USA > Georgia > The history of the State of Georgia from 1850 to 1881, embracing the three important epochs: the decade before the war of 1861-5; the war; the period of Reconstruction, v. 2 > Part 29
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In 1878 the Dade County Gazette, the Conyers Weekly, and the Dalton Argus, Blackshear News, Cartersville Free Press, by C. H. C. Willingham, that sturdiest of our political editorial fighters, the Cedar- town Advertiser, the Dublin Post, and Louisville Courier, came forth to healthy usefulness. The Rev. J. A. Darr put out the Gazette, Dr. T. J. Lumpkin bought it in 1879, and runs it now. Its motto well exemplifies its management-" Faithful to the right and fearless against the wrong." Mr. J. N. Hale established and now conducts the Conyers Weekly, and it is a paragon of good administration, run strictly on a cash basis. The Argus was the bantling of H. A. Wrench at Dalton, and was a spicy, outspoken, combative, keen-cutting striker. It is now run by Hamilton & Willingham, and is still a piquant paper.
In 1879 several most excellent journals were established, one of them in its scholarly, forceful and vivid editorials equaling any journal, North or South. This paper, the Sparta Ishmaelite, edited by Sidney Lewis, is marked by a commanding ability, thorough fearlessness, and an incisive discrimination in its editorial conduct. Mr. Lewis is certainly a strong and gifted writer, and one of the ornaments of Georgia jour- nalism. The Fort Gaines Tribune was the enterprise of S. E. Lewis, and has deservedly grown into large circulation. The Douglassville Star was founded by Rev. J. B. C. Quillian, and sold the same year to its present proprietor, Robert A. Massey, who has made it one of the live papers of Western Georgia. The other papers, born in 1879, were the Arlington Advance, Cochran Enterprise, Americus Recorder, Bellton Georgian in Hall county, Dawsonville Mountain Chronicle, Fort Gaines Tribune, Fort Valley Advertiser, Harlem Columbian, McVille South Georgian, Newnan Leader, Sylvania Telephone, Thomaston Middle Georgia Times, Thomasville Post, and Warrenton Our Country. The year 1880 was right prolific in new journals, the Walkinsville Advance, Spring Place Times, Danielsville Yeoman, Cleveland Adver- tiser, Canton Advance, Camilla Despatch, and Elberton News.
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Moun faittifully R. M. Johnston.
Faithfully yours. Joel Chandler Ham's
GEORGIA HUMORISTS.
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OUR GEORGIA HUMORISTS.
The year 1881 has witnessed the establishment of several successful papers; the Walton Vees by B. S. Walker, which from January to Sep- tember has obtained the extraordinary circulation of 1,100 ; the Pike County News, by that veteran and accomplished journalist, Col. J. D. Alexander, who so long conducted the Griffin News. Col. Alexander was a gallant Confederate, a good lawyer, and has been one of the best editors in Georgia. He is a pleasant gentleman, true, able and full of the honor of his calling. His paper has had a remarkable success. . He has just sold his journal to E. T. & J. E. Pounds.
It has been an extraordinary mark of progress that the colored people have two well established weekly newspapers, one the Journal of Progress at Cuthbert, edited by an intelligent man named Wright, and the other the Blade at Atlanta, edited by W. P. Pledger, Chairman of the Republican State Executive Committee, and a very well educated and smart person, a good writer and excellent speaker. This account of the journalism of Georgia is the beginning of what constitutes an interesting part of our State history, and is necessarily imperfect from the difficulty of collecting information of so multifarious an interest.
