Newspaper Page Text
8
Ihe Golden Age
(SUCCESSOR TO RELIGIOUS lORUX)
Published Ebery Thursday by ths Golden Hge Publishing
Company (Inc.)
OMICE3: LOWNDES BUILDING, ATLANTA. GA.
WILLIfXM D. UPSHAW, - - - - Editor
A. E. EAMS A UR, - - - Planaging Editor
LEW G. SROUGHTON - - - Pulpit Editor
Price: $2.00 a 'Pear
Ministers $1.50 per 'fear,
ta eases of fonts* address fifty cents should be added to eober
additional postage.
tutored at the Tool Office t* Htlaiio, Os.,
as feeoud-elass matter.
<TRADES
Crate ford Jackson and the "Boys.
Pluck and patience, baptized in unselfish conse
cration, have done their work at last. Crawford
Jackson, a plain, honest, desper-
He Loved,
He Dreamed,
And His Dream
Is Coming True
so many possibilities and brought
so much joy that another was saved—and another
and another! And then his dream of a great organ
ized work of reclamation and redemption began.
Through discouragements that would have
crushed most men he has kept to his purpose and
now a “Juvenile State” has been born. Through
the generosity of Dr. L. G. Hardman, author of the
Georgia Prohibition bill and a capitalist and phil
anthropist, a large tract of land —over 300 acres—
has been secured, some buildings are on the grounds,
and the Legislature is about to put its arms around
the noble enterprise and make it a door of hope for
unfortunate boys, not only in Georgia, but the en
tire South.
The mass meeting recently held in the Hall of
Representatives in behalf of the Juvenile Protect
ory was a decided success. The Editor of The
Golden Age said on that occasion:
“If there could be a more beautiful sight than
Crawford Jackson holding these boys up to God and
the future as he falls at the end of life’s arduous
labors, it would be the picture of all Georgia and
the South, stirred by his unselfish example—catch
ing him and his boys in arms of wise and gener
ous protection, saving them to a better citizenship
and a happier and more useful manhood.”
The ministers of Atlanta, the business men of
this city and the lawmakers of the State are all
interested as never before in the needs of the
youthful offenders of our commonwealth, and the
time is not far distant when the great heart of
Crawford Jackson will realize its great desire.
* r»
Louisiana 'Reports Progress.
When Louisiana joins New York in knocking out
racetrack gambling and a general law curtailing
The Cords
Tightening
Around
New Orleans
“Louisiana reports progress.” Think of it—
Shreveport, the biggest (and for a long time count
ed the “baddest”) town in the state, except New
Orleans, recently voted dry, and now St. Charles,
with all the vast parish around it —nearly one
tenth of the state itself—comes with a great major
ity, saying:- ‘‘Up with the Home and down with
the Saloon!”
New Orleans sits up and takes notice and says
with startled eyes and frightened look: “Don’t
come any nearer—don’t —don’t touch my dirty darl
ings, and I’ll be just as good!”
Steady! Ye friends of the home—ye fearless
fighters of the saloon! Pray God to keep you from
mistakes while you fight the good fight of faith,
and victory will come sure and soon!
ate sort of Methodist preacher,
saw a boy in trouble and became
his friend. Saving one boy from
prison and deeper vice revealed
hours and privileges of saloons is
also passed by the legislature—
all piled on top of the fact that
by far the larger part of Louis
iana territory is already “dry,”
we can truly and gladly say:
The Golden Age for July 16, 1908.
THE MORAL GRANDEUR OF WILLIAM
_____JENNINGS BRYAN
The scenes of unequaled enthusiasm attending
the nomination of William J. Bryan by the Na
tional Democratic Convention at Denver last week
bring the commanding personality and the spotless
manhood of that great American afresh before the
peoples of the world.
There is nothing partisan in the statement, and
every genuine lover of real Christian manhood will
understand it when we say that a mist akin to
tears rose from heart to eyes as we thought of the
fact that this—the greatest demonstration, it is
said, ever accorded the mention of any name in
all the annals of human conventions—was a tribute
to a private citizen of stainless, stalwart manhood
and ever devout Christian life and character.
The following editorial, written on the return
of Mr. Bryan from his trip around the world and
published in The Golden Age about the time of the
great Commoner’s visit to Atlanta, was copied
generously by the press and has been used, we
learn, by “Young America” in different schools in
their oratorical contests.
For the sake of other boys who feel or woo the
spark and spell of the speaker’s mission in the
world, and also because Mr. Bryan’s third nomina
tion for the Presidency is such an unparalleled trib
ute- —not to the world’s measure of victory, but to
Alpine character and Christian statesmanship—we
reproduce here that editorial as our present-day.
comment on the personality of the nominee of one
of our great political parties—a man true enough
and great enough to tower in conquering grandeur
above the wreckage of two defeats and who, in face
of such reverses as would have eliminated most
men from the possibility of leadership, is still loved
and trusted by millions as indeed the “ uncrowned
king of the common people” —the living Gladstone
of America!
