GEORGIA. 



335 



usury law. The maximum charge is still fixed 

 by law at eight per cent, but under the new 

 bill the lender has the right to charge what- 

 ever rate the borrower agrees upon, and can 

 collect the same if the borrower does not ap- 

 peal to the law against paying. If this is done, 

 the lender is mulcted only for the surplus of 

 the interest above eight per cent, and not for 

 tlie entire interest, as under the present law. 

 It also becomes incumbent upon the borrower 

 to show that the lender has violated the law, 

 and it does not devolve upon the lender the 

 burden of proof as under the present law. 



Perhaps the most important legislation of 

 the session was a general railroad law, by 

 which charters can be obtained by the filing 

 of articles of incorporation. 



While no general temperance bill of impor- 

 tance was passed, the sale of liquor was pro- 

 hibited in a great many counties, by reason of 

 the increase of the license-tax to such a figure 

 as can not be paid. The sale of liquor is now 

 prohibited in forty-eight counties. Prohibi- 

 tion was asked for a great many other coun- 

 ties, but was killed or postponed by amend- 

 ments which allow the people of the various 

 townships and districts to vote whether or not 

 the sale of liquor shall be prohibited. The 

 temperance people, on the other hand, gain a 

 great deal in the prohibition of the sale of 

 liquor within a certain number of miles of cer- 

 tain churches, colleges, and academies, and al- 

 together the session resulted in very materially 

 enlarging the circle of prohibition. 



Other acts passed were the following: To 

 define the rights and powers of purchasers 

 of railroads ; to establish a system of public 

 schools for Rome ; to prohibit the employment 

 of minors in any place where intoxicating liq- 

 uors are sold, to be drunk on the spot ; to se- 

 cure uniformity in grading teachers of public 

 schools; to incorporate the Oovington and 

 South River Railroad ; to incorporate the Lo- 

 gansville Railroad ; to amend section 1312 of 

 the code, fixing the time of meeting for presi- 

 dential electors ; to declare persons who can 

 not read and write incapable of serving as elec- 

 tion managers; to reapportion the, House of 

 Representatives of this State ; to provide for 

 the more efficient granting of diplomas by 

 medical colleges ; to incorporate companies 

 formed for stearn navigation in ocean or rivers ; 

 to incorporate the Georgia Southern and Flor- 

 ida Railroad Company; to regulate the prac- 

 tice of medicine in Georgia; to incorporate 

 the Gainesville, Blairsville and State Line Rail- 

 road ; to fix the time of elections for the Gen- 

 eral Assembly; to incorporate the Gumming 

 and Suwannee Railroad Company; to incor- 

 porate the Springs Railroad Company; to in- 

 corporate the Monticollo and Trans-Ocmulgee 

 Railroad Company ; to enable the trustees of 

 the State University to inaugurate a system of 

 free tuition ; to incorporate the Brunswick and 

 Flint River Railroad Company ; to construct 

 a line from Elberton to intersect the New 



York and New Orleans Railroad; to incorpo- 

 rate the Rome Southern Railroad Company; 

 to charter the Middle Georgia Railroad ; to 

 incorporate the Covington and North Georgia 

 Railroad ; to incorporate the Dahlonega, Daw- 

 sonville and Gainesville Railroad Company; 

 to authorize a railroad from Covington to the 

 Ocmulgee River; to provide for registering 

 the voters of Savannah; to incorporate the 

 Greenville and White Sulphur Springs Rail-, 

 road Company ; to incorporate the Kingston, 

 Walesca and Gainesville Railroad ; to incor- 

 porate the Elberton and Point Peter Railroad; 

 to incorporate the Elberton and Petersburg 

 Railroad ; to incorporate the Cedartown Rail- 

 road Company; to incorporate the Etowah 

 and Blue Ridge Railroad Company. 



The following is a list of all the towns in the 

 State that have a population of over 1,000 

 thirty -nine in number : 



This table shows that the five largest towns 

 of the State Atlanta, Savannah, Augusta, 

 Macon, and Columbus are increasing faster 

 than the remainder of the State. These towns 

 now contain 112,880 people, against 83,624 in 

 1870 a gain of about forty per cent, against 

 thirty per cent in the entire State. 



The census of 1880 shows a large increase in 

 the number of farms, indicating a progressive 

 tendency toward subdivision. The number of 

 farms in Georgia, in 1850, was 51,759 ; 1860, 

 62,003; 1870,69,956; 1880, 138,626, of which 

 76,451 were cultivated by the owners, 18,557 

 by tenants .it a fixed rental, and 43,618 on 

 shares. The State produced, in the census 



