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139 to 39—Georgia Redeemed—January 1, 1908
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VOLUME TWO.
‘HUMBER TWE NTT-THREE
WHAT WE THINK OF WHAT WE SEE
“I like philosophy on general principles, but the
man who invented the frickshun match, dun the
world more good than the author of the stoick phil
osophy. ’ ’
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There are limes when one is brought face to face
with the fact that this hurrying commercial age is de
stroying some of the chivalry and courtesy which
was once the chief pride of our Southland. An in
stance of this is shown in an incident which oc
curred on a busy Atlanta corner a few days ago.
There was a large crowd waiting for trolley cars.
A broad shouldered lady, red-faced, panting and
obese, shoved her way through the crowd, pushing
her elbows into all the sets of ribs that happened
to be convenient. A little man on her left was the
recipient of a particularly vicious jab. He looked
up rather resentfully, and side-stepped. “Say!”
she yelled at him. He moved farther away, but
she poked him with her umbrella and opened up
again: 1 ‘Say, does it make any difference which
ear I take to Hollywood Cemetery?” “Not to me,
Madam,” replied the small man, slipping away.
This just simply shows that he had no interest in
the lady’s needs and very little courtesy. We de
plore such a lack of kind heartedness.
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Certain gentlemen have been making experiments
with the kiss and have sounded a note of warning
for the benefit of the heedless, stating that all
kisses were more or less infected with germs and
were great spreaders of disease. One doctor rec
ommended a gargle after every fifth kiss, and a
minister recently declared that the “kiss devil”
was doing more evil than the “drink devil,” and
several lesser devils combined. Now a Mr. Park,
of Paris, has made a study of the septicity of coins
and bank notes. He has sown bacilli on bank notes
and found that they live there actually for months
without nourishment, other than the simple joy of
being on a bank note. He even counted the bac
teria and found twenty-six on a penny, forty on a
silver coin, twelve hundred and fifty on a moder
ately clean bank note, and seventy-three thousand
on a soiled bank note. This is terrible to contem
plate. But then, come to think of it, there is room
for thankfulness even in this extremity. For we
are not exposed to the microbes in kisses and bank
notes very often. Suppose the coal scuttle or the
lawn-mower, or the baby carriage were plastered
with those microbes —the race would be doomed.
In a few years we would have all yielded to the
murderous attacks and the Republic would be no
more.
H *
We have previously taken occasion to question
the reliability of certain statements made in a book
published by the Department of Agriculture rela
tive to hoopsnakes and other reptiles flourishing in
ATLANTA, GA., AUGUSI& 1907.
By A. E. RAMS A UR, Managing Editor.
this country and with the habits of which we have
been familiar from boyhood. We are therefore
somewhat surprised to note that Prof. A. K. Fisher,
of the Department having charge of the Biological
Survey, i£ the author of a volume entitled “Hawks
and Owls from the Standpoint of the Farmer,” in
which are many startling statements. The first one
which arouses our suspicions is that hawks and
owls swallow their victims entire, and that their
stomachs roll up bones, scales, hair, feathers and
other indigestible matter into pellets which are
regurgitated before fresh food is taken. We are
surprised to learn also that the hen hawk is such
a. friend to the poor, downtrodden farmer that he
takes poultry for only seven per cent of his diet,
finishing up on rabbits, toads and reptiles. He is
also said to select only the less valuable chickens
when he is forced to carry one away, preferring,
presumably, the thin, tough, spindle-shanked dom
inecker to the yellow legged Plymouth Rock va
riety. But the screech owl, that supposedly diffi
dent and retiring bird, comes out as your true
sportsman. It is said that he is an angler and
“watches near the breathing holes in the ice and
seizes the luckless fish which comes to the sur
face.” There are many more facts given which
cause us to deplore the benighted ignorance in
which we have plodded along heretofore, but we
are by the goodness of a tender and paternal De
partment of Agriculture being led into a truer and
more accurate knowledge of the wild things about
us. We know now why we have failed to catch any
fish in the pools which seemed just the place for
them. The screech owls had been there ahead of
us!
In its issue of July 27, published almost a week
before the day set for the final vote on the Prohi
bition Bill, the Literary Digest, in commenting on
“Prohibition in Georgia,” said, “The temperance
crusade in the South, the success of which has been
chronicled from time to time in The Literary Di
gest, has now received such encouraging support in
Georgia that the press all over the country are open
ing their eyes to its remarkable progress. What is
characterized by one paper as ‘a wave of prohibi
tion sentiment’ swept over the State, and in short
order a bill enacting prohibition passed both
Houses of the Legislature, was signed by the Gov
ernor, and became law. One of the most pictur
esque features of the campaign, and one which re
ceives its share, of editorial prominence, is the
financial loss which prohibition will bring to Gov.
Hoke Smith. As one of the owners of the Pied
mont Hotel, the largest in Atlanta, it is said that
he will lose fully $60,000 by the closing of the bar,
but from the first he avowed himself in favor of
the new bill and signed it promptly when it was
passed.” From this summing up of the situation
in Georgia, it /would appear that the Prohibition
Bill went sailing smoothly to a vote in both Houses,
passed triumphantly, and that the Governor was
waiting impatiently, with his pen poised, to sign it
as soon as it reached him. We hope that the Gov
ernor’s signature will be promptly affixed when the
time arrives, but the article in the Digest seems a
little premature. Our interest has been challenged
by one point from the beginning, and that is that
from whatever standpoint the prohibition questi n in
Georgia is handled by the Northern press, the one
thing that stands out finally above all others, the
point insisted upon and held up for the contempla
tion of the world, is that Governor Smith, as owner
of an interest in the Piedmont and part guardian
of the Gal in the Fountain, will stand to lose money
if the bill enacting prohibition is enacted into law.
Just as greatness is thrust upon some people, so is
advertising vouchsafed unto others without money
and without price. We do not presume that a sin
gle pilgrim journeying through this continent of
ours but would go miles and miles out of his
course in order to visit Atlanta, stop at the Pied
mont and gaze enraptured upon the Gal. And if
it came to pass that in the fullness of time the
Gal should have to abdicate her throne of beauty
in the Piedmont thirst parlor, we predict that there
will be hundreds of art .collectors from the North
and even from the mother country, seeking to se
cure the Gal and bear her away to fill an honored
place in some noble collection. So through the
medium of this free advertising virtue will have its
own reward. Even now the “Seeing Atlanta” au
tomobiles are halted before the stately portals of
the Piedmont and the megaphone artist announces
to the pilgrims under his care that they are upon
the threshold of the casket which guards the Gal;
and immediately there is a mad rush to secure a
view of her classic outlines. So really it comes
about that sometimes the losses of those who hum
bly sacrifice their interests and expose themselves
to biting poverty, are made unto them for gain,
and even in addition an everlasting weight of
glory.
But our saddest reflection is that we will soon
have to bid the Gal adieu. We are not able to
keep a priceless national joy like this in the South.
It will be borne away, perhaps beyond the confines
of our shores. Fortunate will we be if we can keep
it even as near to us as Coney or Luna Park. Then,
mayhap, our children or our children’s children,
journeying thither, can behold in some honored
place in a museum dedicated to sacred relics, this
glorious evidence that once upon a time Georgia
flourished even as Greece and that even the cab
driver and the bell boy once gazed upon a faultless
expression of that art which is immortal. And
this item is a little more advertising for the Gal.
It is remarkable how that subject just will be talked
about!
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