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The Golden Age
(SUCCESSOR TO RELIGIOUS FORUM)
Published Ebery Thursday by the Golden Hge Publishing
Company (Inc.)
OFFICES: LOWNDES -BUILDING, ATLANTA. GA.
Price: $2.00 a 'Pear
WILLIAM D. UPSHfXW, - - - - Editor
A. E. RAMSAUR, - Associate Editor
W. F. UPSHAW, - - - - Business Manager
H. R. BERNARD, - - - Sec’y and Treas
Entered at the Post Office in Ga.,
as second-class matter.
To the Public: The advertising columns of The
Golden Age will have an editorial conscience. No
advertisement will be accepted which we believe
would be hurtful to either the person or the purse of
our readers.
A Refreshing Exception.
The Atlanta Georgian, the new evening paper,
with John Temple Graves as editor, and F. L. See
ly as publisher, is going to be unique among Ameri
can dailies. It will exclude from its columns all
kinds of liquor advertisements and other things un
clean and questionable.
True to its motto, “Wisdom, Truth, Moderation.”
The Georgian will not commit the inconsistent un
wisdom of declaring itself the friend of the home
and the family, and then carry to the fireside flam
ing advertisements of every day that despoiles the
home and character which has wrought such havoc
in this suffering world. This new daily will not
■write stirring editorials about the making and
meaning of citizenship and then carry in the same
columns a paid invitation to strike down that citi
zenship in the sacred temple of its own building.
This new daily will not deal in platitudes about the
working ideals of our Christian civilization, and
then flaunt into the face of the youth it would in
spire, the purchased signboards that point that
youth toward those golden gateways to eternal
darkness—the actual hotbeds of anarchy on earth
and the gleeful forerunners of the chaos and an
archy of hell.
“We are not mad, most noble Festus!” But
we declare with emphasis shat truth recently ut
tered by the New York Tribune: “The saloon has
no rights.”
No harshness now for the citizen who follows
his legalized business of liquor selling; no unkind
personalities for the owners and editors of papers
that do advertise liquor; no singling out and cham
pioning one newspaper as compared with another
from the standpoint of general news and service.
This is not an hour for personalities—it is an
hour that calls for the crowning of Principle, and
we rejoice in that principle in The Atlanta Geor
gian which causes it to deliberately cast away thous
ands of dollars every year for the sake of being
true and pure and clean. Advertising liquor “for
the money that’s in it” cannot be defended, and
thousands of homes in Georgia, the South and the
Nation will welcome this refreshing exception in
daily journalism.
The Child Labor Laws.
During the past few years much attention has
beeen given by the press and the people to the ques
tion of child labor in the mills of the country with,
perhaps, more especial reference to those in the
South. The latter fact is due, chiefly, to the larger
number of cotton mills in the southern part of the
country and increased opportunities for the work
of children in mills of that sort. It therefore seems
more imperative that the subject be carefully con
sidered, intelligently dealt with and wisely disposed
of in the South first, with the hope that other local
ities may be inspired to follow our good example.
A careful consideration of the question from a
moral point of -view inevitably leads to the con
clusion that any situation conducive to an unnat
ural physical condition and an arrested physical
development acts in like manner on the moral
sense—arrested development of the body leads to
a similar state or condition of the mind or soul,
and the recognition of this fact has led both home
and foreign missionaries to devote much time and
attention to the amelioration of physical ills, with
the expectation that a moral advancement will fol
low. It has been proven that this hope is justified
by the results, hence we cannot but deprecate any
form of life which tends to dwarf the physical well
being—if for no other reason than because of its
influence on the moral and mental state.
Economic ends may be attained in many in
stances by the use of additional mechanical devices
in the mills which would obviate the need of the
labor of little children and the attendant train of
ills which this labor brings.
Childhood is by right of its very helplessness,
a. period of development and should be also a pe
riod of physical relaxation—Nature’s laws demand
it and any violation of these laws is to be deplored
and discountenanced.
One remedy which has not been given sufficient
attention is the passage by the United States Gov
ernment of compulsory educational laws which
would, in almost every instance, prove the anti
dote for the child labor question by starving out
the “material” now used for this purpose, and thus
giving to the children of the South as well as of
the entire country, some of the rights and privi
leges which should be their natural heritage.
A Paternal Government.
An investigating committee has found that there
are four hundred carloads of publications issued
from the Government printing office in Washing
ton which cannot be given away or forced into cir
culation, and that the Government is renting three
buildings at a cost of $13,600.00 per year for the
purpose of storing them. There are those who ob
ject to this action on the part of the Government
and complain as to the expense of storage; and re
sent the fact that there is enough money expended
in printing and storing every four years to build
a battle ship. There seems to be a spirit of un
kind criticism among our people. It is sad that
we can’t have the battleship, and the Government
deserves criticism—harsh criticism, for not build
ing- us more, but consider the kindness manifested
in the storage of these publications. Better to do
without battleships always and pay this storage
bill than to have these four hundred carloads of
reading matter thrust upon us. Let’s keep the
stuff stored at any expense. It is safer there. We
can do without the ships—can even be reconciled
to the fact that at the end of each quadrennial we
should have a new ship and haven’t, soothed by the
reflection that our paternal Government is hold
ing ponded up there in Washington that flood of
printed matter and that it will not be poured upon
us.
