Che Conservative.
crop production vie with the very best
of the West.
One of the most glorious pieces of
scenery on the whole globe may bo
found in Rabun
scixiuv. :
county , which is
the northeast corner of Georgia.
Tallulah Falls , with cataract and gorge ,
sounding torrents and an environment of
natural grandeur and sublimity unsur
passed anywhere east of the Rocky
mountains , compel admiration and awe.
But one must , in order to see and feast
upon this wonderful and attractive liv
ing picture , almost take the risk of
losing his life. No pioneer promoters
have been there. No companies have
been organized with American capital
as they already have for Porto Rico and
further-off Manila with the intention
of making the falls useful as well as
beautiful. Therefore to see them one
must crawl along logs , hover over
chasms , climb rickety ladders and stake
life on paths marked "dangerous. " All
this awaits with gold and beauty the
touch and pluck of American enterprise.
With that it would burst upon the world
as one of its most wonderful , productive
and attractive regions.
This is only one opportunity out of
thousands which the citizens and this
republic have at home. These invita
tions to intelligent industry are all about
us. They are not confined to the West
nor to the newly acquired territory in
Texas or New Mexico. They are scat
tered around generously oven in and
among the old thirteen colonies and
states. Why seek alligators and heathen ,
leprosy and savagery , yellow fever , for
eign wars , enervation , deterioration and
degradation for a race in tropical ac
quisitions among the islands of the Pa
cific archipelago , or the West Indies ?
If we yearn for more empire to develop
it is , like Heaven , here at home. If we
must annex let us annex , by develop
ment , some of the wilderness of the old
thirteen states which is still sealed , un
opened and unknown !
Why not begin with Georgia ? Why
not open the eyes and unwad the ears
of the advocates of jingoism , the declaimers -
claimers of destiny and make them
know something and appreciate some
thing of the unexplored and untried
values of our own mighty brain-needing ,
muscle-employing and over glorious re
public ?
Why not annex the full development
of the United States and territories to
our duty and destiny as a vigorous
\ branch of the Aryan race ?
The question of
A MATTKIl
. how we are to handle
OK HACK.
dle the natives of
Cuba , Porto Rico and the Philippine
Islands seems likely to bring to a head
the related question of what is to be the
final disposition of our negro population
ut home. Our fathers began by malting
the negroes mere cattle and beasts of
burden : the Uncle Tom's Cabin move
ment went to the opposite extreme and
made them as gods ; the compromise
which was finally effected , and which
has endured for a third of a century ,
made them our political equals. Thus ,
it was considered , was the divinely-
inspired wisdom of the Declaration of In
dependence made effective , in which it
had been said "that all men are created
equal ; " and "that governments derive
their just powers from the consent of
the governed. "
We are , however , as wo have since re
flected , a branch , and not the least vig
orous branch , of the Aryan race ; and
the Aryans have , without ceasing , since
a time of which geology gives almost
the only testimony , been taking other
peoples under their wing , which peoples
they have forthwith proceeded to govern ;
sometimes they have governed gently ,
sometimes they have governed by ex
terminating ; but , first and last , they
have governed. The Declaration of
American Independence was struck out
when two collections of English-speak
ing Aryans found themselves in collis
ion ; one party proposing to rule the
other , which , in the nature of things ,
could not bo ; but if its fminers had fore
seen that one of its effects would be to
put men of their race in legal subordin
ation to negroes whose fathers were
then running naked in Africa , even
their French-fed enthusiasm for univer
sal brotherhood might have hesitated
somewhat.
Now wo find ourselves under bonds in
the justice-coxirt of the world , to keep
order and preserve personal and pro-
pert } ' rights , as our race understands
such things , among millions of men
who are on no very different grade in
the scale of humanity from the African
negroes ; and this can only be done by
governing them , whether with their con
sent or without it. If the conclusion is
reached that these people are so inher
ently different from ourselves that no
relations are possible save those of a
superior and subordinate race , what can
the next step logically bo but a recon
struction of our negro problem at home ?
A CHUISTMAS CAKOL.
"God loveth a cheerful giver , " said
the apostle Panl , writing to the brethren
at Corinth , who seemed not to respond
at collection-time with the proper alac
rity. "God loveth a keerful giver" is
the amendment proposed and carried by
the pious but prudent Puritans , and ad
hered to generally by their descendants.
The morality of giving for the sake of
the pleasant sensation that accrues to
the giver has come to bo more open to
question , with the growth and general
diffusion of means for giving since
Paul's time. It is now held to bo good ,
when giving , to stop and think whether
it is your own money or another man's
with which you are being generous.
Furthermore , everybody being aware of
cases where painful results have ensued
upon well-meant benevolence , it is
thought to be permissible at present to
consider first what will bo the probable
effect of your charity upon the recip
ient. But during this holiday season
everyone allows himself a little latitude
in this respect. There is something in
the air that impels one to give things to
others ; even if you are ashamed and do
it on the sly , still you give and hope for
the best. One may approach the time
with the best of resolves to be circum
spect , but the soft holiday air is sure to
thaw his determination and loosen his
purse strings , and he ends by treating
himself to the rare pleasiire of a smile
from a human face , such as come easy
at this season of the year. This is be
cause these holidays are not really a
religious festival , but an echo of the
annual gladness that has filled the heart
of mankind for an unreckouablo num
ber of years , when they perceived that
the ominous withdrawing motion of the
sun had ceased , and that he promised to
return to them once more , bringing
back the good times of warmth and
ease , with the birds , the flowers and the
good things to eat. It is because they
found the determination to make merry
in these days to be quite beyond
arguing with , that the early promoters
of the Christian church decided to turn
it to their own uses , which they did by
making it one of the high festivals of
their system. And it is not likely that
the Pilgrim Fathers , stiffly starched , as
we usually credit them with having
been , refrained entirely from the tem
porary expansion which the human
juices of their hearts urged upon them.
Their spiritual leaders would not have
been so severe upon Christinas as they
were if they had not had some resistance
to overcome. They certainly were very
much down upon Christinas ; sermons of
theirs which are extant prove as much.
They argued that Christ's birth could
not have occurred at this time , for the
reason that shepherds would not have
been spending the night under the stars
with their flocks at the end of Decem
ber ; that it was a surviving heathen
ish festival , as appeared from the ten
dency of the carnal heart to dance about
a tree and sing unauthorized songs in its
celebration ; and finally that there was a
very suspicious Popish flavor about the
"mas" a reason more valid to their
state of mind than to ours.
Our children still dance about a tree
and stuff' their interiors with things that
are not good for them , but otherwise
little remains to us of the traditionary
celebration of the Feast of the Unconquered -
quered Sun. They do these things
differently in the old country ; a Ger
man is likely to be incredulous , when
he hears that we really think wo
keep Christmas at all. One pitiful ob
servance we still keep up the yearly
massacre of the innocents of the forest ,
to which the train-loads of baby pine-
trees that are brought to the cities for
brief adornment bear melancholy wit
ness ,