Newspaper Page Text
)
THE ATLANTIAN
5
What the Figures Really Mean
There is an old saying, usually accepted, to the effect that
figures do not lie. But bare statistical compilations can not always
be accepted as arguing a fact or establishing a conclusion. The
statement is now made that New York physicians who are especially
interested in the treatment and cure of alcoholism are much per-
urbed because hospital records in that city show that seven thou
sand persons are annually admitted to these institutions to be
treated for inebriety, where only three thousand were heretofore
admitted. It is argued from this fact that drunkenness and drink
ing are increasingly alarmingly.
The conclusion, while natural, is not necessarily final. In fact,
the figures prove nothing in themselves. The observation of those
who are in a position to study and know conditions as they exist
tends to substantiate the hope that the consumption of intoxicating
liquors is decreasing to a very marked extent. Records of the in
ternal revenue office lend color to this belief, and the accretion of
“dry” territory in many of the States of the Union would seem to
be cumulative evidence.
The fact is that scientific men, and w T e presume doctors in New
York and elsewhere will not object to being so classified, have come
to regard drunkenness as a disease. It is but natural, then, that it
should be treated as diseases are treated. Their prescribed method
of treatment is found in the hospitals and not in the jails.
It would not seem to be sufficient cause for alarm, or even dis
couragement, should these hospital records show even a much greater
increase of “commitments.” Our founds of the medical profession
are working along the right lines. Whether they have discovered
the “panacea” or not we shall not say. But as diagnosticians they
are unquestionably expert when they find the man or woman suffer
ing from dipsomania a candidate for the ambulance rather than for
the patrol wagon.
Politics and the Courts
By education, if not by instinct, the people of the United States
universally look upon the Federal Supreme Court, as a body, as
personifying and individualizing, collectively, all tfieir exalted ideas
of justice, equity and incorruptibility. No more wholesome condi
tion could exist. Chaos is near when a people loses confidence and
respect for its courts. We have ever hedged these tribunals about
with traditional reverence and a faith that they approach immutabil
ity. And this is not a blind faith, though the pathw'ay and beset
with many vicissitudes. It might require long argument to establish
the premise, but the conclusion is a safe one that these perplexities
QUEER, BUT CORRECT.
Prof. Brander Matthews, in his quality
of phiologist, said the other day in New
York:
“The past participle, ‘gotten,’ has
gone out in England, though it still lin
gers on with us. In England, however,
‘gotten’ is almost as obsolete as ‘put-
ten. ’
“In some parts of Cumberland the
villagers still use ‘ gotten ’ and ‘ putten ’
and a pupil teacher once told me of a
lesson on these past participles wherein
she gave her pupils an exercise to write
on the blackboard.
“In the midst of the exercise an urch
in began to laugh. She asked him why
he was laughing and he answered:
“ ‘Joe’s put putten where he should
have putten put.’ ”
After all, the best Thanksgiving is
thanks living.
IT PROBABLY WAS.
One of the big railroads lines has a
regular form for reporting accidents to
animals on its line. Recently a cow was
killed and the track foreman drew up
the report. In answer to the question,
“Disposition of carcass?” he wrote:
“Kind and gentle.”
‘ ‘ Thanksgiving ’ ’ is not a day; it is
a habit. We can not ne thankful on
Thanksgiving Day unless we have been
learning how every other day in the year.
There are some simple rules: Walk on
the sunny side of the street; live as much
as possible in the best room in the house;
think about your friends, not your ene
mies ; talk about your good luck, not your
bad. These are some of the ways of ac
quiring the spirit or cheerfulness which is
the only soil in which fV
‘ * Thanksgivin '
M. Farr
are not so much the creation of the courts as of the law-making
bodies.
The indisputable fact remains that in the end right does prevail.
And this is saying much when we stop to consider that infallible
man is legislator, juror, advocate and judge.
The Supreme Court of the United States has stood, since this
government was established, as the rock to which the ship of State
and the lesser craft of individual enterprise could be and have been
safely anchored. No more sincere eulogy could be spoken, either of
the men who have occupied that exalted bench or of the men who as
chief executives of the land have appointed them. Presidents are
politicians. Some of them have been popular heroes, but all have
been the creatures of one or the other of past or present great politi
cal parties. But the court, never elective, has been almost com
pletely divorced from politics or political influence.
W. C. Wilson on the Job
W. C. Wilson, president and general manager Atlanta Bag
gage & Cab Co., has announced the perfection of the arrangements
of a private telephone exchange, whereby the public can, without
delay or inconvenience, obtain information relative to trains con
nection, baggage, etc. In the past this had become a cause for
complaint and to remedy this Mr. Wilson has installed an up-to-date
private exchange with a lady in charge both day and night and
has taken special means to meet the public need. The directors are
to be congratulated on giving a good officer liberty, and the good
officer is to be complimented for the promptness with which he
used that liberty. Let us all be friends.
Broken Promises
(New York World.
Many people will be asking this evening why it all happened.
We think these paragraphs will explain it:
Tariff revision should be immediate, and on the whole there
should be a substantial revision downward.—Mr. Taft at St. Paul,
September 26, 1908.
The wise custom which limits the president to two terms re
gards the substance and not the form, and under no circumstances
will I be a candidate for or accept another nomination.—Mr. Roose
velt in 1904, repeated in 1907.
It is not often that the people of the United States find an op-
two presidential promise-breakers
A PINE DISTINCTION FOR
THE FAMILY.
He had had bad luck fishing, and on
his way home ho entered tho butcher
shop and said to the dealer: “Just stand
over there and throw me five of the big
gest of those trout! ’ ’
“Throw ’em? What for?” asked the
dealer in amazement.
“So I can tell the family I caught
’em. I may bo a poor fisherman, but I’m
no liar. ’ ’
WHAT WAS THE USE?
‘ ‘ Haven’t found your dog yet, I
hear?” asked Smith of his neighbor
Jones.
“No,” answered Jones ruefully.
“Well, have you advertised?” asked
Smith.
“What’s the use?” said Jones; “the
dog can’t read.”
portunity to pass judgment upon
at one election.
WHY HE COULDN’T GO IN.
A small but very black negro was
standing very erect at one side of the
door of a house where a.colored man had
just died. The services were about to
begin, when the negro clergyman appear
ed at the door and said to the little fel
low :
“The services are about to begin.
Aren’t you coming inside?”
“I would if I could,” said the small
boy, “but, you see, Iso de crape.”
NO MORE CHILDREN.
Little Mary’s father had denied her
a pleasure which she had confidently ex
pected to enjoy. That night, when she
said lior prayers at her mother’s knee,
she concluded with this petition:
“And please don’t give my papa any
••■ore children. He don’t know how to
.... *’ IS*'