Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1883-11-12
AT THE STATE CAPITAL.
THE EXPENSES OF THE NTJTNICI-
PAL ELECTIONS.

PAL ELECTIONS.
How the Scum of the City Prey UpOI
the Candidates and Drive Moral Me1
from the Field-The Rush for Di
vOrces-General ToOmbs and Mr.. Hill
Defended.
Correspondence Of tie Morning Yeaos.
ATLANTA, Nov. 10.-Already a very
lively interest is being taken in our city
election, which comes off in December
Formerly carriages were furnished tc
take Tom, Dick and Harry to the polls on
election day, but now the more Indifferent
voters are provided with carriages to take
them to the office of registration. Thus
the aspiring candidates are yearly COM
! PEELED to go deeper and deeper into their
| pockets to pay canvassing and election
| day expenses. This fact has driven many
of our best and most honorable citizens
| out of the lists of candidates.
| Atlanta has a peculiarly mixed popu-
| lation, and great part of the electioneer-
ing and voting is done by negroes and
! sidewalk politicians of doubtful charac-
| ter and well-known shiftlessness. This
| crowd commence early and draw con-
stantly upon the pOcketboOks of the can
didates, sometimes collecting tribute from
rivals for the same office. In this manner
! our city elections, not to speak of any
others, have become a disgraceful farce,
and our municipal offices fall into the
hands of men who, in some instances,
represent Deither the property, brains nor
respectaDility of the city.
1t is pretty evident at the present time
that the whisky and gambling elements
are taking an active hand in the approach
ing election, and that all the ''ruffscuff''
will be called in TO do service on election
day in their behalf. This fact, perhaps,
has led several good men to decline nomi-
| nations by their friends, or retire from the
| race before getting fairly started. There
seems little hope of seeing our municipal
affairs in proper hands for some years to
come, as the holding over plan prevents a
clean sweep at any one election. But we
shall strike bottom by-and-by and then
the property holders will arouse them
selves to the necessity of a reform in this
direction.
Atlanta is growing city, and all her
interests are expanding into large pro-
portions. With this expansion come fine
private buildings and costly public edi-
fees, new streets to be opened up, old i'm
portant thorOughfares to be paved, and a
permanent system of sewerage to be
established. These, and other large en-
terprises, demand city government COM
posed of men capable of managing great
business interests, and who have enough
at stake i'll their own personal estates to
guard we'll the treasury and the future
interests of the city. A man may be
honest and respectable, and yet not be
competent for such position.
MINOR TOPICS.
The Unitarians of Boston, through the
faithful efforts of Rev. George L. CLANCY,
formerly Of that city, have secured a
"fOOthold" in Atlanta, and erected a neat
little gothic church edifice just out of
Peachtree street, near the First MethO-
dist Church and st. Luke's Cathedral.
1t is rumOred here that the stockholders
in North Carolina of the old National
Express Company have concluded to sue
cumb to the legal pressure and pay over
the $25 per share demanded by the credi-
tors of that defunct corporation. If this
be true, or partially so, the Atlanta stock
holders will be compelled to ''ante up'' in
like manner, fate against which they
are now earnestly praying.
Since the visit of Col. William Rogers
to look after the ''yaTd' interests of the
Central Railroad in this city, some i'm
portant improvements have been made.
New tracks were laid near the Western
and Atlantic Railroad Freight depot, and
in order to secure ample passage for drays
some ten feet had to be cut from the cor
ner of this BRICK building. A stone abut-
ment is now being laid alongside the last
track of the Central at this point.
After many years residence the Sunny
| South has left Newspaper Row." and,
crossing Alabama street, has located
| nearer Hunter street, where it has a neat
| twO-stOry building, with handsome busi-
| ness office on the first floor. The Seals
Brothers have indeed clung to the for
| tunes of this literary venture with a fidel-
| ity and zeal that deserve the fullest meas
ure of success in this last new departure.
Mr.. Alexander IL. Stephens Thweatt,
| son of the late Col. Peterson Thweatt, is
now fully launched upon the sea of jour
nalism, having made a success of his
| RdjLlCGy and Steamship Gazette, pub
! lished in the interests of the Ocean
| Steamship Company and the Central
Railroad and its connecting lines. Like
! his lamented father, young Thweatt
wields a ready and versatile pen, and
promises to make his journal popular
even beyond the circles of railroad Off
| cials and the travelling public.
A good deal is being said about getting
a candidate for postmaster OF Atlanta
who has "a clean record" Our citizens
are not troubled about the records of can
7 didateS. What we want is a postmaster
whose record after he gets into the office
| will be ''clean." Republicans at Wash
| ingtOn do not spend sleepless nights re-
| jecting candidates because their records
are not ''cIean." Mr.. j. c. Freeman, who
has been an applicant ever since Con-
! ley's removal, has a somewhat col
ored (?) record as Congressman
| from this district. He appointed
Flipper, the negro cadet, to West Point
| Military Academy. His best recon-
mendation is that he has money and in
| fluence and can make the bond without
much of the usual trading of subordinate
positions to bondsmen. While he is a
good citizen and worthy gentleman, the
business of the Atlanta post office re-
| quires younger and more active man to
| manage 1t successfully. Postmaster
Conley was a good man, but lack of firm
ness and thorough knowledge of bust
| ness principles made 1t possible for the
affairs of the office to become mixed.
The recent editorial in the MORNING
NEWS on divorces was both timely and
full of vigorous thought. Only yesterday
our Superior Courts granted first verdicts
in three divorce cases, and but for the
firm and decided action of Governor Nc
Daniel in vetOing the divorce bill of the
last Legislature, final verdict might
have been secured. Too much cannot be
said in praise of this prompt and etfectual
| movement of our excellent Governor to
rebuke the alarming tendency to sudden
secret and ill-advised divorces. If such
things must exist in Georgia, he is deter
mined that they shall be closely within
the bounds of the constitution, and in no
respect will he be a party to any legisla-
tiOn that would mar the permanency or
sanctity of the marriage relation. In
some States 1t is possible to obtain a
secret divorce, hasty divorce, and di-
vorce rithOut the knOlcLedqe of the hus-
band or wife who is interested as a de-
fendant. Governor Mcdaniel does not
intend that such shameful and illegal
divorces shall be procured in Georgia, un-
der his administration.
SENATOR HILL AND GEN. TOOMBs.
In paying a beautiful tribute to the late
| Senator B. Ii. Hill and to Gen. Robert
Toombs, think the Herald, of Jackson
vile, Fla, rather misleads its readers. 1t
speaks of 'three-scOre and ten years of
brilliant skepticiSm" on the part of Gen.
| TOOmbs. While it is true that he has been
| quite Incorporate and VIGOROUSLY pro-
| fame at times, have never heard Gen.
| TOOmbs utter word that indicated ''skep-
| ticism" on his part. His lamented wife
was a most devOut Christian, and his ten
der devotion to her made it no easy
thing for him, following her dying
counsels, to recently accepC by experience
and profession of faith, the religion she
had made living reality to him during
| their long and loving married life. Again,
| the statement that Senator Hill was not.
| during his life, ga devotee of the Chris
tian religion" Is also misleading. When
young man Senator Hill iOined the
| Methodist Church, and, while he was not