Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1881-08-01
OUR ATLANTA LETTER.
Weather-LOcal BIIls-MinOr Topics
General and Personal NeWs-RaII-
road GOssip-FIOrida Land Boom
Final Paragraphs.

prepared letter for the News of to-day, but
in some singular way it disappeared from my
! desk in the House of Representatives, and 1
am now compelled to give your readers a
hastily prepared substitute
Owing-to the perpetual call of counties for
the introduction of new business, and the large
number of bills left over from the last session.
newspaper correspondents have had no easy
time, unless supplied, as some are, with newsy
assistants to get up side notes.
| The House calendar shows 9f7 bills intro
duced during the November and the present
! session. but of this number probably more
than one hundred have been withdrawn or
/ passed. This leaves about 500 bills still on the
calendar to be acted upon in some manner OF
| course this mass Of legislation indicates pro-
| longed session.
The cold wave struck us a few nights ago,
| and blankets and heavy clothing were at once
called into requisitiOn. and are still in use As
| the days are not remarkably hot, life is made
6earable by cool breezes from the mountains.
! In fact, have never seen a General Assembly
| more comfortable during the heated
| term, or more inclined to tackle hard work and
hold on to 1t with tight grip. A motion to
| adjourn yesterday noon until Monday morn
! ing was promptly voted down
The Hood of local and temperance bills is so
| great that the committee seems to be confused
IN IN regard TO what course they shall pursue;
| In the meantime local bills are being passed
70 prohibit or regulate the sale of intoxicating
! liquors in towns cities. militia districts and
| counties Some counties ask for a license fee
| OF SlO,gOO, which means prohibition. Much
| time valuable for general legislation is being
| taken up by the passage of these local bills.
| IL was expected that the temperance commit
| tee would promptly report a general bill of
| some kind for the whole State, and thereby
| do away with the necessity for any local bills,
except in few peculiar cases.
MINOR TOPICS.
Two members of the Legislature have not
| yet put in an appearance. The Hon. Lafayette
! Harp, of Chattahoochee who has been quite
| SICK at CusSeta, and Hon. S. Warren Mays, of
Richmond, who is now at Decatur recovering
| from severe attack of typhoid fever. He is
atte nded by his excellent mother the wife of
hon Henry w, Hilliard now Minister to
| Brazil.
Gen. Bryan NJ. Thomas, of Milledgeville. has
been appointed by General Longstreet as Dep
uty United States Marshal at Dalton, a lucra-
tive and desirable position. This is a good ap-
polntment, as General Thomas is a graduate
of West Point Gn 1851, was in active service in
Juan ana on the frontier, and resigned from
the army to enter the Confederate service. He
is fully competent to make frst-rate deputy
marshal.
The excitement about new capitol build
ing has almost entirely sUbSided. Messrs.
John Andrewarthas and James Warenborger,
of Austin, Texas, and Louisville, Kentucky
| forwarded four very large and elegant cOlored
| views of building which they thought would
, be credit to Georgia. But as soon as these
magnificent pictures were placed in the Repre-
| sentative Hall the members began to suspect
that there was big job somewhere for
| somebody, and frequent reference was made
to the cost of the new capitol at Albany, n.
Y. Georgia will not have new capitol started
this year.
The merchants and steamboat men of Co
lumbus are making effort to stop the gov
ernment improvements % on the Chattahoo-
chez river below that city, on the ground that
the longer the work is carried on the less navi-
gable becomes the river. Coz. Paul J. Quattle-
baum, who has been in charge of these inn
provements % for several years past is a
South Carohnlan, graduate of West Point
1850. and was an infantry officer in the army
until he resigned to enter the Confederate ser
vice. He was a lumber merchant and cotton
planter in South Carolina after the war, but in
1874 became a civil engineer and took charge of
the proposed government river improvements
below Columbus His operations have not been
satisfactory, and change will no doubt be
made.
