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The Golden Age
(SUCCESSOR TO RELIGIOUS TOKUH)
Published Ebery Thursday by the Golden Hge Publishing
Company (Inc.)
OHICES: LOWNDES HUILDINQ, ATLANTA. GA.
Price: $2.00 a Fear
Ministers $1.50 per Tear.
In cases of foreign address fifty cents should be added to cobn
additional postate.
Hake all remittances payable to The Golden Ate Publishing Company.
WILLIAM D. UPSHAW. ... - Editor
A. E. KAMS AUK, - - - Managing Editor
LEH G. 9KOUGHTON - - - Pulpit 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.
"Little Speeches for the Truth. ”
We congratulate the readers of The Golden Age
on the unique series of articles, 14 Hints from His
tory or Little Speeches for the Truth,” beginning
this week from the pen of Professor A. H. Ellett of
Mississippi.
Professor Ellett, who is the ‘‘patron saint” of the
Blue Mountain College girls, is one of the most
distinguished educators in the great State of Mis
sissippi, a master of all the arts of tongue and pen.
History, to the thinking, has always been a powerful
teacher, and the radiance which Ellett will throw
around these “hints from history” will make his
“little speeches for the truth” —“a present help
in time of trouble,” and worthy a place in every
scrap-book. , ( j, _ tJ
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Our "Household.”
We are proud of our Household. It is a new de
partment, but as the girls say, it is “just fine.”
Miss Ada Bryan, the bright and popular young
woman who edits that department, is proving her
kinship to her famous grandmother, Mrs. Mary E.
Bryan, whose work on the old Sunny South gave
her a kingdom far and wide. Having been great
ly cheered and blessed by the Household depart
ment in The Sunny South for years, it was in the
heart of the Editor from the first to have such a
department in The Golden Age as a trysting place
for those who feel deeply and think much, but our
Household was precipitated by the wish of hundreds
who, when The Sunny South died in ihe arms of
Uncle Remus’s Magazine, asked for a kingdom of
their own in a paper where they could meet every
week and “think aloud” to each other, and to the
great big world. And the Householders are doing
that very thing in a charming and inspiring way.
And we advise those who are wise from brain or
years —or both —not to pass the Household by. The
bright letters from the boys and girls in “Voices
of Youth” are also worth the attention of oldei
heads.
Indeed, wc are proud of both of our corres
pondence departments. More and more they win
become the heart-beat, of the great and growing
family of The Golden. Age.
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The Vacation Idea.
The vacation idea is becoming more and more
popular. Not so many years ago it was a rare
thing in our Southland for any one besides the
very rich to take an outing of any kind. The
writer well remembers, when a boy back in the
country village, that only one family in his town
were able to take a vacation in the summer time.
Every summer this family would go off to some
Northern summer resort while the rest of the peo
ple in the little village would remain at home and
swelter in the heat through the long summer days.
And how we did envy this fortunate family!
But things have changed since then. Taking a
vacation is no longer reserved for the rich alone.
Even the poor sometimes cease from their labors
and take an outing. A vacation seems now to be
the natural thing. As soon as the holidays are
over the people begin to plan for their summer out
ing, and at this season of the year there are many
thousands of our people away from home, either
in the mountains or at the seashore. And this is
wise. We regard it as a good sign that our people
are willing to quit work and go off and romp and
play for a time. It rejuvenates one, and brings
one back home better prepared to do the work as
signed. And what matters it if one does get a
little gay or foolish while on one of these vacation
trips! Is not relaxation and abandon the purpose
of the outing? Then let us forget ourselves and
have a good time by indulging in that which is light
and frolicsome, for only in this way can the full
benefit of a vacation trip be realized.
The wisdom of these vacations has been recog
nized even by business .men. Business men have
learned that their employes can do better and more
efficient service when they are allowed to take a
little rest, and consequently we find the business
firms of our country assigning vacations to their
employes without withholding any part of their
salaries. Os course, there are a few firms here and
there who have not’ yet recognized the wisdom of
giving their employes a few days’ vacation each
year, and there are still some who are so niggardly
as to charge up the lost time to the ones who do
take a few days off, but these are now the excep
tion and not the ride. They are the “hayseeds” in
the business world. We have actually known some
firms to charge their employes, not only with the
time lost while off on a short vacation, but also
with every day lost for whatever cause. But this
class is fast diminishing and it is rapidly be
coming the custom for every member of a firm, from
the head man to the janitor, to take a few days
off each year, and that on full pay.