The literature of Georgia has not been voluminous, but it has been in many respects original and picturesque, and marked by a vivid individuality. The field in which Georgia literary genius has been most affluent is that subtle and delicate range of intellectual demonstration known as HUMOR. Our State can point to five writers of national reputation, who have rightfully won the fame due to genuine and original humorists. No state or country on the globe can show in one generation such a galaxy of humorous writers as Georgia. These five, in the order of their seniority, are Judge A. B. Longstreet, author of " Georgia Scenes," Col. William T. Thompson, author of " Major Jones' Courtship," Col. Richard M. Johnston, author of the "Dukesboro Tales," Charles H. Smith, our " Bill Arp," and Joel Chandler Harris, our " Uncle Remus." The first three, Longstreet, Thompson and Johnston, have pictured the racy flavor of country life ; Mr. Smith has ranged over the whole domain of humorous thought, touching up the world of human foible with a gentle satire ; while Mr. Harris has portrayed with a master hand that wonderful and obsolete character, the plantation negro of the gone slavery days. Perhaps it is not invidious to say that the younger one leads the quintette. "Uncle Remus " has gone to Europe to capture the critics and literary savans there, and it is not less an inimitable and sustained piece of character drawing, imbued with a matchless humor, than a priceless contribution to ethnological science.
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The South owes a debt to this author for snatching from oblivion pictures of a personality so pathetic and so valuable.
Mr. Harris is versatile. He writes dainty poems, strong political leaders, business editorials, discriminating literary criticisms, pungent paragraphs upon the absurdities of the day, and he has sketched a serial story, the "Romance of Rockville," that betokens the power of the novelist. He is now engaged upon a story for "Scribner's Mag- azine," depicting the old slave life in the South. The most attractive quality of Mr. Harris' genius is his own utter unconsciousness of its versatile power.
Judge Longstreet valued very little his talent for humorous writing, and was said to be ashamed rather of his successful venture. His " Ransey Sniffle " will live forever. Col. Thompson wrote also " Major Jones' Travels," the "Chronicles of Pineville," " Hotchkiss' Codifica- tion of the Statute Laws of Georgia," a dramatization of " The Vicar of Wakefield," and " The Live Indian," a comedy out of which John E. Owens, the comedian, made fame and money, without pay to the author. And strangely too, Col. Thompson was tricked out of the copyright of his " Major Jones' Courtship," in the very flood tide of its extraordinary sale, and by a chain of curious circumstances has reaped no profit from its great circulation. This book was first published in the Madison Miscellany. A chaste writer and an inimitable humorist, Col. Thomp- son will live in our literary annals enduringly.
Col. Johnston is writing regularly for the magazines, " Harpers'" and "Scribners'." His " Puss Tanner's Defence," in Harpers' several months back, is simply unsurpassable. It, like his "Dukesboro Tales," is a delicious piece of characterization, veiling in its exquisite humor, and faultless portrayal of personality, a pathos as gentle and an underlying tragic intensity as strong as any man's pen ever embodied. As for " Bill Arp," the man seems perennial. Week after week for years he has sent out his unfailing messengers of wise fun, scalping with a kind keen- ness the every day fatuities of life, and beneath it all bubbling out a never ceasing current of touching human nature. His book " Peace Papers " had a fine run. Judge Longstreet has gone to his long home. Col. Thompson, in his editorial labor, does no literary work. Long may he and Johnston and Arp and Uncle Remus be spared to scatter their humorous wisdom and illustrate Georgia in the world of letters.
We have had considerable Historical writing in our State. McCall and Stevens gave us fragments of Georgia History. The Rev. George White furnished valuable contributions in his " Statistics of Georgia,"
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Very truly yours, Charles. C. Jones. In:
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COLONEL CHARLES C. JONES, JR.
and " Historical Collections of Georgia," coming to 1854. In 1779, we had the "Historical Account of the Progress of the Colonies of South Carolina and Georgia," by Rev. Mr. Herbert. In 1869 a " History of Georgia " was printed by T. S. Arthur and W. H. Carpenter. Hon. Thomas R. R. Cobb wrote in 1858 an " Historical Sketch of Slavery." Stephen F. Miller in 1858 published his "Bench and Bar of Georgia." Judge E. J. Harden printed a " Life of Gov. George M. Troup." Hon. A. H. Chappell put forth in 1874 " Miscellanies of Georgia," and Thomas Gilbert of Columbus was the publisher. Hon. William. A. Stiles wrote before the war a "History of Austria," a scholarly work. Judge Garnett Andrews was author of "Reminiscences of an Old Georgia Lawyer." A very remarkable book of historical Biography by a Georgian is " Reminiscences of Fifty Years," by William H. Sparks, a work of uncommon vividness, value and dramatic power. Col. Sparks has a second volume of these interesting Reminiscences ready for the press.
