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The Golden Age
(SUCCESSOR TO RELIGIOUS PORUM)
Published Ebery Thursday by the Golden fXgs Publishing
Company (Inc.)
OFFICES: LOWNDES BUILDING, ATLANTA. GA.
Price: $2.00 a 'Pear
Ministers $1.50 per Tear.
In eases of foreign address fifty cents should be added to cobn
additional postage.
Make all remittances payable to The Golden Age Publishing Company.
WILLIAM D. UPSHfXW, - - - - Editor
A. E. EAMS A UE, - Managing Editor
LEK G. EEOUGHTON - - - Pulpit Editor
Entered at the Post Office tn Atlanta, Ga.,
as second-class matter.
<TR OUWCHL
The complaint of the liquor men that they were
surprised is one they may lay at the door of the
newspapers. We temperance workers have been
trying for years to get the papers to tell what we
are doing, but they would not. We have kept
at it like Samson’s foxes. They went about with
fire on their tails through the wheat fields. And
now the wet papers and their friends are startled
at the mighty conflagration we have kindled.
a? H
The inmates of the Indiana State Asylum recently
held a voting contest to decide who was the most
popular author. Mr Henry James won by a very
handsome majority. There is some question, na
turally, whether Mr. James' supporters read his
works before they entered the asylum, or after.
In the former case, the asylum may stand in relation
to the reading effect to cause; in the latter their
condition may indicate why they prefer Mr.
James’s books. But at any rate, we like Mr.
James personally, very much.
Sir Conan Doyle, the■> creator of Sherlock Holmes,
is embarked upon the sea of matrimony. The eyes
of the husbands of the world are upon him. They
want to see just how he will deal with certain mat
ters. If he is as good a detective in real life as
is his hero in his stories, then he can settle several
problems which have ihrough all the ages proved
too hefty for the average Benedict. If he can trace
a collar button in its gay leap from the shirt to
some hidden lair behind the dresser, his method of
deduction will be a boon to mankind. If he can
explain certain mysterious disappearances of coin
from his trousers pocket during the night watches,
and can furnish a method of convicting the guilty
party, he will have proven himself a friend to his
fellow men. And the Sherlock Holmes method of
Keeping the Cook Happy and Contented will
run to several editions and take its place as The
Best Seller. Sir Conan Doyle is blind indeed to his
high estate and deaf to Opportunity knocking at his
door if he docs not improve this occasion to immor
talize himself.
Jacksonville’s Nobel Campaign.
Not against smallpox, but something worse! Not
against yellow fever, but something worse! We
warned the saloon keepers of Georgia in our
-‘‘Friendship Letter’’ some weeks ago, that they
would better go into a better business and stay
in the state. We told them how Chattanooga is
crumbling, Alabama tumbling, Carolina grumbling
and Florida stumbling on the very verge of sweep
ing prohibition! We even told them of Jackson
ville’s threatened quarantine against the special
brand of bar keepers grown in other states. And
now, behold! The daily dispatches do tell us that
Jacksonville has determined to patronize only home
industry-by passing a laiv that no man can have a
license to sell liquor on the sacred soil beside the
St. Johns who has not been a resident of Jack
sonville for twelve lone months!
But what special good does this do for *bo
cause of prohibition ? Why, it will simply have the
The Golden Age for September 12, 1907.
effect of discouraging the Georgia saloon keepers
and those in other states who are being shut out
of business and will cause them to weigh well the
demand and the opportunity for a higher and
cleaner commercialism. It will also have anothel
splendid effect, it will keep Jacksonville from
having to battle in a very short time fcr the up
rooting of so many saloons. It is only a case of
loyalty to her own saloon keepers perhaps whici
moves Jacksonville now, but her city fathers are act
ing wiser than they know, while we on the outside
are rejoicing that when the prohibition wave
strikes Jacksonville the crop that grows from the
sowing of dragon’s teeth will be as small as possi
ble. Let ihe misguided men who are engaged in
this hurtful, debasing business read the “handwrit
ing on the wall” and march up like men and QLiIT
before civilized society declares them all outlaws.
We salute Jacksonville and her novel quarantine!
* H
"Princes Among Men. ”
We are gratified to announce, and the public
will be delighted to hear, that Caleb A. Ridley,
the brilliant young preacher, lecturer and author,
of Live Oak. Fla., will soon follow the “Literature
of Living” with a new hook bearing the inspiring
title, “Princes Among Men.” This volume will
contain the four masterful addresses given as a
Sunday night, series during the author’s recent
visit to Atlanta, when he supplied, during the month
of August, the Tabernacle pulpit for Dr. L. G.
Broughton. It is given to few young men of Mr.
Ridley’s age to win such a victory as he won
during a single month. Beginning with splendid
congregations—for his visit to the Tabernacle last
winter had not been forgotten—he royally com
bated the summer depletion and ennui incident to
the dog days of August, and so completely cap
tured his first congregation that he was master
of the situation until his closing service, when,
without any special announcement, he spoke to
3,500 people, ’with many turned away. The dea
cons of the church passed enthusiastic resolutions,
declaring that no such congregations had ever before
been drawn by any man during Dr. Broughton’s
absence, and John Temple Graves, in a beautiful
editorial in the Atlanta Georgian, came very near
exhausting his inexhaustible vocabulary on Ridley
and his work.