Cotton Futures Gambling.
Five years ago, a certain capable lawyer living
in a well known Georgia town, might well have
been selected as the one citizen most likely to dis
tinguish himself and reflect honor upon his comuni
ty. He was thirty-five years of age, happily mar
ried, and modestly boasted that he did not know
the taste of whiskey nor tobacco. He owned his
home, and some good farms, made a good income
from his practice, published a county paper, and
discharged efficiently the duties of county school
commissioner. Having been a member of the State
Senate, he had had his little fling in politics. As
he had made a good record in the legislature, and
retired with uncorrupted habits, one might have con
cluded him staunch and safe. Big of body, he was
likewise big of brain, and big-hearted. It seemed
to give him pleasure to help the needy; he gave
cordially to the support of his church.
To-day that man is a fugitive from justice. Sev
eral indictments charging embezzlement, cheating
and swindling, forgery and other kindred crimes
yawn as the open prison door on the docket book
of his county. He dares not face the court where
Editor
The Golden Age for April 19, 1906.
once his eloquence and his logic shared honors with
the keenest criminal advocate in the state.
A strong' man caught in the current of the under
tow! He was a strong man; he was a good man;
at the age of thirty-five he did not possess the ele
ments even of villainy. He had been reared on a
farm, and had wrought his way to prominence by
sheer merit. He was worthy of all the confidence
the people reposed in him.
Then, whence his ruin? The bucket shop! The
same insidious, strong right arm of the devil which
is blasting more homes and blackening more souls
in our South to-day, than the rum-shops. He
knew this current was dangerous. Otheis embark
ing weaker than he, he knew mrst faint, but surely
with his experience, his legal learning, his sober
life, he could trust himself to steer safely through
treacherous shoals. Serene in his confidence, he be
gan to play the game.
When losses came larger than his own funds could
cover, he could borrow from the trust hands in
his hands and no one should ever know—if he won
and replaced it. Then, lost again. The game grew
desperate. To quit now meant poverty and some
humiliation. The luck must turn; he felt the hour
had struck to recoup his losses. Did he have
“nerve” enough to act on his judgment? Yes, he
had nerve; why throw away the golden, opportuni
ties when only a few “conventionalities” stood be
tween him and the money for the stake. Confident
that his time to win had come, he gathered every
dollar that he could borrow by process fair or foul,
staked it on the game—and lost. Honor, reputa
tion, character—all lost! Perhaps his eternal soul
lost!
There remained to him choice of only three
courses. Suicide? The weakling’s refuge! He was
young yet, and a mental colossus. No, he was no
weakling; he would live. Surrender? The honest
course, to be sure, but he could not make restitu
tion, and without restitution, surrender meant long
and weary years in prison, and a fag end of life
beyond scarcely worth while. Flight ? Oh, yes,;
if he fly far enough, and hide safely he might live
as a free man, perhaps repent, succeed in business
under a new name, and by and by return what he had
stolen. He fled, may he repent, prosper and restore.
But why speak of the sad case? There’s reason
enough when one sees the increasing number of
bucket-shops opening up in our cities and towns.
Georgia needs state prohibition against the sale
of liquor, but her need to crush bucket-shop gamb
ling is greater.
Photographing Ghosts.
By the aid of photography some very remarkable
investigations are being made in the realm of psy
chic research. Prof. Chas. Richet, member of the
French Academy, has succeeded in getting a fairly
distinct photograph of a ghost or materialized
spirit. Experiments conducted by other scientists
seem to demonstrate that a spirit, a life substance,
or at any rate, a something visible to the camera,
leaves the body at the moment of death. Many
startling claims as to demonstrations in this field
are made by several eminent and entirely respecta
ble scientists.
This writer cannot say that he believes in ghosts,
or that spirits can be photographed. Such a state
ment would bring him into trouble at once. He
recognizes what a ridiculous proposition it appears
upon its face, and is also awake to the richness
of this subject for funny editorial writing, but the
camera’s testimony in the matter tends to convince.
It cannot be hypnotized—and it is in every way
more reliable than any human observation. For
long a most successful trick of jugglers was to stand
on a stage before a houseful of people, cause a rope
to erect itself toward the ceiling, then climb to
the top and disappear. Every individual who saw
it believed it had actually happened that way. Fi
nally the camera showed that it didn’t happen; that
the audience was simply hypnotized, and saw what
did not in point of fact occur. It is interesting
to speculate upon the probable developments in
psychic knowledge which bid fair to occur as the
experiments continue.