The undisputed head of our Georgia historic writers is Col. Charles C. Jones Jr., a gentleman of the highest literary culture and a born antiquarian. He has published twenty-five books and pamphlets relat- ing to Georgia matters, and is now engaged upon a three volume work covering the entire field of Georgia History from the founding of the colony to the present. His most important work, that has attracted the attention of the literary savans of Europe and won him the degree of LL. D., from the University of the City of New York, is the " Antiquities of the Southern Indians, Particularly of the Georgia Tribes." This volume has a large scientific value, is a model of ornate and strengthful style, and is the fruit of antiquarian research, critical, accurate, and profound. Col. Jones numbers among his other valuable publications, "Indian Remains in Southern Georgia," " Monumental remains of Georgia," "Historical Sketch of the Chatham Artillery," " Ancient Tumuli in the Savannah River," " Ancient Tumuli in Georgia," " Historical Sketch of Tomo-chi-chi, Mico of the Yamacraws," " Remi- niscences of General Henry Lee," " Kasimir Pulaski," " The Siege of Savannah in 1779," "The Siege of Savannah in December 1864," " Ser- geant William Jasper," "General Officers of the Confederate Service," " The Dead Towns of Georgia," "The Life of Commodore Josiah Tatt- nall,"." Aboriginal Structures in Georgia," "Hernando De Soto, His March Through Georgia," " Memorial of Jean Pierre Purry," "The Georgia Historical Society," " The Colonial Acts of the General Assem- bly of Georgia, 1754-1774." Besides these important publications, whose
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scope and variety give token alike of the literary labors of this classical writer and accomplished antiquarian, Col. Jones has contributed innu- merable articles to the reviews and periodicals of the country. He adds the graces of a charming gentleman to his literary tastes, and has a superb collection of original historical manuscripts and important Indian relics. He writes with remarkable fluency and taste, in a chirography like copper- plate. His "History of Georgia" will be a work of unspeakable value, . and it is fortunate that the important labor has fallen to one so capable and finely equipped.
Interesting sketches have been written of Savannah by - ---; of Macon, by J. Butler; and of Atlanta, by E. Y. Clarke. Ex-Gov. Wilson H. Lumpkin left valuable manuscript of record of a number of years of Georgia History, that has never been published. Col. Herbert Fielder has ready for the press, manuscript of a History of Georgia covering the late war which must prove a valuable work. One of the most important books of historical bearing is the famous " War Between the States," by Hon. Alexander H. Stephens, in two volumes, which has had a wide circulation, and is a profound and accurate presentation of the philosophy of the great civil war. Two very interesting biog- raphies of Mr. Stephens havebeen written, one by Henry Cleveland, and the other by Richard M. Johnston and William H. Browne. Another brilliant Georgia biography is the " Life of Linton Stephens," by J. I). Waddell.
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Georgia has had a lavish affluence of poets, and can number among them some of the admitted masters of poetry. Such names as James R. Randall, Paul H. Hayne, Sidney Lanier, Charles W. Hubner, F. (). Ticknor, Harry Flash, Henry R. Jackson, and Richard Henry Wilde, constitute a galaxy of genuine poetic genius. Mr. Randall has won an immortal fame by his " My Maryland." His handsome face, lit with the inspiration of his soul, is a noble outward indication of his exalted strain of pure poesy. His newpaper work is uniformly of the highest order, chaste, glowing, thoughtful, alike full of solidity, faultlessness and radi- ance. Mr. Hayne has taken a high stand in the world of literature, he being the only one of our writers who devotes himself to it as a pro- fession. He has published several volumes of poems. He is a fine master of versification. He has written some very fine sonnets. He has just furnished the ode for the opening of the International Cotton Exposition at Atlanta, that is a fair out-giving of his poetic genius, warm, scholarly, musical and vivid.
