Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1913-01-25

inote contingency NS#~J esTNITW
that there should VAS
come vacancy
in the Floyd county delegation in the
house. and he should elect to resign
and run for it.
Mr.. Ennis was a member of the last
senate, which expired when the pres
ent legislature was elected in October.
If the legislature were summoned in
extraordinary session tomorrow, Mr..
Ennis could not sit in it. as Senator
Brown, of Barlow, has been duly named
as his successor.
The mere fact that the present legis-
lature will not be assembled and sworn
in until next June, in all probability, in
no wise affects the situation of Mr..
Ennis-he is neither de jure nor de
facto a member of the present house.
Considerable misapprehension seems
to exist throughout the state as to this
matter arising. no doubt, from the
more or less endless confusion brought
about in the terms of service of some
state house officials, when the meeting
of the legislature was changed several
years ago from October to June.
There is nothing in his custody that
Secretary of State Phil Cook guards
with more jealous care than the few
specimens of Georgia's early great seal
of state preserved in the department.
Those used toward the end of the
Eighteenth century-along about 1900
and up to within relatively modern
times. are genuine curiosities. Indeed,
it is necessary to go back quite num-
Der of years to find a specimen of the
present orn-out seal that can be deci-
phered.
The old seal of state used to be
about the size of a breakfast plate, y
said Secretary Cook today, land the
way it was trimmed down from its an
cient formidable proportions to it's
present thin and waferlike form is an
| interesting story.
"Old Nathan Barnett. who was sec
rotary for "A years before the war, was
very serious minded man. and mem
bers of the Legislature loved to joke
him Besides his salary, he got moth
| ing much by way of fees, 500 per an
mum, perhaps being the limit of his
| yearly receipts He was scrupulously
| honest, however, and at the end of one
year he turned in an expense account
of 1915 as the sum total of funds ex-
pensed during the past twelve months
for office incidentals.
"A waggish member of the legisla-
ture, checking up the old mans &C
counts, severely criticised this expense
account-entirely in fun, but with SOL
emn face-and said it was strange to
him that so much money should be
spent in that department for expense
in one little year
| "Old Man Barnett took it to heart,
and set about cutting down expenses
next year. He found that the most
promising field for cutting down was in
the purchasing of wax for the great
seals-and so he abolished the break
fast plate size Of seals and substituted
the present thin, little thing!
And next year the old mans ex-
pense account was cut from 1915 to
$235!
He never got any thanks for his pa
triotic deed. however, for the member
who had criticised him in fun the year
before had forgotten all about it, and
wasn't member of the new house,
anyway.
The great seal has remained ever
since that Barnett expense cutting the
same size 1t Is today---and we are
thankful to the old secretary that he
cut it down, for it was a bunglesOme
arrangement before he operated upon
| it,"
| DR.. w :. Johnson, of Hazlehurst,
who received nearly 10000 votes for
prison commissioner in the Democratic
gressive candidate for appointment un-
der President Wilson TO the office of
United States marshal for south Geor-
gia
The doctor certainly is one of the
more or less regiment of original Will
son" men in this state, and would seem
to be entitled to high and distinguished
consideration in Washington. when the
day of pie cutting arrives He is a
Georgian to the manner born, and
comes of a fine family. His father
was a gallant Confederate soldier, kill
ed at Chickamauga, and his great
grandfather fought under Washington
in Revolutionary days.
! A great many strong and influential
south Georgia friends and admirers OF
the doctor are rallying stoutly to his
cause as a matter of course.
Says The Commerce News:
1t is said that the next Georgia
legislature will be called upon to
put ban on the turkey trot
Why not9 With some 2S5.69S legis-
lative "don'ts" already on the statute