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The Golden Age
(SUCCESSOR TO RELIGIOUS FORUM)
Published Ebery Thursday by the Golden Hge Publishing
Company (Inc.)
OFFICES: LOWNDES FUILDING. ATLANTA, GA.
Price: $2.00 a lear
Ministers $1.50 per 'fear.
In cases of foreitn address fifty cents should be added to cobet
additional postage.
Make all remittances payable to The Golden Age Publishing Company.
WILLIAM D. UPSHXW, - - - - Editor
A. E. RAMSAITR, - - - Managing Editor
LEM G. BROUGHTON - - - Pulpit Editor
Entered at the Post Office tn Atlanta, Ga„
as second-class matter.
<TR a5F< / OUNC Q
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.
"Bishop Galloivay.
For the first time in life it was the Editor's
high privilege last week to personally meet and
greet Bishop Chas. B. Galloway. Learning that he
was on the tiain in Mississippi the writer sought
an interview —and found it an intellectual and spir
itual tonic. It only required a few minutes to
see what it is about the personality of this great
and good man that has made him for a quarter of
a century not only the pride of Southern Method
ism, but loved and honored by all who know him.
Bishop Galloway has led the fight which has al
most freed Mississippi of saloons and we have in
vited him to give the readers of The Golden Age
the stirring story.
And Valdosta, Too!
Verily, it is glory enough for one week! Lowndes
county, Georgia, with Valdosta, the “Queen City
of the Pines,” as her capitol, banishes saloons
from her borders by the handsome, surprising ma
jority of eight hundred and nine! And this fol
lows Bartow’s overwhelming victory only four
days! Our “Valdosta vision of victory” last
week proved indeed a prophecy.
When it is remembered that saloons were strong
ly entrenched in Valdosta and that at the begin
ning of the battle the cloud was “dark and low
ering” for the prohibition forces, a majority of
nearly three to one against saloons is glorious to
contemplate.
We are just on the eve of going to press and
cannot give the details of this memorable con
flict, but the Editor who was called back from lec
ture dates in Mississippi was on the field from
early morn to midnight splendor, and the scenes
which beggar all description will be partly told
next week.
We make no apology for the abundance of An
ti-saloon matter in our columns in this and recent
issues. The Golden Age stands for “Purity in the
State,” and, thank God, we are winning every day.
•9 n
Libe Oak Gets Big Conference.
Live Oak, Florida, one of the most stirring and
beautiful little cities of eight thousand people in
all the South, is justly beside herself with joy and
self-congratulation because Dr. L. G. Broughton,
director of the Atlanta Tabernacle Bible Confer
ence, has agreed to bring out a “Florida Edition”
of the same conference in the city of Live Oak.
Dr. Broughton has just been assisting Rev. C. A.
Ridley, pastor of the First Baptist Church, in a
great meeting, and being peculiarly impressed with
the fitness of Live Oak —both in the leadership
of Mr. Ridley and the co-operation of the people,
far a successful planting of a mid-winter Bible
Conference, he propt sod to bring the world-famous
speakers of his famous Tabernacle Conference di
rect to Live Oak every winter. The plan is al
ready agreed upon, and Mr. Ridley’s already beau
tiful and commodious church will be enlarged to
meet the demands of his own growing work and
also to accommodate the mid-winter conference.
Being undenominational in their scope and list
of speakers, but deeply evangelical and “orthodox”
in their spirit, these conferences will attract great
crowds of native Floridians and winter tourists.
It will be a great spiritual uplift to Live Oak
and all that section —and not without its commer
cial value, as well—and some of the great-souled
business men of Live Oak who carry their hearts
in the right place would make a wise investment to
endow this great movement sufficiently to make its
success doubly sure from the beginning.
We salute the live town of Live Oak on her sig
nal and far-reaching victory.
»? I?
Bartolv's Plarbelous Victory.
The like was never seen before! The victory
against liquor in Cartersville and Baitow county
on the 20th day of June in the year cf our Lord
1907, was the most overwhelming and glorious we
have ever heard of since prohibition elections be
gan.
Away out in Mississippi the Editor of this pa
per received the following telegram the night
“after the battle”:
“Mr. AV. 1). Upshaw, D 11 ant, Miss.
“Drv bv 1,621 ma’oiitv. Thank God for vic
tory. ' ' ' Mrs. L. R. Gilreath.
This was glory enough for one day! And in
the berth of the sleeping car which was boarded
at 1 o’clock in the morning this thrilling message
from the secretary of the AV. C. T. U. of Carters
ville brought a music to the soul that sang unwill
ing eyes to tardy sleep.
It was naturally supposed that such a great ma
jority in a county election simply meant that the
contending forces had mustered all the voting
strength of the county and that there were several
hundred who had the hardihood to vote for li
quor’s return to Bartow c unty. But, no! Til
opposition which at first seemed so formidable
that many prohibitionists w’ere for a time uneasy,
had melted away before the “holy crusade” un
til only ninety-four voters in the entire coun'y
could be found under the red flag of rum and
ruin!