And this vacation idea has become so popular that
even our cooks have caught it. And, strange to say,
it always strikes them just at the very time we
can least spare them from the kitchen. That they
are entitled to a vacation is true. Our stomachs
would fare better if we would be more considerate
of our cooks in this respect, for a few days’ rest
for the cook always insures better biscuits and
purer coffee. But the unfortunate part of it is
that they always want their vacation at a time
when their places cannot be supplied, and this
makes it hard on the housewife and harder on the
ones who have to eat the food cooked by these
inexperienced ones. This is a time when home
ceases to be home, and a man thinks all sorts of
things which he dares not express. The only solu
tion of the matter that we see is for us to give our
stomachs a rest when the cook goes off, and in this
way peace and harmony will be preserved and doc
tor bills prevented. Yes, give the cooks a vacation,
along with the clerks and the stenographers and all
the host of people, but let us be careful of our diet
when they are gone.
7lr. 'Rockefeller a Patriot.
The findings and the fines recently announced by
certain courts here and there against the Standard
Oil Company have brought forth varying comments
from the press of the country, and the stupendous
size of these fines for alleged disregard of law —
amounting to many millions —has naturally brought
Mr. John D. Rockefeller afresh before the public
eye —we might say, public gaze —for the papers and
the people have been gazing and staring of late.
We do not hesitate to say that most of the “looks”
have grown into grimaces and most of the words
have been unkind. While personally Mr. Rockefel
ler is tjenial and social he has not hitherto been
very talkative for the public press. But much, we
think, to his own credit and we are sure to the
gratification of the American public, he has given
an extended interview on the present situation,
We would be glad, if apace would allow, to transfer
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The Golden Age for August 15, 1907.
the whole interview to these columns, for his words
have about them the ring of the wise man and the
patriot. In the first part of the interview, Mr.
Rockefeller realizes that he is only a part of a
great system of trade which is interwoven with
all other systems and that one line of business can
not suffer without causing all others to suffer. He
declares that a man’s responsibility is great in pro
portion to his ■wealth, and inasmuch as thousands
draw their living from the business he represents
he feels like he is “hitched to a cart in which the
people ride.” Talking to a representative of the
New York American he said:
“The natural ambition of every man to make
good provision for his family can be settled far
short of the point reached by the big men of the
industrial world of today. But they continue to
toil at their desks because they love achievement
for the keen delight in creating where nothing was,
and some time, I believe, people will be convinced
that they are toiling for love of country as well.”
When it comes to the attacks upon him and his
associates, Mr. Rockefeller shows himself the phil
osopher. He does not pretend to like the assaults,
nor does he pretend to haughty indifference, and
he is not affectedly flippant in his comments. But
he is not bitter toward those who assail him. He
says it is a misunderstanding that will right itself
in time. He frankly regrets it, but he seems even
more distressed at what he considers the danger
of losing a good opportunity to capture the trade
of the world than over the personal phase of the
attacks.
“We are proud of our national sense of good hu
mor,” remarked Mr. Rockefeller. “If we must
have little family jars among ourselves why should
we let the outside world laugh at our angry faces?
Why should we waste the energy we need to build
up the country in tearing each other to pieces?
“If evils have crept in during the periods of
marvelous development since the Civil War, and it
is not impossible that some few have crept in, can
we not do away with them without destroying the
whole fabric? Admitting, for the sake of argu
ment, that ihe business world is a patient that needs
treatment, must it be said of the result that the
operation was successful, but the patient died?” _
Mr. Rockefeller was asked why he did not run
away from the hue and cry that pursued him. He
laughed.
“Perhaps, because my favorite music is ‘Yankee
Doodle, ”he suggested. Then, more gravely:
“I suppose I might have converted my interests
into gold at one time and have taken my money to
England or some pleasant part of Europe where life
is organized to make things comfortable for the
man with money to spend. But, do you know, that
way of escape from the responsibilities and embar
rassments that wealth brings to an American never
occurred to me.
“The United States cannot develop enough draw
backs to make me lose the feeling that there is no
place like home, and that this is home, in what I
firmly believe is the greatest country of the
world. ’ ’
We do not believe that the author of such words
has ever been personally responsible for a criminal
violation of law. Ever since seeing Mr. Rockefeller
in his simple, beautiful life which makes those who
know him best love and honor him, we have never
sympathized with the attacks made on him, and
as we said some months ago in these columns, we
believe John D. Rockefeller loves God and human
ity.
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Wants Florida "Cleaned Up.”
Mr. S. D. Martin of Rock Springs, Fla., in send
ing a friend’s subscription to The Golden Age, says:
I am so glad to know that grand old Georgia is
sweeping out whiskey. With it will go half of the
crime that has been heretofore. Now let Georgia
continue to advance as a missionary State and
stand as a bright and morning star to her sister
States, always leading them in all good work. And
when the opportunity comes again I hope we can
secure some of your gifted men to help us “clean
pp ’ ’ Florida. ’♦ . J H-