William J. Bryan—The Christian Statesman.
We cannot have “purity in the state” unless our
statesmen are pure. There are plenty of men in
public life—men of national prominence in political
realm, who have plenty of brains and ability so
far as statecraft is concerned, but such men are
as rare as they are refreshing. Such a man is Wil
liam J. Bryan. Never mind whether you agree
with his political creed; never mind if you do not
like his methods of propaganda, let it he remem
bered that for a dozen years he has been in the
limelight of applauding millions and beneath the
searchlight of political opposition, and he stands
today without a spot upon his princely name and
with eighty millions of people doing him personal
honor.
What means that unparalleled demonstration in
New York which marked his home-coming—a trib
ute unequaled in the life of any other private citi
zen and unsurpassed even by the “welcome-home”
accorded General Grant with all his prestige of two
presidential terms and a mighty military record?
William J. Bryan has never trimmed his convic
tions nor trampled his conscience for the sake of
getting a vote.
They know—everybody knows—that when the
party leaders shook the electoral vote of great
states in his face and said: 11 Modify just a little
on this point or that and we will give you this
vote and —the White House!” —everybody knows
how he looked at them with steady eye. tranquil
heart and encouraging bravery, then said like the
“Millboy of the Slashes”: “I would rather be
right than President. Gentlemen, T believe a thing.
If you wish to nominate me on what I believe, well
and good. But if you want a platform different
from what T honestly believe, then find another
man.” And all the world knows how, in that
trying hour, when his leadership had been repu
diated by the very convention which had nomi
nated him in a delirium of enthusiasm at its two
preceding sessions, he stood before that t'm-).
without bitterness and without fear, towering like
a giant above circumstances that would have
crushed most men. There was a pallor on his
cheek, there was lightning in his eye and the
thunder of warning in his ringing voice:
“It was a brave thing for Judge Parker to send
that telegram, but it would have been braver to
send it before he was nominated. And I put this
convention and all America on notice now that,
while the platform we have adopted suits me better
than the platform of the other party, and I can
therefore conscientiously support it, after the bat
tle is over in Novembei’ I will go honestly and
arduously at work to try to make both platform and
party what I believe they ought to be for the best
interests of the American people.”
All the world knows how, going from his native
Illinois and beginning with nothing but the mint
of his own genius, his eloquence and his character,
he reversed an overwhelming majority and went
to Washington from his newly adopted home in Ne
braska —-how, when a little more than a youth, he
leaped into national fame by a peerless speech on
the floor of Congress, and how, then without head
quarters in Chicago, by one wonderful speech of
less than thirty minutes he won the Presidential
nomination of a great national party which dozens
of great men had wrought a lifetime to gain. All
this is referred to in order to put into italics
the beautiful fact that in the face of all this opu
lence of applause and the dangerous plenitude of
petting and toasting and “wining and dining,”
which have been showered upon him. this young
man has kept his head on his shoulders and his
heart on the right side. His wine glass has always
been turned down at countless banquets in his
honor, and he has never found it necessary to
swear —to “cuss a little with the boys”—in order
to win favor with the mon about town, party lead
ers and ward politicians.
And while recently on his Oriental tour when
the governor of a Japanese province would do him
certain honor by giving him a feast and a recep
tion on Sunday, he simply replied: “I thank you
for the proffered honor, but I always attend church
on the Lord’s Day.”
Then he sought out the working place, the
“Light House” station of a lonely but faithful
Christian missionary and united his heart and voice
in prayer and praise. In other words:
Latitude and Longitude had nothing to do with
William J. Bryan’s fidelity to God and the Sab
bath day.
It is not the dash and the dare and the “Rough
Rider” fearlessness alone that have given Theo
dore Roosevelt his popularity with the masses, but
the widespread belief, after all, that the man has
a conscience and a character. And Hughes, of New
York, Weaver, of Philadelphia, and Joseph W.
Folk, of Missouri—all devout Christian men —
have carried their Christian character as a bulwark
of their strength and brought it untarnished from
the smoke of the conflict.
And it is the “regnant conscience” that has
made the valley a mountain height for William J.
Bryan, put a sceptre in his stalwart hand and
placed him on a throne in the hearts of men.
Converted when a boy, Bryan has done no more
than he ought to have done —he has just been true
to his religious profession, steadfast in his Christian
life.
A oung men of America, you do not need schemes,
and “bosses” nor even votes and victory to make
you a king among men. But rather, the Christian
heroism —the moral grandeur—of William J. Bryan,
that would cause him to thrust away a crown as
he would brush away a fly if it comes between him
and Duty!
This is the coronet that Christian manhood wears
—this is the kingly Gem—
“ That shall new bistre boast
When victor’s wreath and monarch's crown
Shall blend in common dust.”
