conspicuous figure, and his bold and ringing style of speaking made him the favorite orator of his day. In the literary and debating clubs lic was always first, carrying off the

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MEMOIRS OF GEORGIA.

highest honors. While yet a college boy in his teens he wrote his first effort for a newspaper, a letter to the "Atlanta Constitution." The editor saw it was a bright and dashing epistle, full of promise, and he at once determined to keep an eye on the writer. He frequently printed letters from his boyish corre- spondent, and in later years was delighted to see how splendidly he had fulfilled the promise of his youth. Of the boy's college days, Judge Emory Speer says: "His college life was a miracle of sweetness and goodness; never did a glass of wine moisten his lips. Never did an oath or an obscene word defile that tongue whose honeyed accents in time to come were to persuade the millions of the fidelity and patriotism of the people he loved. Well do I remember the look of amazement, of indulgent but all intrepid forbearance which came into his face when one day a college bully offered to insult him. In those days of innum- erable college flirtations he had but one sweetheart, and she the beautiful girl who became his wife, and is now the mother of his children, and his bereaved and disconsolate widow. This sweetness of disposition ran through his whole life. If the great journal of which he became an editor was engaged in an acri- monious controversy some other writer was detailed to conduct it. Grady had no taste for controversy of any acrid sort, and I recall but perhaps one exception in his whole editorial life. But while he would never quarrel, I had the best right to know, when the emergency came he had the intrepidity of a hero."

He graduated with distinction in a class of brainy young men. A post-grad- uate course at the Virginia university followed, and there, as in Athens, Grady leaped to the front and was regarded as a genius. After finishing his education he for some unknown reason gave up his idea of becoming a lawyer, and in 1870 he was the editor and one of the proprietors of the "Rome Daily Commercial." It was his first newspaper venture, and he acquitted himself in such a way as to make him widely known and popular in Georgia. Later he purchased an interest in the "Atlanta Herald," a rival of "The Constitution," and for several years his energy and genius made it one of the most notable papers in the south. After the fiercest possible struggle the "Herald" went down shortly after the great panic of 1873, and Mr. Grady became the "New York Herald's" southern correspondent. In this capacity he was fearless and enterprising, and his letters first informed the American public of the true nature of the great problems which disturbed South Carolina and other southern states during the latter part of the reconstruction period. He was in Florida during the campaign of 1876, and gave an inside view of the work of the returning board. After the Hamburg riots in South Carolina he visited the scene and wrote a ten-column report for "The Herald." In 1880 Mr. Grady purchased a fourth interest in "The Atlanta Con- stitution," which at that time had on its staff such able men as Capt. E. P. Howell, editor-in-chief; Mr. W. A. Hemphill, business manager, and Joel Chandler Harris. The new partner in the business was made managing editor, and he at once threw his whole heart and energy into the paper. In a short time "The Constitution" was the most widely read and quoted southern daily, and its weekly edition had an immense circulation. He wrote editorials, sketches, and local articles, regarded as models of their kind and set the journalistic fashions in the south. As a specimen of one of his off-hand editorials, the following on the death of Gen. Robert Toombs is worthy of note:

"Quenched is the imperious life, stilled is the mighty heart; gone, the dauntless spirit; at rest, the turbulent emotions; pulseless, the splendid form.

"If God ever made the body of mortal man to shine with the hope and inspira- tion of immortality, surely here it was. In the splendor of his beauty, in the might- iness of his strength, in the vitality that sparkled in his eyes and rushed through his

LITERATURE AND JOURNALISM.

veins, in the ease with which he conquered and the heights to which he soared, and the scope and freedom and boundless comprehension of his powers there was little suggestion of decay. Dazzled by his kingly beauty and majesty one might have said, 'Surely he will conquer death.'

"But the course of nature is unchangeable. Even the eagle's wings grow weary and are folded, and the strong man totters to the welcome grave. The glory fades from the cheek and the light dies in the eye. The majesty departs from the pallid brow, and the rich blood falters in the veins. The tongue that summoned forty millions of people to war babbles unmeaningly in its hollow cavern. The fingers that easily split this continent in two beat the air pitifully for support and guidance. The mighty spirit that bent senators to its will and that forged earth's bloodiest rev- olution, sicklied o'er at last with uplifting shadows, creeps aimlessly within the walls of memory, and weeps or laughs alike within itself.

"Then God, in his wise and infinite mercy, comes and ends it all! His gentle hands clasp the wandering fingers. His kiss touches the maundering lips. There is peace at last. Georgia's glorious sun sleeps. The unforgiven rebel awaits, in unbroken stillness, the final judgment of God. And death, touching the tranquil face with its unspeakable solemnity, revives therein something of the majesty and beauty of youth, that his people, gazing through the mist of tears, may see him last as they loved him best, when he stood among them in his kinglv splendor."

