appointed professor of biology at the Alabama Polytechnic Institute and at the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Alabama, and in 1892 accepted a call to Cornell University as professor of botany. His publications include several excellent text-books and treatises on botany and numerous papers in various scientific periodicals.
ATKINSON, John (1835-97) . An American preacher. He was born at Deerfield, N. Y., and served in the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal Church till his death at Haverstraw, N. Y. He wrote the familiar hymn, “We Shall Meet Beyond the River,” and the historical works, Memorials of Methodism (1860); The Centennial History of American Methodism (1884); The Beginnings of the Wesleyan Movement in America, and the Establishment Therein of Methodism (1896).
ATKINSON, John Christopher ( 1814-1900). An English clergyman and antiquary. He was born at Goldhanger, in Essex, where his father was curate. In 1838 he graduated B.A. from Saint John's College, Cambridge, and three years later was ordained curate of Brockhampton in Herefordshire. In 1847 he became vicar of Danby, in the North Riding of Yorkshire, where he resided till his death. In 1887 he received from Durham University the degree of D.C.L.. and in 1891 he became a prebendary in York Cathedral. A delightful antiquary somewhat after the type of Gilbert White (q.v.), he is best known for his Forty Years in a Moorland Parish (1891). Among his other popular books are: The Walks, Talks, Travels, and Exploits of Two Schoolboys (1859); Play-Hours and Half-Holidays (1880); British Birds' Eggs and Nests (1861); and The Last of the Giant-Killers (1891). Among his learned works are: “A Glossary of the Dialect of the Hundred of Lonsdale,” in Transactions of the Philological Society (1867); A Glossary of the Cleveland Dialect (1868) with Additions (1876); The History of Cleveland (incomplete, 1872-77). He also edited for the Surtees Society Cartularium Abbathiæ de Whiteby (1879); and Cartularium Abbathiæ Rievalle (1889).
ATKINSON, Thomas William (1799-1861). An English artist and traveler. He first devoted himself to architecture, but afterwards traveled extensively in western Siberia and published accounts of his travels in works beautifully illustrated by himself. The works are entitled: Explorations in Oriental and Western Siberia (London, 1857), and Travels in the Regions of the Upper and Lower Amoor (London, 1860).
AT′KYNS, Sir Robert (1621-1709). An English jurist and Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer. He was descended from a family of distinguished lawyers. In 1659 he entered Richard Cromwell's Parliament as member for Evesham, and was evidently of the King's party, as he was made Knight of the Bath at Charles's coronation (1661). He became Judge of the Court of Common Pleas in 1672, but, owing to his dissatisfaction with the court interference with the independence of judges, he resigned in 1679. When the case against Lord William Russell was instituted in 1683, Atkyns prepared two decisions which brilliantly demonstrated the groundlessness of the charge brought against that nobleman. Upon the accession of William III. he became Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer, a position which he held until 1693. His Parliamentary and Political Tracts constitute a valuable contribution to the history of the time.
ATLAN′TA. The capital of Georgia, and county seat of Fulton County, 171 miles west by north of Augusta and 294 miles northwest of Savannah (Map: Georgia, B 2). It is popularly known as the “Gate City,” and is the largest city in the State, the commercial metropolis of the northern section, and one of the important railroad centres of the South. It lies at the base of the Blue Ridge, near the Chattahoochee River, and has an elevation of 1000 to 1100 feet above sea level and a healthful climate with a mean annual temperature of about 60° Fahrenheit. The city is laid out in a circle and possesses a fine public library, the State Library with over 50,000 volumes, a valuable geological collection, and numerous educational institutions. It is the seat of the Georgia School of Technology (founded in 1888), a branch of the State University at Athens; Atlanta University, founded in 1869; Clark University (Methodist Episcopal), established in 1870; Atlanta Baptist College, organized in 1867; and two medical schools. Among the more important buildings are the State Capitol, court-house, city hall, custom-house, opera-house, chamber of commerce, and several commodious office buildings. Other points of interest are Grant and Piedmont parks, the latter being the site of the Atlanta Exposition of 1895. In the vicinity of the city are prosperous agricultural communities and popular suburbs; and Fort McPherson (q.v.), a Government army post, is four miles distant to the south.
Atlanta carries on a large export trade in cotton, tobacco, grain, horses, and mules, its mule market being one of the most important in the United States. The products of its industrial establishments include cotton goods, cotton-seed oil, bags, furniture, machinery, fertilizers, patent medicines, flour, street cars, agricultural implements, and various other foundry and machine-shop products.
The government is administered under a charter of 1874, revised in 1900, which provides for a mayor, who holds office for two years, and a bicameral municipal council; the board of aldermen, consisting of six members, elected at large for three years, and the council of fourteen members, chosen for two years to represent the city wards, but elected by the whole city. Of the administrative officials, only the license inspector and public weighers are appointed by the executive, the municipal council controlling appointments to all other offices except the following, which are filled by popular election: attorney, comptroller, commissioner of public works, marshal, engineer, tax collector, treasurer, and sexton. The annual income and expenditures of the city balance at about $1,800,000; the principal items of expense being $140,000 for the police department (including amounts for police courts, jails, reformatories, etc.), $105,000 for the fire department, $105,000 for the health department (including amounts for street cleaning and sprinkling, and garbage removal), and $150,000 for schools. Atlanta owns its waterworks, which are operated at a yearly cost of about $90,000.
Population: 1850, 2,572; 1870, 21,789; 1890, 65,533; 1900, 89,872, including 2500 persons of foreign birth and 35,900 of negro descent. The first settlement was made here about 1839, and was
