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2 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?