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GREAT VICES IN LITTLE MEN
By Dr. G. Nunnally
T
HERE are some vices that sweep
down upon humanity which disturb the
equipoise of society, sometimes like a
tidal wave working destruction all along
the coast of life, sometimes like the
shadow of the deadly Upas that settles
upon ia somnolent community and so
stupefies it that an awakening is almost
an impossibility. These vices are all
the more fatal because they are undefined in the
code of legislation and are not punished in the
criminal courts. They are all the more to be
dreaded because these deadly vices are often
perverted virtues and are over-grown excellences.
For instance, liberality is a noble virtue but
extended too far becomes the vice of wastefulness —
a sinful prodigality. Economy is a worthy virtue,
commended by the Master who said, “Save the
remnant, that nothing be lost,” but economy
carried beyond decent boundaries becomes con
temptible stinginess and selfishness. The boundary
line is vaguely drawn between a heavenly virtue
and a diabolical vice. Virtue in excess, for which
we praise ourselves and accept the praise of others,
is often a hideous vice that all intelligence should
condemn.
The mad rush for the acquisition of wealth is a
destructive vice, destroying the man who makes
the rush and the man who is in the’way of the
rusher. It is like an automobile that has got
beyond the control of the driver —a wreck to the
machine and to the crew as well as death to every
one in the way. Many of us of smaller stature
would make the sin smaller in ourselves because of
the amount involved. The man chasing a minnow
is as likely to kill himself as the fisherman who pur
sues a whale. It is reckless rush that ruins.
A fight for a penny may be as fatal as a campaign
for a million. The covetousness which covets a
copper only, is condemned the same as the greed
for gain that grasps at uncounted wealth.
Another vice of wider range than many think is
an undue devotion to luxurious ease. But, when
wearied, and recuperation when exhausted, are
commendable virtues —indeed are duties which we
dare not neglect—but when they are carried too
far they become vices—a licentiousness that is to
be deplored and should be denied. The indulgence
and dissipation at the seaside or the sailing of a
yacht is no more a sin than indolence in the common
"O Cheek Immense! O Nerbe Sublime!”
George Gordon's Ringing Protest Against the "Monumental Gall”
of Sabannah’s " Whiskeyfied” Chamber of Commerce
EORGE Gordon, the astute young law
yer who is president of the Fulton
county Anti-Saloon League and a com
ing man among the moral forces of At
lanta, has written a graphic portrayal
of the Savannah so-called “Chamber of
commerce” and its anti-prohibition ef
forts, which ought to be read all over
the land. Addressed to the Atlanta
G
Journal, it is well worthy of reproduction and pres
ervation. Its very keenness borders on the highest
order of wit and its .justified sarcasm is withering.
Gordon’s Gatling Gun.
Editor of the Journal.
Dear Sir: There is a short but expressive
couplet which I learned years ago, and which runs
thus:
“0 cheek immense! 0 nerve sublime!
0 monumental gall!
Thy resting place is in the face
Os him that knows it all.”
With slight variation of expression but not of
sense, it occurs to me that the sentiment embodied
in this couplet is well illustrated by certain citizens
of our fair staje to whom I shall presently refer.
The Golden Age for July 16, 1908.
walks of life. The vice of the millionaires is the sin
of the millions. We condemn and expose the rot
tenness of the rich but deny and hide the same
plague spot that is eating out our vitality and
hastening a sure decay. Poison in the silver ladle
is no more fatal than the same deadly drug in an
iron spoon. Poverty and wealth alike are victims
to the fangs of the serpent. Lincentiousness and
dissipation in the palace are no worse than
sensuality and drunkenness in the hovel. Gilded
vice may have a glamor that compels a milder judg
ment from men, but before God it is condemned the
same las iniquity unvarnished and unwashed when
an oppressed humanity is writhing in the struggle
for meat and bread.
Another vice that gets in its destructive work is
the unjust criticism which is driven at conscientious
servants from the violent bow of ignorant marks
men—men with a knotted tape line or a cotton
string trying to measure men whose statures can be
reached by them only when they are on a step
ladder —men who make their idea of success the
measure of merit. They do not know that often
times a seeming failure is a glorious success. A
blind bat can criticise an eagle, yet the mid-night
darkness is the vital element of the bat while the
noonday radiance is the joy of the eagle. A fool
with a penknife may cut the prophets in pieces
while an inspired apostle only can use the sword of
the spirit. The untutored would teach the editor
how to run a newspaper, the common carpenter
feels competent to advise and criticise commercial
transactions, the son of poverty would show the
proper method for manipulating millions, the
politician would teach theology to the pulpit.