In addition to the four addresses which so
mightily stirred these vast congregations, '‘Princes
Among Men” will contain perhaps a dozen other
ringing messages to the minds and hearts of men.
This gifted young speaker and writer has a mes
sage from God to the men of his times, and he
speaks it in such sweetness of spirit and such
beautv of burning eloquence that humanity is bound
to listen.
The public w’ill await with impatience Mr. Rid
ley’s forthcoming book. We can begin to feel
already the tingle and rhe tonic of its inspiring
voice.
3*. ft
Rrabo Judge Pelton!
Judge W. H. Felton, of the Bibb superior court,
in the good old state of Georgia, has done a heroic
and inspiring thing by refusing to charter clubs
with “locker” privileges.
And the Macon liberals—or, to be more explicit,
the liquorites—are having spasms.
Judge Felton has set the pace in Georgia, which
will be followed promptly and bravely by other
Judges who must face the “locker” problem. We
do nut mean that there are not many other judges
who would have done the same thing if they had
had the opportunity; but Judge Felton lives in Ma
con, one of th? worst whiskey-ridden cities in the
land, and he naturally had an opportunity very ear
ly in the game of law enforcement, and we re
joice that a judge of such wisdom and courage had
an opportunity thus earlv to nip the “locker”
scare in the bud. The wisdom and fidelity of Judge
Felton’s decision is clear and glorious. He knows
what every other judge knows and what every other
citizen knows —that Georgia is overwhelmingly for
State prohibition. And he has interpreted the spir
it of the law by refusing to give countenance to any
sort of movement, either social or commercial, that
would inevitably lead to the breaking of the law
and a nullification of the will of the people.
Judge Felton .just means he is going to help
Georgia carry out the prohibition law which the
legislature has passed. Let every judge on the
bench take such a stand and put the law break
ers to fright and to flight.
at at
Watch Your Men.
Every voter should have a conscience. Henry
Grady used to say that God has lodged the ark of
His covenant with the American people, and lie
declared that the ballot box, pure and unpolluted,
is that Ark of the Covenant.
Let economists says what they will, there is one
burning, paramount question before the people
of Georgia, the South and the nation today. In its
proper solution is wrapped up more of good and
happiness for the masses of the American people
than the tariffs, the trusts, the Isthmian canal and
centralization all combined. And that supreme
question is the suppression of the liquor traffic.
We need men in public office who have sense about
all of these other things, but who, first of all,
are against the legalized liquor traffic in ever.}
form.
The Golden Age is not lining up with any party
or party candidate on economic questions, either
local or national, but we do hold that it is the
duty of every God-fearing citizen, every man who
loves his home, his neighbor and his country, to
vote for no man, from constable to congress, who
is not a true and tried soldier in the battle against
the reign and ruin of the saloons.
* I?
The Real Question in Georgia.
For some time life in the Empire State has been
strenuous. The Legislature has been in session,
and burning questions have been before the people.
First, the Prohibition Bill has to be passed. It was
done; well done. Then the matter of clean towels
and long sheets came up before the solons and their
constituency back at home. This matter was satis
factorily disposed of. Then the future of the Gal
in the Fountain had to be arranged for. It is now
generally understood that after her period of
mourning she will remove to Dallas, Texas. So all
is serene on that score. The problem of the Great
est Living Georgian then came up for determination.
That has been passed without bloodshed. Then
after the Legislature adjourned matters of national
import came in for their share of attention. The
sending of the fleet to the Pacific; the suppression
of nature-fakirs; ;the choosing of a Democratic
candidate for the presidency; what to do with Mr.
Roosevelt; Bryan or Folk in 190 S, and a few oth
ers; but the real throbbing question now before us
is: WILL ATLANTA WIN THE BASEBALL
PENNANT? Os course, men have to go about the
streets and attend to their business to some extent,
as they have been heretofore accustomed to doing;
but by the look in their eyes, by the tones of their
voices, by the mysterious conferences on the cor
ners of the streets and at the parting of the ways,
you may know that they have thought and solici
tude but for one thing, namely, the Pennant. And
it is right that this should be. What is mere busi
ness and sordid money-getting compared with the
pennant question? All else fades, positively fades
into insignificance compared with this burning issue.
W e may not get the pennant, but just now we are
making a noise like folks who are mighty close to
it. There is some croaking relative to the depres
sion of real estate values in Atlanta after the Pro
hibition Law goes into effect; but this is mere
childish twaddle. It causes us to suffer an infinite
lassitude. What could depress real estate values or
anything else in a town that has won the baseball
pennant?
The Atlanta Baptist Pastors’ Conference passed
most cordially a resolution inviting the conven
tion of the American Anti-Saloon League to
meet September, 1908, in Atlanta. Rev.
Doctor A. C. Ward was appointed to bear to the
convention in the approaching session this invita
tion.
