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EDWARD YOUNG CLARKE, JR.
An Appreciation :— ( Sy Lalvton 'Riley.
Everybody in Georgia who keeps in touch with
things religious in the Capital City must know Ed
ward Young Clarke, the religious editor of The At
lanta Constitution. Certainly everybody in the
state who reads the columns of The Constitution
knows him. And certainly every Christian man and
woman in Georgia, who has kept in touch with
Edward Young Clarke’s work on The Constitu
tion, must feel grateful to him, for the great work
he has done for the cause of Christianity with his
brains and with his pen.
In the first place, Edward Young Clarke is no
ordinary man. The Congregational Methodist
Church only recently recognized this fact, when the
leaders of that denomination appointed him to the
high and responsible position of Business Manager
of the affairs of the Church in America. This po
sition places in the hands of Mr. Clarke the man
agement of the publishing house of the church,
which is now located at Milner, Ga., but which will
soon be removed by him to Atlanta, the Atlanta Bi
ble School, and The Watchman, the official organ
of the Congregational Methodist Church.
Such an honor comes but seldom to any young
Christian in the working ranks of the Kingdom.
But the honor was wisely bestowed. For if a
search was made throughout the length and
breadth of Georgia, it can safely be said that no
man could be found who would discharge the ar
duous duties of so responsible a position with more
ability and with more earnestness and zeal.
Still a young man, with some years more than a
decade between him and his prime, Edward Young
Clarke is a son of Atlanta, having been born and
reared in the Capital City. His education was ob
tained at the knee of his father, Col. E. Y. Clarke,
the well known publisher, long prominent in Pres
byterian church affairs. All his literary instruc
tion was received in the privacy of his home. He
never attended a school, not even a grammar school,
yet there are few young men in the state so well
equipped for Christian service, so far as literary
and scientific learning are concerned, as he.
In early boyhood, Mr. Clarke displayed his lit
erary talents. His first work was done on The
Southern Presbyterian, a paper edited and. pub
lished by his father, and he soon established him
self as a writer of ability.
Upon the resignation of Rev. Lucien L. Knight,
the well known author and orator, from the edito
rial staff of The Constitution, Mr. Clarke w 7 as of
fered a position upon that paper, which he ac
cepted, his special work being the handling of the
religious news. For several years he worked in va
rious reportorial and editorial capacities, editing
all along the religious department. Although bur
dened with his other work, he succeeded in mak
ing the religious columns of The Constitution the
most interesting of any newspaper in the state.
A year ago he was relieved of all his other news
paper work and allowed to give his entire attention
to the religious features. Since then Mr. Clarke’s
religious writings have attracted attention all over
the South. He has handled the religious happen
ings in Atlanta in such a manner as has caused
him to be known to thousands as a journalist of
great fearlessness and as a writer whose pen has
been consecrated to the service of God and dedicated
to fairness and truth. He has never yet cham
pioned an unworthy cause during all his journalistic
service. He has never written a false line inten
tionally. He has never been partial to any man
or institution in any article he has ever written,
to aid a selfish motive or satisfy a personal whim.
He has never intentionally wronged a single human
by any line from his pen, and it is the crowning
glory of his career that truth, justice and fairness
have ever marked his work above all his other vir
tues, during the days of his service as a Christian
journalist.
Few people indeed, who have kept up with Mr.
Clarke’s religious work on The Constitution, know
anything of the hardships he has suffered, and of
the struggles he has had to make. In order for a
journalist to always write the truth he must be
above everything else, fearless! And the journal-
The Golden Age for May 23, 1907.
ist who is fearless and really writes the truth must
suffer many times for the sake of fairness and
right. Mr. Clarke has been fearless and has writ
ten the truth when it has cost him a great deal. He
has lost friends by writing the truth upon many
occasions. He has made enemies by denouncing
fake religious schemes, and by showing up religious
shams in their true lights in the public press. He
has many times caused criticism, not always favor
able, to be heaped upon him, when contending for
a righteous but unpopular cause, and when mis
understood by a few who did not know the purity
of his motives. He has often fought battles for the
religious interests of Atlanta, single handed and
alone. And he has, by his splendid work on The
Constitution, caused many of the daily papers
throughout the South to give more space and devote
more attention to the religious interests.
The Atlanta newspapers have given more space to
religious matters since Mr. Clarke became religious
editor of The Constitution than ever before. He
impressed the other newspapers with the impor
tance of devoting all the space possible to religious
news, and to the exposition of religious needs.
A Religious Speaker.
Mr. Clarke is a speaker of no mean ability. As
both a lay preacher and as a lecturer, he is favora
bly known throughout the state. Though a mem
ber of the Presbyterian Church with no intention
of ever severing his connection with that denomina
tion, he frequently preaches in the pulpits of other
churches, especially those of the Congregational
Methodist Church, of whose business interests he
has so recently been appointed the manager. His
lectures during the past year on “The Bible,” de
livered at various times before the students of the
Atlanta Bible School, have been noted for their
depth of thought and for the brilliancy of their
composition. He has for several years preached one
Sunday in each month for the Presbyterians of
Clarkston, Ga., in the Methodist and Baptist church
es of that town.