Now that the General Assembly is in session
and an appropriation is being sought, we hear
great deal about the Importance of immigra-
ton IN the future and what has already been
done. MIR FOntaine even goes so far as to sug-
gest that Oglethorpe Barracks in Savannah,
could be rented and turned into a Southern
| Castle Garden" for the reception of immi-
grants: The fact is, as the people of Georgia
ought by this time to know, there is a great
| deal of cheap talk about the subject of immi-
| grafton. 1t would take very powerful micri-
| scope to pick out dozen bona fide immigrants
| that nave been brought into Georgia with their
! families and permanently and proftably 10
! Gated within as many years And yet the State
| has expended as much as twelve thousand dol
lars for immigration schemes. The railroads
| alone have been successful, and to them we
| had better leave the whole matter.
RAILROAD GOSSIP.
The great sensational railroad boom has sub
sided, as the bubble was pricked by some
sharp facts and the gas let out of it.
There was opposition to Col. Coles charter,
as we'll as to the charter of the Rome Southern
Railroad, but it was based upon principle and
good sense, and will be sustained. No one de-
capital into Georgia,
Colonel Cole asked for perpetual charter.
with authority to build branches dTlUlChere and
everywhere an Georgia. The Rome Southern
Railroad charter asks the same privileges but
the House has wisely recommtted It, In order
to have those Objectionable features removed.
as they ought to be, before the bill is passed
in the interest of cOrporators.
Some few persons oppose Colonel Coles
charter because they honestly think it will
depreC late the value of the State Road. and
also inJure the towns on that route but the
chief opposition has been to the Objectionable
features in the charter, which the Railroad
Committee last night removed, and his char
ter, as amended and shOrn of its Objectionable
features, will be granted with but little, if any,
opposition.
FLORIDA LAND BOoMs
We are giving Florida something of a boom
from this part of the State, and next winter
you can look out for big movement towards
the Land of Flowers.
Judge Dennis F. Hammond, of this city, has
gone TO Orlando to open law Office, and has
madelarge purchases of orange grove prop
ertY in that section. Col. B. c. Yancey, son of
the late Hon. VIM. L. Yancey, Of Alabama
who has just returned from Brazil, is now in
Florida, with his brother, Capt D. H. Yancey,
of CuSseta. looking for an investment
Messrs. Chapman & Chase who represent a
company of Boston and Chicago capitalists
have lately closed trade with Captain B. R.
Swoope, of Maitland for his splendid tract of
fh1U to
improve and make one of the most attractive
spots in all that beautiful region of lakes
They are men of character, energy, means
and experience, and will soon surround them
selves with the most desirable class of settlers
and winter visitors. General S. G. French of
Columbus, Ga, has also made large purchases
in that vicinity.
But one of the largest and most important
transactions has just taken place in this city.
refer TO the sale of half interest in the cele.
brated Cloud orange grove, near Fort Reid, in
Orange county, purchased in 1873 for $50 COO
by Judge l.. Hayden and Hon. VIM Mark
ham, of this city. Mr. Geo w Harrison a
young capitalist Of Atlanta, has just purchased
Mr.. Markham's half interest for about $50 eco
after visiting the grove and prospecting
around in that section of Orange county Be-
ing young man of means, energy and enter
prise, Mr.. ID. will DO doubt join Judge Hayden
in making valuable improvements on the
place. as Mr. Markham still retains other
valuable orange grove property in that vicini-
ty, Orange county gains new investor in Mr.
Harrison without losing Mr. Markham.
FINAL PARAGRAPHS.
The proposed amendment to the City Bank
charter, of Augusta, to-day, to increase Iiabili-
ty of stockholders to double the amount of
stock, shows that the present House has a de-
sire to protect depositors hereafter from such
failures as that of the Citizens Bank of Atlanta
A resolution passed the House this morning
to provide funds to enable the Sergeant-at-
Arms of the committee investigating the
ownership of the lease of the Western and At
lantic Railroad to procure certain persons and
papers. The committee appears to be deter
mined to find out when and to whom the
shares we're sold and by whom they are now
owned.
The special judiciary committee has acted
wisely in reporting unfavorably as to the bill
to change the name of the Reformed Medical
College, formerly located in Macon, but re.
Gently removed to Atlanta. 1t is an obscure
and unimportant institution. and yet an at
tempt is being made, through the above named
bill, to give it the high-sounding and imposing
name of the American College of Medicine and
Surgery. CHATHAM
The Murderers of Abdul AzIz,
CONsTANTNoPLE, July 30.-The official
communication published in the Turkish
papers states that Mahmoud Pasha aud