Col. Isaac W. Avery, one of his associates on the "Atlanta Herald's" staff, wrote of him: "He was a composite character. He had genius of a high and varied order, and combined qualities remarkable because seemingly inconsistent. For instance, with a fervent nature, boundless energy when interested, intense self-will and a warm temperament, he had a conservatism as steady and thoughtful as ever I have known. With a glittering imagination, he was self-poised, tactful and just. Passion never governed him in large matters, and no man ever subor- dinated prejudice and temper to the success of his cause with firmer will than he. He was able to meet the most trying occasion with consummate control and judg- ment. He was a cool user of all needed discretion, and his forbearance and self- command were marvelous. The restraints he put upon his impetuous nature were wonderful. The deliberate effort with which he worked results was extraordinary."

A year before the Christmas day on which he was buried the holiday was marked by exceptionally delightful weather. Here is Mr. Grady's description of it: "No man or woman now living will see again such a Christmas day as the one which closed yesterday, when the dying sun piled the western skies with gold and purple. A winter day it was, shot to the core with sunshine. It was enchanting to waik abroad in its prodigal beauty, to breathe its elixir, to reach out the hands and plunge them open-fingered through its pulsing waves of warmth and freshness. It was June and November welded and fused into a perfect glory that held the sunshine and snow beneath tender and splendid skies. To have winnowed such a day from the teeming winter was to have found an odorous peach on the bough whipped in the storms of winter. One caught the musk of yellow grain, the flavor of ripening nuts, the fragrance of strawberries, the exquisite odor of violets, the aroma of all seasons in the wonderful day. The hum of bees underrode the whistling wings of wild geese flying southward. The fire slept in drowsing grates, while the people, marveling, out doors, watched the soft winds woo the roses and the lilies. Truly, it was a day of days. Amid its riotous luxury surely life was worth living, to hold up the head and breathe it in, as thirsting men drink water; to put every sense on its gracious excellence; to throw the hands wide apart, and hug whole armfuls of the day close to the heart, till the heart itself is enraptured and illumined. God's benediction came down with the day, slow dropping from the

MEMOIRS OF GEORGIA.

skies. God's smile was its light, and all through and through its supernal beauty and stillness, unspoken but appealing to every hcart and sanctifying every soul, was his invocation and promise-'Peace on earth, good will to men.'"

As a political manager Mr. Grady had no superior, and during every great campaign in Georgia he was the controlling spirit, and in every instance his side won the victory, with the exception of Atlanta's second prohibition election. In that contest there was a great deal of fecling, families were divided, and the proprietors and writers of the "Constitution" werc about evenly divided. Mr. Grady led the prohibition forces, and in one of his speeches before an immense audience he said among other things: "Now to sum up. See what prohibition has done for Atlanta. Your population has been largely increased, 4,070 street tax- payers have been added to the records, and the registration has increased 2,140 votes; 678 new home-owners in prohibition's two ycars; only 153 in liquor's two years; distress warrants and garnishments decreased; 2,595 fewer cases in the justice courts; fewer criminal cases; $1,325,000 added to your banking capital and surplus; $1,000,000 more deposits in your banks than two years ago; five savings banks now, where then there was one; fifteen building and loan associations against six; $1,000,000 put in manufactures in the county; wages higher and every factory and shop crowded; $300,000 put into new churches and schools; the poor of the churches diminished, and the membership nearly doubled; your schools fuller and your children better clothed more stores here than when there were 130 bar-rooms, and fewer stores vacant than ever in your history; your houses crowded with families paying rent better than ever before, your merchants and manufacturers busy and prosperous, your principal streets a sight to be seen on a fair day-last Sunday without an arrest in all this broad city-why, my friends, it almost seems that God had held this old town in the hollow of His almighty hand and smilcd on it while He rested here the ark of His covenant on this grand issue. Who shall challenge this great and prosperous city in its prosperous career? Why should you bring bar-rooms back into this city, and put it once more under the dominion of the liquor traffic?

"My friends, hesitate before you vote liquor back into Atlanta, now that it is shut out. Don't trust it. It is powerful, aggressive and universal in its attacks. To-night it enters an humble home to strike the roses from a woman's cheek, and to-morrow it challenges this republic in the halls of congress. To-day it strikcs a crust from the lips of a starving child, and to-morrow levies tribute from the government itself. There is no cottage in this city humble enough to escape it- no palace strong enough to shut it out. It defies the law when it cannot cocrce suffrage. It is flexible to cajole, but merciless in victory. It is the mortal enemy . of peace and order. The despoiler of men, the terror of women, the cloud that shadows the face of children, the demon that has dug more graves and sent more souls unshrived to judgment than all the pestilences that has wasted life since God sent the plagues of Egypt, and all the wars that have been fought since Joshua stood beyond Jericho. Oh, my countrymen, loving God and humanity, do not bring this grand old city again under the dominion of that power. It can profit no man by its return. It can uplift no industry, revive no interest, remedy no wrong. You know that it cannot. It comes to destroy, and it shall profit mainly by the ruin of your sons or mine. It comes to mislead human souls and to crush human hearts under its rumbling wheels. It comes to bring gray-haired mothers down in shame and sorrow to their graves. It comes to turn the wife's love into despair, and her pride into shame. It comes to still the laughter on the lips of little children. It comes to stiflc all the music of the home, and fill it with silence and desolation. It comes to ruin your body and mind, to wreck your home, and

