The Golden age. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1906-1915, September 27, 1906, Page 8, Image 8

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8 The Golden Age (SUCCESSOR TO RELIGIOUS FORUN) Published Ebery Thursday by the Golden Hge Publishing Company (Inc.) OFFICES: LOWNDES 'BUILDING, [ATLANTA, GA. Price: $2.00 a 'Pear WILLIfXMD. UPSHfXW, .... Editor A. E. RAJIS A UR, - - - Associate Editor Entered at the Post Office tn [Atlanta, 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. Mr. Charles N. Crittenden. A visitor in Atlanta at the present who com mands more than usual interest is Mr. Charles N. Crittendon, the “millionaire-evangelist” and philanthropist. Mr. Crittenden would, perhaps, be averse to just these titles, but the world has seen enough of his valuable work, and we know enough of his splendid life to feel justified in the use of these terms. Although not converted until past middle life Mr. Crittenden is today a most ardent Christian, and one of the most successful evangelists in the coun try. Some years ago he lost his little 5-year-old daughter, Florence, and during the time of trial he became convinced of the truth and beauty of Christianity and yielded his heart and life to Christ. Being a practical, as well as a thoroughly earnest man, he decided to use his fortune for the practical good of humanity, and he turned his attention to founding rescue homes for young women. These homes he named in honor of his little daughter, and today there is scarcely a city in the country where there is not a “Florence Crittenden Home” for young women. Mr. Crittenden is at present ad dressing large audiences at the First Methodist Church in Atlanta, and is welcomed by all good people. We hope soon to have a full story of his great work appear in The Golden Age. A Beautiful Tribute. At the recent dedicatory services of the Ponce de Leon Avenue Baptist Church, a resolution was passed by the members which was a touching trib ute to the memory of the only one of the large congregation who had passed into the Great Beyond since the organization of the church. This member was Mr. Joseph Brown Whitehead, a man univer sally beloved and deservedly honored by his fellow church members, as well as by the entire commun ity of Atlanta, where he was well known. The memorial decided on by the Ponce de Leon Avenue Baptist Church is to take the form of a handsome stained glass window, to be erected in the beautiful little chapel of the Georgia Baptist Orphans’ home. Mr. Whitehead had been a strong friend of this in stitution, and as he was most actively interested in all philanthropic work, this memorial was es pecially fitting. A Presbyterian Pastor. Mr. William D. Upshaw, Atlanta, Ga.: My Dear Sir.—l have just read “The Moral Grandeur of William J. Bryan” as copied in The Constitution from The Golden Age, and hope it may have wide circulation. I have been wanting to say something of the kind myself, but you have said it better than I could. Thank you for it. And may God help you to write many other such arti cles. Very sincerely yours, N. B. MATHES, Pastor Presbyterian Church, Euharlee, Ga. “What you do not want done to yourself do not do to others,” The Golden Age for September 27, 1906. Atlanta’s Sorrow. Atlanta’s horror has been Atlanta’s sorrow. Our hearts are too heavy to discuss it now, either as to primal cause or its ultimate effect. It is enough to say to our friends at a distance who have read the news of the race riot in the daily press—be patient; do not forget the brutal outrages that preceded it, and do not hold the whole city or section responsi ble for what the few have done. Eleven reported outrages on our sisters, daugh ters, wives and mothers in the last few weeks! This would have stirred to frenzy any community North as well as South. Four such reports Satur day afternoon—and when the last sensational “ex tra” announced the fourth crime in one afternoon, the match was touched to the powder magazine and the explosion shook the city and startled the nation. Without warning a mob was upon the city and pandemonium broke loose. Mobs never stop to think, whether shooting down negroes for want ing to work at Pana, Illinois, or chasing and beat ing negroes in New York because a policeman has been maltreated by one of the race—and so here in Atlanta innocent negroes were beaten and killed and faithful officers of the law lost their lives in trying to put down the disturbance. Os course the great mass of the best citizens of Atlanta knew nothing of the riot until a few law less, whiskey-filled wretches had led a mob of ex cited youths into the perpetration of violent deeds. The spirit of the real heart of our great city is voiced in the following ringing call, printed in large letters across the first page of The Atlanta Geor gian : IN A TIME LIKE THlS—it is the duty of every man to defend our city and our state against the disgrace that has come to us. Al though the crimes that have been committed by negroes are unbearable, let every true citizen show that he does not approve of the suffering and death of the innocent victims of mobs. Men, keep cool—God and the world are looking on and demanding that we punish the guilty— not the innocent. Now, that is the w'ay to build civilization. While other evening papers were issuing flaming and in flaming extras announcing