The truth is the whiskey men became ashamed
of themselves.
It was bad enough anywhere, but the very shama
of trying to bring liquor back to Bartow’ county
so soon after the death of the beloved and immor
tal Sam Jones dawned on these men more and
more as the united campaign of enthusiasm, pray
er and work rose and rolled toward the day of bat
tle like a tidal wave from ocean, earth and sky.
And the women —Heaven bless them! Led by
the Woman’s Clnistian Temperance Union they
guarded the polls like sentinels of light and love.
As the voters appeared on the -grounds they were
approached by these fearless, consecrated women
and asked: “'Under which flag?”
If the answer was right he was esicrled to th)
sacred ballot box with joy and thanksgiving. But
if lie hesitated he w’as reckoned at once as wrong,
and argument and pleading were used.
If these fell on seemingly careless ears and
heart, those women didn’t do a thing but drop
on their knees around that wayward, halting vote-,
and pray for his conversion then and there. The
poor fellow w’ould naturally drop his head at first
and “feel like a fool,” then, aw’akened and start
led. he would look up and see the picture of Sam
Jones locking at him in sorrow from his throne
above the ballot box; and then that voter looked
around him at the hundreds of bright faced chil
dren, bearing the banner, “VOTE FOR US!” And
through all these the voice of God spoke to him
from earth and Heaven. That voter surrendered!
And as ho walked forward to deposit his white
ballot of purity he felt that he had joined the
Editor
torv.
The Golden Age for June 27, 1907.
of heroes and heroines while shouts of victory rang
out on every side.
AVith such champions w’hat cause could not win?
AVhittier’s “Angels of Buena Vista” needs now
a companion piece in the literature of sentiment
and heroism. AVe commend to the nation’s poet
laureate another theme —“The Angels of Bartow’s
Victory.” A thousand such women could set At
lanta free!
The grave of Sam Jones, then, will not be dis
honored by the bartenders’ unholy feet. “The
great rifle us from their urns,” and the dead hero
spoke from the tomb that day as he reigned over
the hearts and ballots of men.
This marvelous victory in Bartow has electrified
the state, and it will have a stimulating effect on
legislators and a terrifying effect on the liquor
forces in Georgia just as the General Assembly
meets.
AVe salute our sister states in their splendid vic
tories over the saloon and we waft the inspiring
tidings that Georgia is coming on!
*9 V.
What If He "Did?
The expected has happened. Mr. Alfred Thom,
chief counsel of the Southern Railway, wisely used
his opportunity as commencement orator at Ath
ens to discuss before the young men who are to be
our future voters and statesmen, some of the great
principles wrapped up in railroad legislation.
What if he did? He did it dispassionately. He
did it like a gentleman talking to gentlemen.
But our great contemporary, the Atlanta Journal,
which seems to be suffering with an aggravated
case of “corporation dementia” or “railroad
phobia,” belabois the distinguished AVashington
lawyer most elaborately because he “abused his
hospitality.” The Journal thinks it “just awful”
that Mr. Thom should have been invited to the
commencement at all, but especially at variance
with all proprieties that he should have even men
tioned any phase of railroad agitation and legis
lation to which he has naturally given so much
thought. Perhaps he should have delivered a pleas
ing platitude on “The Uses of Adversity,” or
“Hamlet’s Highmightiness, ” or “Spring, the
Springtime of Sprouting,” or mayhap that ever
inspiring theme, “Over the Alps Lies Italy.” No,
no! Come to think of it, that last subject wou’d
never do —for they have a tunnel now through the
Alps—and that would suggest a railroad!
In all fairness two questions: Suppose some
man, the Hon. W. A. Covington, or Judge S. A.
Roddenberry, for instance, had been the orator at
Athens, and had discussed with fearless eloquence
(as each of these splendid men would have done)
the dangers of corporations and general railroad
encroachment, pointing the duties of citizenship to
Young America plain and clear!
The orator’s picture would have adorned the
front page of The Journal, accompanying the full
text of “that clarion call to our statesmen in em
bryo.”
Then why should not the other side be calmly
and dispassionately discussed? The Journal talks
as if the railroads are the greatest enemies the peo
ple have today. But every time its Editor rides
on one or sends his great paper by thousands
speeding o\'er the land he secretly blesses these
great agencies of convenience and commercial de
velopment.
There is too much of that spirit abroad that
turns short horned yearlings into Jerseys whenever
they are struck by a railroad “cowcatcher” or that
says on the part of plaintiff and jury: “Get
everything out of the railroad you can —just or
unjust!”
And such wholesale denunciation as some papers
indulge in, unconsciously increases this spirit of
unfairness —better say., dishonesty —on the part
of S) many people.
And let The Journal remember, as we pointed
out not long ago, that every time it goes into a
home as a “newspaper” and a “home builder”
and carries a glowing advertisement of any brand
of the organized liquor power, it sends a poisoned
arrow into the body and soul of American youth,
and grossly “abuses the hospitality” of that home.
