Newspaper Page Text
8
The Golden Age
(SUCCESSOR. TO RELIGIOUS TORUN)
Published Ebsry Thursday by the Golden fZge Publishing
Company (Inc.)
OTJICIS: LOWNDES BUILDING, ATLANTA. GA.
Price: $2.00 a I ear
Ministers $1.50 per Tear.
In cates of foreign address fifty cents should be added to cober
additional postage.
Nake all remittances payable to The Golden Age Publishing Company.
WILLIS9M D. UPSHfXW, - - - - Editor
A. E. RAMSAUR, - - Managing Editor
LEHG. BROUGHTON - - - Pulpit Editor
Entered at the Post Office tn Ga„
as second-class matter.
‘Birmingham ’s Rebolution.
The banishment of saloons by an overwhelming
majority from the Birmingham district is the moral
wonder of this generation. The great mining and
industrial center of the South, teeming with labor
ers, foreign, careless and godless, one would natur
ally have thought that Birmingham would be about
the last place in the South to drive out saloons.
The great good news comes just as we go to
press —too late to give cur readers any of the in
spiring details. An eye witness declares that such
scenes have never before been witnessed on the
continent.
Thousands of women and children paraded the
streets and besieged the polls—singing, praying,
persuading, winning on every side.
Let all who love God and good government take
off their hats to the Alabama League,
under the leadership of Brooks Laurence and the
local Prohibition Committee with Walter L. Sessions
at the helm. Such wisdom in planning and execu
tion has never been surpassed! And the W. C. T. U.
forces—these heroines of the White Ribbon —were
’the inspiration of manhood and the glory of the
conflict.
Birmingham has startled the nation by accom
plishing the impossible. Let Jacksonville and Chat
tanooga, Memphis and Dallas and San Antonio and
New Orleans beware!
As Dr. John E. White says: “It is the King
dom of God conquering in the hearts of men!”
“Ring the bells of Heaven —
There is joy today!”
King Alcohol in Birmingham is slain!
* *
Seely Will Do.
The brave stand of that great daily, The Atlanta
Georgian, in refusing from its first issue to accept
whiskey advertisements, and more recently, in lead
ing the forces of Righteousness in Georgia for State
Prohibition has given that paper a high place among
the daily papers of America that stand for civic
virtue, for truth and for God.
The going of John Temple Graves from the edi
torial chair of The Georgian to the most important
editorial position in America with Mr. Hearst na
turally turns the eyes of the newspaper world on
The Georgian again. Who will wear the mantle of
Graves'? None —for no man is equal. But Fred
L. Seely has proven himself as great —well-nigh—
in his own sphere as John Temple Graves is in his.
His remarkable genius for organizing and launch
ing a great newspaper and the inspiring beauty of
his stalwart Christian manhood had become well
known as assets in Atlanta’s dower of genius and
character, but only in recent months —notably dur
ing and since the great prohibition campaign—it
developed that the owner of The Georgian is a mag
nificent writer as well as publisher.
Cogent, direct and clear as a silver bell, he always
“hits the spot” and makes you wonder why you
didn’t hit it before.
And —Seely is an increasing revelation. The
poetic side of this organizing genius has refresh
ingly developed. If you doubt it just read the
-s. closing paragraph in his rich and beautiful letter
The Golden Age for October 31, 1907.
concerning the going of Mr. Graves to the New
York American:
“The Georgian will be the greatest loser—we
will miss him most. Only the grossest selfishness
could prompt us to ask him to refuse this, the
crowning recognition of his life, with five times the
remuneration we could give him.
“It is the highest compliment that could be paid
The Georgian—the highest honor that could be paid
the South. If other considerations were as noth
ing, we could not rob the South of the results that
will surely follow Mr. Graves’ advancement.
“So we say go —and a thousand hopes and joys go
with you to cheer you on your way. Our hearts
and our prayers go with you, and if your work is
ever done, or if sickness or death rob you of your
joys, and your heart turns back to Dixie, as it surely
will some time—remember the door is open—it
stands ajar to you always—the chair you have left
will await you, and you will come back as a soldier
who has left the sunny hills of his happy home and
fought our battles at the front for God and home
And native land. F. L. Seely, Publisher.”
Now, after reading these beautiful words, we all
agree that “Seely will do.” And we bid this kingly
young man God-speed in so discharging the new re
sponsibilities upon him as to keep The Georgian
what it has been since its initial number—a crys
tal gulf stream of purity and blessing, flowing
through daily journalism.
* H
The Father-Friend of 300 Children.
We know of no one man in America who has as
many children as Dr. R. C. Buckner of Texas. Now
half past his three-score years and ten —the frost
of winter on his head but the dew of youth in his
heart, R. C. Buckner stands erect, vigorous and vic
torious —the fa th er-friend of more than three hun
dred orphan children.
About two decades ago God put the dream in his
heart. And then faith and pluck made that dream
crystallize into bricks and mortar for shelter and
many broad, black acres of Texas land just outside
of Dallas.