the first, second, third and fourth assault upon white women, some of which were groundless, Frederick L. Seely, the wise Christian proprietor of The Georgian, issued no “extra,” and when the 12 o’clock edition of his paper came out Monday, the above noble call to sanity, humanity and Christianity was the first voice of his great paper to the excited populace of a troubled and sorrowing city. No nobler gathering of brave hearted men ever assembled in our city than the several hundred cit izens who met in the court house last Tuesday aft ernoon. Gray haired pioneers Who had builded At lanta spoke in tears and stalwart young men who are catching their falling mantles spoke in loyalty and in love. Resolutions condemning the outrages of criminal negroes and likewise the outrages of the murderous mob were passed, and an offering of over three thousand dollars was made for the fam ilies of the victims, both white and black. This act of caring for the families of innocent men who have perished tells to the outside world that the true heart of Atlanta has spoken. The mayor and council have closed all saloons in the city until the excitement is over and there is a growing sentiment that they ought to remain closed forever. This is a star in the sky of night. Even as the God of nations brought blessing to America through the scourge of war, so the God of our Christian civilization can and will overrule Atlanta’s reign of horror and sorrow for the ulti mate good of our people who are bravely wrestling with the greatest problem which any nation ever faced, Pictures That Dishonor Women. The present crusade in Atlanta against the low dives of the: city is timely and vigorous. It has been too long delayed. The recent outrages by de praved negroes on the waves and daughters of some of our best homes have been tile immediate cause of this crusade. In trying to trace the sources of such a horrible avalanche of the “unmentionable crime,” it has been learned that these wretches were loungers about Decatur street dives and in some cases were last seen there before the crime was committed. What then? The character of these dives must be minutely investigated by the students of criminology and their “dangerous tendencies” suppressed by the officers of the law. And what did they find? Besides the liquor which “respectable citizens” in Atlanta allow these dives to sell, the investigating officers and students of crime found the nude pictures of women decor ating the walls. And the plain theory is given that after these depraved wretches drink and ca rouse and look on these pictures for a time, then they rush out to perpetrate the rapidly multiplying crimes that stagger society, enrage our manhood and menace our civilization. And the deductions of these practical sociologists are plainly true. But has it ever occurred to these same gentlemen that the half-nude picture of a woman is more than half as productive of moral crime as a full-nude picture is? And yet in our business offices, on the walls of our banks, and—shameful to allow or look at—in our barber shops galore, the half-nude pictures of women abound. “Call again, sir,” says the smiling barber to the writer on patronizing some new shop. And the an swer is given: “When you take that shameful pic ture down I will—and not before.” Such pictures hung where young men gather not only have the “povrer of suggestion” so far as evil thoughts and evil deeds are concerned, but then and there these shameful pictures are productive of shameful conversation which the sisters, wives and sweethearts of these men could not hear. No de cent man will continue to patronize such a shop. And whenever an advertising man tries to hang such pictures in an office to preach their devilish suggestions to all men—and women who enter there —he ought to be shown the door; and if he is slow about finding it he ought to have prompt assist ance, and if necessary to stop him in his blighting career respectable citizens ought to “ride him on a rail” out of town. And listen, fair women, you—many of you—are unconscious contributors to this fund of evil sug gestion. Whenever a woman goes to a photographer and has her picture made showing all of her person that the law will allow, and suffers that artist to display that picture in his gallery or in his show window on the street, that very woman begins, with her half-nude picture, the wretched influence that ends in a full-nude picture in a saloon! And whenever a woman makes herself common to all men by dressing decollette or pretending to cover with gauze the person that should be sacred, she begins the sensual influence which leads not only to pictures of shame, but sometimes alas, to deeds of horror! Let every woman who reads these words deter mine that no consideration will ever induce her to have such a picture made again. And let the women of Atlanta, of Georgia, of the South—of America— start a holy crusade that will tear every such pic ture from office, shop and dwelling and make it both a social and a legal crime for such dresses to be worn or such pictures to be made and dis played ! Call this suggestion extreme and drastic if you will, but everybody knows that such a crusade would be holier than Coeur de Leon ever led—everybody knows that we would then have purer manhood and purer womanhood, purer homes and purer civiliza tion.