Although he has used his pen vastly more than
his tongue in his Christian work, he has delighted
all the audiences who have been so fortunate as to
hear him proclaim the Gospel.
Although he has accepted the position of Busi
ness Manager of the American interests of the
Congregational Methodist Church, he will still re
tain his membership in the Presbyterian Church, in
which he was raised, and in which he has done so
much good work.
* *
A pompous oraitor rose to make an extended
speech at an electioneering meeting. He began in
this fashion: “Mr. Chairman, I have lived long
enough ’’ “Hear, hear!” yelled the audience,
and amid a storm of laughter the aspirant for po
litical honors resumed his seat.
*3 *
An Irishman, wishing to take a homestead, and
not knowing just how to go about it, sought infor
mation from a friend. “Mike,” he said, 11 you’ve
taken a homestead, an’ I thought maybe ye could
tell me th’ law concernin’ how 7 to go about it.”
“Well, Dennis, I don’t remimber th’ exact wordin’
uv th’ law, but I can give ye th’ manin’ uv it. Th
manin’ uv it is this: Th’ governmint is willin’ t’
bet ye 160 acres uv land agin sl4 thot ye can’t live
on it five years widout starvin’ t’ death.” —Every-
body’s Magazine.
»5 *
There were callers, and no one seemed to notice
the small girl who sat quietly in her corner. Pres
ently the conversation turned to dentistry. “It is
really amazing,” said her grandfather, “the prog
ress that has been made in dentistry since I was
a boy. But then, too, people take better care of
their teeth now than they used to.” “I take good
care of my teeth,” volunteered the three-year-old.
The visitors turned to her, smiling. “Is that so?”
one exclaimed. “How do you take care of your
teeth, dear?” The little girl glanced shyly at her
grandfather. “I keep mine in,” she said.
The Field of the Prohibition Conflict.
The object of this column is to inform our read
ers in every issue of the progress of prohibition.
It will can tain news as well as occasional opinions.
The Texas Baptist Standard of May 9, gives in|
full an interview with that princely man, Geo.
W. Carroll, published in a recent number of the
Houston Chronicle. The interview is as to what
Mr. Carroll found at Tyler, Texas, on a recent
visit:
“I found more business being done within a
given space than I had ever seen before anywhere.
Some of the large Texas cities would be proud to
have their market places and stores crowded as
were those of Tyler.
“The great plaza was a thickly crowded mass of
men and teams so close that their wagon wheels
were constantly becoming locked with each other.
I saw from 500 to 800 country wagons standing
so close that they touched. The clerks were not
able to wait on the people fast enough.
“I went to all classes of people, and, without
their knowing my purpose, and many of them be
ing unacquainted with my identity, I asked them
as to the effect of local option on business condi
tions.
“In every instance the reply was the same, that
business conditions had undergone a marked and
immediate change for the better on the expulsion
of the licensed saloons, and that every step that
was taken to more strictly enforce the law and keep
out any kind of liquor in any form, had improved
these conditions. Farmers, merchants, lawyers, doc
tors, barbers, school men and others were inter
viewed, and the result was always the same.
“One Hebrew merchant told me that he was
so crowded w’ith business since the enforcement of
the law that he did not find time to take the neces
sary rest. Strictly from the pecuniary advantages
to be derived therefrom, he w 7 as a prohibitionist.
“School men told me that the attendance at the
public schools had vastly increased, and that it had
been necessary to erect new buildings to accommo
date the children.
The Jug Law Effective.
“While there I got statistics as to the effect
of the C. O. D. law that requires a man to order
and pay in advance for whiskey that is sent in
by express. I discovered that the reduction of
jugs shipped in since this law’ went into effect was
in the ratio of 100 to 3.
“Before that time every express man was prac
tically in the saloon business. A saloonkeeper would
order 100 jugs shipped in by express C. O. D. and
when a man w 7 anted whiskey he would simply go to
the local express agent and inquire if there was a
jug there for John Smith.
“The agent would bring out a jug, the ‘bibu
lously inclined one’ would pay the charges and
go his way. It had simply transferred the location -
of the saloon to the express office, but now, when
men must real I ' 7 order in advance, and it is no
longer made handy for them to buy, only three
jugs arc- shipped in where 100 were before. That
means that 97 out of every 100 jugs shipped before,
constituted an evasion of the local option law.
“A Business Proposition.
“With the moral question entirely eliminated the
prohibition issue is the greatest issue before the
American people from a purely business standpoint.
“If it is not a paying thing to abolish the liquor
trade from a purely financial viewpoint, leaving
the questions of murder and morals entirely to
one side, then we will be a long time abolishing
but it is good business to cut it out. Liquor men
are not producers because they do not add to the
wealth of the community.”
A recent case before the recorder in Macon raised
the question: Is a man intoxicated by morphine,
“legally intoxicated”? There is no doubt but that
a common effect of morphine is to produce actions
that very clearly resemble intoxication. But is
such intoxication legal? That is the question. In
toxication produced by common strong drink is
illegal, but is the same true of the intoxication
produced by drugs?