Cruel criticisms are cheap commodities but are
cumbersome to the power of progress. These
criticisms are often excused on the score that they
are intended as helpful counsels. Virtue and kind
ness so misguided become vice and cruelty which
display the ignorance of the critic, and cripple the
servant who is doing his best to promote the cause
of human good and divine glory. An unwise
criticism starts a run on a bank that forces its doors
to close. An unjust criticism on a minister of the
gospel often paralyzes his efforts to build up the
kingdom of righteousness. If words of commenda
tion cannot be spoken about an honest effort then
let a sacred silence give proof of your kindness
and demonstrate your wisdom.
It will be remembered that for decades past the
idea that no man possesses an inherent, inalienable
right to traffic in intoxicating drinks has been
steadily spreading among our citizens and that the
growth of this belief has been marked by the enact
ment of more and more stringent laws regulating,
controlling and hampering the traffic until, finally,
the overwhelming sentiment of the people against
this greatest of all evils found expression through
their representatives in the now famous prohibition
law of 1907. This law, far from being in opposition
to the desire and sentiment of the people, as its
enemies have fondly endeavored to persuade them
selves and have loudly and falsely asserted, was and
is the expression of the deep determination of the
best citizenship of our state on this great question,
a determination, moreover, arrived at after years
of toil and tribulation and deliberation, and from
which, please God, they will never recede.
But now there has arisen in one small corner of
our great state a self-constituted body, styling
itself the ‘‘chamber of commerce,” of one of our
large cities, and which assumes to act for the
citizenship of that city without presenting its cre
dentials and without even ascertaining, so’Tar as the
rest of us are informed, whether or not it correctly
represents the sentiments of its own constituency.
Ihis so-called “chamber of commerce” has put
itself forward and is presuming to tell the people
ot Georgia, in the persons of their representatives,
how this great question of the traffic in intoxicat
ing liquors should be handled.
1 hese men come before us from a community
where, in the “good ( ?) old days of license,” the
laws of God and of this sovereign state were sys
tematically violated by the practically open and
undisguised sale of liquor on the Sabbath day, to
the knowledge, presumably, of many grand jurors,
of the judge upon the bench, and, doubtless, of this
same chamber of commerce, not one of whom, so
far as we are informed, ever raised a protest, to
say nothing of more active opposition, against such
lawlessness and anarchy.
Some of these men stood before the legislature
last year while the prohibition bill was pending
and sneered at the law and covertly defied the
legislature to pass it and practically threatened
its nullification, should it pass, in their community.
And since the law went into effect last January
the rest of Georgia is pretty reliably informed that
that threat is being made good in that com
munity, to the knowledge of most of the citizens
thereof, and probably to the knowledge of recent
grand juries, upon which, doubtless, some of the
members of this said “chamber of commerce”
served under oath.
This same body is even now engaged in a vigorous
and systematic attack upon our present law and
is carrying it on by a propaganda of the misstate
ments and slanders of one, George W. Peck, and
other non-residents who have investigated condi
tions largely from the platform of through trains
and in hotel lobbies, all uttered and designed to
discredit the law and used to that end even though
at the same time they besmirch the fair name of our
whole state.
And now such a body, from such a community,
with such a record upon this question, asks the
state of Georgia to sit at its feet and learn how
to deal with the liquor problem!
“0 cheek immense! 0 nerve sublime!
0 monumental gall!”
When lawmakers undertake to legislate upon
the better protection of the individual in his right
of property they are not likely to call into consulta
tion upon the subject those whose conduct the
eighth commandment is a constant reflection, and
we apprehend that, in dealing with the great prob
lem of the prohibition of the liquor traffic, Georgia
legislators will give little heed to the desires and
advice of those who have hitherto shown a singular
distaste for all restrictions placed upon this traffic
and a. remarkable inability to obey the laws of this
state upon this subject, whether merely regulative
or altogether prohibitory. Sincerely,
GEO. GORDON.
It
The Mission Girl.
(Continued from Page 2.)
anybody know that I like it, at least 1 do not care
to advertise the fact. ’ ’
Reece looked him over.
“I’ll take you down to the Infirmary some after
noon anyway,” he said. “You can meet Lon
Gris. Then you will understand my interest in the
Mission better.”
The old banker got to his feet and placing his
hand gently on the broad shoulder, said with one
of his rare smiles.
“All right, Reece. Any afternoon this week after
five o’clock, when you are at leisure, I can meet
Lon,” he said, his eyes like periwinkles, as he
resumed his seat.
“If Lon agrees,” said Dr. Redmond as he bowed
low, his eyes shining. Then he wrung Mr. Card
ross’ hand and bolted into the currents of the
street.
When he was clear of the marble building, he
lifted his hat, and drew a deep breath, as he looked
up into the smiling summer heavens.
“I have fought a good fight,” he said to his own
heart, “"but "thank dieaven . . I haven’t finished iny
course.” (To Be Continued.)
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