Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1881-08-20
FROM CoLUsrRIA. TENN.

Mayor and Aldermen. 1t seems
that the Fathers have concluded
that ignorance is the mother o
crime, and that education is the an
tidote. They have bought property
organized a faculty. employed a su
perintendanta and arranged for free
school of high grade. The city be
ing already in debt, and at consid
cradle expense in running the cor
poration, the amount of city take:
is now 81 so on the hundred. Quite
a number of tax-paying citizens O
the town, feeling the taxes to be
burdensome, have demurred. A
petition was sent up to the board
asking for a suspension of proceed.
ings and the proceedings were ta-
bled. They now talk of filing bill
of Injunction. Great excitement
prevails, and there is danger of ar
raging the taxpayers and non-tax-
payers in hostility to each other,
which would be calamity to our
city, checking its growth, paralyz-
ing its industries and rending its
social relations. An eccentric min
lister once said of our town that a
man who lived in it, and was worth
twenty dollars would not notice a
man worth nineteen. Be that as it
may Columbia's prosperity depends
upon the harmony of the rich and
the poor. / do not believe that
there is town in the South of the
same size, where so few of Its citi-
zens own their own dwellings. The
editor of the Independent, who is
City Recorder, published an edito-
rial week or two ago in reply to
complaints made against the board
of Mayor and Aldermen, in which
he set forth that although the city
was rapidly improving, property
advancing, and population increas-
ing, yet the assessed value of the
property of the city, was half
million (one-third) less than under
ex-Mayor Browns administration.
And that if the property was as
sessed fairly, the tax would be much
less on the hundred dollars, though
it might be the same on the prop
erty. There is something in this
statement. 1t is a strange kind of
integrity that prompts man who
has paid five thousand dollars for
piece of property to "give it inn at
two thousand five hundred, and
under oath at that.
The drought in this county is ter
rible. There will not be more than
one-third of a crop of corn made.
The pastures have suffered dread
fully and cotton also. The early
grains were good, and immense
quantities of hay was saved. The
late rains will bring out the past
ures and our people will live.
The Maury County Temperance
Convention was held in the court
house in this city the 10th, inst. 1
have been in many temperance
meetings, some of them not very
imposing or calculated to give tone
and responsibility to cause worthy
the attention Of our noblest citizen
ship, but this convention was a cred
it to Maury county and Tennessee.
The character of the men engaged in
it showed an interest in this county
never felt heretofore. One noticeable
feature of the convention was the
number of lawyers who were pres
ent-twelve in NUMBERING profess
sion would suffer more perhaps from
prohibition, than theirs yet our
lawyers seeing the corruption in
courts as well as legislatures, grow
ing out of the traffic are speaking
out on the question. That there
should be twice as many lawyers as
preachers need not surprise your
readers when they remember that
the lawyers out number the minis
tiers six to one.
There was perfect unity of spirit
and purpose in the convention, a
determination to use every means
within their reach to procure prohi-
bition see that the existing liquor
laws are enforced sustain no man
for any Office who is not, in princi-
pie and practice, a temperance
man, and no man who seeks in per-
son-or through his friends-to pro-
cure votes by the use of intoxicating
liquors. 1t has been my good for
tune to make a canvass through the |
larger portion of Maury county dur
ing the summer, in the advocacy of |
prohibition and l feel Warrented in |
saying that we are "ready for the
question:" The truth is our hon
est, hard working people are DISCUS
ted with the corruption, bargain
and sale of legislatures, and the bur-
dens, in the way of taxation put up
on them tn prosecute crime commit
ted under the influence of liquor.
Party hate has been toned down, es-
pecially since the attempted assas-
of christian president in
this grand republic, and our people
will, in the future, be governed
more by the character of the men
place than by the party to
which they belong.
/ have been greatly saddened by
the death of one of my dear Cedar
Hill friends, Jimmie Bats. Who
that ever knew him has no tear to
she'd? The central figure in almost
every social circle in which he NOV
ed, a sunbeam in every house he en-
tered noble and generous to fault,
1nostentatious in his profession of
piety, loved by all who knew him,
he passed away. How sad that he
should die so far away from low
ed ones, and that strange hands
should perform the last offices that
would have been so lovingly filled