GEORGIA. 



343 



any previous agreement as to the price to be 

 paid for the right of way. When Mr. Cham- 

 bers specified the compensation, the company 

 considered it exorbitant, and Chambers re- 

 fused to accept that oflered by the company. 

 The matter was left to a board of appraisers, 

 who fixed a sum which was unsatisfactory to 

 Chambers, and he appealed from their award 

 to the Superior Court of Floyd County, ask- 

 ing for an injunction restraining the company 

 from using the route through his land. The 

 court having refused the injunction, he appealed 

 to the Supreme Court, which reversed the 

 decision of the court below, on the ground 

 that the company having been organized under 

 the Constitution of the State, which provides 

 that k ' private property shall not be taken or 

 damaged for public purposes without adequate 

 compensation being first paid," the company 

 had no right to take the property of a citizen 

 for its own use and convenience until it had 

 paid just and adequate compensation. 



PUBLIC SCHOOLS. The year 1882 shows a 

 steady growth in the attendance of pupils at 

 the public schools. The aggregate of school 

 population which has been made the basis 

 of apportionment in 1882 was 507,861. The 

 commissioner's estimate is that the enroll- 

 ment and average attendance will not be less, 

 respectively, than 255,000 and 153,000; and 

 taking these figures, and making the same cal- 

 culations as in 1881, he gives the figures, 87 

 cents, $1.73, and $2.88, as the approximate 

 appropriation per capita, on school population, 

 enrollment, and average attendance, respec- 

 tively. Thus: in the year 1881 the entire 

 sum furnished for the support of schools was 

 $363,677.32. Divide this sum by 433,444, the 

 number of children of school age, and the re- 

 sult will be 84 cents as the per capita appro- 

 priation. If the same sum be divided by 244,- 

 197, the number of children that entered the 

 schools during the year, $1.49 is the appro- 

 priation on enrollment ; and if the same sum 

 be divided by 149,908, the average attendance, 

 $2.43 is the appropriation on average attend- 

 ance. In 1882 the State fund, estimating the 

 poll-tax which is paid in the several counties 

 to the county commissioners as the same as 

 in the previous year, amounts to $441,114.88. 

 And if the sum raised under local laws in 

 counties and cities prove to be the same, that 

 is, $134,855.96, the whole sum raised in the 

 State for the support of the public schools will 

 amount to $575,970.84, or $77,000 increase 

 as compared with the previous year. This, on 

 the principle of calculation stated above, would 

 give per capita on school population, $1.13 ; 

 on enrollment, $2.25, and on average attend- 

 ance, $3.76. The sources of the school fund 

 paid out of the Treasury are as follow : 

 One half rental Western and Atlantic Kailroad. . $150,000 00 



Dividend on Georgia Kailroad stock 1,116 00 



Net hire of convicts 19,192 20 



Fees of inspectors of fertilizers 56,198 



Tax on shows 5 J94 ?6 



Tax on liquor-dealers 44.767 71 



Total. . . $277,069 36 



Brought forward $217,069 86 



Less warrants for expenses 4,494 45 



Total... $272,574 91 



Net proceeds of poll-tax 168,539 97 



Grand total $441,114 88 



The school law requires that in every county 

 arrangement shall be made for keeping the 

 schools in operation at least three months of 

 the year. This is an essential condition to a 

 right to draw the pro rata of the school fund 

 of the State. This was done in every county 

 by the parents of the school-children agreeing 

 to supplement the sum paid by the State, and 

 thus the entire people enjoyed the benefits of 

 the common schools, and every child of suit- 

 able age had the advantage of entering and 

 remaining for the term. The School Commis- 

 sioner strongly recommends that the fund be 

 increased so as to enable the schools to be 

 kept open during six months ; that means be 

 furnished to conduct teachers' institutes, and 

 establish at least one normal school. In an 

 enumerated school population that is, chil- 

 dren between the ages of six and eighteen of 

 236,319 white and 197,125 colored, making in all 

 433,444, the number of illiterates between ten 

 and eighteen years is, whites 22,323, colored 

 63,307 ; and over eighteen, the number unable 

 to read is, whites 20,839, colored 148,494. Be- 

 sides the public schools there are 1,080 private 

 elementary schools scattered over the State, 

 with 1,183 instructors, teaching whites 26,822, 

 colored 6,671 total, 33,493 children. Of male 

 and female colleges, including Mercer Univer- 

 sity (Baptist), and Pio Nono College (Roman 

 Catholic) at Macon, and Emory College (Meth- 

 odist) at Oxford, and not counting the Univer- 

 sity of Georgia and its branches, there are 

 eleven institutions of high grades, where up- 

 ward of 2,000 young men and women are 

 instructed by competent teachers. The Lucy 

 Cobb Institute at Athens, the Wesleyan Fe- 

 male College at Macon, and the La Grange 

 Female College at La Grange, are the most 

 prominent institutions for the higher educa- 

 tion of young ladies. The people of Georgia 

 feel deeply grateful to Mr. George I. Seney, 

 of New York, for his munificent donations to 

 Emory College, the Wesleyan Female College, 

 and the Lucy Cobb Institute. The Atlanta 

 University, where colored students exclusively 

 are educated, and for the support of which 

 the State appropriates annually $8,000 a 

 sum equal to that paid to the University of 

 Georgia in payment of her debt to that institu- 

 tion is well conducted, and is doing success- 

 ful work. 



At the last General Conference of the Meth- 

 odist Episcopal Church, South, held in Nash- 

 ville, Tenn., May, 1882, plans were laid to build, 

 furnish, and provide teachers for a school or 

 college for the education of colored children, 

 teachers, and preachers, the college to be the 

 property of the " Colored Methodist Episcopal 

 Church in America." The plan was formed 

 in response to the appeal of Rev. L. H. Hoi- 