The name of Sidney Lanier evokes the tenderest thought of the
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reader. His recent death, so young and yet so established in fame, and with such affluence of distinction before him, has made him rarely mourned. He was a singularly gifted person. His mind early dis- played originality, brilliance and critical taste and beauty of scholarship. He published " Tiger Lilies," a novel, in Georgia, a book full of his individuality. He moved North and fixed himself in the literary world easily and shiningly. He was chosen from the whole rich range of American poets to deliver the opening poem at the Great Centennial at Philadelphia-a glittering pre-eminence. He published in succession with increasing fame, "The Science of English Verse," and "Boys King Arthur." And he died in the midst of a new project, and occupy- ing the distinguished chair of lecturer in literature at the John Hopkins University. Lanier was a genuine genius. He had the true poetic inspiration and a divine master's faculty of poetic utterance. Richard Henry Wilde's " My Life is like a Summer Rose," will live with the language. Gen. Jackson is a true poet, and has written some exquisite gems of poetic feeling and expression. He published in 1850 a volume entitled " Tallulah and other Poems." Perhaps " My Father," and "My Wife and Child," are his best poems and breathe the true inspi- ration. Harry L. Flash, editor of the Macon Telegraph, was a poet of rare power. He has settled down in some distant State to the sale of pork, but to that prosaic business in which he is said to be succeeding admirably, he is devoting a poetic faculty as dainty as exists. In 1860 he published a volume of poems, and he has written fugitive pieces as exquisite as anything in the English language.
One of the daintiest and sweetest poets we have in Georgia is Charles W .. Hubner, now employed upon the editorial staff of the Christian Index. He has published a number of volumes, all rythmi- cal, fervent and sparkling. His "Souvenirs of Luther," " Wild Flow- ers," ""Cinderella," and "Modern Communism," have given him an admitted standing as the possessor of the true poetic faculty. He is now issuing, through the fine publishing house of Brown & Derby, a volume of " Poems and Essays" that will enlarge his rising fame. There is one name upon which every Georgian can linger with a tender admiration, Dr. F. O. Tieknor. His poems were thrown off carelessly, and never published in book form until after his death, but he had a flashing vein of poetic genius, and deserves to rank among the true poets of America. His " Little Giffen of Tennessee " is one of the liv- ing lyrics of the English language. J. R. Barrick, once editor of the Atlanta Constitution, and A. R. Watson of the Macon Telegraph, were
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GEORGIA BOOKS OF A SERIOUS NATURE.
both fair poets. Mrs. M. C. Bigby of Newnan, Ga., has written some meritorious verses. Mrs. E. B. Castlen of Macon, published a sprightly volume of poems under the title of "Autumn Dreams." Miss Annie R. Blount of Augusta, printed a volume of poems before the war. Mr. S. Yates Levy of Savannah, wrote a successful drama, " The Italian Bride," for Miss Eliza Logan, that evinced merit. Father Ryan wrote some of his best poems in Georgia while editing the Banner of the South in Augusta. His "Conquered Banner " has become historic. Miss Carrie Bell Sinclair of Augusta, published a volume of poems. Mr. John C. Langston of Bolingbroke, has recently printed a volume. Mrs. Jennie Porter has published " Valkyria " this year, a work com- memorating the war, with many poetic flashes, and having an excellent circulation North. Mr. James Maurice Thompson, formerly a lawyer of Calhoun, Ga., has become a regular and popular poetic contributor to the literary journals of the country. He has written many fine tales.
