The continued militancy of the “Constitution,” under the editorship of Clark Howell, who sits in his father’s old chair, with a bust of Grady at his elbow, is evidenced not only by its frequent editorials against lynching, but by its fearless campaign against another Georgia specialty—­the “paper colonel.”  The ranks of the “paper colonels” in the South are chiefly made up of lawyers who “have been colonelized by custom for no other reason than that they have led their clients to victory in legal battles.”  Some of the real colonels have been objecting to the paper kind, and the “Constitution” has bravely backed up the objection.

The liveliness of journalism in Georgia does not begin and end in Atlanta.  The Savannah “Morning News” has an able editorial page, and there are many others in the State.  Some of the small-town papers are, moreover, well worth reading for that kind of breeziness which we usually associate with the West rather than the South.  Consider, for example, the following, in which the Dahlonega (Georgia) “Nugget,” published up in the mountains, in the section where gold is mined, discusses the failings of one Billie Adams, the editor’s own son-in-law: 

On Saturday last, Billie Adams and his wife waylaid the public road over on Crown Mountain, where this sorry piece of humanity stood and cursed while his wife knocked down and beat her sister, Emma.  He is a son-in-law of ours, but if the Lord had anything to do with him, He must have made a mistake and thought He was breathing the breath of life into a dog.

He is too lazy to work and lays around and waits for his wife to get what she can procure on credit, until she can get nothing more for him and the children to eat.  Recently he claimed to be gone to Tennessee in search of work.  Upon hearing that his family had nothing to eat, we had Carl Brooksher send over nearly four dollars’ worth of provisions.  In he came and sat there and feasted until every bite was gone.  But this ends it with us.

     There are a lot of people who have sorry kinfolks, but in this
     instance if there were prizes offered, we would certainly win the
     first.

Last year, thinking he would scare his mother-in-law and sister-in-law off from where they live, so he could get the place, he shot two holes through their window, turned their mule out of the stable, and tried to run it into the bean patch, besides hanging up a bunch of switches at the drawbars.  Then their fence was set afire twice.  This is said to be the work of his wife.  Then, after carrying home meat, flour, lard, and vegetables to eat for her mother and sister, he whipped the latter because she refused to give him two of the wagon wheels.

The city made a case against both for the whipping, and the wife, although coming to town alone frequently during the day, brought her baby and everything to the council room, plead guilty