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Cl)e Jeffersonian
A Weekly Paper 'Edited by THO*. and J. D. WATSON
VOLUME THREE
NUMBER TIF e l'i-‘IWO
Summary of TLbents as They Happen
By Tom Dolan
“I sold him that he might be hap
py, ’ ’ said Mrs. Mary Levin, of Phil
adelphia, who gave up her six
teenths’-old baby boy for $lO. “He
was hungry and cold with me.”
No words can add to the pathos of
the simple statement. The mother
was deserted and starving. One sac
rifice was yet demanded of her by
inexorable Fate —and she made it,
giving up her little one that he, at
least, might not know further hard
ship.
“Those who preach class hatred”
must, of course, be eternally con
demned by the oratory and rhetoric
of fat complacency. So hush, as
Tootsie digs for mice and gnaws
daintily upon a chicken bone in his
$700,000 play-ground, purchased for
him in the. heart of New York by his
mistress (or, rather, should we not
say, “mother”?) and while pampered
canines of Philadelphia have sums
spent upon them and affection lav
ished upon them, while the babies of
the poor starve, sicken from neglect
and die. At its best, charity stretch
es out a chill hand It nd SEPARATES
the babe from its mother.
Why is it that those who are for
ever reiterating that 11 the home is the
basis of our American institutions,”
do so little in a practical way to keep
each home safe? Let a workingman
lose his job or health and his home
is as thoroughly destroyed as if he
and his had committed the most hei
nous crimes. We have Soldiers’
Homes, Homes for the Friendless,
Orphan Asylums and institutions ga
lore, each one of which is possible by
reason of the cold-blooded charity
which treats misfortune almost as
harshly as it dees outlawry. The
alms-houses are filled with people who
would be with their kindred or friends
if the money spent to care for them
in the unnatural way were given to
them, or their poverty stricken rela
tives. Normal men and women do not
give up aged parents willingly, but
from grinding necessity; and they will
keep their children in their own arms
until their crying for bread is beyond
human endurance.
O “Christian” land! What would
Christ say if he walked through your
great, rich cities at this, His natal
time, and saw the unnecessary misery,
the nakedness and cold and hunger
and despair?
Germany has been compelled to fol
low the example of England and re
duce the postal rate between that
country and the United States to our
usual domestic 2 cent per ounce. The
o v G
Atlanta, Ga., Thursday, DecJber 24, 1908
decrease in the rate between Great
Britain and America had not long
been in effect, but already it had ex
erted a potent influence upon interna
tional commerce and placed Germany
at a distinct and constantly increasing
disadvantage. A world rate of 2
cents between all civilized nations is
not too much to predict in a short
number of years.
The Georgia State Prison Commis
sion has divided the state into three
penitentiary districts as follows:
The northern will contain the road
camps of the following counties:
Floyd, Bartow, Fulton, DeKalb, Wal
ton, Newton, Jackson, Clarke, Ogle
thorpe, Madison, Elbert, Wilkes, Lin
coln, McDuffie, Columbus, Taliaferro,
Greene, Jasper, Putnam, Baldwin,
Warren, Hancock and Rockdale.
The southeastern district will con
tain the following: Chatham, Effing
ham, Screven, Bulloch, Glynn, Ware,
Clinch, Echols, Lowndes, Brooks, Ber
rien, Coffee, Appling, Ben Hill,
Dodge, Laurensi, Emanuel, Jenkins,
Burke, Jefferson, Washington and
Richmond.
The southwestern will comprise the
following: Coweta, Monroe, Jones,
Bibb, Houston, Macon, Sumter, Lee,
Crisp, Wilcox, Turner, Tift, Colquitt,
Thomas, Decatur, Mitchell, Miller,
Early, Calhoun, Baker, Randolph,
Muscogee.
It is to be hoped that ere long com
fortable convict farms may be es
tablished for the white prisoners, at
least.
The American fleet, under Rear Ad
miral Sperry, who succeeded “fight
ing Bob” Evans, is approaching Cey
lon. One case of smallpox developed
on the battleship Georgia, which im
mediately separated from the remain
ing ships and hastened to place the
patient in a Colombia hospital.