Of serious works, Georgia has produced quite a number. Mr. John S. Wilson published the " Necrology of the Synod of Georgia " in 1871; Rev. James P. Simmons of Lawrenceville, the " War in Heaven; " Prof. Joseph Le Conte, a "Text Book of Geology," and with his brother, Dr. John Le Conte, a " Text Book of Chemistry;" Dr. P. H. Mell, the present able Chancellor of the University of Georgia, "Baptism," " Predestination," " Corrective Church Discipline," and a " Manual of Parliamentary Practice;" Rev. F. R. Goulding wrote "Life Scenes from Gospel History," besides an inimitable series of boys' books that have had a world-wide circulation. "The Young Marooners " was printed in 1852 and has been issued by the tens of thousands in America and Europe. Mr. James P. Harrison has just issued one of the most valuable publications of the day, a volume of 900 pages, giving the biog- raphies of Southern Baptist divines, illustrated with over 400 portraits. It has been edited with great care, and printed by his own publishing establishment, the Franklin Printing House. A remarkable work just published is "Our Brother in Black," by that powerful writer and eloquent divine, Rev. Atticus G. Haygood, president of Emory College and editor of the Methodist Advocate. It is an able, fearless, original and conservative work, dealing with the problem of the colored race in the South with both a Christian and statesman-like hand. It is one of the most sententious, pregnant and philosophical publications of the time, and deserves the general circulation it is getting. Capt. M. Dwinell, of the Rome Courier, gave us " Common Sense Views of Foreign Lands," a remarkably clear book of travels, written with force and sim-
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plicity. Rev. J. M. Bonnell, president Wesleyan Female College, Macon, issued a " Manual of the Art of Prose Composition." Prof. R. M. Johnson published "The English Classics " as a text-book in colleges, a work clear, accurate and discriminating. Col. W. S. Rockwell printed a " Hand-Book of Masonry." Mrs. Mel R. Colquitt is one of our most gifted lady writers, who has written no book, but gained high reputation for her varied contributions to the periodicals of the day. Mr. White of Athens has written a book on "Southern Gardening" that is an authority.
In the domain of fiction Georgia has done well. The leading novelist of the South, Miss Augusta J. Evans, now Mrs. Wilson, author of "Beulah," "Macaria," etc., and is a Georgia born lady. Hon. Henry W. Hilliard, recent U. S. Minister to Brazil, Congressman from Georgia from 1845 to 1851, issued a novel, " De Vane: a Story of Plebeians and Patricians," in 1866. Mr. Clifford A. Lanier, a brother of Sidney Lanier, has given the State two novels, "Thorn-Fruit " and "Two Hundred Bales; " Rev. Mr. Warren of Macon, the novel of "Nellie Norton; " Mrs. Maria J. Westmoreland, " Heart-Hungry " and " Clifford Troup; " Mrs. Mary E. Tucker, the "Confessions of a Flirt; " Mrs. Emma L. Moffett of Columbus, "Crown Jewels; " W. D. Trammell, " Ca Ira; " Miss L. A. Field, " Helen Freeman on the Right Path; " Mrs. M. J. R. Hamilton, "Cachet; " Mrs. Fannie Hood of Rome, " Maude, a Life Drama; " Mrs. Hammond of Atlanta, has recently put out the "Geor- gians," a novel of unusual power.
Our two romance writers at present, of largest celebrity, are Mrs. Mary E. Bryan and Prof. William Henry Peck. Mrs. Bryan has published " Manche " and " Wild Work," two very dramatic novels, given out under the strong imprimatur of the Appletons, and displaying talent of a high order. She has been for years editing the Sunny South. That she has found time and been able amid her severe absorption of journalistic duty to produce two such fictions, is something remarkable. " Wild Work" is a reconstruction romance, founded in fact, and depicting some of the anomalous phases of that strange era in the South following the war, that has been narrated in this volume in its place in the march of turbulent events. Mrs. Bryan has genuine literary genius, and it is finding a wide and appreciative recognition. She is also a lady of lovely character and delightful social qualities. Prof. William Henry Peck has probably made more money than all the rest of our literary workers. He has been professor, president of a college, editor and novelist. His fecundity of literary production is extraordinary. He
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GEORGIAA JOURNALISM AND LITERATURE.