Now Buckner’s Orphans’ Home is a little world
in itself where home influence, Christian education,
manufacture, work and hustle are building hundreds
of boys and girls now being trained for the du
ties of citizenship—for the making of homes, the
uplift of humanity and the glory of God.
And Dr. Buckner is not only the father of or
phans, but he is a stalwart man of affairs. Some
men can do only one thing, but R. C. Buckner is
a many-sided man. He can not only preside over
three hundred children, but he can also preside over
three thousand messengers to the great Texas Bap
tist Convention. He has been its President for many
years and is one of the best parliamentarians on
the continent. He is a great leader of a mighty
host. God make life’s evening more and more
beautiful for this remarkable father-friend, of
countless children and leader and molder of men un
til from his mountain height of faith and achieve
ment he steps unto the beckoning Heights of Beu
lah Land.
A Hint to Politicians.
A prominent physician of this city has been
spoken of recently as a possible candidate for elec
tion to the Legislature from Fulton county. In an
interview relative to his candidacy, he said that
he had no political aspirations whatever, and con
tinuing, said:
“The only reason that I would entertain the
thought to make this race one instant is the fact
that were I in the legislature the bill for the es
tablishment of a tubercular home for the poor peo
ple of this state who are suffering from consump
tion would certainly be passed, or I would show
that body a lot of filibustering, beside which all
other filibustering heretofore done would seem insig
nificant.
“It is a sad fact and a sad commentary on the
intelligence of the great state of Georgia that these
men will wrangle over anti-lobbying bills, anti-pass
bills, and anti-railroad legislation, and allow two
or three hundred sons and daughters of good, sober,
industrious and intelligent working men and women
to die in this state each year, absolutely for the lack
of proper medical attention. No power on earth
can hammer this idea into the head of the average
Georgia legislator. Penny politics consume their
time, and the good of humanity, or the desire to
benefit them in a bodily way never enter their
minds at all.”
We cannot refrain from again expressing a con
viction that no public need is greater at this time
than some definite action on the part of the State
of Georgia, looking to the scientific treatment of
tubercular diseases, the education of the people at
large in the matter of precautionary measures
against infection, and the establishment of a hospi
tal for the treatment of all cases developed among
the poorer or indigent classes of the population.
Georgia is far behind many other states in this mat
ter. It is a most- lamentable fact that in the
large city of Atlanta, not a hospital or sanitarium
of any kind is open to tubercular patients. What
can be more pitiable than the condition of a sufferer
from consumption who is forced to go from house
to house seeking a roof under which to wage his ter
rible battle? The matter should be taken up with
out delay by the lawmakers of the State and a suffi
cient sum of the public funds should be devoted
to wise and determined warfare against consumption
and to the establishment of such institutions as are
necessary for the treatment of those suffering from
this disease.
*
Strong Indictment by Methodist Preacher.
The battle against saloons in Montgomery, Ala.,
is waxing warm. Dr. 0. C. McGhee, pastor of Court
street M. E. church, delivered on a recent Sunday
the following strong and unique argument from the
familiar passage in Proverbs:
“Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: who
soever is deceived thereby is not wise.”.
He drew his sermon in the nature of an indict
ment and called on. his people to fall in line and
fight the prohibition fight. He said that it had been
charged that whichever way Court street goes the
county will go. If that is a fact the speaker thought
the fight is won, as he is sure the church and its
membership will be on the side of eliminating the
traffic from the city and county.
In closing his address the preacher said:
“Finally, brethren, the line of battle has been
clearly drawn, not by your pastor but by a burning
moral issue that surges as an ocean tide through
every community. The issue is, For whiskey or
against whiskey. This being the issue will not this
whole church to a man stand against whiskev?
“I am sure that the whiskey forces will be de
feated in this my native county. If not then hav
ing done all, we will stand with garments unsoiled
and hands clean. Then when the Bacchanalian yell
pierces the midnight air we can say to the advocates
of the saloon, that is your music; when a drunken
wretch staggers along our streets and lies in its gut
ters we can point to him and say that is your’ work.
When a victim of drink lies weltering in his blood
we will stand over him and say here is a sample
of your business.
“Should I vote for the sale of whiskey the ghosts
of its victims would occupy seats at my table and
shake their gon 7 locks in my face and gibber out
the accusation of murder; their ragged and
intimidated wives cut by the whip of the wind
would stand continually at my door and wail out
their misery. The patter of the bare feet of their
little starving children as thev trotted over my
floor would be in my dreams all night lon o ’.”
*
"My Richest Treat. 99
The coming of The Golden Age is my richest
treat every week. What brightness, sweetness and
strength!
It is truly golden and I pray it may live for ages
and its influence forever. John A. Wrav
Plant City, Fla.
* n
Generously "Amazed. 99
I enjoy The Golden Age as much as ever. Your
resourcefulness is amazing. Texans all hope to see
you at the San Antonio Convention. Please do not
disappoint us. Very cordially yours,
Dallas, Texas, J. ]\f. DAWSON.