It will be a troubled Christmas for
the people of the Reelfoot Lake dis
trict, in Tennessee. About 125 men
are under indictment for night riding
in connection with the murder of Cap
tain Rankin. The shadow of possi
ble conflict between the forces repre
senting a primitive sense of right and
wrong, against those standing for the
justice meted out by the courts, dark
ens the little town of Union City.
The one force could not understand
that they had no right to take out the
fish that they felt the Lord put in the
lake for their sustenance; the other *
force knows that humah life must be
held supremely sacred. The elemen-
tai man errs; and the cultured man
errs and one can but hope for the
time of universal Peace and Good
will on Earth.
Dutch vessel Gelderland has cap
tured the Alix, of Venezuela, in the
Caribbean, on the pretext that it was
carrying “munitions of war.” Search
discovered half a dozen rifles in bad
condition, and that the commander of
the Alix had pocketed the pennant.
President Castro is in Europe and the
situation in his country is peculiar,
in that the Dutch navy is cruising
about, seeking what it may devour,
while Holland declares it is not at
war with Venezuela and that its cap
tures of ships should not be consid
ered at “unfriendly acts.”
The first Turkish Parliament, un
der the Constitutional government of
the Ottoman empire gained by the
“Young Turks” bloodless revolution
last summer, convened in Constanti
nople December 17. Congratulations
and good wishes were cabled from the
Senate and the House, by Acting Sec
retary Bacon, to Ambassador Leish
man, to convey to the new rulers of
the realm. The Sultan was present
in person at the opening of the Par
liament and the occasion was one of
unmarred pleasure.
Chas. M. Schwab denies Andrew
Carnegie’s statement that the steel
business is quite able to take care of
itself without a protective tariff.
William R. Wait, professor emeri
tus at the New York institute for the
blind, has been largely instrumental
in perfecting a new system of printing
that will be of great benefit to the
sightless. Heretofore, the embossed
letters made it possible to use but one
side of the paper, but by a clever ar
rangement it is now possible to have
the raised letters on both sides of the
paper, thus cutting in two the amount
of paper necessary to be used in mak
ing up any publication for the blind.
As the blind generally have the ad
ditional misfortune of crushing pov
erty, any cheapening of cost in their
few pleasures is a source of much
happiness.
Congress has knocked the chip
from the President’s shoulder in the
following dignified language:
“Whereas, the plain meaning of
the above words” (referring to that
part of the message quoted in full in
last week’s Jeffersonian as to the
secret service) “is that a majority
of Congressmen were in fear of being
investigated by the secret service
men, and that Congress, as a whole,
was actuated by that motive in en
acting the provision in question,
therefore
“Resolved, That the President be
requested to transmit to the House
any evidence upon which he bases his
statements that the chief argument in
favor of the provision was that the
Congressmen did not themselves wish
to be investigated by secret service
men, and also to transmit to the
House any evidence connecting any
member of the House of Representa
tives of the Sixtieth Congress with
corruption in his official capacity,
and to inform the House whether he
has instituted proceedings foi’ pun
ishment of any such individual by
the courts, or has reported any such
alleged delinquencies to the House of
Representatives.”
It is now up to Roosevelt to “put
up” the evidence he is rumored as
having filed away in his private ar
chives, or “shut up.”
Argentine and Brazil are not in
very friendly humor with each other
just now, and the country with the
silvery name is authorizing the ex
penditure of $70,000,000 for arma
ment, including two battleships of the
latest “Dreadnaught” type.
The Japanese appropriation budget,
just announced, has been received
with general satisfaction throughout
Japan, as it maintains the policy of
economy advocated by Premier Kat
sura. An avoidance of foreign loans
is an especially gratifying sign to an
already tax-strangled people. The ap
propriations show that army, navy
and war matters generally receive the
bulk of the appropriations but Kat
sura has announced that the estimate
is based on known, not speculative, re
ceipts and much of the burden is the
result of past wars. Pity but that
some of the Jap economy could not be
incorporated into the system of our
Two Billion Dollar Congress.
The Haitian revolution is over, with
insurgent Gen. Simon occupying the
Presidential chair in rather uneasy
state, as it is probable rival generals
will soon begin to make it warm for
him.
Sen. Cullom has introduced an
emergency volunteer army bill, under
which 2,000,000 men could be raised
well as 50,000. This bill embodies
Roosevelt’s recommendation in re
spect to providing for increased sol
diery.
Price five Cents