had published thirty-four serials up to 1869, many of them stories of the late war, the "Renegade," "The Conspirators of New Orleans," " The Phantom," " The Confederate Flag of the Ocean," "The Maids and Matrons of Virginia," etc. In 1868, Prof. Peck moved to New York and lived there until 1875, when he located in Atlanta. In New York he wrote only for Bonner's great paper, the Ledger, the New York Weekly and the Philadelphia Saturday Night. Mr. Bonner, with that bold management that has marked him, has for years monopolized the genius of our Georgian, whose stories have so largely contributed to his paper's success, and paid him the salary that railroad presidents receive. Mr. Peck has had $5,000 for a single story. His novels are principally historical, requiring laborious study before the author begins to fill out his plots. He writes usually five hours a day, sometimes ten. He studies five hours a day, and in addition reads everything published and keeps up with the press. He is a student of faces, voices, manner- isms and peculiarities, and combines the result of his observation in his characters.
" It has been no accident or stratch that enables this industrious Geor- gian to lead the serial writers of the world, to command a princely income, and to maintain his hold upon the largest reading constituency in America and England. Since 1870 he has written some forty novels, among them "The Stone Cutter of Lisbon," "The King's Messenger," " The Queen's Secret," "Flower Girl of London," "The Miller of Mar- seilles," etc.
The characteristics of both our Georgia Journalism and Literature are marked,-healthy sentiment, independent thought, and a rapidly increasing culture. The genius of our Georgians is pure, original, and of a sunny, picturesque quality, but lacking in discipline and equipment. The epoch of reconstruction has in many respects favored the demon- stration of our Southern literary talent. The stimulus of necessity has forced latent intellectuality to vigorous exercise. Success, of unquestion- able capacity, has only been possible in competition with the trained methods of literary professionals, and to this end have our bright Georgia intelligences studied and striven. The warm fancy and strong, vivid, ready brainfulness of the minds of a race, gifted by nature and inheritance, have developed wonderfully. And, in the light of the ver- satile intellectual activity in our State in the last decade, reaching the demands of cosmopolitan criticism, grasping the attention of the world of letters and running into the highest forms of manifestation, we can indulge in large augury for our State's literary future.
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CHAPTER LII. THE RAILROADS, RESOURCES AND FUTURE OF GEORGIA.
The State use of Railroads .- Stupendous Railway Schemes Centering in Georgia recently .- Our State Railways .- The Central, Georgia, Air Line and State Rail- roads .- Wm. M. Wadley and his Great Plan .- E. W. Cole and his Dramatic Vicis- situdes .- The Erlanger Syndicate .-- The Richmond and Danville, and Georgia Pa- cific Combination. - The Louisville and Nashville Organization and Gen. E. P. Alex- ander. - Over 250 Millions of Railroad Property Focalizing on Georgia; and 25 Millions Building on Georgia soil .- Our Railroad Superintendents .- L. N. Tram- mell, Railroad Commissioner .- Georgia's Mineral Affluence .- A Grand State in Mineral Wealth .- The Results of the Geological Survey .- Our Agricultural Attractions .- The Work of our Agricultural Department .- Cotton Production .- Fruit .- Immense Range of Production .- Productive Fertility .- Stock .- Water Power Illimitable .- Small Farms .- Cotton Manufacture .- Free Schools .- The International Cotton Exposition .- An Amazing Enterprise .- A World's Fair put on foot in 108 days .- The Men of this Great Work .- The Opening of the Expo- sition .-- Great Speeches .- Senators Z. B. Vance and D. W. Voorhees .- The Scope of the Exhibit .- A New Era betokened, and Georgia its Apostle .- The Summing up of Georgia's Career and Destiny .- A Noble Statehood, leading in the rush of Civilization and Progress .- The End.
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