LITERATURE AND JOURNALISM.

it knows that it must measure its prosperity by the swiftness and certainty with which it wreaks this work. Now will you vote it back? * * *

"Now, for a last word, my friends. I never spoke to you from deeper conviction than I speak to-night. I beg of you in the interest of peace and fairness to give this experiment a full trial. Note what it has done in a year of imperfect trial. Give it two years more that it may demonstrate what it can do. Then if it fails it will fall, if it is good it will stand. If you are in doubt what you should do give us the benefit of the doubt. Give the doubt to the churches of this city that stand unbroken in this cause. Give the doubt to the 20,000 prayers that ascend nightly for the cause from the women and children of Atlanta-prayers uttered so silently that you cannot catch their whispered utterance, but so sincerely that they speed their soft entreaty through the singing hosts of heaven into the heart of the living God. If you are in doubt as to what your duty is, turn this once to your old mother whose gray hairs shall plead with you as nothing else should- remember how she has loved you all her life and how her heart yearns for you now. Take her old hand in yours, look into her eyes fearlessly as you did when you were a barefoot boy, and say, 'I have run my politics all my life, and to-day I am going to give one vote to you. How shall I cast it?' Watch the tears start from her shining eyes, feel the lump rising in her throat, and tell me if that is not better than 'personal liberty.' If you are in doubt, ask your wife; ask her who years ago put her little hand in yours, and adoring and trusting, left the old home-nest and went out with you into the unknown world; remember how she has stood by you when all else forsook; how she has lived only in your life, and carried your sorrows on her own, and ask her how you shall vote.

"I do not believe that women should counsel men in politics, but this question is deeper than politics. Your wife need not tell you how to vote on the tariff, or on candidates, or on any political issue, but this is her election as well as yours. On this jeopardy is staked the home you builded together, the happiness you have had together, and the welfare of the little children in whose veins your blood and hers run commingled. Her stake and theirs on this election is greater than yours. Then ask her, if you have any doubt, how you should vote on that day.

"Now a word to the good women here. You can do great work quietly and gently in your homes for this cause and for the good of your city. You can do this work in the home circle, where no man can say you nay. Mothers, go to your son on election morning, call him back to the time when he learned God's name at your knees, and wake when he would in the night, he would find your soft eyes above him and your loving hands about him, and say: 'My son, find your way this morning in memory to those days when nothing stood between us, and when these old hands sheltered you and protected you.'

"Wives, go to your husbands that morning. Not in pique or criticism, but with a love and tenderness that shall break through their pride or indifference; lay your husband's hand lovingly on the heads of the little ones, the pride of his life and yours-oh, you who went down into the very jaws of death that you might give them to him !- and say, 'My husband, whatever you do to-day, do it for these little ones and for me.'

"Now, my friends, I have done. What I have spoken to you to-night I have spoken in sober earnestness and truth. If what I have said has impressed you. I beg of you to let the impression deepen rather than pass away, for I know and you know this issue goes deeper than words can go. It involves hundreds of homes redeemed from want and desolation, it involves thousands of hearts now rejoicing that late were breaking; it involves the happiness of women and children, and the most sacred charges vouchsafed to our care; it involves the fate of this

MEMOIRS OF GEORGIA.

tremendous experiment that Atlanta must settle for the American people. Against it there is nothing but the whim of personal liberty. Your city has prospered under prohibition as it has never prospered before. If you are a merchant or a manufacturer, your books will tell you this. You know that you have prospered this year in your happiness; ask your neighbor of his business. Look abroad about you on these bustling streets, and on these busy stores; on these shops and factories in which the fires scarcely ever die, and in which the workmen are never idle, and then vote in the light of reason and of conscience, and however you vote, may God bless you, and the city you love so well."

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Memoirs of Georgia; containing historical accounts of the state's civil, military, industrial and professional interests, and personal sketches of many of its people. Vol. II, Part 11

Author: Publication date: 1859 Publisher: Atlanta, Ga., The Southern historicl association Number of Pages: 1166

Author:
Publication date: 1859
Publisher: Atlanta, Ga., The Southern historicl association
Number of Pages: 1166